Citation
Elving, W.J.L. (2013), "Corporate communication in progress", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-07-2013-0043
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Corporate communication in progress
Article Type: Editorial From: Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Volume 18, Issue 4
In the Summer of 2013 we are already finishing the journals eighteenth volume, almost at the time that summer holidays start, at least for some of us. As is probably the case with your year, this has been a hectic first half of the year for me, and for CCIJ as well, as it still is a hectic year for the corporate communication profession.
As the number of crises seem to increase, although some of can be labelled media crises, attention towards communications prior, during and after crises seems to increase as well. This is also shown in the latest results of the European Communication Monitor (2013). With more connections in our network society, crisis management – as the ultimate test of the professionalism of the profession – seems to very important. In CCIJ we not only have a lot of papers on crisis communication and issue communication, but we also have many papers on the matters that matter to the reputation of organisations and in that way help to prepare for crisis communication and the reservoir of good will for organisations, to limit the effects of crises.
The newest version of the European Communication Monitor also reveals the optimism among the communication professionals about their work and position within the organisation. That 87 per cent of professionals believe that communications have become more important for organisational success in 2013 (in 2010 this number was 72 per cent) reflects what we see in society in general (European Communication Monitor, 2013). In our connected world, where online communication is increasing in importance, it seems to be an understandable number.
As I know from my own institution, but as I also learn from colleagues all over the world, the numbers of Bachelors and Masters students are growing as well. That means that more, well-equipped academics will enter professional life in a few years time. An important development for the Masters in Corporate Communication (MCC) might be to benchmark the different Masters programmes, as recently initiated. Given the growing importance of corporate communication for the success of organisations, we need to reflect on what we teach in our Masters as well, and benchmark the different programmes to try to get the same status that MBAs have.
As journal, we need to continue and initiate the relevance of research and theorising in the field of corporate communications. We need to feed our students and professionals with the latest insights in what research and conceptual thinking offers them to become better professionals. The connected world offers all kinds of new ways of communicating.
In 2012 CCIJ had more than 150,000 downloads. We still are finding ways to improve the quality of the journal and are busy with obtaining an ISI ranking. We have some promising data that show that we are progressing, but we still do need to take several steps. In close cooperation with Emerald and our new publishing team at Emerald (Chris Hart and Joanna Alexander), we are reviewing our processes, will try to get more active scholars involved in the journal and will try to decrease the time for the review and ultimately the acceptance of papers. Of course we rely on the reviewers in this process. Furthermore, we will reshape our Editorial Advisory Board, starting from the next volume of CCIJ.
The current issue has four papers. Rosella Gambetti and Mattia Giovanardi review the supply chain from a communicative perspective. She provides evidence that although managers are aware of the importance of communications in the supply chain, there are several ways to improve communication in the supply chain.
Jason Snyder and Joo Eng Lee-Partidges paper is on what factors influence the choices of communication channels in knowledge sharing. With a growing numbers of channels to choose from, ranging from the almost classic e-mail to group chats and enterprise social media, their study is about preferences and effectiveness in knowledge sharing.
The research of Graciete Costa, Lídia Cristina Oliveira, Lúcia Lima Rodrigues and Russell Craig is on CEO letters in Portugal. CEO letters are seen as the most read and important part of the annual report. A total of 311 CEO letters were analysed in all the years from 2006 to 2011.
The paper by Christine Korn and Sabine Einwiller shows the importance of internal communications during organisations in crisis. Specifically they viewed the impact on employees of organisations in crisis.
Wim J.L. Elving
Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
References
European Communication Monitor (2013), “European Communication Monitor, 2013, available at: http://www.eacd.eu/publications/studies/european-communication-monitor (accessed 10 July 2013)