Introduction
Communication is crucial in achieving goals and objectives in many organizations, whether in the public or private sector. Individuals in a given firm can communicate with various stakeholders using diverse means, including emails, press conferences, news releases, memos, and social media, among other channels. In addition, they strive to send critical messages to their stakeholders in an attempt to achieve their strategic goals or missions.[1] The choice of communication media depends on the type of audience and the purpose of the message. Strategic communication emanates from the planned use of message-delivery activities aligned with an organization’s goals or objectives. It is the purposeful use of communication to achieve strategic goals.[2] While the concept of strategic communication appears to be a straightforward idea to define, its real meaning is affected by many factors, such as the nature of the audience, the context, and the new media.
What is Strategic Communication?
The strategic communication concept has become increasingly popular in organizational settings. Practitioners and academics lead in conceptualizing this type of communication as used in research and practice. They also propose assumptions and hypotheses that others can use when communicating strategically. They argue that communication should have a strategy on which it should be based.[3] It involves a process in which the communicator in the organization designs a strategy and tactics to communicate with the target audience. It requires an adequate understanding of the organizational purpose.[4] Hence, communicative efforts could fail if the communicator does not understand the organization’s mission.
Strategic communication is a concept with many different meanings depending on the context of its use. Many definitions of the concept are evident, and only a few appear to agree with each other. Besides, the idea has alternative terms, such as organizational communication, institutional communication, integrated communication, and corporate communication.[5] Authors, such as Farwell, provided a working definition of the concept. The author defines strategic communication as a set of coordinated activities to convince or persuade people to achieve strategic or operational objectives.[6] Strategic communication can be used to mean any message delivery, which is aligned with the overall strategy of a company. It means that when a company seeks to communicate strategically, it should send a message consistent with what it aims to share externally and internally to achieve its overall goals. Thus, regardless of differences in meaning, strategic communication aligns with the company’s strategy.
Many experts agree that strategic communication is the use of communication in organizations to help them to achieve their general goals. Authors contend that strategic communication aims to formulate a plan to send a message about an organization, brand, or product.[7] As an academic discipline, strategic communication emerged to unite disparate communication disciplines and formulate a unified model that blends organizational communication, PR, marketing, and other fields.[8] The basic idea of the process is to create a framework for organizations to deliver their messages to the audience.[9] However, the change created a highly general scope that necessitates significant research to narrow it down to make it more understandable and useful in practice.[10] Therefore, regardless of the apparent agreement, additional analysis is critical to understand the meaning and importance of strategic communication clearly.
Strategic communication suggests the importance of purposeful or deliberate communication practice. The concept emerges in different disciplines and contexts to achieve strategic goals or missions for the organization, regardless of the sector.[11] It supports organizations, causes, and social movements to convince its audience to support its objectives. Government, business, and other types of organizations use strategic communication to appeal to diverse stakeholders. Hence, this type of communication effort integrates a multidisciplinary perspective to send a relevant message to the audience.[12] The strength of the communicative practice is that it focuses on the strategy instead of a specific tactic. Therefore, the communicator needs to have a clear plan of communication that aligns with the organizational mission.
Although strategic communication involves message delivery to the audience, it differs from traditional fields because of the strategic element. It is the purposeful type of communication in which the communicator sends the message to an audience to achieve a strategic goal or objective.[13] The kind of communication developed from various traditional sub-fields, such as public relations, marketing, technical communication, management, political communication, and information or social marketing efforts. However, they are integrated seamlessly to support organizations to work towards their individual goals and objectives.[14] In general, organizations should use communication strategically to achieve their purpose.
People agree about the goal of strategic communication from the perspective of appealing to the audience to support organization, government, or social movement missions. The main aim is to shape the opinion of the audience. However, it does not stop at shaping the sentiment or perception of the people but further moves them to action.[15] From this perspective, strategic communication is a powerful tool in organizations in various sectors.[16] When they are effective, the actions give people confidence in the decisions they make and the impact of their actions. Strategic communication can easily change actions into lasting behavior.[17] Besides, the concept makes it possible for practitioners to manage reputation and brand image, whether in government, military, or business, as part of the culture and workplace. Strategic communication enables synchronization and integrated management of the message. Regardless of the agreement in the necessity and importance of strategic communication in organizations, practitioners are yet to find a unified definition of the concept.
Challenges in Defining Strategic Communication
Various problems emerge in trying to find a general definition of strategic communication. Although the concept is an old term in government and the military, it is a new synergy in other areas, such as in business. It is an overused concept, but with a little understanding of what it means. It has different interpretations, depending on what the author or practitioner wants to suggest by using the phrase. Nonetheless, it has become completely embedded in various areas of organizations, from PR to management to marketing.[18] However, when people use the term strategic communication, they might be convinced that they understand the underlying meaning, which is not necessarily the case. Besides, the other party might fail to understand the meaning when the concept is applied. Generally, people understand and use the phrase differently, which brings up diverse purposes.
For many, strategic communication entails the process of planning and managing everything related to message delivery in organizations, whether in the public or private sector. However, while they agree with this aspect, they raise the question: “how do we manage it all?”[19] Experts lack consensus regarding the approach to use the concept to deliver the message to the target audience and help organizations to achieve their strategic plans, goals, or mission. Some work under the assumption that they understand what they want to achieve and that they can appeal to the audience.[20] However, they mostly fail to comprehend the actual reality. Therefore, while authors agree about the importance of strategic management, they fail to approve what the term means and how to define it adequately; hence, a general definition remains elusive.
Diverse authors define strategic communication differently. The concept denotes the high-level challenges behind attempts by organizations to achieve their mission and goals. Strategic communication is fundamentally multidisciplinary, and research in the field uses literature from various sub-fields, such as marketing, management, public relations, and advertisement.[21] Various scholars and practitioners have defined the concept depending on the concerned field of study. Others suggest the need to expand the meaning of strategic communication to include other communication practices. Strategic communication focuses on the “what” and the “how” of the message delivered to the audience.[22] It is palpable that many authors and communication experts have different conceptions of the idea of strategic communication.[23] Hence, many reasons for the lack of a universal understanding of the concept as used in various organizational settings are evident.
Challenges with Early Conception of Strategic Communication
Authors fail to agree on what strategic communication is because of controversies surrounding its early conception. Many reviews based on recent studies indicate the problems related to the early development of this type of communication in organizational settings. Firstly, a rare occurrence of the philosophy of science is evident in discussing the concept. The problem surrounding this aspect is the lack of a critical reflection concerning the use of strategic communication in organizational settings.[24] The challenge makes it impossible for experts to understand the phrase and use it in theory and practice. Researchers lack a unified paradigm to study the concept of strategic communication. Besides, practitioners do not have the model to apply it effectively in practice.[25] As a result, the real meaning of the concept has remained elusive in diverse settings.
Another challenge relating to the conception of strategic communication is the focus on the dominating paradigm. Many researchers and practitioners use the prevailing model of communication, which was conceived outside the strategic communication field.[26] As a result, they have failed to provide the most effective approach to understanding the concept and applying it in practice in different organizational settings. For example, researchers in strategic communication might use the management paradigm to define and study the concept, which means that they lack focus and provide flawed results. Managerialism does not offer the actual definition of strategic communication, which is a more general term.[27] The lack of a relevant model or paradigm to study strategic communication has created challenges in developing a universal definition for use in research and practice.
The absence of a general paradigm could be explained by the fact that the field is still new. As noted earlier, strategic communication is a new concept in business. The fact explains the tendency to use prevailing research frameworks, such as positivism and managerialism.[28] Since the field is relatively new, researchers and practitioners have failed to develop a more relevant model to explore it. Thus, it becomes problematic because the nature of knowledge that is developed is irrelevant for use in strategic communication. Their studies tend to become taken-for-granted ideas and bars methodological and theoretical pluralism in the strategic communication arena.[29] The concept has limited innovation in creating a proper understanding of strategic communication. Hence, the absence of a unified model of strategic communication has created a challenge when defining the concept.
Although researchers and practitioners agree about the particular activities involved in strategic communication, they conceptualize it differently. As a result, they create different meanings from the same concept. For instance, they have diverse conceptualizations, such as coordinating product promotion, administrative functions, and building relationships with stakeholders.[30] Furthermore, they disagree about the actual department or individual within the company that should engage in strategic communication, whether it should be the manager or marketers among other professionals.[31] Although the conceptualizations belong to the same organization, they fail to capture the meaning of strategic communication correctly. As a result, each researcher, practitioner, or organization could have a different understanding of the concept.
Strategic communication is a multidisciplinary perspective, which is incorporated in organizations. Therefore, many of its users fail to understand the actual focus of such a general concept in the communication field. As a result, they extend issues and ideas based on different traditional disciplines in organizational communication. It is critical to note that various disciplines were not developed to operate within the strategic communication discipline. Therefore, they lost focus when they were used in this area. Unfortunately, the field has not developed at the same rate as the emergence of the concept of strategic communication, especially in business.[32] The modern use of strategic communication fails to have the actual focus that was expected because it is being misused within the communication discipline.
Contextual Nature of Strategic Communication
The meaning of strategic communication depends on the context within which it is used. Diverse organizations make their different decisions regarding their strategic use of communication, depending on their missions and the messages they desire to send to their audience. They also decide on the amount and nature of resources they desire to invest in their communication effort. Whether in corporations, government, military, or activist organizations, the idea of strategic communication has different meanings.[33] After all, all the organizations use this type of communication to achieve their missions or goals. Therefore, from organizational communication, it becomes challenging to create a unified definition of the concept of strategic communication.[34] Since the meaning depends on the context, researchers and practitioners fail to have a standard description.
Strategic communication is not a static field. It has lines above, which are in a continuous state of disequilibrium. Such lines keep changing and are in a permanent state of tension, which means they keep pulling each other.[35] Therefore, regardless of the importance of strategic communication, it is hard to conceptualize using a universal and generally acceptable approach. Besides, organizations are affected by internal and external forces that might affect their conceptualization of strategic communication decisions. For example, changes in customer preferences could affect the way businesses communicate strategically with their most important stakeholders. Therefore, strategic communication is not constant because of the factors that influence organizational functions.[36] Overall, it can be challenging to define what strategic communication means to each organizational setting.
Strategic communication means different things to people depending on the purpose. For example, while it might mean an attempt to be friendly to customers in a business setting, it might be about power in the government or a military environment. It is not always about soft power or being attractive to the audience for some values that the communicator presents. It could be about having and using the power to influence, persuade, or even coerce the audience. The idea is critical because of the reality of the world of tension and balance between values and interests.[37] Therefore, whatever strategic communication entails, it depends on the purpose and goal of the communication or message. It also affects the ability of the communicator to explain what the process involves. Generally, strategic communication is difficult to understand and conceptualize because it does not mean the same thing in various contexts.
The Focus of Strategic Communication
Another factor behind the lack of a common definition of the concept is the disagreement about its focus. While authors might agree about the importance of the message and messaging, they disagree on whether the message is the only focus.[38] Many authors suggest the importance of broadening the means of strategic communication. Those who support this area argue that the objective is achievable in three main ways. Firstly, some would like communication practitioners to acknowledge the fact that actions also send a message. Secondly, experts suggest that strategic communication entails listening to and understanding the people that the communicator wants to persuade or influence. Finally, influence or persuasion is dependent on multifaceted interactions, such as the assumptions that the communicating parties have and the cultural context.[39] The disagreement regarding the focus has created difficulties, especially when trying to have a common definition of the concept.
Type of Audience
The definition of strategic communication depends on the nature of the audience and the intended message. Different organizations communicate with different people to persuade or convince them to support their goals.[40] Besides, audiences are an essential part of the communication process. Failure to consider the audience makes the entire process ineffective.[41] Since organizations communicate with different audiences to achieve diverse goals, they cannot have a common definition of the type of communication they use. For example, the audience in a governmental agency differs from customers in a corporation. Therefore, the understanding of strategic communication in the two organizations will vary. The audience is critical to the challenges involved in receiving a common definition of strategic communication.
Type of the Communicator
Another challenge is defining the concept of strategic communication is the nature of the communicator. Different people within organizations lack a consensus regarding their role in strategic communication. The challenge has created tensions within diverse work settings. For example, even if senior managers understand the purpose of this type of communication and its efficacy in achieving organizational goals, they have tensions regarding who should do what role to meet and realize the mission.[42] An instance of such tensions occurs between top-down or bottom-up management models. Employees complain that senior managers fail to communicate efficiently when they are sending a message to their subordinates. The differences in the communicative circles in the organization also create issues in defining the concept because it reveals a lack of general understanding.
Strategic Communication and New Media
The development of computers and the Internet affected strategic communication significantly. Notably, the definition used for traditional strategic communication might fail to apply to the use of the new media. The development and growth of the Internet increased the amount of information that organizations can collect and share internally and externally. The changes have affected the understanding of the role of strategic communication in business. The digital revolution has allowed transparency in all actions and moves made in various organizations, regardless of the sector. It has brought unlimited possibilities to workplaces and transformed their cultures. Technology has enabled the company’s brands and products to perform as expected through promotion and marketing.[43] However, the development has brought new challenges, such as how to define and understand the nature of communication in the new media environment.
The Future of Strategic Communication
Strategic communication discipline has not matured enough to exhibit a clear definition and use. Besides, different contexts and people use the concept in diverse ways complicating the situation further. However, it is crucial to understand that research development might take a more extended period to create a clear paradigm to study a phenomenon. For example, currently, the field lacks adequate studies or resources for content analysis to unravel the confusion and tension surrounding strategic communication.[44] Therefore, the field is still marred by blind spots and underdeveloped areas that should be explored and addressed to have a clear direction for strategic communication in research and practice.
Strategic communication is a broad area that encompasses numerous functions meant to interact with internal and external stakeholders. Consequently, strategic communicators have a broad view and focus on diverse aspects of their message delivery to the audience. [45] Hence, researchers and practitioners need to assume the holistic approach to communicating strategically, internally and externally. It should be clear to the organization that communication is different from the traditional modes of delivering messages to the audience.[46] Such a comprehensive view of the concept will help them to capture a clear and definite meaning and understanding of the new idea in business organizations. In addition, researchers should change their attention to proper planning in their communicative efforts.
Strategic communication remains beneficial to organizations, but some changes are critical. Researchers and practitioners should explore the way they can use strategic communication to achieve organizational goals. Such changes will help to achieve further improvement in the discipline.[47] Although organizations have different missions and goals, the core of strategic communication is to use available media to achieve such aspirations. They should strive to answer the question of how they can use communication as a tool for reaching business and organizational objectives.[48] They should focus on real business or organizational practices and processes to achieve those goals. In general, strategic communication remains a powerful resource for organizations to succeed in their operations.
Conclusion
Strategic communication is and will remain an essential aspect in various organizational settings regardless of the sector. Although the concept is new in business, it plays a critical role in assisting players in the sector to achieve strategic plans, missions, or goals. The type of communication involves planned and purposeful message delivery to the relevant audience. Therefore, it should be linked to the organizational mission or goals. Regardless of the importance of strategic communication, it remains hard to define the concept clearly and effectively. It has been challenging to break down the silos, which surround intimately associated communication fields, such as PR, marketing, and organizational communication. Since strategic communication is an integral part of many fields, it is critical to do more research to determine the most practical definition. However, since the concept is used differently depending on the context, it might be more realistic to have a contextual conceptualization of strategic communication. Hence, a specific definition will help researchers and practitioners improve the concept’s use for more research and apply it in organizational settings.
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[1] Finn Frandsen, and Winni Johansen. “The role of communication executives in strategy and strategizing.” The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (2015): 229-243.
[2] Kirk Hallahan, Derina Holtzhausen, Betteke Van Ruler, Dejan Verčič, and Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. “Defining strategic communication.” International journal of strategic communication 1, no. 1 (2007), 4
[3] Finn Frandsen, and Winni Johansen. “Strategic communication.” The international encyclopedia of organizational communication (2017), 3
[4] Derina Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass. “Strategic communication: Opportunities and challenges of the research area.” In The Routledge handbook of strategic communication, Routledge, 2014, 28
[5] Gail Fann Thomas, and Kimberlie J. Stephens. “An introduction to strategic communication.” (2015), 3-11.
[6] James P. Farwell. Persuasion and power: The art of strategic communication. Georgetown University Press, 2012.
[7] Finn Frandsen, and Winni Johansen. “The role of communication executives in strategy and strategizing.” The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (2015): 229-243.
[8] Myria Allen. “Strategic communication for sustainable organizations.” Theory and Practice. Fayetteville, USA: University of Arkansas (2016).
[9] Magnus Fredriksson, and Josef Pallas. “Strategic communication as institutional work.” The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (2015): 147
[10] Derina Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass. The Routledge handbook of strategic communication. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015, 29
[11] Finn Frandsen, and Winni Johansen. “The role of communication executives in strategy and strategizing.” The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (2015): 231
[12] Kirk Hallahan, Derina Holtzhausen, Betteke Van Ruler, Dejan Verčič, and Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. “Defining strategic communication.” International journal of strategic communication 1, no. 1 (2007): 3-35
[13] Hallahan, Kirk, Derina Holtzhausen, Betteke Van Ruler, Dejan Verčič, and Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. “Defining strategic communication.” International journal of strategic communication 1, no. 1 (2007), 5.
[14] Michael L. Kent, Bryan J. Carr, Rebekah A. Husted, and Rebeca A. Pop. “Learning web analytics: A tool for strategic communication.” Public Relations Review 37, no. 5 (2011) 538
[15] James P. Farwell. Persuasion and power: The art of strategic communication. Georgetown University Press, 2012.
[16] Nina Overton-de Klerk, and Sonja Verwey. “Towards an emerging paradigm of strategic communication: Core driving forces.” Communication 39, no. 3 (2013), 364
[17] Karin Gwinn Wilkins, Thomas Tufte, and Rafael Obregon. The handbook of development communication and social change. Vol. 4. John Wiley & Sons, 2014, 24
[18] Derina Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass. “Strategic communication: Opportunities and challenges of the research area.” In The Routledge handbook of strategic communication, Routledge, 2014, 28
[19] Laurie Lewis. Organizational change: Creating change through strategic communication. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
[20] Christopher Paul. Strategic Communication: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates. ABC-CLIO, 2011, 49
[21] Derina Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass. The Routledge handbook of strategic communication. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015, 31
[22]Christopher Paul. Strategic Communication: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates. ABC-CLIO, 2011, 49
[23] Finn Frandsen, and Winni Johansen. “Strategic communication.” The international encyclopedia of organizational communication (2017): 3
[24] Marianne W. Lewis, and Wendy K. Smith. “Paradox as a metatheoretical perspective: Sharpening the focus and widening the scope.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 50, no. 2 (2014), 13
[25] Derina Holtzhausen, and Ansgar Zerfass. “Strategic communication: Opportunities and challenges of the research area.” In The Routledge handbook of strategic communication, Routledge, 2014, 32
[26] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018): 454.
[27] Alvesson, Mats, and Stefan Sveningsson. “Management is the solution: Now what was the problem? On the fragile basis for managerialism.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 27, no. 4 (2011), 350
[28] Derina Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass. The Routledge handbook of strategic communication. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015, 31.
[29] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018), 453.
[30] Laurie Lewis. Organizational change: Creating change through strategic communication. John Wiley & Sons, 2019, 27.
[31] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018), 455.
[32] Derina Holtzhausen, and Ansgar Zerfass. “Strategic communication: Opportunities and challenges of the research area.” In The Routledge handbook of strategic communication, Routledge, 2014, 31
[33] James P. Farwell. Persuasion and power: The art of strategic communication. Georgetown University Press, 2012, 28.
[34] Derina Holtzhausen, and Ansgar Zerfass. “Strategic communication: Opportunities and challenges of the research area.” In The Routledge handbook of strategic communication, Routledge, 2014, 35.
[35] Dr. Neville Bolt – 2019 – Applied Strategic Communication Module.
[36] Derina Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass. The Routledge handbook of strategic communication. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015, 164.
[37] Dr. Neville Bolt – 2019 – Applied Strategic Communication Module.
[38] Alvesson, Mats, and Stefan Sveningsson. “Management is the solution: Now what was the problem? On the fragile basis for managerialism.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 27, no. 4 (2011), 350
[39] Christopher Paul. Strategic Communication: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates. ABC-CLIO, 2011.
[40] Dr. Neville Bolt – 2019 – Applied Strategic Communication Module
[41] Ibid.
[42] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018), 455.
[43] Reto Felix, Philipp A. Rauschnabel, and Chris Hinsch. “Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework.” Journal of Business Research 70 (2017), 120.
[44] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018), 457.
[45] Christopher Paul. Strategic Communication: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates: Origins, Concepts, and Current Debates. ABC-CLIO, 2011, 49
[46] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018): 457
[47] Heide, Mats, Sara von Platen, Charlotte Simonsson, and Jesper Falkheimer. “Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 12, no. 4 (2018), 458
[48] Brønn, Peggy Simcic. “How others see us: leaders’ perceptions of communication and communication managers.” Journal of Communication Management (2014), 62