Strategic Communication Process Research Articles

The Initial Digitalization of Chinese Diplomacy (2019–2021): Establishing Global Communication Networks on Twitter

ABSTRACT The way in which Chinese diplomats communicate has changed recently, from being mostly reactive and pragmatic to being rhetorically more combative. This has generated strong academic, media, and policy interest. However, less academic attention has been devoted to the employment of social media for China’s new diplomatic communication strategy. By analyzing the recent employment of Twitter by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), this article explores the initial digitalization of China’s public diplomacy from November 2019 to February 2021. Approaching Twitter as both a virtual network structure and an interactive strategic communication process, we collected 61,000 tweets from Chinese diplomats plus 282,000 tweets from Chinese official media and applied data analytics to examine how the MFA augmented its diplomatic digital presence by responding, reposting/retweeting, mentioning, and hashtagging. We also used discourse analysis to investigate how Chinese diplomats selected topics to generate, diffuse, and affect hegemonic discourses. We argue that China’s MFA initially adopted Twitter using a centrally controlled structure of topic, rhetoric, and discourses as well as cohesive dissemination and augmenting strategies. These communication structures created a self-referencing network closely aligned with Chinese official media on Twitter.

Peranan Pr Digital Kominfo Kabupaten Tanah Datar Dalam Publikasi Kegiatan Melalui Media Sosial

Public Relations aims to create, maintain and develop good relationships, form understanding, bridge the relationship between agencies/institutions and the public, both internally and externally. PR as a communicator from agencies/institutions must be able to be trusted by the public because PR is the first person who will deal directly with the public. Then PR as a supporter in the management function has a strategic role because it can strengthen the reputation of the agency/institution in the public eye. In the development of communication technology there is a development in the PR profession, namely what is called digital PR. Digital PR is not much different from conventional PR, which is a strategic communication process that aims to build mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics. But what makes the difference is the medium of communication. While conventional PR works on events and publications in conventional media, digital PR uses more online/website technology-based media. Relations with the media are one of the functions of digital PR. Current technological developments make it easy for everyone to convey and receive news, therefore PR with its media relations function must be able to predict everything that happens in the public. Therefore, digital PR is required to be able to work with technological developments, one of which is to become digital public relations for agencies/institutions. The public will certainly find it easier to know every activity carried out by their agencies/institutions with the help of information provided by PR through publications, both from press releases, news, events and using new media as a means of disseminating online information provided to the public.

Assembling the Start-up Brand: A Process Framework for Understanding Strategic Communication Challenges

ABSTRACT The proliferation of start-ups and their contribution to the global economy is well-documented as is their high failure rate, a paradox attributable in large part to the inadequate attention start-ups ascribe to establishing a strong brand. Premised on the idea that brand-building is an active process of meaning-making and an assemblage of layers of professional and material activities, our study offers an empirically grounded approach to start-up branding. Based on an inductive analysis of interviews with co-founders of 15 start-up and scale-up brands, we propose a process framework of start-up branding that highlights the strategic communication processes by which entrepreneurs bring their products to market. Through this contribution, we make clear that entrepreneurial brand building is not a one-size-fits all process and that there is no linear pathway. While the framework is not predictive of success, it is indicative of a new formulation of how strategic communication can be used to understand and evaluate brand processes within entrepreneurial organizations.

Determining the Direction of the Pesantren (Empowering Leadership Practice at PM Gontor 6 Putera, Southeast Sulawesi)

This article aims to understand the practice of empowering leadership, which is more specific on the theme of determining the direction of pesantren. The aspects studied are: 1) creating a vision; 2) describes the big picture; and 3) establishing a strategy. The investigation was carried out in the form of critical ethnography, where data were obtained through a process of observation, interviews, and document review. Data analysis was carried out through the description, analysis, and interpretation stages. This study found that: Empowering Leadership in the context of determining the direction of the organization at PM Gontor 7 Putera is a process of determining the vision and mission, explaining the big picture, and setting strategy. The roles carried out include being a strategic architect who defines PM Gontor's vision and mission, through internal and external environmental analysis, guarding a shared vision, overseeing the process of achieving a common vision at the functional level, as a figure who transforms strategy, who carries out the strategic communication process and makes appropriate measures, aligning strategies, to implementation. This research suggests the importance of building empowering leadership, having a strong vision, understanding internal and external dynamics, all of which can be formulated in an organizational strategy.Keywords: Leadership, Empowerment, Vision, Strategy

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AUDITS. A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE FOR IMPROVING HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Internal diversity within organizations and the technology-determined restraints of multinational competition raise the need of developing organizational communication more than ever. Communication audits have been approached as an effective tool for improving organizations’ business targets, but this article argues that communication audits go beyond that and fill the diverse communication needs of today’s manpower. 
 Firstly, the article clarifies the nature of strategic communication and the boundaries of this domain. Then, the paper examines the nature of the term „strategic”. We argue that the results of a communication audit are the first step towards a strategic communication plan. In view of this perspective, the article’s main research questions are: What is the link between strategic communication, communication audit and management performance? How do we measure and illustrate where the organization currently stands in terms of its communication performance? 
 The conclusions of this conceptual paper highlight the role of communication audits in providing useful information for the strategic communication process and HR management by clarifying the nature of qualitative data that are instrumental for strategic communication and how should a researcher report the results of a qualitative study in order to be effective for the strategic communication plan.

THE MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION AS A FACTOR OF SOCIALIZATION: THE MAGAZINE VIDA NOVA

Organizational communication is a key element for the survival, maintenance and consolidation of human relationships in the workplace. This research aims to understand how organizational communication is being managed in the Mozambican Catholic Vida Nova Magazine, verifying how inclusive communication contributes to maintaining good quality of the journal and a high productivity of employees. The methodology used was qualitative, with a field work that consisted of participant observation for one year, complemented by semi-structured interviews with key witnesses. The results showed that Vida Nova Magazine experiences a particular kind of participatory, dialogical and strategic communication processes, coming mainly from the spontaneity of personal relations and communication among employees rather than due to a strategic option of the management. In view of the global demands in the field of social communication, Vida Nova Magazine seeks to broaden its field of action using instrumental forms of communication, based on new technologies, as digital platforms, both social networks and the website. The socialization process of its employees is promising as it cooperates in the consolidation of personal life and is expected to have a new life with Vida Nova. Keywords: organizational communication, collaborators socialization, community life, information processing

Uncovering the Role of Strategic Orientation in Translating Communication Strategies to Organizational Performance: An Analysis of Practitioners From Two Chinese Societies

Integrating strategic process theory and resource orchestration view, this study challenges and extends the prior model supporting the direct effect of communication on organizational performance by examining the mediating role of practitioners’ strategic orientation. Employing two data sets of communication practitioners in China and Hong Kong, results of the structural equation model show that reputation orientation and organization-public relationship orientation represent two strategic value systems fully mediating the relationship between communication strategies and the organizational goal attainment. The findings support the proposition that business outcomes and competitive advantages at the organizational level depends not simply on various communication strategies formulated by senior executives and top communication managers, but more importantly, on how frontline communication professionals implement these strategies and translate resources into strategic communication processes. Moreover, the contextual sensitivity of findings indicates a relational shift underway in the strategic communication paradigm, but organization-public relationship is still far from a dominant cultural mechanism thoroughly endorsed by the industry.

Strategic Communication Process: Support for Performance Measurement and Popularization of SMEs Innovations – I

To perform and be relevant, SMEs must continuously innovate, be in constant contact with the market, and communicate their news strategically. Entrepreneurs need to go through strategic management system training and organization development processes, understand the importance of internal and external communication processes, invest in technology and automated processes, optimize their innovation, consistently train their employees, develop new product and service flows on the market and keep constant contact with the stakeholders. This paper analyzes, in theory, the advantages of the strategic communication process, highlighting the Balanced Scorecard multidimensional analysis model and the impact of innovation in SMEs at all levels. Through this model, the company can predict and analyze the qualitative and quantitative factors needed in the process of innovation and strategic communication, becoming part of an ecosystem that can generate change and improve the standard of living. Through this process, the company becomes part of an ecosystem that helps the economy develops and innovates.

Strategic Communication Process: Support for Performance Measurement and Popularization of SMEs Innovations – II

This paper analyzes the advantages of the strategic communication process from an online and a digital point of view, as most companies make their changes from the off-line into the online market. Through this aspect, the company can quickly adapt to the fast changes of the industry or of the market requirements, to connect better with its stakeholders, to fulfill their requirements, and generate more revenues. Having in mind that the market is always changing, entrepreneurs must constantly reanalyze and rethink their actions and their communication strategies to remain relevant and desirable for their stakeholders. In the last part of the article, we have analysed the example of a traditional SME manufacturer company from Romania that had to make its way in the digital world and develop new markets, in order to strengthen its position in the many years of economic existence and to respond to a possible crisis that could have drastically affect its business.

The Impact of Training & Development and Communication on Employee Engagement¬ – A Study of Banking Sector

This study analyzed the impact of training, development and communication on employees engagement in banking sector of Karachi. Data was taken thorough questionnaires from 120 employees out of which 100 were returned. Different statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used for analysis. Results showed a positive impact of training and development and internal communication on engagement. Findings of the study have the potential of practical implication for managers and employees alike where they can increase engagement level in banking sector through strategic and tactical communication process and fulfilling the training needs of employees to meet the requirement of current job settings. Hence, practitioners need to understand the value of the participatory factors to compete effectively at the national and global levels through effective implementation in the engagement strategy.

Strategic Communication Process: Support for Performance Measurement and Popularization of SMEs Innovations – II

Strategic Communication Process: Support for Performance Measurement and Popularization of SMEs Innovations – II

Strategic Communication Process: Support for Performance Measurement and Popularization of SMEs Innovations – I

Strategic Communication Process: Support for Performance Measurement and Popularization of SMEs Innovations – I

Collective action frames and the developing role of discursive practice in worker organisation: the case of OUR Walmart

Recent technological innovations have made possible a range of new communication practices among workers engaged in struggles to raise wages and improve working conditions. New forms of social organisation and association are changing how collective action is carried out and how collective action frames are generated. Looking at a year's worth of content from a secret Facebook group designed as a forum for current and former Walmart employees, this study considers how communication practices relate to the organisational forms of coping and resistance among workers. Analysis of the posts and comments transpiring within the group, which is loosely affiliated with the Organisation United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), suggests a growing role for personalised forms of communication in the production and circulation of collective action frames. These forms blur the distinction between discursive and strategic communication processes, requiring us to reconsider the roles traditionally played by social movement organisations and rank-and-file participants. The primary contribution of this research is to demonstrate how emerging communication practices problematise distinctions between communities of coping and of resistance, between activities that are personally satisfying and those that prioritise group concerns, and between the self-organised activities of employees and the actions of labour unions. The article concludes with a consideration of the implications of these emerging communication practices for movement outcomes.

Implementation of enterprise resource planning systems: a user perspective

The purpose of this study is to evaluate critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a user perspective. Users play a vital role when implementing an ERP system, but their perspective has been neglected in the literature. A better understanding of their perspective promises to contribute to the design of more effective ERP systems, its implementation, and management. In order to identify the user perspective, a survey was conducted within three Pakistani companies that recently have implemented a new ERP system. The questionnaire was developed based on thirteen CSFs deduced from literature. Based on each CSF’s level of importance, they are ranked in order of importance and divided into three groups: most important, important and not important. Findings reveal that users believe that management should prioritize the following four CSFs when implementing an ERP system: education and training, strategic decision-making, communication, and business process alignment.

Strategy and Tactics in Strategic Communication: Examining their Intersection with Social Media Use

ABSTRACTWhile public relations industry leaders have proposed a strategic approach to social media, industry research has found that social media practices may be more tactical than strategic. Likewise, scholarly research has focused more on specific parts of strategic planning, such as message—and channel-level communication in social media, but little research has been done to understand program-level communication planning. The purpose of this study was to examine the confluence of current trends in social media use with strategic communication processes through in-depth interviews and a national survey of public relations practitioners. The in-depth interviews revealed two overarching themes: (1) social media use should be guided by strategic planning and (2) social media tactics should revolve around conversations. The survey results showed that practitioners are involved in social media strategy development and tactical implementation, yet see their involvement as linked mostly to their organizations’ strategic rather than tactical social media activities. In addition, practitioners delineate social media strategies and tactics differently than theoretical conceptualizations.

What is Public Relations? An Analysis of Turkish Public Relations Job Advertisements Discourses

From Barnum’s publicities on his circus to Bernays’ studies with its emphasis on research, and to modern and contemporary practices, public relations has been transformed. As strategic communication process, public relations uses research, planning, implementation and evaluation. In a modern sense, its affiliations are corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management, corporate citizenship, corporate governance, crisis and risk communication, media relations, image, reputation and perception management. In today’s Turkey, public relations have often been confused with customer relationship and marketing for many years. This confusion is also reflected in job advertisements. In this study, public relations job advertisements discourses on human resources network will be analyzed. The paper aims to answer the following questions: How academicians define public relations? What are the differences between public relation’s job advertisement discourses and public relations academician’s descriptive discourses? What is the image of public relations profession reflected by job advertisement discourses?

A practice perspective on strategic communication

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to link the authentic, communicative activities, e.g. organization-wide meetings at the micro-level, to the institutionalized practices at the macro-level within an organization, e.g. change management decisions and communication strategy (Steyn, 2003). Thus, the concern is with the relationship between institutionalized strategic management and the real-life strategic communication processes, thus advancing the understanding of the role of texts and discourses in the actual practice of strategic communication in an organizational context of strategic change processes.Design/methodology/approach– The data are based on a large corpus of video-taped management meetings and organization-wide meetings in a large Danish public, knowledge-based organization. The method applied for studying the management discourse is a conversation-analytical approach (Sackset al., 1974; Sidnell, 2010). This method has been chosen as it enables the authors to focus on micro-aspects of organizational practices (Nicolini, 2013) by investigating the interactional patterns that serve as resources for doing legitimation as an institutionalized practice.Findings– The common denominator for the entire analysis is legitimation accomplished through the discursive use of distanciation and the analysis identifies three different discursive elements or micro-level strategies directly related to the concrete doing of strategic communication. First, legitimation is created by reference to the socio-economic context of the organization. Second, legitimation is generated by means of pointing to the abnormality of the strategic situation. And third legitimation is fostered by the use of idiomatic expressions. These different ways of accomplishing legitimacy are in a strategy-as-practice perspective related to the specific, in-situ communicative praxis and accomplished by the concrete actions of the strategic communicators, and thus the authors can position the instances of strategic communication at the organizational micro-level.Originality/value– This paper studies at a micro-level how strategic actors use various discursive resources to legitimize strategic decisions and how these resources constitute the discursive basis of strategic communication as a managerial practice. The authors focus on the role of discourse in the legitimization processes of strategic managerial decisions analyzing micro-level instances of organizational communication. The paper thereby links the actor process activities (Langley, 2007), e.g. organization-wide meetings at the micro-level, to the institutional field practices at the macro-level within an organization, e.g. strategy and planning (Johnsonet al., 2007).

Real Option as a Potential Link between Financial and Strategic Decision-making

Abstract In recent decades, business environment and traditional investment evaluation methods have radically changed. Managerial flexibility has become the most important source of competitive advantage. Corporate financial theory tries to describe it through the development of real options. During the practical analysis of strategic investments, the results of strategic and financial analysis should be reconciled. The point is how the real option approach can be appropriate for closing the gap between strategic and financial valuation. Traditional integrated management systems do not apply real options; however, based on my former studies, I suggest a strategic–real option model, which can be used for the development of strategic communication and decision-making process concerning value creating investments.

The Centrality of Communication and Media in Fostering Community Resilience

A community is resilient if it is able to “bounce forward” after an adverse event. Community resilience is generally considered a process that is indicated by community adaptation following a disaster or crisis. In this article, we employ media and communication perspectives (communication ecology, public relations, and strategic communication) to review the community resilience literature and propose a revised community resilience model. Our proposed model includes four components: communication systems and resources, community relationships, strategic communication processes, and community attributes. Each of these components includes several elements that are described. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Everyday talk and convincing conversations: Utilizing strategic internal communication

When managing organizational identity, great attention is often paid to external stakeholders while internal stakeholders receive far less consideration. However, organizational identity lives somewhat enigmatically at the intersection of the attitudes of all organizational stakeholders, not just those in the external environment. Moreover, employees are positioned to serve as either ambassadors of the organization or as liabilities depending on the way they speak about the organization to those both within and outside their workplace. Employees regularly discuss their work experiences with those outside the organization and frequently do so using social media, potentially reaching large audiences. This article describes the process through which everyday talk within the organization shapes its identity while wielding powerful effects on external perceptions. We highlight several common errors leaders make that promote negative everyday talk, along with suggestions on how to successfully manage identity through strategic communication and managerial processes. We also discuss the theoretical and pragmatic effects of everyday talk.