Commentary: The Role of Internal Communication in Fostering Employee Advocacy: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Employee advocacy has become a buzzword that has captured the interest of organizations. Despite the increased attention, employee advocacy is an understudied topic in the public relations literature. Hence, the purpose of this study was to fill a gap in public relations research on employee advocacy by examining internal communicators’ thoughts on how they can influence this type of behavior. Through interviews with 25 practitioners, the results indicated that the drivers of employee advocacy could be divided into three factors: individual (i.e., emotions, job attitudes, person-organization, fit, personality, and instrumental value), group (i.e., leader-member relationship and group cohesion), and organizational (i.e., organizational culture, top management, communication management, and socialization). Additionally, internal communication can influence employee advocacy through corporate communication strategies (i.e., openness and transparency, positivity, legitimacy and empowerment, and recognition) and employee advocacy management factors (i.e., understand business objectives, policies and guidelines, facilitation, interesting and meaningful content, and collaboration).

Keywords

employee advocacy internal communication employee communication behavior organizational citizenship behavior corporate communication

Employee advocacy has recently become a buzzword that has captured the interest of the communication and business community. Previous scholars have defined advocacy as a type of organizational citizenship behavior (Walden & Kingsley Westerman, 2018) in which employees voluntarily defend or promote their organizations (Men, 2014) to internal or external publics (Thelen, 2020). Industry reports suggest that employee advocacy behaviors, online or offline, generate a wide range of benefits such as increasing company visibility, facilitating engagement with current clients, and attracting new business (Frederiksen, 2016). Not surprisingly, the number of organizations actively implementing employee advocacy programs experienced significant growth (McClure, 2017).

Despite the increased interest of the business community, employee advocacy is an understudied topic in the public relations literature. Recent studies have started to explore the role of communication in driving advocacy (Men, 2014; Walden and Kingsley Westerman, 2018). However, there is still a lack of empirical evidence on the causes and how internal communication strategies can encourage this behavior. Therefore, the current study serves as an exploratory study that examines employee advocacy as an outcome of internal communication.

Arguing employee advocacy is the ultimate test of a relationship between organizations and their employees (Walz & Celuch, 2010), the study posits that employee advocacy is an extended behavioral outcome of internal communication. Specifically, the study intends to explore what drives employee advocacy, and more importantly, how internal communication fosters employee advocacy, if at all. To that end, the study conducted 25 in-depth interviews with experienced internal communication managers in the United States.

Literature Review

Employee Advocacy and Its Value

In recent years, employee advocacy has become an area of interest among communicators, given its strong potential to help identify the value of public relations. Just like customer advocacy has been described as the ultimate test of a customer’s relationship with an organization (Cross & Smith, 1995), employee advocacy can be understood as the ultimate test of employee-organization relationships. When employees interact with others and advocate on behalf of their organizations, they play an essential role in driving brand awareness (Springer, 2015) and can impact organization-public relationships and the reputation of an organization (Kim & Rhee, 2011). Additionally, advocacy can increase the likelihood of retaining employees (Levinson, 2018), attract skilled human capital (Cervellon & Lirio, 2017), develop new business (Frederiksen, 2015), and influence growth and revenue (Godes & Mayzlin, 2004).

Drivers of Employee Advocacy

Several employee individual factors, such as attitudes, play a role in driving employee advocacy. When employees believe in the value of a brand and are committed to their organizations, they are more likely to engage in advocacy behaviors (Tsarenko et al., 2018). Similarly, employees will engage in brand-building behaviors when they trust their organization (Punjaisri et al., 2013). Researchers have found that there is a positive relationship between internal branding and employee-related outcomes such as commitment (Punjaisri & Wilson, 2007), brand identification, loyalty (Punjaisri & Wilson, 2011), person-organization fit, and intention to stay (Matanda & Ndubisi, 2013).

Leadership can also influence advocacy behaviors. When leaders and supervisors exhibit a transformational style of leadership by, for example, acting as a coach and mentor, living the organization’s brand values, and expressing a unifying brand vision, they enable employees’ motivation and increase their commitment, authenticity, and proactivity, which are referred to as the core characteristics of a brand advocate (Morhart et al., 2011).

Although literature from various disciplines has addressed some of the factors that contribute to employee advocacy, empirical research has not explored employee advocacy and its drivers from the perspective of internal communicators. Therefore, the following research question is proposed:

RQ1: What factors drive employee advocacy?

Internal Communication Strategies

Grunig (1992) proposed that symmetrical communication is one of the critical components of an excellent internal communications program. He also suggested that excellent employee communications could lead to high-quality relationships with employees and supportive employee behaviors toward their employers (Grunig, 2001). In recent years, several studies have confirmed the positive relationship between symmetrical communication and EORs (e.g., Kang & Sung, 2017; Kim & Rhee, 2011). Research has also shown that symmetrical communication can lead to employee communication behaviors such as positive megaphoning (Kang & Sung, 2017; Kim & Rhee, 2011). In addition to symmetrical communication, a positive relationship between transparent communication and outcomes such as engagement (Jiang & Men, 2017) and EORs (Men & Stacks, 2014) has been established. Given the previous discussion, the following research questions are asked:

RQ2: How does strategic internal communication influence employee advocacy?

RQ2a: What communication strategies do communicators consider most effective in encouraging employee advocacy?

Method

The goal of this research was to examine internal communicators’ understanding of employee advocacy and their thoughts on the role that internal communication plays in influencing this behavior. Twenty-five public relations and communications practitioners with at least 5 years of professional experience that have worked in internal communication in the U.S. were interviewed via Zoom. These interviewees were from 22 different industries and had a mean age of 41 years. They had a mean of 18 years of overall communication experience. Almost two-thirds (64%) of the interviewees were female, and more than one-third (36%) were male (Table 1). Purposive sampling was used as the primary strategy to recruit participants. The interview process concluded once a saturation point was established (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). The grounded theory approach was used to interpret and analyze the data.

Table 1.

Interviewed Practitioners.

Interviewee	Industry	Age	Years of communication experience	Years of internal communication experience
1	Insurance	49	27	11
2	Communication consulting	50	20	20
3	Private equity	36	15	15
4	Energy	39	18	15
5	Banking	44	15	15
6	Employment services	35	15	15
7	Pharmaceutical	57	36	34
8	Medical equipment	51	20	20
9	Technology	28	10	6
10	Communication consulting	38	17	17
11	Higher education	34	10	7
12	Higher education software	42	16	16
13	Healthcare	34	10	4.5
14	Security	53	24	8
15	Dairy	33	11	15
16	Healthcare technology	44	20	10
17	Construction	29	8	6
18	Communication consulting	44	21	20
19	Construction and engineering	43	20	3
20	Architecture	39	16	12
21	Facilities management	32	10	10
22	Food processing	45	22	7
23	Financial services technology	41	19	19
24	Communication technology	54	30	20
25	Banking	40	19	8

Results

RQ1: Drivers of Employee Advocacy

When the interviewees were asked what motivates employees to engage in employee advocacy behaviors, their responses could be separated into three broad areas: individual, group, and organizational factors. The individual factors were then separated into five categories: (1) emotions (e.g., pride), (2) job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational identification, organizational commitment, and employee engagement), (3) person-organization fit, (4) personality, and (5) instrumental value. The group factors were separated into two categories: (1) leader-member relationships and (2) group cohesion. Finally, the organizational factors were separated into four categories: (1) organizational culture (e.g., strong culture, people-oriented culture, outcome-oriented culture, innovation culture, and ethical culture), (2) top management, (3) communication management, and (4) organizational socialization. A visual display of these drivers of employee advocacy is found in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Drivers of employee advocacy.

Individual Factors

Feeling organizational pride was one of the most often mentioned factors leading to employee advocacy behaviors among the participants. Several participants argued that the organization’s purpose is a source of pride for employees. Employees want to feel that their work is meaningful and that it is contributing to making a difference in the world. Working for a successful company is another source of pride among employees.

In addition to emotions, job attitudes play a substantial role in influencing advocacy behaviors. One of the predominant attitudes mentioned by the participants was job satisfaction and having a positive feeling about their job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. Some of the causes of job satisfaction mentioned by interviewees that could potentially lead to advocacy behaviors included pay and job conditions. Feeling a sense of identification with and commitment towards the organization were also identified as essential attitudes that lead to advocacy behaviors. These participants mentioned that feeling connected and identifying with a particular organization’s goals, and believing in its values were fundamental. Finally, employee engagement was also considered an essential factor that encourages advocacy behaviors. Hence, the interviewees argued that employees’ level of enthusiasm and empowerment played an important role in advocacy behaviors.

A third individual category mentioned by the participants was person-organization fit. Interviewee 16, who works in the healthcare industry, highlighted the relevance of fit by stating the following:

I can’t tell you the number of times that we’ve had people exit the organization because it just wasn’t a good place for them; not that the company wasn’t doing good things, not that the work wasn’t challenging or meaningful. (. . .) It just wasn’t a good fit.

The role played by personality was also mentioned by a large number of participants. In general, participants emphasized that employees with any type of personality could engage in advocacy behaviors. However, they also acknowledged that personality could have an impact on how and where you advocate, particularly when it comes to social media. While some participants argued that extroverted employees are more likely to advocate on social media, others mentioned that they had noticed other patterns. For example, Interviewee 3, who works in the private equity industry, stated:

I’ve found two types of people who are very active on social media. People who are very introverted and people who are very extroverted. Social media provides introverts a way to speak, be seen, and heard, without having to be in the spotlight in front of a crowd.

Finally, those who perceive that advocating will provide some instrumental value, that is, those who see advocating as a means to some end will also be more likely to become advocates. For example, some participants mentioned that employees might be interested in engaging in advocacy behaviors—particularly on social media—to boost their personal brand.

Group Factors

In addition to individual factors, the participants also addressed the importance of group factors in encouraging advocacy behaviors. Leader-member relationships, which refers to the degree of confidence, trust, and respect that subordinates have in their leader, was the most mentioned group factor. Group cohesion was another factor that several participants argued plays a role in advocacy behaviors. In other words, the interviewees believed that if group members support and validate one another while at work, they are more likely to advocate for the organization.

Organizational Factors

Culture was the most highly mentioned organizational factor described by employees. Some participants emphasized the importance of having a strong culture in which the organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared. Regarding the characteristics of the culture, the interviewees emphasized different aspects. While some referred to the importance of having an innovative culture, others focused on people-oriented cultures. Regarding people-oriented cultures, participants referred to how important it is to feel appreciated and valued. Some interviewees believed that an outcome-oriented culture that utilizes systems that reward employees for their performance could generate positive outcomes such as employee advocacy. A couple of participants stressed the importance of having an ethical culture.

The interviewees also highlighted the role that top management plays in encouraging advocacy behaviors. Several participants mentioned that through their words and action, senior executives establish the norms that filter through the organization. For example, when senior leaders are engaging in advocacy behaviors on social media, it sets a precedent for other employees and makes them think about their online behaviors. Communication management was another factor that was emphasized by the participants. More specifically, the interviewees emphasized the importance of having a communication system that is transparent and open. Finally, the interviewees also stressed the importance of having a strong socialization process that adapts employees to the organization’s culture.

Rewarding Advocacy Behaviors

Several interviewees stated that their organizations were rewarding employees for engaging in advocacy behaviors. Among the rewarded behaviors, volunteering and donating were the most frequently cited by the participants. Some organizations provide employees a certain number of paid time off to volunteer or will write a check to a nonprofit of choice if employees volunteer for a certain number of hours every year. Others will match donations that their employees make to charitable organizations. The second most cited reward was recognition for posting on social media. The third most cited reward was to offer monetary incentives to employees who made referrals.

When interviewees were asked about offering monetary rewards for engaging in social media advocacy, the majority perceived that this practice would hurt the perceived authenticity of the behavior. Interviewee 6, who works in the employment services industry, viewed this practice as “a dangerous space. Is it really employee advocacy if you’re incentivizing the behavior? Or is it something else? It almost becomes marketing now. (. . .) To me, there’s just something wrong about that.” Some participants were not necessarily against the practice but argued that you had to be mindful of how often you reward these behaviors.

Overall, participants agreed that employee advocacy behaviors must be genuine. However, more questions than answers were raised in terms of the appropriateness of different types of rewards. As stated by Interviewee 3, who works in the private equity industry:

The world is not black and white. There are lots of colors and shades of gray. (. . .) I would say that providing, let’s say, monetary incentives for employee advocacy, is in some ways no different than trying to incentivize virtually anything else that you do at work. I think that the challenge of management is always trying to balance the extrinsic incentives with intrinsic incentives.

RQ2: Internal Communication and Employee Advocacy

Regarding the role that internal communication plays in employee advocacy and how communicators should encourage this behavior, the interviewees’ responses were separated into two layers: corporate communication strategies (macro-level) and employee advocacy program management factors (micro-level). The corporate communication strategies were divided into four categories: (1) openness and transparency, (2) positivity, (3) legitimacy and empowerment, and (4) recognition. The employee advocacy management strategies were also separated into five categories: (1) understand business strategy, (2) policies and guidelines, (3) facilitation, (4) interesting and meaningful content, and (5) collaboration. A visual display of the role played by internal communication in employee advocacy behaviors is found in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Internal communication and employee advocacy behaviors.

Corporate Communication Strategies (Macro-level)

One of the most salient factors needed to develop a favorable environment for employee advocacy behaviors is openness and transparency. An organization that encourages openness and transparency makes sure that employees are informed about recent developments and are knowledgeable and connected to a clear mission, guided by a strong vision and values. In addition to being open and transparent, internal communicators should not forget to emphasize all of the positive things within an organization. This idea is related to the concept of positivity, which was conceptualized by Hon and Grunig (1999) as “anything the organization or publics do to make the relationship more enjoyable for the parties involved” (p. 14).

Legitimacy and empowerment is a third macro-level factor that was highly emphasized by the participants. In other words, internal communicators need to focus on legitimizing employees’ concerns by providing them with a voice, listening to their needs, and asking for their feedback. Interviewees also highlighted that internal communicators could legitimize employees’ concerns by increasing interaction between leaders and employees. The participants also mentioned that they should play an essential role in helping leaders become better communicators. Legitimacy is also accomplished by developing an inclusive environment that focuses on all employees. A large number of organizations have remote or field-based employees. Although communicating with these employees can be challenging, it is a critical component of an internal communicator’s role. As stipulated by Interviewee 15, who works in the dairy industry: “If you’re at a headquarters location and there are people in the field or across the country, don’t assume that you know what they want and need.” Regarding empowerment, the interviewees expressed that internal communicators need to facilitate the development of opportunities for employees to assume responsibilities in driving the conditions and experiences they desire in the workplace.

Finally, the fourth factor mentioned by several interviewees was the importance of recognition, and the role that internal communication can play in developing a culture that recognizes employees for the contributions they make to the organization.

Employee Advocacy Program Management Strategies

In addition to the macro-level corporate communication factors, the participants also addressed factors that are exclusively focused on managing employee advocacy initiatives. The first area of focus concerns understanding business objectives. Several interviewees emphasized that internal communicators need to be focused on the drivers and the objectives that are most important to the organization at a particular point in time. In addition to understanding the business objectives, the participants proposed that developing or updating social media policies and guidelines and taking the time to educate employees on this matter can potentially impact online employee advocacy behaviors. Several participants mentioned that guidelines should provide a sense of comfort and safety among employees.

A third factor that encourages advocacy behavior is facilitation. In other words, the organization needs to make sure that they are making it easy for employees to advocate. As stipulated by Interviewee 8, who works in the medical equipment industry, “our job is to provide the guardrails, forums, and mechanisms for them to do it. (. . .) We provide a range of ways for them to get involved on behalf of the company and then let them pick their avenue.”

If employees advocate on behalf of the organization, they need to have interesting and meaningful content. The participants mentioned that producing emotional and inspiring content can be compelling on social media. While referring to a previous job, Interviewee 15 stated: “We created a video series where we would collect stories of people who created a moment that mattered for someone. The stories we got were incredible. We would pick the best ones, film a video about them, and share that video with employees. (. . .) Those videos created and inspired employee advocacy in ways that we couldn’t have imagined.” Finally, the participants mentioned that internal communicators should collaborate and build synergistic relationships with other departments, such as external communications and human resources, to develop new opportunities for employee advocacy.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to fill a gap in public relations research on employee advocacy by examining internal communicators’ thoughts on how they can influence this type of behavior.

Drivers of Employee Advocacy

Research question 1 asked about the drivers of employee advocacy. The responses provided by the interviewees were separated into individual, group, and organizational factors. Among the individual factors, emotions, and more specifically, organizational pride, played a crucial role. Pride is enhanced when employees perceive that their organizations are doing things beyond what average employers typically do (Tsachouridi & Nikandrou, 2016). Emotions are important predictors of job attitudes (Lebowitz & Dovidio, 2015), which are also one of the individual factors mentioned by the interviewees.

Group factors such as leader-member relationships and group cohesion also play an essential role in generating employee advocacy. Regarding leadership, these results are aligned with the literature suggesting that when leader-member exchange quality is enhanced, the employee reciprocates with positive attitudes and behaviors (Masterson et al., 2000). Among the organizational factors, the participants emphasized the importance of culture.

Internal Communication and Employee Advocacy

Research question 2 asked about the role played by internal communication in influencing employee advocacy. The results were separated into two layers: corporate communication strategies and employee advocacy program management factors.

The four corporate communication strategies highlighted by the interviewees are aligned with previous literature. Concerning openness and transparency, several studies have confirmed that communicating symmetrically with employees by emphasizing aspects such as openness may develop high-quality relationships with employees and generate positive word-of-mouth (e.g., Kang & Sung, 2017; Kim & Rhee, 2011). Similarly, previous studies have found that transparency can lead to outcomes such as higher levels of engagement (Author, 2017). In addition to valuing an organization that is open and transparent, employees need to feel legitimized. Interviewees emphasized that one way to help empower employees is by giving them opportunities to make decisions that will impact organizational outcomes. These insights are aligned with research suggesting that the more opportunities employees are provided to get involved in decision-making processes, the more satisfied they will feel about the work itself (Niehoff et al., 1990).

In addition to corporate communication strategies, the interviewees highlighted five specific employee advocacy program management factors. The first one states that internal communicators should understand how employee advocacy contributes to the particular needs of their organizations. The second and third factors (policy and guidelines and facilitation) both address steps that internal communicators should take in terms of clearly explaining what they expect from employees and making employee advocacy as straightforward as possible for them. The fourth factor highlights the importance of generating content that employees will want to share on social media or talk about with their networks. Finally, interviewees highlighted the importance of collaboration among different teams in the organization (e.g., communications, human resources, and marketing).

Conclusion

Limitations

The 25 in-depth interviews provided thorough and rich answers to the research questions. However, the qualitative method is limited in establishing generalizable relationships between internal communications and employee advocacy. Additionally, as this study focused on gathering insights from practitioners with internal communication experience, the perspectives of employees and other stakeholders were not included.

Implications

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the value of public relations by viewing employee advocacy as an outcome of internal communication. The current research views employee advocacy as the ultimate test of a relationship between an organization and its employees, and therefore proposes employee advocacy as an extended behavioral outcome of internal communication. The research also offered practical implications. First, internal communicators need to be familiar with the individual, group, and organizational factors that motivate advocacy behaviors and work on generating these conditions. Second, internal communicators need to help develop an organization that encourages openness and transparency by making sure that employees are informed about recent developments and connected to a clear mission, vision, and values. Third, internal communicators need to focus on legitimizing employees’ concerns, asking for their feedback, and facilitate opportunities for them to drive the conditions and experiences they desire in the workplace. Fourth, if organizations are planning to create a formal employee advocacy program, they should begin by understanding the current business objectives and needs of the organization.

Research Directions

Future researchers can utilize quantitative approaches to measure the impact of internal communication on employee advocacy. Additionally, this study began to shed light on an ethical dilemma that organizations face: Should employees be rewarded for engaging in advocacy behaviors? If so, what types of rewards are appropriate? Future studies have the potential to generate insights that will assist internal communicators in the process of developing an environment that encourages employee advocacy.

Footnotes

Authors’ Note

The manuscript is original and is not under consideration or published elsewhere.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Patrick D. Thelen

Linjuan Rita Men

Author Biographies

Patrick Thelen is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University. Patrick’s research interests include relationship management, internal communication, leadership communication, and employee advocacy.

Linjuan Rita Men is an associate professor in the Department of Public Relations at the University of Florida. Her research interests include internal communication, leadership communication, measurement and evaluation, relationship/reputation management, emerging technologies, and entrepreneurial communications.

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