Page 63 - Corporate Communication

Cornelissen-02.qxd 10/9/2004 9:04 AM Page 52

52 Mapping the Field

projects (e.g. operations in China), and consultations of investment houses and
pension funds in the US and UK regarding their expectations and interest in socially
responsible investment (SRI). With each and every one of these initiatives, BP aims to
position itself in a market that is demanding more responsible behaviour of the
company. As John Mogford, acting president and CEO of BP Solar, remarked: ‘the
industry is going to change, and we need to be positioned to take advantage of this
and not be on the outside’.

Questions for reflection

1. Is it necessary for every organization to shift to a stakeholder orientation; to
attend to all of its stakeholders and to accommodate them? In other words, what
does an organization risk if it ignores or fails to act upon the claims and concerns
of important stakeholder groups?
2. Is a stakeholder orientation necessary for organizations in every type of business
sector? In other words, is there a greater need for companies such as Shell and
BP in the petroleum industry to abide by a stakeholder orientation than, for
instance, banks and insurance companies in the financial sector?
3. How can an organization develop and institutionalize a comprehensive stake-
holder orientation? And what sort of results will this deliver?

Taken together,these five changes to the practice of communications management
provide evidence of the adoption of the management function and vocabulary of
corporate communications.The full scope of these strategic and organizational changes
is reflected in the subjects of each of the remaining chapters in Part 2 of this book.
The next chapter further specifies the key theoretical concepts of corporate commu-
nications – stakeholder, identity and reputation – so that the theoretical groundwork
is sufficiently covered before the book continues with the more concrete strategic
and organizational issues around corporate communications in practice.

2.5 Chapter summary

The chapter has spent a substantial amount of space discussing the historical develop-
ment of communications management, and the rise of corporate communications in
particular. Such an historical overview is essential for an understanding of the char-
acteristics of corporate communications management and its relevance to the com-
munications practitioner of today. The variety of factors or drivers that have led to
the emergence of corporate communications, and effectively continue to drive its
widespread use with companies around the globe, were outlined, followed by a con-
sideration of the key changes that corporate communications has brought with it.
The rest of the book expands on these changes in communications management
and other issues, but it is worthwhile emphasizing them again. First of all, the diverse
communications disciplines (e.g. advertising, media relations, lobbying and public
affairs, branding, direct marketing, corporate design) that exist within an organization