More than ever, organisations are recognising that they need to build and sustain healthy relationships with stakeholders in order to survive, grow and be successful. When an organisation is threatened by environmental changes – such as a crisis or competition as a result of information technology developments, increased customer demands, new legislations, even the threat of AIDS – the need for better communication increases. Successful organisations use the potential of communication management, not only to ease the transformation process, but also to improve their relationships with key stakeholders and the environment, and uphold their reputation. In this sense, communication practitioners are playing managerial, ethical and strategic roles during times of instability because change complexities involve having to deal with stakeholders’ trust and commitment. This thesis attempts to clarify the growing importance of communication management, particularly the role of relationship management. Proposed here is a different way of thinking about change communication strategies and building healthy relationships when organisations and their stakeholders have to make or adjust to change. Existing literature shows that most organisations tend to take a planned approach to change which is structured, consists of specific goals and objectives, and tightly controlled by management. Management sees its role within this paradigm as reducing conflict, creating order, controlling chaos and simplifying all the complexities created by the environment. Possible outcomes are predicted and alternatives for action are planned. Structures determine the information needed, and perceptions are managed by feeding the ‘right’ information or withholding information that might give rise to disorder and chaos. An alternative paradigm is the postmodern perspective, drawing specifically from chaos and complexity theories. These ‘emergent’ approaches to management consider organisations as living and holistic systems, more organic and ecological, seeking less control and more freedom. Organisations that operate like living systems are open, flexible, creative, caring and willing to adjust their strategies to adapt to the environment. While strategic planning is still considered important within the positivistic paradigms of management, it is nevertheless moving from the basic premise of control and prediction to scenario planning and processes of open communication, facilitation and networking. The emphasis is on relationship building via the full participation of the stakeholders involved. This two-way, symmetrical approach is also considered the more ethical. When an organisation is confronted by a problem, and if the constraints on communication are low, the organisation’s publics (employees/stakeholders) tend to feel connected to the problem and want to do something about it. Their need to actively seek information about the problem opens up many communication potentialities, including a willingness to change their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. The result is a culture of shared responsibility, participation in decision-making, open and honest communication, which leads to a positive working climate and higher productivity. So an important assumption that can be made here is that an empowered public will strive for a positive relationship with the organisation. It can further be derived that a positive relationship between an organisation and its publics, particularly its internal stakeholders (employees), will lead to greater communication and a greater willingness to change. These assumptions were tested in this study. The research questions were: (1) What is the connection between the communication management strategy followed during change in organisations and the relationship and behavioural effects on internal stakeholders (employees)? (2) What are the effects of the communication management strategy followed during high change on relationships and behaviours with internal stakeholders (employees)? The methodology was an experimental approach which allows for the manipulation of independent variables and measurement of influences thereof on dependent variables. The independent variables were the communication and change strategies followed in organisations; the dependent variables were the relationship characteristics (trust, control mutuality, commitment, and satisfaction). The use of scenarios was most effective in this experimental context because different scenarios can project different outcomes. The researcher, therefore, had the opportunity to analyse the effects of the change strategies, as well as the changes that would take place. Data collection from 9 different organisations resulted in, more or less, 10–40 employees from different levels of management and non-management of each organisation. Each respondent evaluated 2 different scenarios, which resulted in 372 evaluations in total (186 for each scenario). The scenarios addressed changes in general and were about various issues. Basic descriptive statistics, as well as hypotheses testing using MANOVA (to test for meaningful differences between groups), were conducted. Other data analyses included testing for validity and reliability, analysis of variance and the Scheffe’s Test for significance of correlations. The findings showed significant proof of the internal validity of the experimental design used, indicating that: (a) the experimental manipulation (the two different change management strategies) had a definite effect on the relationship that internal stakeholders would have with organisations, and that except for the size of the organisation and the educational level of the employees, no other variables had an influence; (b) strong correlations exist between the strategy followed during change and the resulting projected relationships with internal stakeholders of the organisation; (c) high participation during high change led to significantly more positive overall relationships between an organisation and its internal stakeholders, as compared to low participation with a planned approach. In brief, the findings support a strong participative, two-way public relations strategy to be followed when organisations go through major change processes. The significance of these findings calls for a new paradigm in strategic communication and relationship management. Change cannot be solely based on plans and projections, but rather on understanding the complexities of situations and weighing different options available. Well-developed organisational change, therefore, is a strategically managed process that takes into consideration all the possibilities of change in the environment. Traditional studies and models of change management have either ignored the importance of strategic communication as a contribution to successful change, or saw communication as only a tool in the first stages of ransformation. However, to facilitate successful strategic change management is to recognise communication management as contributing significantly to guiding the complete transformation process in building important relationships internally and externally. Alternative emergent approaches to change recognise that change and, more specifically, transformation should be viewed as a continuous process linking to the complexities of the changing market, nature of work environments, new management approaches, organisational boundaries and relationships. Chaos and complexity theories, in particular, stress the importance of interconnectivity between subsystems of societies and organisations. Central to these theories is the observation that relationships built on open communication have the potential of producing something greater for an organisation. The complex and dynamic nature of the environment, structural alteration, and the need for employee flexibility are all recognised. Another important insight is the view that organisations can create visions and perform strategic planning around scenarios that guide actions. Another way of adapting to change is to influence back on change, that is, steer change through relationship building and participative decision-making. To become a true learning organisation requires the building of knowledge architecture with a strong supporting technical infrastructure. The main function of the communication manager, therefore, is to establish networks and structures for the collection and dissemination of information, and ultimately, the translation to knowledge. Communication leaders can connect teams and workgroups by driving communication and building trust. Involving staff in change management decision-making stimulates debate and criticisms, thus creates opportunities for innovation and revolutionary change. These are some of the main preconditions for sustainable change, and all can be achieved through sound communication management and the building of relationships with stakeholders. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Communication Management / PhD / Unrestricted

El presente trabajo de investigación busca analizar la relación que existe entre las distintas culturas nacionales de Perú y Chile , las cuales interactúan en la gestión de una misma organización. Asimismo, establece el efecto negativo que el choque de ambas culturas genera en la gestión operativa y el clima de la empresa Divemotor en Lima, Perú durante el periodo 2017 a 2019. / The present work of investigation seeks to analyze the relation that exists between the different national cultures of Peru and Chile, which interact in the management of the same organization. Likewise, it establishes the negative effect that the shock of both cultures generates in the operational management and the environment of the company Divemotor in Lima, Peru during the period from 2017 to 2019. / Trabajo de investigación

In current turbulent times, sustainable relationships hinge on the mutual understanding created by a clear communication strategy between a business unit and its stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to develop a corporate communication strategy model for the University of Pretoria Centre for Sustainable Malaria Control (UP CSMC). Purposive sample testing was conducted to determine the stakeholder perceptions of the main variables of this study, being: communication management, social media, stakeholder relationships and the corporate communication strategy. Objectives were achieved, the hypotheses stated duly tested and the results applied towards the development of a conceptual framework for a more formal and sustainable corporate communication strategy with a specific focus on communication about science related matters. This study contributes to effective stakeholder communication between the organisation and its stakeholders through the introduction of communication mediums like social media and traditional media. This research proposes a corporate communication strategy with integrated social media platforms, which helps organisations manage the relationships with their stakeholders. It suggests that when communicating about science, the UP CSMC should aim to communicate through different forms of interpersonal communication such as one-on-one engagements, events, seminars, exhibitions and other presentations. The Centre's corporate communication strategy should also include objectives to improve communication about science through interpersonal communication with stakeholders. The new model proposes concepts that focus on an analysis of the environment, identification of strategic issues, development of communication hierarchy, communicating an effective communication strategy, developing a strategic communication plan and monitoring complete embedment. The new proposed model is founded on an empirical study that comprises a descriptive study based on 45 developed questionnaires developed specifically for this study and answered by stakeholders of the UP CSMC. The standard corporate communication model presented by Steyn and Puth (2000) was analysed, evaluated and tailored to fit the organisation's requirements. The proposed model developed in this study includes critical components relevant to the establishment and maintenance of sustainable relationships and can be adopted by any organisation with similar communication challenges as covered in this study. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Communication Management / MCom / Unrestricted

With the increase of social media usage and its relevance for the millennial generation, social media influencers rise as credible sources who influence their followers purchase behaviors. Micro-influencers have up to 400,00 followers and fashion brands are constantly collaborating with them to generate brand awareness. The purpose of this study is to analyze how micro-influencers impact engagement levels on fashion retail brands’ accounts on Instagram and what common visual patterns the posts with higher levels of engagement present. A sample of 817 posts from three different brands were analyzed to provide insight in what kind of posts generates higher engagement levels: motivational posts, product posts, model/catalog, micro-influencer, influencer, or none of the above. A content analysis was conducted and after all the posts were coded, the top 100 with the highest engagement levels were submitted to a frame analysis so common patterns and themes could be recognized among the top engagement posts.

Stereotypes play a vital role in the perception of gender roles in American society. This concept is illustrated through low representation of female leadership in the U.S. Women are overrepresented in roles that are communal, which causes backlash when they display agentic traits (Arnold & Loughlin, 2019). Olivia Pope, the main character in the television series Scandal, was a leader who displayed an agentic leadership style and was revered for doing so. Agentic leadership traits are competitiveness, independence, and assertiveness (Arnold & Loughlin, 2019). This study analyzes how Olivia Pope was framed and the potential impact of those frames. Using frame analysis, Olivia Pope’s character in each episode of the television series Scandalwas analyzed. The analysis revealed that Olivia Pope’s character was framed using themes such as power, reverence, fixer, conflicted, sexualized and dysfunctional family dynamics. The framing of a character as rare as Olivia Pope is significant. Though Olivia Pope’s character is based on the life of an African-American woman who owned her own crisis management firm, many viewers would have never known this type of woman existed without the development of this show. Oliva Pope is a complicated character whose role in American television is progressive and has the power to expand its viewers’ perception of leadership.

This framing analysis focuses on the portrayal of women leaders in popular business magazines. Framing theory was used to examine how women leaders were portrayed in Forbes, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and Bloomberg Businessweek magazines from 2010-2018. The study identified three key frames, which include the minority frame, asset and fixer frame, and the work-life balance frame. Further findings from the study suggested that the portrayals of women have changed following the women's movement in the 1970's and that women are indeed beneficial to organizations in senior-level positions, although there is still a low percentage of women in these roles.

This study examines how museums build relationships with audiences to gain financial contributions and volunteer support. Financial support to museums has been dwindling in recent years and new revenue streams are needed for low-resource museums to survive. A content analysis of 485 Facebook posts of four small and large sized museums along with a survey of 131 respondents were conducted within the theoretical lens of organization-public relations. Results from study one indicate that larger museums fared better than smaller museums in terms of transparency, authenticity and positivity measures whereas on measures of credibility both the large and the smaller museums fared equally. While results from study two indicate millennials are not sufficiently engaging with museums.

Within the field of development, participation has become the normative approach in the past two decades. For development projects to be sustainable, the communication must be participatory in nature. For development projects to be sustainable and to actually contribute to the development of communities, communication has to be based on the participatory approach of development communication. Dialogue, empowerment that leads to independence and cultural identity are some of the most important principles of the participatory approach. The importance of communication aimed at development first became apparent during the modernisation paradigm. Modernisation is considered an evolutionary shift from a traditional view to a modern society. Development is seen as synonymous with westernization, industrialization and economic growth. Universities are under pressure from both the government and the industry to help with economic development and deliver graduates that can make a positive difference in their field of expertise (Grimaldi & Grandi, 2005). A university business incubator (UBI) is a business incubator located within a university. University business incubators facilitate and develop conditions and support systems that ensure young entrepreneurs with new ventures will function successfully. Business incubators support these entrepreneurs by giving them access to affordable facilities and resources such as secretarial support and office furniture. The focus is on providing entrepreneurs with specialised support, training and assistance, including research and development, risk capital and networking opportunities (Lalkaka, 1990:25). A UBI uses the university‟s resources, personnel‟s time and knowledge toward economic development efforts, reaping the benefits from the commercialisation of the university‟s own research (Grimaldi & Grandi, 2005; Mian, 1997). The Netherlands Initiative for Capacity development in Higher Education (NICHE) launched a programme in South Africa in February 2009. BEEHIVE (Bridging Business and Education by Establishing a Hub of Innovative Ventures and Expertise) is the university incubator of the North-West University‟s (NWU) Vaal Triangle Campus, which started with the operational phase of the programme in May 2012. The name was changed in 2011 to Bhive for marketing purposes. Against this background, the following research question was investigated: to what extent is the communication between stakeholders of the Bhive UI participatory? The researcher used a qualitative research method in order to collect the data. A literature study was conducted to explore the premises of the nature of the participatory approach in development communication for social change. Interviews with different stakeholders were conducted to determine their perceptions regarding the Bhive UI. Lastly, the researcher observed the Bhive UI over a period of two years. The research findings reveal that within the larger paradigm of heteroglossia there is room for improvement. This study pointed out the various areas for improvement and offered theoretically grounded recommendations. / MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

O objeto desta tese é o mapeamento das variáveis no processo da comunicação para a sustentabilidade em organizações do terceiro setor. O ponto de partida são os estudos que defendem o potencial da comunicação para conscientizar, engajar e empoderar os públicos sobre a necessidade de criação de uma sociedade mais justa e equilibrada. A justificativa está na proposta de reforçar as pesquisas sobre comunicação em uma perspectiva transformadora, resgatando a função social da área. Outra justificativa é a necessidade de pesquisas que estabeleçam convergências entre comunicação e sustentabilidade para ampliar a qualidade de vida das pessoas e preservar a natureza. O objetivo geral é pesquisar e analisar como a comunicação organizacional é desenvolvida no terceiro setor e quais seriam os impactos das ações dessas organizações direcionadas à sustentabilidade para o benefício da sociedade. Os procedimentos metodológicos reúnem processos cientificamente desenvolvidos que fundamentam o percurso do processo de pesquisa com base em recursos quantitativos e qualitativos de aplicação de questionários e entrevistas em profundidade. A tese de doutorado está fundamentada nos seguintes eixos temáticos: comunicação organizacional, sustentabilidade e terceiro setor. O trabalho foi iniciado com a pesquisa quantitativa, sendo um questionário utilizado como instrumento de coleta. O universo foi composto com a montagem de um banco de dados com base nas organizações que atuam com sustentabilidade listadas no portal da Abong e no site ONGs Brasil. De forma complementar, a pesquisa qualitativa foi feita com entrevistas em profundidade com especialistas e gestores de organizações de referência envolvidas diretamente com a temática. Acredita-se em uma formatação planejada para que o discurso seja assertivo, sendo possível ampliar resultados mapeando públicos e analisando os efeitos da comunicação, o que envolve um trabalho responsável de comunicação com a elaboração de materiais de conteúdos bem fundamentados e produtos acessíveis aos públicos, desenhados em uma linguagem própria para gerar significado às pessoas envolvidas. Com um modelo sistematizado de comunicação para a sustentabilidade, será possível ampliar o conhecimento dos cidadãos sobre como manter condições sustentáveis para o futuro. / The subject of this thesis is the mapping of variables in the communication process for sustainability in third sector organizations. The starting point are the studies that defend the potential of communication to raise awareness, engage and empower the public about the need to create a fairer and more balanced society. The justification lies on the proposal to strengthen research on communication in a transformative perspective, rescuing the social function of the area. Another justification is the need for research that establishes convergences between communication and sustainability to increase people\'s quality of life and preserve nature. The general objective is to research and analyze how organizational communication is developed in the third sector and what would be the impacts of their actions aiming sustainability for the benefit of society. The methodological procedures bring together scientifically developed processes that base the course of the research process based on quantitative and qualitative resources of application of questionnaires and in-depth interviews. This thesis is based on the following thematic axes: organizational communication, sustainability and third sector. The research started with the quantitative aproach by applying a questionnaire used as a collection instrument. The universe was composed by the assembly of a database based on the organizations that act with sustainability listed in the Abong´s portal and the ONGs Brazil website. In a complementary way, the qualitative research was carried out with in-depth interviews with specialists and reference managers from relevant organizations directly involved with the theme. It is believed in a format designed to assert the discourse, and it is possible to expand results by mapping audiences and analyzing the effects of communication, which involves responsible communication work with the elaboration of well-informed content materials and products accessible to the public, designed in a language of their own to generate meaning for the people involved. With a systematized model of communication for sustainability, it will be possible to increase citizens\' knowledge about how to maintain sustainable conditions for the future.

Esta dissertação se dedica ao estudo dos processos comunicacionais mediados pelo tutor a distância junto a cursos oferecidos na modalidade de EAD, por meio de ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, que fazem uso de várias ferramentas digitais de comunicação, tendo como principal objetivo verificar se esse agente educacional pode ser chamado de educomunicador. Partimos da revisão de duas teorias emergentes da EAD surgidas em países como Canadá, Estados Unidos e Reino Unido que fundamentam e consolidam as práticas voltadas ao estabelecimento da comunicação dialógica dentro desses espaços virtuais, práticas essas edificadas na adoção de processos ligados à gestão da comunicação e que são desenvolvidas por esse tutor a distância, para que pudéssemos mapear indicadores que fossem comuns também às práticas educomunicativas. Valemo-nos também da análise de estudos sobre programas de EAD já implementados na França e na Austrália, que têm esse tutor a distância como um dos pilares dessa modalidade de ensino. A possibilidade de aproximação da EAD com a Educomunicação nas práticas desse agente educacional foi verificada a partir da realização de um estudo de caso como pesquisa de campo junto ao programa FGV Online. Uma das conclusões foi que esse tutor a distância ou professor tutor, como denominado pela referida instituição, pode ser chamado de educomunicador, posto que houve a identificação de atividades voltadas à comunicação dialógica e ao estímulo do protagonismo dos alunos conjuntamente com esses educadores virtuais, enfatizando que se observou a ocorrência desse contexto por conta da opção de abordagem metodológica focada em tais práticas pelo programa de EAD da instituição e quando há uma formação prévia desse agente educacional sobre as práticas educomunicativas voltadas à gestão da comunicação e à formação de ecossistemas comunicativos. / This dissertation is dedicated to the study of communication processes mediated by the e-moderator at distance education courses, through virtual learning environments that use various digital communication tools, to verify if this agent might be called educommunicator (educomunicador). We developed a review of some key recent theories of Distance Education emerged in countries like Canada, USA and UK, along these last 20-30 years, which underpin and consolidate practices of dialogical communication in these virtual spaces, built in processes linked to communication management, which are developed by the e-mentoring, so we could map indicators which were also common to the new educommunication practices. We have also analysed studies on distance education programs already implemented in France and Australia, that have this e-mentoring as one of the pillars of this context. In order to verify the possibility of rapprochement between Distance Education and Educommunication based on the practices of that education agent, we adopted the method of case study in conducting our field research near FGV Online Program. One of the conclusions reached was that the e-moderator may be called educomunicador according to dialogic communication and leadership traits of the students along with this virtual environments, since the program of distance education institution adopts the use of such practices and this agent attends a previous course on specific communicative practices focused on communication management and training of communication ecosystems.