Managing the communicative organization: a qualitative analysis of knowledge-intensive companies

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to explore how employees' work-related communication is managed in knowledge-intensive organizations.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>The study was conducted by applying an exploratory, qualitative approach. The data were collected from six knowledge-intensive organizations operating in the professional service sector in Finland, and the data set used included altogether 23 interviews.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>The interviews confirmed that employees' work-related communication on social media is regarded as an increasingly important area, and that it has required companies to establish new managerial processes that are aimed to affect employees’ communication behaviors (ECB) either as enablers or motivators. How companies apply these processes depends on contextual factors, and three different managerial approaches were identified, namely, individual-, corporate- and business-oriented approaches.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Research limitations/implications</jats:title><jats:p>Based on the findings, this article proposes a new field for the communication management literature, management of the communicative organization (MCO), which builds on behavior management knowledge and focuses on managing employee communicators in multivocal organizational communication systems (MOCSs) that are dependent on employee-generated content.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>The study advances the field of communication management and ECB by empirically proving that organizations manage their employees' work-related communication and the management processes and practices identified derive from behavioral management tradition. The proposed MCO framework introduces a novel area for academic discussion on how communication management affects ECB and attitudes, such as motivation.</jats:p></jats:sec>

What's in it for me and you? Exploring managerial perceptions of employees' work-related social media use

“…The reciprocal basis for employees' work-related social media use Throughout history, people have used media to create public identities and images for themselves, and collectives, but the current scale of social media utilization allows individuals unprecedented reach to audiences (Baym and Boyd, 2012). Consequently, social media logicthe principles of social-networking platforms (van Dijck and Poell, 2013)has provided organizations with a new way to embed themselves in these media through employeegenerated content (Pekkala, 2020). When employees communicate about their work through their personal profiles in public social media, they simultaneously construct both personal and organizational identities and reputations and shape the boundary between private and professional representation (Baym and Boyd, 2012).…”

Online Communication Behaviors in Covid-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Influence of Internal Public Relations Practices and Employee Organization Relationships

“…In recent decades, digital communication has afforded new environments for and organizations and their employees to interact effectively with external audiences on a widespread scale, with the potential to share information with external audiences about work, the profession, and the organization across organizational boundaries (Pekkala, 2020). The increased usage of online outlets of employees has become a double-edged sword from the perspective of organizations.…”

“…Thus, it is evenly substantial to recognize the antecedents that can help health sectors in managing their communication behaviors within online environment during crisis. These concerns are expressed in many studies devoted to measuring factors that could affect employee communication behaviors during a crisis in recent years (Pekkala, 2020). Few of them seemed to focus on communication behaviors on social media, especially information sharing on social media.…”

“…The healthcare sector needs the ideas and thoughts of its employees to speed information and boost favorable communication behaviors (Chon & Park, 2021). The expansion of digital environments has introduced a unique avenue for employees and corporations to engage with various stakeholders on an extensive range (Pekkala, 2020).…”

Editorial: New Forms of Media Work and Its Organizational and Institutional Conditions

“…These include, for example, organizations that strive to produce professional, media-like content as a component of their strategic communication, and communications agencies that produce communication and marketing content for their customers. It could also be argued that the increasing significance of public social media and demands for dialogue require all employees to possess media skills (Pekkala, 2020). These expanding contexts raise the question of what media work is like when it is done outside the media industry and what principles are driving it.…”