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Theory and Practice Converge A Proposed Set of Corporate Communication Principles
Theory and Practice Converge A Proposed Set of Corporate Communication Principles
www.emeraldinsight.com/1356-3289.htm
CCIJ
11,3 Theory and practice converge:
a proposed set of corporate
communication principles
214
Bojinka Bishop
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA
Abstract
Purpose – To report on empirical research which tested the use and value of ten specific
characteristics of communication, the principles of authentic communication, and based on the
findings, to recommend them as corporate communication best practices.
Design/methodology/approach – The principles of authentic communication were grounded in
both professional and academic literature to establish their applicability in corporate communication
and their role in cultivating symmetrical communication. A survey was mailed to large US water
utilities to determine various aspects of their communication programs. Analyses were conducted
using SPSS.
Findings – Data analyses showed that all ten principles of authentic communication were correlated
with communication success.
Research limitations/implications – Limitations of the study include a fairly low response rate
and the self reporting of success. Suggestions for further research are testing the principles with larger
samples, in different industries, and/or in a multiple-industry mix. In addition, defining the concept of
success within the survey instrument might render insight into the respondents’ interpretations of the
term.
Practical implications – Based on this study, it is recommended that the principles of authentic
communication be utilized to a high degree in professional practice.
Originality/value – Although each principle has been recognized in communication literature, it is
the first time that these ten characteristics have been specified as a set of ten and have been shown
through empirical research to be correlated with success. The value of this work is that it provides
hard evidence to support the use and value of the principles of authentic communication in corporate
communication.
Keywords Corporate communications, Public relations
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Why propose a new set of principles for corporate communication? Everyday,
professionals have to provide bosses, CEOs, and clients with answers to the question:
what’s the best way to communicate this? “This” may be layoffs, the introduction of
a new product or service, building a new plant, a price increase, a drop in earnings, a
regulatory infraction, a product recall, or a host of other issues and topics depending on
the organization and industry. Upon being asked the question: what’s the best way to
Corporate Communications: An The author wishes to thank Dr Josep Rota, Associate Provost for International Studies and
International Journal
Vol. 11 No. 3, 2006 Professor of Telecommunications, Ohio University, for his ongoing statistical analysis assistance
pp. 214-231 and Dr Aimee Howley, Professor of Education, Ohio University for her advice and support.
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1356-3289
The College of Communication at Ohio University provided initial funding for this project and
DOI 10.1108/13563280610680812 the author also appreciates the support of the AWWA by providing mailing lists.
communicate this?, the corporate communication professional typically launches into Theory and
the following thought process: with whom should we communicate? What should we practice
say? Through what channels? And, especially if the organization practices two-way
symmetrical communication, when and how can we elicit and incorporate stakeholder converge
views? These considerations reflect the components of basic communication theory,
that is, the circular loop of source, message, channel, receiver, feedback. The questions
represent an example of theory merged with practice, of theory in action. 215
While scholars work on finding systematic research-based answers to the questions
above, professionals often are forced to answer them on the spot, without the benefit of
extensive research and analysis. Thus, it is useful for professionals to have guidelines,
rules, best practices, or principles to guide their answers. The notion of rules for
communication is neither unique nor new (Pearson, 1989b). Indeed, theories,
guidelines, and advice on corporate communication abound, from both scholarly and
professional perspectives. Books, periodicals, and conferences showcase a myriad of
research studies and experience-based ideas on communication campaigns, programs,
and projects, from strategy development to media relations tips. For example, the
Public Relations Society of America’s monthly broadsheet, Tactics, publishes how-to
and best-practices articles on a range of communication activities such as media
relations, internal communication, and web communication. On the scholarly side,
journals such as Journal of Public Relations Research publish both theoretical studies
and empirical research on communication policies and practices. Thus, how to
communicate appropriately, effectively, and successfully is the focus of much
professional and scholarly attention, some theoretical, some based on analysis of and
reflection on practice, and some supported by research.
This paper will add to this confluence by proposing a set of conceptual principles
that merge theory and practice, and can be used to develop answers to the question:
how best to communicate this? The paper will also report the findings of an empirical
study that provided some initial evidence that these principles contributed to the
success of corporate communication programs.
The set of communication characteristics proposed, the principles of authentic
communication, defined and explained below, specify that communication be: clear,
relevant, timely, truthful, fundamental, comprehensive, consistent, accessible, caring,
and responsive to feedback. To provide rationale and support for proposing them, first,
their theoretical bases will be explored, then the literature review will briefly show each
principle’s grounding in both scholarly and professional literature. In the final section,
a US-based national survey on the principles will be reported, including findings
regarding the effectiveness of the principles in professional practice.
Theoretical underpinnings
Especially relevant to the principles of communication proposed here is the work of
James Grunig and his colleagues. Grunig and Hunt (1984, p. V) introduced the two-way
symmetrical model of public relations, based on “negotiation, compromise, and
understanding”. Over the past 20 years, this model expanded the theoretical discussion
of public relations, much of which had focused on one-way advocacy and persuasion.
Grunig and Hunt’s model was dialogical and later was described as an inherently
ethical mode of communication (Pearson, 1989a; Grunig, 2001). In terms of practice,
the seminal excellence study (Grunig and Grunig, 1992b) added additional weight to
CCIJ the two-way symmetrical model by providing empirical evidence through a study of
11,3 more than 300 organizations (Grunig, 1992, p. 2) that symmetrical communication was
a factor in excellent public relations. It should be noted, however, that over the years,
the two-way symmetrical model has been the subject of criticism. One criticism stated
it was more a guideline for how public relations ought to be practiced than how it
actually was practiced by professionals in their everyday careers (Cancel et al., 1997).
216 Whether symmetry is a desired goal or is a practical reality stands as an interesting
debate. It is relevant to this paper because the principles proposed here may be
considered a recommended approach also. Similar to the excellence study, in which
evidence was found that two-way symmetrical communication was indeed used by
professionals, this study also found that the proposed principles were utilized in
varying degrees in practice.
Another aspect of the criticism of symmetry was that symmetry was only
applicable or appropriate in certain circumstances (Cancel et al., 1997). Regardless,
however, whether symmetry is a best-practices model or a circumstance-based
strategy, it has been a focal point of discussion by scholars for the past 20 years (Sallot
et al., 2003), so it has proven its importance and value to corporate communication
theory and practice.
The concepts of symmetry, dialogue, and ethics underpin the Principles of
Authentic Communication (Bishop, 2003a, b). The symmetrical model is especially
relevant to this paper not only because the principles have theoretical grounding in it,
but also because Grunig (2003) referred to the set of ten principles of communication
proposed here as a “cultivation strategy” for symmetrical communication. Although
the principles of authentic communication are not the only way for organizations
to develop symmetrical communication, their designation as an effective strategy to
“cultivate” it means they represent a merging of symmetrical theory with practical
application.
Additional relevant theoretical grounding grows out of basic systems theory which
addresses interdependence of organizations and their environments (Grunig et al. 1992),
the community-building construct of public relations (Kruckeberg and Starck, 1988),
and the communitarian view of public relations (Culbertson and Chen, 1997). Pearson
(1989a, b) explored those concepts in depth and linked two-way symmetrical
communication, organizational responsibility within the public sphere, and ethics to
public relations. These scholars argued in varying ways that organizations operate
interdependently with their communities and that, therefore, organizations should behave
as responsible members of those communities. That worldview of corporate
communication is compatible not only with the symmetrical model’s sense of
negotiation and mutual adaptation, but also with another relevant stream of scholarly
research and theory, the relationship school of thought (Bowen, 2005; Broom et al., 1997,
2000; Ledingham and Brunig, 2000). As organization-public relationship study developed,
dimensions of the relationships were identified as “openness, trust, involvement,
investment, and commitment” (Ledingham and Brunig, 2000, p. 58). Persuasive
arguments for this type of dialogic and relationship-building communication have been
made by Susskind and Field (1996, pp. 37-8) who promoted a “mutual gains approach,”
especially in conflict situations and offered six principles, including, “Acknowledge the
concerns of the other side . . . act in a trustworthy fashion at all times . . . focus on building
long-term relationships.” One could argue, as Zadek (2001) has, that not only in conflict
situations but as a general practice, dialogic communication is necessary for corporations Theory and
to operate in today’s climate of active publics and demands for transparency. practice
An example of how these theoretical streams, symmetry, interdependence,
community-building, communitarianism, relationship-building, and ethics undergird converge
the principles is reflected in the name of the principles itself. Being authentic, according
to its simple dictionary definition, means being “genuine, real, reliable and
trustworthy” (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English 217
Language, 1996). The latter concept, trustworthy, or specifically trust, is considered
a dimension of organization-public relationships (Ledingham and Brunig, 2000).
Support for these theoretical streams can also be found in philosophic explications of
the term, authentic. In The Ethics of Authenticity, Taylor (1991, p. 91) argued that
because authenticity encourages individuals to hold diverse ideas, interests, and
values, authenticity must take into consideration “connections and responsibilities to a
larger society”. Thus, authenticity requires not only recognizing the interests and
individuality of stakeholders and publics, it also requires that we accept their right to
hold their own viewpoints and that we operate in a manner which respects and
considers those viewpoints. Particularly relevant to corporate communication is the
work of Terry (1993) who argued that people in social roles carry a greater
responsibility for putting authenticity into action than individuals acting alone. This
suggests that corporate communicators, in their roles as representatives of
organizations acting in the public sphere, have a responsibility for authenticity, that
is, a duty to use authenticity as a mode of action in their practice.
Although there are other theories and models relevant to corporate communication, the
theoretical streams noted above, two-way symmetry, dialogue, interdependence with
community, ethical communication, and relationship building, are the philosophical
underpinnings of the proposed set of communication principles, the Principles of
Authentic Communication. The literature review, which describes each principle
individually, will provide additional support for the principles’ connections to these
theories and models.
Both of these are important in dialogic public relations. Coombs (1999, p. 125) reported
“. . . a significant, positive effect for compassion on organizational reputation, honoring
accounts, and intended potential supportive behavior”.
The next principle, responsiveness to feedback, makes explicit the feedback loop
that is part of the basic communication model. It assures that the organization seeks
and responds to feedback. It allows for and encourages mutual adaptation. Models of
communication that include feedback abound (Windahl et al., 1992). Hendrix (2001,
p. 39) wrote that:
Communication was once considered a linear process involving the transmission of a
message from a source through a channel to a receiver. Today, however, PR practitioners
must program two-way communication activities that permit audience response – or
feedback . . .
Cutlip et al. (2000) stated that communication is a two-way process model. Thus, not
only in the definition and basic theories and models of communication does feedback
play a role, but dialogue, by its very nature, requires the give and take between parties.
What this principle makes explicit is that feedback should be taken to its logical
conclusion – that is, that the source takes it into account and, in keeping with the
two-way symmetrical model, negotiates with publics for mutual adaptation.
Each of the ten principles has support in both professional and scholarly literature
and their explications contain evidence of symmetrical, dialogic, ethical, and
relationship-building language, for example, empathy, fairness, respect, and
understanding, thus supporting the previously noted theoretical underpinnings.
These ten principles, clear, relevant, timely, truthful, fundamental, comprehensive,
consistent, accessible, caring, and responsive to feedback, based on the concept of
authenticity, built on the symmetrical model of communication, and developed through
literature reviews and systematic observation and professional practice, are proposed
as a set of rules for corporate communication.
The study
Having established the theoretical and professional foundation for each of the
principles of authentic communication, the paper will report the findings of a national
survey in which their use and value in corporate communication were explored.
CCIJ The questions the research set out to examine were:
11,3 RQ1. To what degree did water utility communication programs incorporate the
specific characteristics of communication that comprise the principles of
authentic communication?
RQ2. Did the incorporation of these characteristics contribute to the success of
222 communication?
RQ3. Were other aspects of communication found to correlate with success?
Methods
The population chosen for the research was US water utilities that were members of
the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the largest professional and trade
association for the water supply industry in North America. This group was chosen
because of the researcher’s previous professional experience with the water utility
industry and the availability of mailing lists through AWWA.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (2005), the regulator for
water utilities, there are approximately 54,000 community water systems in the USA
but most (85 percent) are small, serving from 25 to 3,300 people. The remaining
15 percent of community water systems, approximately 8,100, are medium to very
large, serving from 3,301 people to 100,001 plus, with medium-sized water utilities
defined as serving 3,301 to 10,000 people (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2005).
The US EPA does not report the number of medium-sized systems, but we can
construe that they make up most of the 8,100. Small and medium utilities, those serving
fewer than 10,000 people, typically do not have a professional communication function.
Therefore, to test corporate communication practices, the research was conducted on
large water utilities which were more likely to have communication staff and ongoing
programs. In order to gather data on corporate communication programs, the AWWA
corporate utility member category was chosen and a mailing list of large and very
large utilities (serving more the 10,001 people) was secured.
Surveys were sent in spring 2000 to all 961 large water utility members of AWWA.
Respondents were asked to identify a difficult communication issue they had faced in
the past two years and answer the rest of the questionnaire on that specific
communication program. The survey instrument was a 24-question, 4-page
questionnaire with open- and closed-ended, checklist, and Likert-type questions. The
questionnaire covered a range of information regarding communication programs, for
example: the specific audiences and topics of the communication program;
communication tactics used; use of strategy teams; length of communication
programs; incorporation of the principles; levels of success; whether they modified
their position; and demographic information such as number of customers, title,
gender, education, and years of experience. The quantitative data were analysed using
the statistical package SPSS to calculate descriptive statistics and correlation
coefficients.
Representatives from 175 water utilities returned the questionnaire for a response
rate of 18.2 percent. With such a low response rate, it was important to try to ascertain
the representativeness of the sample. Two analyses were conducted to assess whether
the sample was representative of the population. The country was divided into four
regions by state:
(1) Northeast; Theory and
(2) Southeast; practice
(3) Midwest; and converge
(4) West;
and the number of large water utilities in each region of the country (the population)
was counted and rendered into a percent of the total population. The number and
223
percent of actual respondents in each region were compared to the number and percent
of the population in each region to see if there were similar percentages represented in
the data. As Table I shows, the geographical distribution of the sample provides a
reasonable approximation of the geographical distribution of the population as whole.
So although the response rate as low, there is some evidence that the sample represents
the population distribution across the regions.
To further vet the sample, a x 2 crosstabulation to measure the size of the difference
between the sample distribution and the population distribution was conducted.
It showed a x 2 value of 1.79 and a probability value of 0.618, indicating that there was
not a statistically significant difference between the sampling distribution and the
population distribution.
1 178 18.5 27 16
2 213 22 44 26 Table I.
3 282 29 48 28 Regional respondents
4 288 30 51 30 compared to population
CCIJ In addition to the variety of topics and target publics, utilities used a wide range of
11,3 communication tactics. The questionnaire listed 57 tactics (plus a category “other”)
including: media tactics such as news releases, press conferences, and radio and TV
interviews; personal communication such as phone calls and one-on-one; electronic
communication such as e-mail and internet; public outreach tactics such as speakers
bureaus, telephone hotlines and open-houses; public information tactics such as
224 brochures, newsletters, and bill stuffers; participatory communication tactics such
as workshops, advisory groups, and consensus-building meetings; and research tactics
such as focus groups and surveys. All 57 tactics were utilized by the respondents,
showing a wide range of communication activities. The single most common tactic
reported was the news release, used by 67 percent of respondents. Respondents
reported one-on-one contact as the second most used tactic at 49 percent. Many
respondents used strategy teams (64 percent), and the length of the programs ranged
from months to years. Some respondents reported that the utility modified its position
a lot as a result of the communication program, some not at all, some a little, some
moderately. Thus, the sample showed a range of activities and practices.
Truthful, accurate 1 2 10 87
Core issues 1 5 36 58
Full story 1 7 38 54
Consistent 1 10 38 51
Made relevant to audience 1 6 46 46
Clear 2 10 46 42
Table II. Showed care 3 13 48 36
Use of authentic Accessible 2 24 41 33
communication in Feedback 11 21 39 30
communication programs Timely 9 27 38 26
“timely” and “responsive to feedback.” From these data it’s clear that the principles of Theory and
authentic communication are, to varying degrees, incorporated into the corporate practice
communication of this sample of water utilities.
converge
Success
As indicated above in the literature review, scholars and professionals have
acknowledged the underlying value of the principles individually, but there is little 225
hard data to support that view, and certainly none to date on the specific set of ten
principles of authentic communication. In an attempt to merge theory and practice, to
begin to test whether principles based on symmetrical concepts might become a useful
and practical set of guidelines for communication programs, the study explored
reported success in relation to the principles. Respondents were asked to assess success
on a 4-point scale (1 – not at all, 2 – somewhat, 3 – moderately, 4 – fully). Because this
was a self-reported assessment of success, one might expect a bias toward declaring
success. Although success data are skewed toward the higher end of the scale,
nevertheless, 5 percent reported no success, 15 percent reported low success, 55 percent
reported moderate success, and 28 percent reported high success. A plurality of
respondents reported “moderate” as opposed to high success.
Although these data on success are one-sided, i.e. from the corporate perspective,
and not clearly defined, they do at least give some indication that the utilities were
satisfied with the results of the communication. In future research, it would be useful to
define success within the survey instrument to more specifically determine
respondents’ views. In addition, the concept of “success” might be examined from
the audiences’ perspective. Obviously, this is a rich area of exploration. For the
purposes of this particular study which explores corporate views of communication,
however, the respondents’ assessment of success may be considered appropriate.
To answer RQ2, “Did the incorporation of these characteristics contribute to the
perceived success of communication?” that is, to ascertain the relationship between
each of the characteristics and success, correlation analyses (Spearman r) were
conducted. The analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship between each
of the principles and success. Table III shows the strength of the correlations.
This study, therefore, provided some statistical evidence that each of the principles
of authentic communication contributed to the success of the communication
Truthful 0.233 *
Consistent 0.227 *
Comprehensive 0.309 *
Receptive to feedback 0.315 *
Clear 0.346 *
Caring 0.348 *
Accessible 0.365 *
Fundamental 0.365 *
Relevant 0.367 * Table III.
Timely 0.455 * Principles of authentic
communication and
Note: *Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed) success
CCIJ programs. For example, 57 percent of those who reported their communication was
11,3 fully timely also reported high success. In the case of clear language, 43 percent of
those who reported high clarity also reported high success and 73 percent of those who
reported no success reported low clarity. Regarding accessibility, 47 percent of those
who reported their communication was fully accessibility also reported high success
whereas only 2.5percent of those who reported low accessibility reported high success.
226 Thus, the study found that those who incorporated the principles to a relatively high
degree reported more successful communication programs than those who
incorporated the principles to a lesser degree.
To explore whether there was statistical evidence to suggest the principles fit
together as an interdependent set, the principles were subjected to a Chronbach’s a
analysis and were found to have a reliability statistic of 0.837 (with 0.6 showing
internal consistency). Thus, there was some statistical evidence to support the
conceptual notion that an internal relationship ties the principles together and that they
may be considered a group or set of characteristics.
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Further reading
Journal of Public Relations Research (n.d.), Journal of Public Relations Research, Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
Tactics (n.d.), Tactics, Public Relations Society of America, New York, NY.
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Corresponding author
Bojinka Bishop can be contacted at: bishopb@ohio.edu