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role of business in society. Starting with the Industrial Revolution and continuing
right up until the 1930s, an era predominantly characterized by mass production and
consumption, the type of communications that were employed by organizations
largely consisted of publicity, promotions and selling activities towards buoyant markets.
The move towards less stable, more competitive markets, coinciding with greater
government interference in many markets and harsher economic circumstances, led
from the 1930s onwards to a constant redefining of the scope and practices of
communications in many organizations across the Western world. Ever since, chang-
ing socio-economic dynamics have guided organizations,and over the years have not
only forced communications professionals to rethink their discipline and develop
new practices and areas of expertise (such as issues management and corporate iden-
tity), but have also in many cases changed the nature of the communications process
itself from down-right persuasion and propaganda to a more open and symmetrical
dialogue between an organization and important groups in its environment.

Communications management in historical perspective

This chapter is about the changing definition, scope and practices of communica-
tions management, and the socio-economic dynamics that challenged and triggered
its evolution.The central argument is that the nature of communications manage-
ment as we now know it, in terms of the way in which it is practised in contemporary
organizations, is steeped in historical circumstances and developments. Disentangling
the historical forces that have informed and shaped contemporary communications
practice is therefore considered here as a crucial first step towards contextualizing,
understanding and framing corporate communications, the most recent and wide-
spread embodiment of communications management. To do this, a brief historical
sketch will be provided of the two dominant perspectives (or rather colonizations)
of communications management that preceded the corporate communications view:
public relations and marketing.The central tenets of each of these perspectives, and
their historical development, are first outlined in this chapter, followed by a discus-
sion of the market dynamics and organizational drivers that provoked changes in the
way in which organizations approached their communications.
As the chapter outlines, it is now increasingly common in communications prac-
tice to see communications disciplines and associated activities not so much from the
particular, rather narrow, perspectives of public relations and marketing alone, but
from a more integrated conception that advocates seeing the whole range of commu-
nications disciplines and activities in conjunction. Corporate communications is a
perspective upon communications management, and a way of practicing it, that
departs from this integrated perspective.The final section of this chapter is concerned
with outlining the key changes that corporate communications has brought to the
practice of communications management. By the time this chapter draws to an end,
the reader should thus be able to understand the historical conditions and circum-
stances that led to the corporate communications view of managing and practising
communications and to see corporate communications as a vital part of the total
management effort of organizations in today’s business climate and society.