It’s still the media. How professionalism in corporate communication influences the prioritisation of organizational environments

Abstract

This article challenges the widely accepted understanding that corporate communication has been professionalised through its development from traditional press relations into integrated multi-stakeholder management. Based on a cross-cultural survey in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Indonesia, we analyse the links between expertise, autonomy and value-orientation indicating the professionalism of senior communication managers on the one hand, and the perceived relevance of organizational environments on the other. Overall, the results show that professionalism in a traditional sense does not promote a wider perspective when dealing with organizational environments. Instead, the more professional practitioners are, the more they focus on the media.