Applying Change, (Social) Network and PR Theories to Introduce Social Media-Based Internal Communication

Abstract

Global, fast-moving societies also require organizations to provide increasingly flexible structures and thinking patterns. This not only applies to commercial corporations and companies, but also ministries, such as the German Federal Foreign Office (FFO).

Referring first to Change, Network and PR Theories (section 1), this paper presents results of a new study on internal communication done in 2010 within this ministry (section 2). This comprised a content analysis of the ministry's internal communications, an online employee survey distributed to 1500 employees, and some face-to-face interviews on particular issues.

The findings of the research show very clearly that leadership and communication are amongst the decisive indicators in the change process, and that building networks in these situations is a core success factors for modern internal PR.

They also indicate that the role of internal communication will shift its focus in the future from a top-down communication to real interaction less controlled by management, e.g. using social media.

The conclusion (section 3) shows that this is the only way in which internal communication will be quick and flexible enough to deal with rapidly changing environments.

Keywords: internal communication, PR, social media, change, government, ministry, Germany

JEL Classification: Z00