Commentary: The Role of Internal Communication in Fostering Employee Advocacy: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Employee advocacy has become a buzzword that has captured the interest of organizations. Despite the increased attention, employee advocacy is an understudied topic in the public relations literature. Hence, the purpose of this study was to fill a gap in public relations research on employee advocacy by examining internal communicators’ thoughts on how they can influence this type of behavior. Through interviews with 25 practitioners, the results indicated that the drivers of employee advocacy could be divided into three factors: individual (i.e., emotions, job attitudes, person-organization, fit, personality, and instrumental value), group (i.e., leader-member relationship and group cohesion), and organizational (i.e., organizational culture, top management, communication management, and socialization). Additionally, internal communication can influence employee advocacy through corporate communication strategies (i.e., openness and transparency, positivity, legitimacy and empowerment, and recognition) and employee advocacy management factors (i.e., understand business objectives, policies and guidelines, facilitation, interesting and meaningful content, and collaboration).