An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom

内部沟通不仅仅是传递信息，它还为组织注入了意义。这个为期3年的研究计划追溯了英国内部沟通的历史。内部沟通作为一种专门的活动，起源于世纪后期的公司杂志。从那时起，杂志已经演变成复杂的系统，包括内联网、电子邮件、内部社交媒体、公司通讯、路演、简报组、秘密会议、博客和路演。据估计，目前约有45，000名专业人员从事内部沟通。内部沟通的历史将通过14个著名组织的档案进行研究，其中研究访问已经得到保证：英国广播公司;博姿;英国航空公司;英国陆军;英国铁路公司;吉百利;葛兰素史克;汇丰银行;约翰刘易斯;国家煤炭局;保诚保险公司;皇家邮政;壳牌;和联合利华。此外，还将使用5个专业机构和一家领先咨询公司的档案：AB Communications，为著名的全球和英国组织提供内部通信;特许市场营销学院;特许人事与发展学院;特许公共关系学院;内部通信学院;和工业协会。大英图书馆拥有大量历史上的内部通信，也同意协助传播研究结果。内部沟通的形式和内容的变化将被映射，追踪杂志格式到当代内部沟通系统的转变，旨在提高员工的参与度，声音和企业形象。有关沟通作用的讨论将在董事会会议记录和报告等文件中进行审查。内部通信从业者和公司档案管理员将他们自己的实践理论化。实践者的论述及其与实际做法的关系将通过专业机构和顾问制作的通讯进行审查。历史学家接受国家被想象为通过国家报纸和电视频道的社区。公司也可以被看作是通过内部通信想象出来的社区。三种关于想象共同体的论述使组织和内部沟通的作用合法化：企业的团队，将公司想象成一个大家庭或军事单位;品牌共同体，将员工想象成与消费者共同体的一部分;民主政体，将员工想象成公民，内部沟通是一种自由的媒体，让政府负责。品牌社区的话语现在占主导地位，但这些话语之间的相互作用将在整个世纪进行检查。管理学者将企业对过去的工具性使用称为“修辞史”，这通常是与过去在现在与客户的外部营销沟通中的使用有关的。但公司杂志几乎从一开始就提到了过去。该研究将产生一个如何修辞的历史已被用于在过去既合法化组织其员工，并合法化内部通信的作用的帐户。这个研究项目将产生一个理论上知情的内部通信的历史作为当代辩论的参考点，如组织的应对冠状病毒大流行。公司档案管理员将对他们的工作如何通知内部通信感兴趣，以及内部通信如何构成档案。内部沟通专业将通过历史辩论得到加强，组织将有兴趣找出过去是什么造就了有效的内部沟通。由于更广泛的公众包括许多大型组织的现任和前任成员，因此人们普遍有兴趣记住这些机构过去如何与其成员沟通。

Internal communication does more than transfer information, it infuses organizations with meaning. This 3-year research programme traces the history of internal communication in the UK. As a specialized activity internal comms originates from company magazines in the late 19th century. Since then magazines have morphed into complex systems of intranets, emails, internal social media, company newsletters, road shows, briefing groups, huddles, blogs and roadshows. It is estimated that around 45k professionals are currently engaged in internal communication. The history of internal communication will be studied through the archives of 14 prominent organisations, where research access has been secured: BBC; Boots; British Airways; British Army; British Rail; Cadbury; GlaxoSmithKline; HSBC; John Lewis; National Coal Board; Prudential Insurance; Royal Mail; Shell; and Unilever. In addition the archives for 5 professional bodies and a leading consultancy will be used: AB Communications, which provides internal comms for prominent global and UK organisations; Chartered Institute of Marketing; Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; Chartered Institute of Public Relations; Institute of Internal Communication; and the Industrial Society. The British Library, which has extensive historical holdings of internal comms, has also agreed to assist with disseminating findings from the research. The changing form and content of internal comms will be mapped, tracing the transformation of the magazine format into the contemporary system of internal comms that aims at enhancing employee engagement, voice, and corporate identity. Discussions about the role of communication will be examined in documents such as minutes from board meetings and reports. Internal comms practitioners and company archivists theorise their own practices. The discourses of practitioners and their relation to actual practices will be examined through communications produced by professional bodies and consultants.Historians accept that nations have been imagined as communities through national newspapers and television channels. Corporations can also be seen as communities that have been imagined through internal comms. Three discourses of imagined communities have legitimated both organisations and the role of internal comms: esprit de corps, where the corporation is imagined as an extended family or military unit; brand community, where employees are imagined as part of community with consumers; and democratic polity, where the employees are imagined as citizens with internal comms as a free press holding government to account. The discourse of brand communities is now predominant, but the interplay between these discourses will be examined throughout the 20th century.Management scholars refer to the instrumental use of the past by corporations as "rhetorical history", which is usually studied in relation to uses of the past in the present for external marketing communication with customers. But references to the past featured in company magazines almost from the outset. The research will produce an account of how rhetorical history has been used in the past both to legitimate organisations to their employees, and to legitimate the role of internal comms.This research program will produce a theoretically informed history of internal comms as a reference point for contemporary debates, such as the response of organisations to the coronavirus pandemic. Company archivists will be interested in how their work informs internal comms, and how internal comms constitutes archives. The internal comms profession will be enhanced by historical debate, and organisations will be interested in finding out what made for effective internal comms in the past. As the wider public consists of many current and former members of large organisations, there will be general interest in remembering how these bodies communicated with their members in the past.