Managing internal communication: How the choice of channels affects internal communication satisfaction

As the environment of internal communication is continually changing for a multitude of reasons, especially new technologies, organizations have to adapt fast in their attempts to reach their employees. When deciding on the type of channel to use, internal communication managers should be aware of their employees’ preferences. The purpose of this study is to identify how the choice of internal communication media affects internal communication satisfaction. In order to explore this relationship further, we conducted an analysis of the most commonly used internal communication channels in ten large corporations and linked the results to employees’ satisfaction and media choice. By expanding the knowledge on preferred communication channels, we are hoping to provide some insight for better management of internal communication.     

Crisis perceptions,relationship, and communicative behaviors of employees: Internal public segmentation approach

This study examines when and why employees engage in external communicative behaviors during the periods of a corporate crisis. Combining a cross-situational factor (i.e., pre-crisis relationship quality) and a situational factor (i.e., crisis-specific perceptions), this study segments internal publics to understand employees’ motivations of becoming advocates for or adversaries of their organization. The results of an online survey demonstrated that employees’ pre-crisis relationship to their organization plays a critical role in encouraging them to advocate for their company; meanwhile, their crisis-perception—whether they feel fewer constraints in solving a crisis—is more likely to make them share negative information externally. Segmented groups of employees with high levels of both relationship and activeness are most likely to engage in both positive and negative external communication behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and internal crisis communication are suggested.     

Internal crisis communication strategies: Contingency factors determining an accommodative approach

Given the special relationship with employees, organizations should pay great attention to internal communication during crises. Drawing from the Contingency Theory of Conflict Management and the perspective of employees as active participants in crisis communication, this study proposes a “Contingency Theory of Internal Crisis Communication”. The study identifies and operationalizes three accommodative internal communication strategies: to create a sense of security, to sustain a sense of belonging and to activate employees as allies of the organization. Furthermore, it tests four contingency factors that influence the adoption of an accommodative approach in the context of the Covid-19 health crisis. Findings show the high relevance of the risk of decreased employee engagement, and the risk of employee health and safety; and a weaker relevance of the risk of reputational damage to the organization in the eyes of employees. The relevance of the risk of economic damage is not confirmed.     

How dialogic internal communication fosters employees’ safety behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

As employees return to the workplace amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring safety and health at work remains a top priority for organizations. Grounded in dialogic theory and protection motivation theory, this study examines how dialogic communication, as a type of strategic internal communication, can encourage employees to engage in safety behaviors in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic via heightened efficacy and perceived threat. An online survey of full-time employees of different industries returning to the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic is conducted. Results suggest that the communal relationship of employees with their organization, influenced by dialogic internal communication, fosters their efficacy and perceived threat of COVID-19 in the workplace, which in turn increases their safety behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and internal communication studies are discussed.     

Employees’ prosocial behavioral intentions through empowerment in CSR decision-making

This study theorizes and empirically tests a conceptual framework to understand how a company can better motivate its employees to carry out persistent prosocial behavior and develop positive organization-employee relationships through corporate social responsibility (CSR) involvement. A managerial approach, employee participative decision making in CSR, is examined for its impact on the prosocial behavioral outcome among employees and the relational outcome for the organization. Furthermore, a psychological mechanism that emphasizes employees’ perceived need satisfaction is examined as the underlying explanation that drives the effectiveness of the managerial approach. The study results support that empowering employees to co-construct CSR decisions with top management is effective in satisfying employees’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This in turn increases the employees’ intention to maintain long-lasting involvement in CSR and improves their relationships with the company. This study provides important implications for public relations professionals and organizational leaders on how to improve their internal CSR communication and involvement practice and cultivate desirable organization-employee relationships.     

Employee communication,job engagement,and organizational commitment: A study of members of the Millennial Generation

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between job engagement and two key components of employee-organization relationships (EOR). Findings from a survey of members of the Millennial Generation (N = 539) in the United States indicate that job engagement mediates the relationship between employee communication and organizational commitment. It is concluded that when employees are engaged in their work, their commitment to the organization is strengthened and the likelihood of them leaving the organization decreases. Furthermore, an argument is made in light of the study’s findings that engagement and commitment work in concert to strengthen EORs overall. To foster engagement, organizations should remove obstacles to internal information flow and provide ongoing feedback to employees about individual and organizational issues.     

Media preferences of digital natives’ internal communication: A pilot study

Contemporary generations of employees are living in a completely different environment than previous generations, shaped by easier information gathering and access to knowledge. For employers, it raises an important question: what media preferences do digital natives have regarding internal communication channels? This study revealed that employees still favor traditional internal channels, in spite of a strong preference for social media in their private lives.     

Valuing internal communication; management and employee perspectives

Effective internal communication is a prerequisite for organisational success. Organisations need to evaluate and improve communication especially in increasingly difficult economic pressures. Assessment instruments enable organisations to monitor communication effectiveness. This review of academic and consultancy studies found over reliance on measuring satisfaction with the communication process. The analysis found management-centric rather than employee-centric approaches to assessment. This indicates a need to develop new approaches to assessing internal communication. A conceptual model is proposed here to encourage focus on employee communication needs in terms of content as well as channel. Future approaches to assessment should draw on a wider theoretical and conceptual framework. Assessment instruments need to reflect advances in practice. They need to assess the value of internal communication to employees as well as their organisations.     

Paradigm shift of employee communication: The effect of management communication on trusting relationships

Even though normative contention suggests that a favorable organizational climate leads to efficient job performance, empirical research has not addressed the trusting relationship as a variable mediating organizational climate and job satisfaction or performance.Supportive oral communication relates positively to individuals’ perceptions of management's supportiveness and friendliness. Perceived support creates trust that the organization will fulfill its exchange obligations by rewarding employee efforts. The survey results indicated that trusting relationship was positively related to measures of communication management, suggesting that those employees receiving positive communication are more likely to be motivated to form trusting relationships with the management level.     

The value of internal communication in enhancing employees’ health information disclosure intentions in the workplace

This study explores organizations’ communication practice as the antecedent of employees’ health-related perceptions and intentions to disclose their health information in the workplace. In particular, this study tests the impact of transparent internal communication and the quality of employee-organization relationship (EOR) on employees’ perceived risks and benefits of information disclosure for their health information. The results of an online survey with full-time employees in the United States showed that a positive EOR influenced by transparent communication increased the employees’ perceived benefits and decreased the employees’ perceived risks for disclosing their health information to their supervisor. Perceived risks and benefits were both significantly associated with employees’ intentions to disclose their physical health problems, while perceived benefits were significantly related to their intentions to disclose mental health problems. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and health communication were discussed in this study.     

Employees’ voice behavior in response to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI): The role of organizational identification,issue perceptions,and power distance culture

While extensive literature has examined the role of employees in corporate social responsibility (CSR), little is known about employees’ role in corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). The current study aims to examine the voice behaviors of employees generated around the issue of CSI. Two online surveys were administered to full-time employees by using two different scenarios involving CSI situations: environmental and diversity issues. The results of the study identified employees’ pre-established organizational identification as a critical cross-situational factor that influenced their CSI perceptions. In addition, employees’ situational perceptions of CSI – how they perceive CSI as a serious problem, their sense of connection to the situation, and their perceived constraints in solving the situation – played critical roles in motivating them to engage in voice behavior. Furthermore, the level of power distance culture within an organization significantly moderated the relationship between employees’ CSI perceptions and voice behavior. By incorporating organizational identification literature and public relations theory in the context of CSI communication and management, this study provides theoretical and practical implications.     

Employees as information influencers of organization’s CSR practices: The impacts of employee words on public perceptions of CSR

This study investigates the impact of employees’ words about their organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on external publics’ attitudes and behaviors toward the organization. Specifically, it examines how the valence (positive vs. negative) of employees’ words regarding a CSR campaign interacts with the type of channel (face-to-face vs. social media) of employees’ communication behaviors, and how these factors affect external publics’ perceived authenticity of the organization’s CSR, corporate attitudes, and purchasing intentions, respectively. An online experiment among 221 general consumers in the United States was conducted. The results demonstrated that negative messages regarding CSR distributed by employees in face-to-face communication decreased publics’ favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions to a greater extent than that distributed via social media (i.e., Facebook). However, the effect of communication channel became insignificant when positive messages regarding CSR were shared by employees. The results further showed that perceived authenticity mediated the effects of channel and message valence on publics’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for CSR practices and employee communication are discussed.     

Words matter: The impact of workplace verbal aggressiveness on workgroup relationship conflict,work-life conflict,and employee-organization relationships

Workplace verbal aggressiveness is detrimental to employees and organizations and is perceived as unwanted and unproductive. This study examined whether and how verbal aggressiveness from supervisors and coworkers influences workgroup relationship conflict, employees’ work-life conflict, and employee-organization relationships. An online survey was conducted with 392 full-time employees in the United States. The key findings of this study showed that when verbal aggressiveness abounds in a workgroup, it creates workgroup relationship conflict, which triggers individual employees’ work-life conflict and tarnishes their trust, satisfaction, commitment, and sense of shared power with their organizations.     

Everyday health communication experiences of college students

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined college students' day-to-day health communication experiences. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 109 midwestern university students participated in the study. METHODS: The participants completed health communication diaries for 2 weeks, generating 2,185 records. Frequent health topics included nutrition and diet, minor health concerns, risky health practices, and body fitness. RESULTS: Approximately 27% of health communication experiences involved the proactive seeking of health-related information or advice. Interpersonal venues (face-to-face, telephone, and e-mail) were evident in about 75% of the records, which were dominated by exchanges with friends and family members. The authors found modest interactions of topic, channel, and purpose. CONCLUSIONS: Congruent with the uses and gratifications theory, the authors found that satisfaction with and perceived impact of health communication experiences varied by topic, channel, relationship, and purpose.     

A personal-communicative evaluation approach to CEO advocacy & employee relations

Acknowledging the importance of CEO advocacy in employee relations, this study proposed a personal-communicative evaluation model of CEO advocacy, which postulates that CEO advocacy creates (intended and unintended) organizational changes. Taking both employees’ personal domain (i.e., value congruence, legitimacy of leadership representation, and personal issue involvement) and communication domain (i.e., salience) considered, this study examined how both domains influence employees’ meaning reconstruction process, which drives employees’ sense of belonging. Conducting an online survey with 429 employees in the U.S., the study found that employee-CEO value congruence had a positive effect on employees’ sense of belonging, but violations of employees’ expectations of a CEO’s role in representing the entire company on the issue (either over-representing or under-representing) offset the positive effects of value fit on employees’ sense of belonging. Both theoretical and practical implications for effective CEO advocacy are discussed.     

Exploring a model of servant leadership,empowerment, and commitment in nonprofit organizations

This study examined a model of servant leadership's relationship to organizational commitment through structural and psychological empowerment, focusing on leader–follower dyads in a nonprofit organization. Survey data was collected from 128 employees of a nonprofit organization in a northeastern U.S. city. After model re‐specification, a well‐fitting model emerged, indicating that structural empowerment mediates the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment. Moreover, the model suggests that structural empowerment's effect on organizational commitment is both direct and indirect—the latter occurring through the meaning dimension of psychological empowerment. This study provides initial support for structural empowerment being a mechanism through which servant leadership impacts organizational commitment in nonprofits. In addition, the role of meaningful work is highlighted as an antecedent to organizational commitment for nonprofit employees. Servant leaders are suggested to create structurally empowering working environments, which support employees' stronger commitment to the organization.     

Employees work-related social-media use: His master's voice

This study explores the antecedents of work-related social-media use. To date the role of employees in organizational sense giving through work-related social-media use remains under investigated. The findings suggest that – in a work-related context – social media serve multiple functions: as a vehicle for information dissemination, relationship management, and organizational ambassadorship. Employees willingly utilize their personal social media account to contribute to organizational goals.     

Public relations and zones of engagement: Employees’ lived experiences and the fundamental nature of employee engagement

While employee engagement has been primarily explored within the business, human resources and management disciplines, public relations research has more recently taken an interest in furthering its understanding and acknowledging how public relations can serve an organization’s internal communication as a foundational component of the field. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how public relations can serve an organization’s internal communication by better understanding how employees perceive and experience engagement. Following a phenomenological methodology (n?=?32), this study utilized zones of meaning as a conceptual foundation (not a literal interpretation) to examine the process related to the complex, shifting and shared meaning of zones of engagement and how zones of meaning are products as well as drivers of engagement, which offer a new way to conceptualize employee engagement in public relations, shifting to a deeper comprehension and understanding. The findings show that employee experiences align more to Kahn’s (1990) initial personal engagement model than other public relations models. The psychological conditions of meaningfulness and safety from the original employee engagement model emerged as important factors in defining the employees’ shared-meaning lived experiences. In addition, this study offers a new definition of disengagement, which is similar but unique to the scholarship on negative engagement. The findings provide a framework for public relations scholars who work to further refine the understanding of employee engagement and for practitioners who develop public relations strategies for internal audiences, and advances the conceptual foundation of zones of meaning in public relations scholarship.     

The effects of flexible work arrangements

Recognizing the dearth of research on flexible work schedules in nonprofit organizations, the author conducted a statewide survey of Illinois independent nonprofits as well as follow-up personal interviews with top administrators in select user organizations. Survey results indicate that a substantial proportion of these nonprofit organizations used flexible work arrangements. Four arrangement types in particular—flextime, parttime, compressed work week, and telecommuting—were found to be used more frequently in Illinois nonprofits than other research findings suggest. Although follow-up interviews revealed that the percentages of employees in the various types of arrangements were low, overall arrangement use improved staff retention and morale and maintained performance. More than half of the administrators interviewed expected the use of all arrangement types to increase in the future.