Corporate communication, behavior, culture – vs corporate identity

Non-visual factors shaping company image

1. Personal contact• Behavior

• Appearance

• Manners

• Preparation

of the personnel representing company on the outside – e.g. during

sales transactions or negotiations

2. Contact through words and images• Phone conversations

• Company correspondence

• Owned or earned opinions about products, services and company’s activities

• Information about company successes and failures

3. Company operations• Main products

• Specialization

• Brand identification

I. Corporate communication (1)

• …refers to all communication strategies, tactics and techniques an organization uses to represent itself, its products and services to the target audiences.

• …helps to transmit the corporate identity internally and externally through strategically planned and coordinated efforts.

Corporate communication (2)

• a company needs to take a holistic view of communication because it is communicating all the time (even if it does not realize it) to all of its stakeholders.

• all of the messages emanating from an organization, everything that it produces and all of the activities it is involved in will act to shape stakeholders’ perceptions.

• the communication which is taking place, even if unplanned or planned, is creating impressions and as a result images are being formed.

• corporate identity is projected to the stakeholders using a variety of cues, and it represents how the organization would like to be perceived

• these cues can be orchestrated so that deliberately planned messages are delivered to specific target audiences in order to achieve particular objectives.

Corporate communication (2)

• some of these planned cues will constitute an organization’s visual identity, that is the design and graphics associated with an organization’s symbols and elements of self-expression,

• other cues will focus on behavior, the actions of the organization and other forms of communication.

Corporate communication (3)

• corporate communication includes

1. Controlled communication - intentionally instigated by management with the aim of improving stakeholder’s perception

2. Uncontrolled communication - takes place when organizations influence stakeholders’ perceptions unintentionally

3. Indirect communication- any communication about the organization initiated by external stakeholders

Corporate communication (4)

1. Controlled communication (1)

• It is a management tool by which all consciously used forms of internal and external communication are harmonized effectively and efficiently for creating a favorable basis for a relationship with an organization’s stakeholder

• Not only composed of specialized areas such as public relations and corporate advertising, but also media relations, financial relations, employee communication and crisis communication

1. Controlled communication (2)

• three main types of corporate communication - the particular “mix” of these subdivisions of communication is:

a. Marketing communication

b. Organizational communication

c. Management communication

a. Marketing communication

• The form of communication that supports the sales of an organization’s goods or services.

• is generally associated with the 4Ps of product, price, place and promotion

• Most of an organization’s communication with the marketplace occurs through a carefully planned and controlled promotional program.

• The tools and techniques used for achieving an organization’s marketing communication objectives are called the ‘promotion mix’.

• The basic elements of the promotion mix include advertising, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing and sales promotion

• It is probably given the most attention and the highest proportion of the budget

b. Management communication (1)

• is perceived by many academics and practitioners as being the most important of these three forms of communication

• the process of communicating the vision and mission of the company (defined by its management) in order to establish a favorable image and ultimately a good reputation amongst its internal and external stakeholders.

• Internal stakeholders - the primary means by which top-level managers disseminate the goals and objectives of an organization

• External stakeholders - plays a fundamental role in developing the desired corporate image and in creating a strong competitive advantage

• both the internal and external aspects of management communication, for example the house journal and press releases and the annual and environmental reports for internal and external communication, respectively

b. Management communication (2)

c. Organizational communication

• all forms of communication with stakeholders with whom an organization has an interdependent relationship.

• Public relations and public affairs are the oldest, most commonand well-known forms of organizational communication.

• Recently – separated into several functional areas such as:• finance and human resources

• investor relations

• labor relations,

1. Controlled communication (3)

• Both marketing and organizational communications serve as dominant communication links between identity and image and as links between image and strategic management

• Both graphic designers and marketers suggest that the communication of a company with all of its stakeholders must be consistent

• communication could only be effective if it was supported by performance achievements and that corporate rhetoric must be congruent with the reality of its operations and behavior.

2. Uncontrolled corporate communication (1)

• corporate identity perceived by publics, i.e. corporate image, is a total product of controlled and non-controlled messages.

• And “...everything the organization does will in some way communicates the organization's identity” (Balmer) -unplanned communication has a considerable role in corporateidentity management

• usually involves the communication between the employees of an organization and the external stakeholders through their interaction

• an organization communicates by sending signals that have not been created in a deliberate or conscious way• for example, the way in which telephone calls are managed are the

signals sent by the company to its environment - telephone conversation takes into account how long people take to answer the telephone and in what manner it is answered.

• newer factors such as the potential power of the ‘word of mouth’ via, for example, customer to customer on-linecommunities.

2. Uncontrolled corporate communication (2)

• One of the highly effective methods of influencing uncontrolled corporate communication – is to ensure that employees were highly motivated and to develop an internal culture of integrity and honesty.

• one method of reducing the occurrence of negative uncontrolled communication is by gaining employee commitment of core corporate values.

2. Uncontrolled corporate communication (3)

3. Indirect communication

• refers to any communication about the organization initiated by external parties.

• it includes • transmitted unintentional or emergent messages,

• articles in the press,

• news about the organization on television,

• comments by competitors

• third-party reports about the organization

II. Behavior (1)

• refers to a particular way of acting

• It’s the non-verbal intangible aspect to communication – it is the „body language” of the organization.

• includes actions on the part of the organization and its employees.

• Includes intended and unintended action

• The organizational behavior is always performed by individuals in the firm

Behavior (2)

A number of elements that make up behavior including

1. Corporate behavior

2. Employee behavior

3. Management behavior

1. Corporate behavior (1)

• The sum total of the corporate actions, which results from the corporate attitudes that are planned in line with the company culture or that occur spontaneously,

• rooted in the behavior of individual organizational members, expressing the organization’s ‘sameness over time’ or continuity, ‘distinctiveness’ and ‘centrality’.

• corporate behavior (i.e. corporate affairs and press relations)affects the perceptions of a company’s stakeholders as strongly as visual identity and even more strongly at times of crises.

1. Corporate behavior (2)

• organizational identity is shaped by the closeness of fit between the organization and the employees: the spirit with which they work and participate in the running and development of the organization.

• identity is also concerned with the employees’ sense of belonging by the similarities in personal and corporate standards and priorities, their sense of well-being within the organization and their loyalty towards the organization

2. Management behavior

• the actions and statements of top managers simultaneously affect organizational identity and image.

• senior management express the organization’s central idea to internal and external audiences through communication and behavior

• important role as there is an increased interaction between he organization and its stakeholders and the multiplicity of rolesthat stakeholders now play

• Misinterpretation or failure to internalize and identify with corporate requirements could result in inconsistency in behavior, and on occasions result in management displaying characteristics that an organization would not approve of as representative of the firm

3. Employee behavior

• employees' actions are perceived as a reflection of the corporate identity

• If there is a culture of hard work present within an organization this will positively translate itself into employee behavior.

• recruitment, training and education are vital in order to develop this culture and emphasize this desired behavior to employees.

• The importance behavior had on overall corporate identity is unsurprising as ultimately what organizations “do” will play a big part in shaping perceptions of what they “are”.

Behavior in relation to

Co-workers

Market partners

Shareholders and creditors

State, publics and environment

III. Culture (1)

• There is a range of views concerning the relationship between corporate culture and corporate identity.

• Culture - the consensus within a company about how activities should be accomplished and is conceived as a result of a group’s shared experience and learning with respect to matters of external adaptation and internal integration (Schein).

• In contrast, identity pertains to who we are as an organization.

• culture is the ‘what’ of a company and identity is the ‘why’

The following are important elements of culture:

1. philosophy,

2. mission/vision,

3. values,

4. principles,

5. guidelines,

6. history,

7. national culture,

8. the founder of the company

9. subculture

III. Culture (2)

1. Corporate philosophy

• embodies the core values and assumptions of a company that constitute the corporate culture

• Usually created by senior management

• Consists of the business mission and values espoused by the management board or the founder.

• Corporate identity firstly captures and secondly serves as a vehicle for expression of the company’s philosophy

2. Mission/vision

• corporate mission concept is often confused with corporate vision.

• the corporate mission outlines the basic points of departure, whereas a corporate vision outlines the desired future at which the company hopes to arrive

• They support management in providing appropriate and systematic leadership for the organization.

• A vision or mission is also of external value as it defines how an organization perceives itself.

• A vision or mission contributes to the organization's goals in a variety of ways:

• It informs staff about the desired values and norms of the organization.

• It contributes to the development of specific guidelines for employees and their work

3.Corporate values

• are concerned with the beliefs within the organization and include language, rituals and ideologies that guide the company’s culture and form the corporate identity

• values reflect the organization’s identity, the type and quality of its products and services, company performance and corporate behavior

• They are the beliefs and moral principles that lie behind the company’s culture

4. Corporate principles

• reflect the mission, targets and values of a company and form the basis of and standards for all corporate actions.

• the statements of corporate principles become the basis for right and wrong, that is a prioritizing criterion

• Even the mission statement functions as a principle of order.

5. Corporate guidelines

• explain the relevance of the corporate principles to the actions and behavior of all employees, departments and functions

6. Corporate history

• Identity is the product of the history of the organization.

• However, identity also produces history

• „Everyday routines and activities in an entity do not simply happen but occur because of tradition or history”

7. The founder of the company

• An organization’s identity tends to be inseparable from that of an organization’s founder.

• There is a direct link between corporate success, corporate culture and the founder of the company

8. country-of-origin (1)

• ‘the picture, the reputation, and the stereotype that consumers attach to products of a specific country’

• When national focus conveys benefits - companies promote their national identities as part of their corporate identities

• E.g. British people are described as proud, civilized, cultured and cold, Germans are described as efficient, industrious, competitive and innovative and Americans are described as competitive, adventurous, sociable and fun loving.

8. country-of-origin (2)

• The adjectives associated with the national characters are linked directly with the business image.

• Firms can use country of origin imagery for communicating their identities

• this had been diluted in many organizations, which had been operating overseas for a long period of time with adecentralized structure.

• It also appears weaker in organizations that had grown through international mergers.

9. Subcultures

• This unitary view of culture• tends to see organizational culture as a reflection of the founder’s

beliefs and values, appears to be simplistic and misleading• Assumption - members share the same values, which promotes a

shared sense of loyalty and commitment to an organization

• a differentiation perspective,• an organization is a composite of multiple culture consensus, rather

than being organization wide, occurs only within the boundaries of a subculture

• what is unique about a given organization’s culture is the particular mix of subcultural differences within an organization’s boundaries

Corporate identitymanagement

Strategy of CI management

• AC2ID Test ™ (Balmer)

Covenantedidentity

COVENANTED IDENTITY

• Or a corporate brand

• derived from a firm’s corporate identity,

• is a synthesis of the firm’s key, and long-standing, corporate identity attributes that have emerged over time

THE FIVE IDENTITY TYPES

•ACTUAL IDENTITY:

shaped by: corporate ownership, leadership style, organizational structure, business activities, markets covered, quality of products and services

AS WELL AS the values held by management and employees and the degree to which they identify with the actual identity or indeed with other identity types

COMMUNICATED IDENTITY

• Normally encompasses “controlled” corporate communications

• It can also include the performance effects of products and services and of spin and commentary made about the organization

CONCEIVED IDENTITY

• Refers to the main perceptual concepts of corporate image, and corporate reputation.

• (a choice has to be made as to which groups and which concepts form the conceived identity)

IDEAL IDENTITY

• Purely a conceptual construct it refers to the articulation by strategic planners and others of the optimum positioning of the organization its market or markets in a given time frame.

• Normally based on current knowledge about the organization’s prospects in the context of projections vis a vis the general business environment

DESIRED IDENTITY

• The lives in the minds of corporate leaders.

• It is their vision for the organization.

• It is Not the same as the ideal identity since such an identity type might reflect the personality type and drivers of the CEO, or the board etc.

• The AC2ID Test accommodates powerful identity categories into a single, integrated model.

• It marshals various identity types that are derived from organizational reality and culture, strategy, management vision, perception, and communication

• where significant misalignments occur between identity types then these require realignment in order to avoid potentially damaging consequences.

• The REDS2 Acid Test Process provides a means by which the framework may be operationalized.

REDS2

Stage 1 Reveal Identity characteristics

Stage 2 ExamineThe interfaces between the covenanted identity and other identities

Stage 3 Diagnose Identity misalignments and their nature

Stage 4 Select

Interfaces requiring management interventions. Ascertaining and prioritizing by considering issues of: urgency, desirability and feasibility (scenario playing may be efficacious in terms of prioritization)

Stage 5 Strategy

Determine the most efficacious and efficient course of action to achieve alignment. (It is important to establish a standard time frame to effect changes to the covenanted identity vis-à-vis the ideal and/or the desired identities.)

Example of CI presentation

• Roboczy\The Scarecrow.avi

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