What is the meaning of corporate relations?

It is the messages issued by a corporate organization, body, or institute to its audiences,

such as employees, media, channel partners and the general public. Organizations aim to
communicate the same message to all its stakeholders, to transmit coherence, credibility
and ethic.

Corporate communication is a management function or department, like marketing, finance,

or operations, dedicated to the dissemination of information to key constituencies, the
execution of corporate strategy and the development of messages for a variety of purposes for
inside and outside the organisation.
In todays global corporation, this function serves as the conscience of the corporation and is responsible
for the organisations reputation. Previously called public relations or public affairs, corporate
communication has taken on new importance in the 21st century as a result of corporate scandals or crises
at companies like Enron and Toyota.
The department usually oversees communication strategy, media relations, crisis communications, internal
communications, reputation management, corporate responsibility, investor relations, government affairs
and sometimes marketing communication.
The person running the department is the chief communications officer of the firm, and reports directly to
the chief executive officer in many of the top global organisations due to the critical importance of the
function today.
Example
Jon Iwata, the chief communications officer for IBM, oversees a large department focused on both
marketing and communications for the company.
This global function is responsible for IBMs communications to all key constituencies including customers,
employees and communities. It also plays a role in shaping and executing the companys Smarter Planet
strategy, and initiative focused on developing sophisticated systems to make the world a better place
like smart grids and efficient water management systems.
Jon works closely with Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, on strategy execution, and is a member of the
companys most senior management team.

What Are the Functions of a Corporate Communication

Department?
Corporate communications departments play a key role in how investors, employees and the
general public perceive a company. They often report directly to a companys chief executive
officer and serve as advisers in managing a companys reputation. They help leaders prepare for
media interviews, develop messages to deliver to investors and employees and suggest new
initiatives to keep companies on the cutting edge of communication with their stakeholders.

Media Relations
This may be the function for which corporate communication managers are best known. Media
relations work includes writing and distributing news releases and responding to media inquiries.
Corporate communicators oversee all planning for news conferences, including selecting the site
for an event, arranging for banners and other graphics to be displayed at the event, preparing
packets of information to distribute to the media and preparing executives to speak at news
conferences. Media relations also involves arranging for spokespersons to appear on local
television and radio programs. Corporate communicators monitor newspapers, television news
broadcasts and other outlets to see what the media is saying about the company and to devise
strategies to address misinformation.

Public Relations
Building relationships with customers and responding to inquiries from the public fall under the
public relations function of corporate communications. Duties in this area include producing
newsletters, brochures and other printed materials designed for the general public. Corporate
communicators also manage a companys website and social media presence, which includes
monitoring what customers and clients are saying about the company on social networking
websites and responding to inaccurate posts or requests for information. Communication
professionals may respond directly to calls and emails from citizens and customers with questions
about a companys plans or activities. They arrange for speakers from the company to make
presentations to local community groups and may facilitate group tours of a companys operations.

Crisis Communication
When an event occurs that threatens public safety or a companys reputation, corporate
communicators function as advisers to CEOs and senior leaders in managing the crisis. Special
training in the issues unique to crisis communication helps corporate communicators prepare for
events such as chemical spills, violence in the workplace, an accidental death on the job, layoff
announcements and allegations of company wrongdoing. They often work with staff throughout
their organizations to develop crisis communication plans before disaster strikes. A crisis may
require communications staff to work with attorneys, government regulators, political officials,
emergency response personnel and communications staff from other companies when developing
crisis messages.

Employee Communications
In addition to conveying a companys messages to external audiences, corporate communicators
may also be called on to function as employee communications managers, which includes
designing printed publications and writing emails to announce company news, benefits information
and training opportunities. Corporate communicators may facilitate focus groups to learn what
issues matter most to front-line employees. They advise senior leaders on how to improve

relationships with their staff and gain support for their initiatives. The corporate communications
staff may also manage a companys Intranet and internal blogs.

Communication is the lifeblood of all organizations: it is the medium through which

companies large and small access the vital resources they need in order to operate. It is
through communication that organizations acquire the primary resources they need (such as
capital, labor, and raw materials) and build up valuable stocks of secondary resources (such
as legitimacy and reputation) that enable them to operate.
Organizations secure access to these resources in two ways: first, by directly negotiating the
prices and terms on which a resource is purchased. This requires direct communication
between buyers and sellers, and calls on familiar communication skills. Another way
organizations gain control over valued resources is by influencing indirectly the context
within which these exchanges occur (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978). Through lobbying and
collective action with other organizations, companies build entry barriers that can make it
very difficult for rivals to enter their markets. Doing so creates a more hospitable
environment in which to operate. Individually, through alliances, and by joining forces with
other companies and forming collectives, managers can build up an image about how a
particular issue or problem should be addressed. In democracies like the US and Australia, for
instance, the public affairs departments of companies devote considerable time and energy in
lobbying legislators to enact laws that will favor them over rivals. Often these departments
get involved in building information campaigns designed to influence public opinion and
pressure politicians to adopt preferred positions on contentious issues (Astley and Fombrun,
1983).
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Communication is therefore at the heart of organizational performance. The success of an
organizations efforts to acquire resources and to influence the context within which it carries
out its activities depends heavily on how well and how professionally a company
communicates with its resource holders.
We define an organizations communication system as the multiple tactical and strategic
media it relies on to communicate with its stakeholders, as well as the message content it
chooses to diffuse through those media. The communication system encompasses marketing
communications, public relations, investor relations, and employee communications; it also
includes the kinds of institutional communications an organization makes that are created to
influence how issues are framed and the public debate that results about it. In its largest
sense, it encompasses the initiatives that a company often undertakes to demonstrate social
responsibility and good citizenship most of these good deeds are important in helping a
company to build a more favorable and welcome social environment for its routine
operations.

From fragmentation to integration

In their efforts to exert control over the acquisition of these valuable physical and symbolic
resources, organizations have proliferated a multiplicity of specialized groups whose
responsibilities are to communicate with targeted stakeholders. The modern organization
typically operates through departments
charged with community relations, government relations, customer relations, labor relations,
human resources both at the corporate and at the businessunit levels. This kind of

specialization has fostered a fragmentation of the organizations communication system that

has severely limited its effectiveness
over the years.
The presence of multiple specialized senders of information, when they are not explicitly and
strategically coordinated, stands in the way of creating consistency of external and internal
corporate communication. Managers in different geographical locations or working for
different parts of the same firm find themselves frequently contradicting one another, and
therefore conveying inconsistent impressions about the company and its products to
resourceholders.
Faced with a growing variety of challenges to their operations, in recent years organizations
have grown increasingly aware of the need to overcome fragmentation and to reduce the
volume of inconsistent communications that they convey. They seek ways to improve
coordination among the many different specialists involved in communication activities for
the organization. The expression used to describe this trend is integrated communication
a systematic process for building a fully coordinated communication system inside the
organization.
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Definition of Corporate Communication

Corporate Communication is the total of a corporations efforts to communicate effectively
and profitably. Obviously the action that any particular corporation takes to achieve that goal
depends in large part on the character of the organization and its relationship with its
stakeholders (suppliers, community, employees, and customers). In practice, corporate
communication is a strategic tool for the contemporary corporation to gain a competitive
advantage over its competitors. Managers use it to lead, motivate, persuade, and inform
employees and the public as well.
Corporate communication is more art than science. Its intellectual foundations and body of
knowledge began with the Greeks and Romans with rhetoric. Its theoretical foundation is
interdisciplinary, using the methods and findings of:

Anthropology

Communications

Language and linguistics

Sociology

Psychology

Management and marketing (also PR)

As a focus of academic study, corporate communication can be considered in the large

context presented here, or it can be seen as a part of public relations. Given the business
environment, the more encompassing definition works well in both: the applied context of the
workplace; as well as within the context of academic study.
Corporate communication is the term used to describe a wide variety of management
functions related to an organizations internal and external communications. Depending
on the organization, corporate communications can include such traditional disciplines as:

Public relations,

Investor relations,

Employee relations,

Community relations,

Media relations,

Labor relations,

Government relations,

Advertising,

Technical communications,

Training and employee development,

Marketing communications, and

Management communications.

Many organizations also include:

Philanthropic activity,
Crisis and emergency communications, and advertising as part of corporate
communications functions.

The Purposes of Corporate Communications

The four public relations models show 4 historical eras or stages in the evolution of the
corporate communication function. They can also be regarded as 4 different world-views,
indicating the different purposes that organizational members see for the corporate
communication function. Note: Corporate Communication = PR (without negative part).
1.

Press agentry: purpose of corporate communication is publicity trying to gain

coverage from the mass media in almost any way possible. This model describes the

purpose of corporate communication as being publicity, trying to gain coverage from the
mass media in almost any way possible. It serves a propaganda function and spreads the
faith of the organization involved, often through incomplete, distorted, or half-true
information. Press-agentry is a one-way model where information is given, but the
organization does not seek information from stakeholders.
2.

Public information: In this one-way model, communication is seen as the

dissemination of information through the mass and controlled media such as newsletters,
brochures, direct mail or the Internet. Negative information is rarely volunteered. In this oneway model, communication is seen as the dissemination of information (not necessarily with
a persuasive intent) through the mass and controlled media such as newsletters, brochures,
direct mail or the Internet. Negative information is rarely volunteered.

3.

Two-way asymmetric: information flows between the organization and its

stakeholders, but is imbalanced in favor of the organization. In this two-way model,
information flows between the organization and its stakeholders, but is imbalanced in favor
of the organization. This model is not confined to the dissemination of information and
research plays a key role. However, research here is (only) used to determine the most
appropriate channels and messages to persuade stakeholders to behave as the
organization wants, without the organization itself changing its behavior.

4.

Two-way symmetric: communication consists more of dialogue than monologue. In

this two-way model, communication consists more of dialogue than monologue.
Communication efforts are described in terms of its research base as well as the use of
communication in improving understanding with key stakeholders. It presents the classic
win-win situation, and implies that both the organization and its stakeholders are
benefiting. The organization is adjusted to fit the environment. This requires bargaining,
negotiating, and using strategies of conflict resolution to bring symbiotic changes in the
ideas, attitudes, and behaviors of the organization and its stakeholders.

Communication with Internet

The Internet started as two-way communication, but became one-way communication when
it was commercialized used mainly to disseminate information. However, because of its
interactive nature, some organizations have started to use the Internet to build two-way,
interactive relationships with their stakeholders, fostering dialogue through various methods.
The Internet is not about mass marketing and mass markets. Its about people individuals
with unique aspirations, needs, desires, and cultural backgrounds. Its not as much a mass
market of 60 million people as it is 60 million markets, each containing one person.

A need therefore exists to crystallize a message to individuals in one-to-one

communication and to build one-to-one relationships at the same time. The Internet is
the medium to provide in tFurther Readings:

ESSENTIALS OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION: Implementing practices for

effective reputation management, van Riel, Cees B.M. & Fombrun, Charles J., Routledge:
2007

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Role of CC
Business communication roles: Business communication occurs between two or more
parties to exchange business related information. The success of a business depends on the
efficacy of business communication. For this, communication is regarded as the lifeblood of
business. The role or importance of business communication is discussed below:
1.

Exchanging information: Communication is mainly the exchange of information

between two or more parties. Through communication, organizations exchange
information with internal and external parties. Communication also brings dynamism in
organizational activities and helps in attaining goals.
2.
Preparing plans and policies: Communication helps in preparing organizational
plans and policies. Realistic plans and policies require adequate and relevant
information. The managers collect required information from reliable sources through
communication.
3.
Execution of plans and plaices: For timely implementation of plans and policies,
managers must disseminate those in the whole organization. In order to disseminate
the plans and policies to the internal and external parties, managers rely on
communication.
4.
Increasing employees efficiency: Communication also helps in increasing the
efficiency of employees. With the help of communication, organizational objectives,
plans, policies, rules, directives and other complex matters explain to the employees
that broaden their knowledge and thus help them to be efficient.
5.
Achieving goals: Effective communication helps the employees at all levels to be
conscious and attentive. It ensures timely accomplishment of jobs and easy
achievement of goals.
6.
Solving problems: Through various communication channels, the managers can be
informed of various routine and non-time problems of the organization and accordingly
they take the necessary actions of steps to solve the problems.
7.
Making decisions: Making timely decisions requires updated information. Through
effective communication, managers can collect information from different corners and
can make the right decisions.
8.
Improving industrial relation: Industrial relation is the relation between workers and
management in the workplace. Good industrial relation is always desired for business
success. Communication plays a vital role in creating and maintaining good industrial
relation.
9.
Publicity of goods and services: In the modern age, business is becoming highly
competitive. Almost very competing manufacturer produces products of common
consumption. However, all of them cannot sell equally well. The organization that can
communicate better, can also sell better.
10. Removing controversies: Effective communication allows smooth flow of
information among various parties involved in the negotiation or transaction. As a result,
conflicts, controversies and disagreements can be resolved easily.
11. Enhancing employee satisfaction: If there is free and fair flow of information in the
organization, it will certainly bring mutual understanding between management and
workers. Such understanding enhances the satisfaction of employees.
12. Enhancing loyalty: Effective communication helps the managers to be aware of the
performance of their subordinates. In such a situation, the subordinates try to show their
good performance. Later on, if management praises their performance, it will enhance
employees loyalty.

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Introduction to Corporate
Communication: Need and its Importance
Why is Corporate Communication Needed ?
With the proliferation of activities that any company does, there needs to be a mechanism through which it
advertises its achievements, answers queries about its performance, and has a window to the external world in
times of crises and other catastrophes. The corporate communication department of any organization
performs the three functions listed above. Before the deepening of private sector activity, companies used to
have public relations departments or used to outsource their public relations activities to specialized firms that
had the expertise. Even now, many multinationals have corporate communication teams that double up as event
management teams in addition to their media interfacing activities. Indeed, companies like Infosys have
dedicated spokespersons whose sole function is to liaise with the media because these companies often are in
the public eye. Apart from the reactive media interfacing in response to queries and requests for information,
corporate communication teams also are proactive in media management, which means that they actively
suggest media coverage to the press and set the agenda about what to be written about the company and how it
is to be covered.

Yet another Glitzy Function or Value Adding Teams ?

It is often the case that many employees in the companies think that corporate communication teams are all hype
and fashion with no substance. This is because of the nature of the work that they do which is glossy and hip.
However, it needs to be mentioned that corporate communication teams play a vital role in driving the news
coverage about the companies and in these days of 24/7 news coverage, the onus of representing the
companys viewpoint accurately and reliably falls on the shoulders of the corporate communications teams.
In most IT companies, the nerdy and the geeky crowd often downplay the importance of the corporate
communications teams. This is not the ideal attitude towards the practice of corporate communications and
should be discouraged. Instead, a nuanced appreciation of what corporate communications is all about must be
articulated by the management to the employees so that they do not dismiss it as all hype and no substance.

The Advantages of Positive Coverage and the Perils of Misrepresentation

If we start with the disadvantages first, it is clear from the recent downsizing in many IT companies that unless
the media are kept informed about the stance of the management, the media coverage would be anything but
friendly. Often, there are many rivals with agendas and these translate into poor or negative reporting about the
company. On the other hand, if the corporate communications teams proactively brief the media about instances
of downsizing and other crises and shapes perceptions that are favorable to the company viewpoints, then the
advantages of having corporate communications teams becomes apparent.

Final Thoughts
There is no denying the fact that in this current media landscape where news changes by the minute, having a
dedicated corporate communications is the answer to the problem of having the companys perspective put
forward. In conclusion, corporate communications teams are indispensable and any attempt to sideline them as a
peripheral activity would boomerang on the company.

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