An exploratory study of corporate communication as a strategic organizational function: A proposed model for building organization-stakeholder partnerships.

Abstract

A dominant focus on organizational stakeholders is evident in both the literature and practice as it is argued that the success of organizations is predominantly dependent on stakeholders’ perception of the organization. Since stakeholder relations is increasingly being seen as the heartbeat of corporate communication (Luoma-aho & Paloviita 2010:49), this paper is built on the preposition that the importance of corporate communication to the organization, especially on strategic level, should become more prevalent. However, despite this emphasis on stakeholder relations and management, there is a dearth in the literature indicating how to build these organization-stakeholder relationships (OSR). In order for corporate communication to obtain more credibility as a strategic organizational function, it is argued for the purpose of this paper that the lack of OSR building models to describe the OSR building process should be addressed. This will be done through the proposition of a conceptual framework for organization-stakeholder partnership (OSP) building based on existing literature. The principles of this framework will further be qualitatively explored among senior communication professionals at Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed South African organizations to present a new model to describe the OSR-building process which could contribute towards validating corporate communication as a strategic organizational function.