An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom

英国内部沟通的制度史

• 批准号: ES/W005247/1
• 负责人: Michael Heller
• 金额: $ 64.21万
• 依托单位: Brunel University London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW005247%2F1
• 关键词: Institutional; History; Internal; Communication; United

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.

内部沟通不仅仅是传递信息，它还为组织注入意义。这个为期三年的研究项目追溯了英国内部沟通的历史。内部通讯作为一种专门的活动，起源于19世纪末的公司杂志。从那时起，杂志已经演变成由内部网、电子邮件、内部社交媒体、公司通讯、路演、简报小组、会议、博客和路演组成的复杂系统。据估计，目前约有4.5万名专业人士从事内部沟通。内部沟通的历史将通过14家知名机构的档案进行研究，这些机构的研究权限已得到保障：BBC；靴子;英国航空公司(British Airways);英国军队;英国铁路;吉百利;葛兰素史克公司;汇丰银行(HSBC);约翰•路易斯;国家煤炭局；保诚保险;皇家邮政;壳;和联合利华。此外，还将使用5家专业机构和一家领先咨询公司的档案：AB Communications，为全球和英国知名组织提供内部通信；特许市场营销学会；英国特许人事与发展学会；英国特许公共关系学会；内部沟通研究所；和工业社会。拥有大量内部通讯历史资料的大英图书馆也同意协助传播研究结果。内部通信的形式和内容的变化将被映射，追踪从杂志格式到旨在提高员工敬业度、声音和企业形象的现代内部通信系统的转变。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理论化他们自己的实践。从业人员的话语及其与实际做法的关系将通过专业机构和顾问制作的通信进行检查。历史学家承认，通过全国性的报纸和电视频道，民族被想象成一个共同体。企业也可以被看作是通过内部沟通想象出来的社区。关于想象中的社区的三种论述，使组织和内部沟通的角色都合法化了：团队精神（esprit de corps），将公司想象成一个大家庭或军事单位；品牌社区，员工被想象成与消费者社区的一部分；在民主政体中，员工被想象成拥有内部通讯的公民，被想象成一个对政府负责的自由媒体。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20世纪进行研究。管理学者将企业对过去的工具性使用称为“修辞史”，通常研究的是在与客户进行外部营销沟通时对过去在现在的使用。但公司杂志几乎从一开始就提及过去。这项研究将对修辞历史在过去是如何被用于使组织对其员工合法化，以及使内部沟通的作用合法化进行描述。该研究计划将产生一个理论上知情的内部通信历史，作为当代辩论的参考点，例如组织对冠状病毒大流行的反应。公司档案保管员会对他们的工作如何通知内部通信，以及内部通信如何构成档案感兴趣。内部通信专业将通过历史辩论得到加强，组织将有兴趣找出过去有效的内部通信的原因。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是如何与其成员沟通的。