The attitude of companies towards strategic communication as a tool to improve their reputation with the public.

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Lecturer of Public Relations and Advertising – Faculty of Mass Communication – AlAzhar University in Cairo

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the current state of strategic communication used by companies and the degree of their reliance on it in managing their tasks and the motives for that reliance and to identify how companies use strategic communication to build their reputation and to determine the benefits that accrue to companies from this. By applying it to a sample of communicators in companies, consisting of (200) respondents. The study relied on the strategic communication model for government organizations, the study concluded with some important results One of the most important of these results increase in companies’ reliance on strategic communication in practicing communication activities. The results also revealed that those in charge of communication have full knowledge of what is meant by the term “strategic communication” in the companies in which they work, despite it being a new field. For knowledge, the results of the study also indicate that the degree to which companies use strategic communication to enhance and build their reputation is generally high and that companies may do this on their own, or with the help of specialized agencies. The results of the study also revealed a relationship between the type of stage in which companies use strategic communications and the benefits they accrue in building reputation. The researcher also recommends providing those in charge of communication with the modern tools necessary to develop their methods and formulate and deliver their messages in the best possible way.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. - Mats Heide, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson & Jesper Falkheimer (2018), Expanding the Scope of Strategic Communication: Towards a Holistic Understanding of Organizational Complexity. International Journal of Strategic Communication, Volume 12, 2018 - Issue 4: Future Directions of Strategic Communication. pp 452-468.

    - Botan, C. H. (2018). Strategic communication theory and practice: The cocreational model. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.

    - Heath, R. L. & Johansen, W. (Eds.). (2018). The international encyclopedia of strategic communication. Boston, Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, Vol. 2 (pp. 929–931).

    - Falkheimer, J., & Heide, M. (2018). Strategic communication. London, UK: Routledge.

    - Werder, K. P., Nothhaft, H., Verčič, D., & Zerfass, A. (2018). Strategic communication as an emerging paradigm. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(4), pp. 333–351.

    - Argenti, P. A. (2016). Corporate communication (7th ed.). MIT Sloan Management Review, 46(3), 83-89.

    - Stanton, R. (2017). Corporate strategic communication. A general social & economic theory. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp 156-218.

    - Volk, S. C., & Zerfass, A. (2018). Alignment: Revisiting a key concept in strategic communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(4), pp 433-451.

    - Tench, R., Verčič, D., Zerfass, A., Moreno, A., & Verhoeven, P. (2017). Communication excellence: How to develop, manage and lead exceptional communication. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.FMG. Corporate Communication 3(2). pp 147-164.

    - Heide, M., Simonsson, C., von Platen, S., & Falkheimer, J. (2017). Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Going beyond communication professionals and small-scale studies. Paper presented at the ICA Pre-conference Future Directions of Strategic Communication: Towards the Second Decade of an Emerging Field, San Diego, CA. pp.82-107.  

    - Graham, P. (2017). Strategic communication, corporatism, and eternal crisis. New York, NY: Routledge. p189.

    - Nothhaft, H., & Schölzel, H. (2015). (Re-)reading Clausewitz: The strategy discourse and its implications for strategic communication. In D. R. Holtzhausen & A. Zerfass (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (pp. 18-33).

    -  Broom, G. M., & Sha, B.-L. (2013). Cutlip and Center’s effective public relations (11th int. ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson. Journal of Public Relations Research, 9(2), 83–89.

    - Zerfass, A., Verhoeven, P., Tench, R., Moreno, A., & Verčič, D. (2011). European Communication Monitor 2011. Empirical insights into strategic communication in Europe. Results of an empirical survey in 43 countries. Brussels, Belgium: EACD, EUPRERA. pp 1-68.

    - Deepak Gupta, Jai Prakash Narain Jai P, and S. J. Yadav (2021). Strategic Communication in Health and Development: Concepts, Applications and Programming. Journal of Health Management. 23(1). pp 95–108.

    - Moritz Müller, Caelesta Braun (2021), Guiding or Following the Crowd? Strategic Communication as Reputational and Regulatory Strategy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, pp. 670–686.

    -  Yukiko Iwazaki (2020), Does UiA build a good reputation through UiA Lounge? An analysis of reputation building in UiA at the Norway’s first university lounge from a perspective of strategic communication. University of Agder, Faculty of Humanities and Education. Department of Nordic and Media Studies.

    - Bach, T., Boon, J., Boye, S., Salomonsen, H. H., Verhoest, K., & Wegrich, K. (2019). In the line of fire: European financial regulators before, during, and after the crisis. DMS—Der Moderne Staat—Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management, 12(1), 5– 29.

    - Khan, Z., Ferguson, D., & Pérez, A. (2015). Customer responses to CSR in the Pakistani banking industry. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 33(4), 471-493.

    - Shenfan, J. I. N., & Dongdong, C. H. E. N. (2018). Examining the Antecedents and consequences of customer-based reputation in China: Evidence from supermarkets‟ customers. Proceedings of the 2018 3rd International Conference on Society Science and Economics Development. Lancaster, PA: DEStech Transactions on Economics, Business and Management. (pp. 521-526).

    - Maor, M. (2016). Missing areas in the bureaucratic reputation framework. Politics and Governance, 4(2), 80– 90.

    - Busuioc, M., & Lodge, M. (2017). Reputation and accountability relationships: Managing accountability expectations through reputation. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 91– 100.

    - Boon, J., Salomonsen H. H., Verhoest, K., & Pedersen, M. (2019). Media and bureaucratic reputation: Exploring media biases in the coverage of public agencies. In T. Bach & K. Wegrich (Eds.), The blind spots of public bureaucracy and the politics of non-coordination, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (pp. 171– 192).

    - Busuioc, M., & Rimkutė, D. (2020). Meeting expectations in the EU regulatory state? Regulatory communications amid conflicting institutional demands. Journal of European Public Policy, 27(4), 547– 568.

    1. Jim Macnamara. (2018). A review of new evaluation models for strategic communication: Progress and gaps. Research Journal of the Institute for Public Relations, 2(2), 1–
    2. Jim Macnamara, Anne Gregory (2018), Expanding evaluation to progress strategic communication: Beyond message tracking to open listening. International Journal of Strategic Communication 12(4):469-486.

    - Hossein Nassaji. (2015). “Qualitative and descriptive research: Data type versus data analysis”, Language Teaching Research, Vol. 19. No.2. p.129.

    - Hussein, S. (1999), dirasat fi manahij albahth aleilmi" buhuth al'iielami", ta3, Alqahira: ealam alkatub.

    - Alfawaal, S. (1986), manahij albahth fi aleulum aliajtimaeiati, Alqahira: maktabat Ghirib.

    -Mel Churton (2000). Theory and Method. (Houndmills: Macmillan Press LTD) p173.

    -Maor, Moshe. (2020). Strategic communication by regulatory agencies as a form of reputation management: A strategic agenda. Public Administration 98 (4): 1044–55.

    - Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Derina Ho ltzhausen, Betteke van Ruler, Dejan Ver!i! & Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. (2012). School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore This, International Journal of Strategic Communication, 1(1), 3–35.

    - Willems, Jurgen, Waldner J. Carolin, and Dominik Vogel. (2019). “Reputation Spillover Effects from Grant-Providing Institutions.” Nonprofit Management and Leadership 30(9): 9–30.

    - Maor, M., & Sulitzeanu-Kenan, R. (2013). The effect of salient reputational threats on the pace of FDA enforcement. Governance, 26(1), 31–61.

    - Moschella, M., & Pinto, L. (2019). Central banks' communication as reputation management: How the Fed talks under uncertainty. Public Administration, 97(3), 513–529.

    -Radwan, A. (2010). dawr alaitisal eabr almawqie al'iiliktrunii lilmunazamat fi bina' alsumeat aljayidat - dirasat ealaa aljumhur walwasilat limunazamat tijariat fi misr wal'iimarati, almajalat almisriat libuhuth al'iielami, (Alqahira: jamieat Alqahira, kuliyat al'iielami, yuliu - disambir). 36(2).                                        

    - Lee, Nicole Marie. (2013). The Role of New Public Relations Practitioners as Social Media Experts. Unpublished master’s Thesis, San Diego State University.