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。这项为期3年的研究项目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19世纪末的公司杂志。从那时起，杂志已经演变成由内联网、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45000名专业人员从事内部交流。内部沟通的历史将通过14家获得研究访问权限的知名机构的档案进行研究：BBC；Boots；英国航空公司；英国陆军；英国铁路；吉百利；葛兰素史克；汇丰银行；约翰·刘易斯；国家煤炭委员会；保诚保险；皇家邮政；壳牌；以及联合利华。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讯；特许营销学会；特许人事和发展学会；特许公共关系学会；内部沟通学会；以及工业协会。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这项研究的发现。将绘制不断变化的内部通信的形式和内容，跟踪杂志格式向旨在提高员工参与度、发言权和企业认同感的当代内部通信系统的转变。关于沟通作用的讨论将在董事会会议纪要和报告等文件中进行审查。内部通信从业者和公司档案保管员对自己的做法进行理论分析。实践者的话语及其与实际实践的关系将通过专业团体和顾问制作的通信进行审查。历史学家承认，通过国家报纸和电视频道，国家被想象为共同体。企业也可以被视为通过内部通信想象出来的社区。关于想象社区的三种论述使组织和内部通讯的角色合法化：军团精神，公司被想象为一个大家庭或军事单位；品牌社区，员工被想象为与消费者共处的社区的一部分；民主政治，员工被想象为拥有内部通讯的公民，作为一个新闻自由，要求政府负责。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20世纪得到考察。管理学者将企业对过去的工具使用称为“修辞史”，这通常是与现在使用过去与客户进行外部营销沟通有关的研究。但几乎从一开始，公司的杂志就会提到过去。这项研究将对过去如何使用修辞历史来解释合法组织对其员工以及内部通信的作用进行说明。这项研究计划将产生一部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。公司档案管理员将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是什么造就了有效的内部通信。由于广大公众包括许多大型组织的现任和前任成员，人们将普遍有兴趣记住这些机构过去是如何与其成员沟通的。

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.