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The purpose of the article is to provide practical recommendations and insights for leaders and/or organizations to consider as they guide new middle managers in their efforts to develop a preliminary foundation for effective communication practices.

The article is framed within the context of new middle managers. Emphasis is placed on providing examples of ways that leaders and organizations can assist or guide new middle managers in developing a foundation for preliminary communication practices.

Guidance from upper-level leaders related to the foundation should include, among other things, an overview of expectations, organizational goals, and vision. The article also includes some examples of preliminary communication practices that upper-level leaders might suggest for consideration by new middle managers. The examples include, preferred communication channels, preferences related to responsiveness, preferred characteristics of electronic communication, being intentional, and promoting balance/wellbeing.

Middle managers are important to the success of organizations. The role of middle managers encompasses several requisite skill sets. Among those skill sets is the need for effective communication. The article approaches the topic of effective communication in the context of new middle managers, with an emphasis on leader/organizational guidance that can contribute to a preliminary foundation for effective communication practices. The foundation and examples can then serve as a platform for ongoing development of a more comprehensive communication plan.

Aligning corporate communications through different information sources is a great challenge for marketers, especially those operating in the tourism sector, which has been harshly affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides a deep analysis of the implementation of seven basic principles of the integrated marketing communications (IMC) paradigm in a crisis situation.

In-depth interviews with tourism and hospitality service providers were conducted in the fourth quarter of 2021 in Croatia, a destination that showed remarkable results in terms of the number of international tourist arrivals during the pandemic.

Most firms successfully transitioned from tactical to strategic IMC implementation. Some problems were reported in the coordination of communication tools and channels. Whereas the use of digital technology was enhanced, database management did not receive sufficient attention. Message clarity represented the greatest challenge, while consumer-centric communication was the most neglected principle. Relationship building was pursued mainly through B2B rather than B2C communication, whereas brand equity development pursued through communication mix mostly focused on increases in awareness, perceived quality and attitudinal loyalty.

This research is qualitative in nature and provides opinions on IMC adoption from the managerial perspective only.

This paper provides guidelines for the successful integration of marketing communications (marcom) in an extremely ambiguous and uncertain environment.

The contribution of this work lies in the proposal of a new refined and expanded theoretical framework of IMC principles and numerous marcom strategies for operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus providing relevant implications for academia and industry.

Job stressors have a considerable influence on workplace safety behaviors. However, the findings from previous studies regarding the effect of different types of job stressors have been contradictory. This is attributable to, among other factors, the effectiveness of job stressors varying with occupations and contexts. This study examines the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on construction workers' informal safety communication at different levels of coworker relationships.

A three-dimensional framework of informal safety communication is adopted, including self-needed, citizenship and participatory safety communication. Stepwise regression analysis is then performed using questionnaire survey data collected from 293 construction workers in the Chinese construction industry.

The results demonstrate that both challenge and hindrance stressors are negatively associated with self-needed and citizenship safety communication, whereas their relationships with participatory safety communication are not significant. Meanwhile, the mitigation effects of the coworker relationship (represented by trustworthiness and accessibility) on the above negative impacts vary with the communication forms. Higher trustworthiness and accessibility enable workers faced with challenge stressors to actively manage these challenges and engage in self-needed safety communication. Similarly, trustworthiness promotes workers' involvement in self-needed and citizenship safety communication in the face of hindrance stressors, but accessibility is only effective in facilitating self-needed safety communication.

By introducing the job demands-resources theory and distinguishing informal safety communication into three categories, this study explains the negative effects of challenge and hindrance job stressors in complex and variable construction contexts and provides additional clues to the current inconsistent findings regarding this framework. The diverse roles of challenge and hindrance job stressors also present strong evidence for the need to differentiate between the types of informal safe communication.

This study aims to capture how the association between a multichannel relational communication strategy (MRCS) and customer performance is contingent upon such customer performance (low- versus high-performance customers) and to reconcile past contradictory results in this marketing-related topic. To this end, the authors propose and validate the method of quantile regression as an unconventional, yet effective, means to proceed to that reconciliation.

This study collected data from 4,934 customers of a private pension fund firm and accounted for both firm- and customer-initiated relational communication channels (RCCs) and for customer lifetime value (CLV). This study estimated a generalized linear model and then a quantile regression model was used to account for customer performance heterogeneity.

This study finds that specific RCCs present different levels of association with performance for low- versus high-performance customers, where outcome customer performance is the dependent variable. For example, the relation between firm-initiated communication (FIC) and performance is stronger for low-CLV customers, whereas the relation between customer-initiated communication (CIC) and performance is increasingly stronger for high-CLV customers but not for low-CLV ones. This study also finds that combining different forms of FIC can result in a negative association with customer performance, especially for low-CLV customers.

The authors tested the conceptual model in one single firm in the specific context of financial services and with cross-sectional data, so there should be caution when extrapolating this study’s findings.

This study offers nuanced and precise managerial insights on recommended resource allocation along with relational communication efforts, showing how managers can benefit from adopting a differentiated-customer performance approach when designing their MRCS.

This study provides an overview of the state of the art of MRCS, proposes a contingency analysis of the relationship between MRCS and performance based on customer performance heterogeneity and suggests the quantile method to perform such analysis and help reconcile past contradictory findings. This study shows how the association between RCCs and CLV varies across the conditional quantiles of the distribution of customer performance. This study also addresses a recent call for a more holistic perspective on the relationships between independent and dependent variables.

The article aims to investigate how washing practices focused on appeasing sceptics of diversity work in for-profit organizations play out in corporate online communication of diversity and inclusion efforts, and how these enable communication to a wide audience that includes social equity advocates.

Online corporate communication data of diversity and inclusion themes were compiled from the websites of eight Swedish-based multinational corporations. The data included content from the companies’ official websites and annual reports and sustainability reports as well as diversity and inclusion-themed blog posts. A thematic analysis was conducted on the website content.

The study showcases how tensions between conflicting external demands are navigated by keeping the communication open to several interpretations and thereby achieving multivocality. In the studied corporate texts on diversity and inclusion, this is achieved by alternating between elements catering to a business case audience and those that appeal to a social justice audience, with some procedures managing to appease both audiences at the same time.

The article complements previously described forms of washing by introducing an additional type of washing – business case washing – an articulation of the business case rhetoric that characterizes the diversity management discourse. While much has been written about washing to satisfy advocates of social change and equity, washing to appease shareholders and boardroom members, who are focused on profit and economic growth, has received less attention. The article suggests that online corporate communication on diversity and inclusion, by appeasing diverse audiences, can be seen as aspirational talk.

The contemporary business environment for public companies is much more multinational and multicultural than at any previous time. It is now driven by complex economic, political, technological and demographic forces such as these six: multipolarity eclipses globalization; the internet of things; corporate business model; uncertainty; privacy, big data and alternative data; and shifting demographics. The communication function has been central to this transformation.

The corporate communication international (CCI) studies have revealed three periods of transformation, namely, the focus, practices, perceptions, and the strategic aim of corporate communication to establish coherence by managing the messages reflects a top-down mind-set of communicating from the corporation to its stakeholders. The CCI study data indicated that the approaches to communication started changing; the fragmented media landscape of businesses reveals an awakening of a new kind of corporate communication whose aim is not to control and order, but to endure and to accept the “truth” being constantly challenged.

Findings from the CCI practices and trends studies validate the field’s strategic role in engagement and amplification of corporate messaging. Forces that have an impact on the practice of corporate communication include continuation of rapid changes, unintended consequences of changing reporting structures, core functions remain unchanged Budget and staff increases reflect economic confidence, Search for talent, Integrity, Core competencies focus on “business acumen” to drive corporate value, Employee engagement to build corporate culture, “Counsel to the CEO” suffers as the role of the communication officer changes.

Corporate Communication Practices and Trends studies underscore corporate communication as a strategic management function and, increasingly, as a strategic business partner for the enterprise. The integration of marketing and communication in many corporations, changes the corporate communication function. This special issue of the Journal of Business Strategy is focused on the transformation of corporate communication strategy. Six experts share their perspectives.

The aim of this conceptual paper is to review Bernstein’s communication wheel to make it a tool that can be used in the selection of a corporate communication mix.

A critical analysis of Bernstein’s communication wheel shows it to be a checklist, a starting point in the examination of corporate communication mix, but it is not as such of great help to the decision maker.

The findings of reviewing literature highlight that the principle of a clear distinction between strategic decisions and operational decisions is applicable also in the field of corporate communication. For each stakeholder relationship, the authors’ framework suggests typical combinations of activities and means to be used. These combinations are useful to experiment with expert systems which are functional to the choices of corporate communication mix.

The analysis of communication gaps gives directions for formulating strategic decisions. In this framework, tactical decisions concern the components of the communication mix architecture (or communication chain): activities, means and vehicles of communication. On the contrary, Bernstein’s communication wheel includes only generic channels (or media) and gives no indications as to the architecture of the communication mix.

This study illustrates the hierarchy of decisions relating to corporate communication mix, the communication wheel could also be useful in communication planning. If this assumption is held to be true it then becomes possible to lay out a framework for a progressive decision-making path that means making sequential choices (first strategic, then tactical). In the stakeholder approach, the aim of strategic decisions is to choose the stakeholder groups on which a firm has to focus its corporate communication activities.

In this article, we try to extend previous research on socially responsible practices by investigating the effectiveness of the environmental communication of an organization. The work is mostly based on the results of a qualitative research about the environmental efforts of a supermarket chain, particularly through its replacement strategy of nylon bags by biodegradable ones. There are many studies in the marketing literature on corporate environmentalism emphasizing the advantages of communicating the socially responsible practices (Detchessahar, 2001; Gabriel, 2003; Kolk, 2000; Krogh and Roos, 1995) but there are also risks related to communication strategy. Therefore, it is very crucial to know the possible impacts of this kind of communication in order to be successful in the market (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Creyer and Ross, 1997; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). The impact of this communication has to be analyzed by different points of view such as the consumers, the employees and the managers. The results of this study will provide various managerial insights and recommendations for companies willing to succeed in their socially responsible actions as the responsible business practices can build sales, develop the workforce, boost enthusiasm, and enhance trust in to the company by increasing its reputation.

The communications audit may be defined as “the process whereby the communications within an organisation are analysed by an internal or external consultant, with a view to increasing organisational efficiency”. Why communications audits are particularly necessary at present is described, how they are carried out, the arguments for and against in‐house communications auditing, and whether they are worthwhile, are also discussed. Examples are given of two typical audits. One is concerned primarily with communications effectiveness in terms of motivating employees towards organisational goals. The other is orientated towards a consideration of more novel means of communication such as computer conferencing.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the future of corporate communication professionals and researchers; to present the findings of the Corporate Communication International (CCI) Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009; and to introduce the issues presented in the papers from the CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2009 published in this special issue.

The paper presents a discussion of the future of the corporate communication and the findings of the CCI Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009.

The paper implies strategic knowledge of business processes and practice for effective corporate communication.

The paper implies several areas for further research.

The paper articulates complex challenges facing corporate communicators.