<p>Storytelling, an important part of human communication, is being increasingly used by companies to communicate their values and build trust and connection with employees and customers. A good story can create emotions and feelings among the audience, can simplify and transmit complex messages. In contrast to the conventional informative and lecture-style of communication, which are likely to evoke counter arguments; storytelling is more likely to inspire people to take independent actions. However, storytelling is not flawless. There are downfalls to storytelling, such as stories told from a single point of view, which companies need to be aware of when using this technique. The purpose of this study is to explore how storytelling is used in two companies internally and externally, and by doing so, to enable a deeper understanding of the storytelling concept and explore the subject further. The results show that giving different factors, such as target audiences, the company that uses storytelling internally, considers the authenticity of the stories to be of great importance. This view does not apply to the company that uses storytelling externally. On the other hand, the latter company’s external and internal core message or values go hand in hand to a great extend. In contrast, the former company uses different values to its customers compared to the ones it uses to communicate with its employees. The contribution of this thesis can be found in the model of different dimensions of storytelling, presented in the theoretical framework. These dimensions enable a deeper understanding of storytelling as well as facilitates as a guide when exploring the subject, both externally and internally. Students wanting to research the area as well as companies wanting to use storytelling as a marketing or communication tool can benefit from using the dimensions of storytelling derived from this thesis.</p>

Storytelling, an important part of human communication, is being increasingly used by companies to communicate their values and build trust and connection with employees and customers. A good story can create emotions and feelings among the audience, can simplify and transmit complex messages. In contrast to the conventional informative and lecture-style of communication, which are likely to evoke counter arguments; storytelling is more likely to inspire people to take independent actions. However, storytelling is not flawless. There are downfalls to storytelling, such as stories told from a single point of view, which companies need to be aware of when using this technique. The purpose of this study is to explore how storytelling is used in two companies internally and externally, and by doing so, to enable a deeper understanding of the storytelling concept and explore the subject further. The results show that giving different factors, such as target audiences, the company that uses storytelling internally, considers the authenticity of the stories to be of great importance. This view does not apply to the company that uses storytelling externally. On the other hand, the latter company’s external and internal core message or values go hand in hand to a great extend. In contrast, the former company uses different values to its customers compared to the ones it uses to communicate with its employees. The contribution of this thesis can be found in the model of different dimensions of storytelling, presented in the theoretical framework. These dimensions enable a deeper understanding of storytelling as well as facilitates as a guide when exploring the subject, both externally and internally. Students wanting to research the area as well as companies wanting to use storytelling as a marketing or communication tool can benefit from using the dimensions of storytelling derived from this thesis.

Making a societal transition towards sustainability is a global concern of ever increasing urgency. Succeeding in this mission requires all societal sectors to be on board and contribute. This thesis focuses on the transformation of the corporate sector, namely how Internal Corporate Communication (ICC), i.e. communication between senior management and employees, can be designed to engage employees in working with sustainability. This thesis uses a conceptual model developed for ICC and employee engagement and applies it in the specific context of ICC with regards to sustainability in medium- to large-sized companies in Northern Europe. Through interviewing practitioners working with ICC on sustainability in ‘model’ sustainability companies, the research aims to discern best practices on how to design ICC about sustainability to engage employees. The results show that ICC can be a useful tool when it comes to engaging employees in working with sustainability, and the findings are summarized as guidelines for content creation and methods to use to facilitate engagement creation for sustainability. The discussion elaborates on how these guidelines can be used together with the Strategic Sustainable Development approach to facilitate companies’ journeys towards sustainability.

Developing internal communication in fast-changing organizations is a current topic, which seems to exercise the minds of corporate people in different positions. Well-functioning internal communication and business success seem to be strongly linked. It motivates people, and only people who are motivated and enthusiastic about their work are able to perform well in their jobs and to secure the success of their employers. The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of internal communications and how employees perceive it in fast-changing organizations. An understanding of internal communication and its development was searched by concentrating in selected essential internal communication areas in organizations, internal corporate communication function and internal communication channels. The focus was on fast-changing organizations due to the fact that the development of internal communication does not usually go hand in hand with other organization development and business growth but tends to drag behind. The theoretical framework was formed of internal communication in general, internal communication development, internal communication in fast-changing organizations, internal communication in different organizational areas, internal corporate communicationas a function and internal communication channels. The most valid internal communication areas were selected to be management communication, team and supervisor communication and interdepartmental communication. The theoretical framework presented the dilemmas and characteristics that can occur among the issue of internal communication development. In order to achieve the determined objectives, a quantitative study was conducted. The survey named “Internal communications at the company x” with three different forms of questions was carried out in the case company. The topic was scrutinized from theperspective of a case company and aimed to find out employees’ perceptions. The web-based survey focused on the selected issues concerning internal communication and its development. Questionnaires were sent out to the employees of the case company’s European organization and 94 responses were received. The collected data was analyzed against the theoretical framework, and with the help of analysis conclusions and managerial implications regarding this study were drawn. It was discovered that by developing these internal communication areas together, fast-changing organizations succeed better in internal communication and consequently in other operations. In fast-changing organizations, careful attention needs to be paid especially to the amount of management, supervisor and interdepartmental communication. Communication especially about company situation and financial and sales situation should be increased. Employees value open, systematic, clear and well-organized communication. Development of interdepartmental communication processes is vital in order to improve knowledge sharing across the company and consequently business performance. It is essential that all members of work community understand their responsibility to communicate. Internal corporate communications function should teach that and provide good communication tools for all employees, especially intranet, e-mail and possibilities to face to face meetings and versatile feedback sessions. Efforts to equalize communication between locations, departments and teams need to be taken.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the internal communication, as a dimension of internal marketing, in a global multicultural company. The study was based on a conceptual model that is a miscellany of theoretical concepts of how to create effective internal marketing communication for global organizations. Through the investigation of the company referred to as Alpha, a quantitative study across six countries was conducted to further the knowledge on how to address the needs of internal customers and adjust the internal marketing strategy thereafter. A questionnaire was sent to a random sample, with a response rate of 215 employees that together reflected the total population of 2831. Through the usage of ANOVAs, the findings displayed significant differences of how the employees in all countries perceived the internal communication at Alpha. The study also compared differences within two countries where there was enough data to investigate differences between categories of employees, these results were not significant. In general, it can be said that the results were grouped by the differences of the three European countries against the three non-European countries. Another prominent finding was that China was separated from the other countries, this was also the instance collectively shown for Sweden and Finland as they were often grouped together. The implications are that possible differences in business culture may have affected these results, which further studies need to investigate. The results jointly report that the internal customers are not satisfied with the internal communication. The conclusion is that the needs of the employees at Alpha should be addressed much further, as a part of the company internal marketing communication strategy.