Abstract
The majority of public relations research and literature has been focused on external communications, leading some scholars to criticize the “surprisingly sparse” contributions from the public relations and corporate communications disciplines in the realm of internal communication (Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra, 2014; Welch, 2011), and the “dearth of research” in the academic literature (Saks, 2006). This book begins to fill this void by providing original research grounded in theory on strategic internal communication.
The book begins with a historical account of how management and internal communication have evolved since the 1930s. Then, authors Men and Bowen do an excellent job of introducing some of the major trends in internal communication such as employee engagement, enterprise social media, values communication, and measurement. Many of these trends they identify are consistent with recent qualitative research I have conducted in internal communication (Neill, 2015).
The authors examine issues in internal communication from a management rather than tactical perspective with only limited examples from professional practice, primarily drawn from other works such as six steps for connecting with frontline workers as published on Edelman’s website (p. 21) or Kotter’s (1995) often cited eight steps for implementing change (p. 134). One original example provided was an ethics program sponsored by Hilton that recognized an ethics champion (p. 44). Due to its strategic focus, this book would be a good fit for upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level courses in public relations management or organizational communication.
The one chapter that is more tactical in focus is Chapter 5 regarding reaching internal stakeholders, which discussed both traditional communication approaches such as meetings and publications, as well as newer approaches such as intranets, blogs, and enterprise social media. One tactic that the authors may want to explore in the future is Huddles, quick daily briefings that are being used in organizations such as health care and manufacturing (Ciccarelli, 2014).
The chapter on measurement is especially helpful for internal communicators as examples of specific measures that can be used to assess abstract concepts such as organizational identification, employee engagement and internal reputation are provided in the Appendices. In addition, the authors provided some great advice for best practices in leadership communication for internal communicators, senior leaders, and direct supervisors (pp. 72-75). For example, they discussed the importance of internal communicators providing training for leaders at various levels, and they recommended that senior leaders be hired and assessed based on their communication competencies. Other valuable contributions include the discussion of a corporate conscience and institutionalization of ethics in Chapter 3, and factors that impact an employer’s approach to internal communication such as organizational structure, culture, and climate, as discussed in Chapter 6.
It is difficult for one book to cover all the challenges and responsibilities presented in managing internal communication. Topics the authors may want to address in more depth in future publications would include diversity and globalization, which receive only a few paragraphs rather than dedicated chapters. In particular, affinity groups are one approach that has been mentioned by internal communicators I recently interviewed as a way to receive regular feedback from diverse groups of employees. In addition, some of the challenges associated with managing internal communication globally include geographic and cultural barriers, and cross-functional collaboration (Smith, 2013), which deserve additional attention. Especially complicating internal communication efforts are the rise of the Internet and social media, as companies and organizations are tasked with developing synergy and consistency in communication messages internally and externally on a global scale (Gurău, 2008), a challenge that is only mentioned in passing due to space limitations. Some of these gaps could be addressed by assigning supplemental readings.
Another topic the authors mention as a future trend is a social conscience (p. 168) or what some scholars have referred to as corporate social advocacy (Dodd & Supa, 2015). This topic has been receiving new media attention (Bernstein, 2017) and would be a good focus area for future publications and research.
Authors Men and Bowen are to be applauded for developing this valuable resource that gives an excellent overview of some of the challenges associated with managing internal communication as well as identifying current industry trends. Overall, I would recommend using this book as a primary textbook or supplemental resource for a public relations management or organizational communication course.