La comunicazione nelle associazioni imprenditoriali

Abstract

Business associations both provide their members with services and represent their interests. Many business associations are made up of professionals. What characterises them is both the collaborator-association relationship and the sharing of knowledge. The communication must be consistent with the system of principles, values, rules, objectives and behaviours marking the associations’ culture. It must take into account the context in which it operates and must be capable of evolving throughout the time. The subjects of communication are the associations’ institutional bodies, their employees and specific offices which work as press offices, events organiser and speech writer, lobby activities support and communication both to their members and to the human resources, etc. The external communication is addressed to State Organs, Local Government, Public Administration, political parties, trade unions, media, opinion leaders, business community, professional training and research world, young people, opinion movements, cultural organisations, potential associates. The internal communication is addressed to the internal institutional bodies, to the entrepreneurs and the partner enterprises, the human resources and the eventual associative system. Communication is aimed at fulfilling all the goals of an entrepreneurial association. It is therefore important to make internal and external relationships as effective as possible. Their objectives are to create a sense of identity and belonging, to make the members’ participation stronger, to lobby, to pursue effective marketing strategies, to involve and motivate their human resources. Intra-personal communication, written communication, organised listening, relations with the media and organisation of events are among the most popular tools for the associations’ communication, for which careful planning is also extremely important. In the long term, the most interesting trends seem to be the progressive widespread of the association’s social accountability and the increasing integration between off-line and on-line communication.