Communication Management

Commonalities Across Disciplines

Growing numbers of organizations recognized that various communications disciplines share common purposes and are moving toward the integration of communications functions. This convergence resulted (a) from recognition of common [Page 154]strategic approaches used by public relations and related disciplines, (b) by the convergence of media and the rise of shared media, such as the Internet, (c) by the blurring of the demarcation of traditional communications disciplines, including the rise of integrated marketing communication, and (d) from efforts by organizations to achieve greater synergy and efficiency and to reduce redundancies and costs in communications operations. This centralization trend is far from complete, however. Most organizations continue to maintain separate functional units devoted to managerial communications, public relations, advertising, and technical communication. In Europe, however, communication management is the preferred term for traditional public relations.

In the academic arena, communication management is consistent with the umbrella concept of strategic communication, which examines how organizations use communications across traditional professional disciplines to achieve stated organizational goals and objectives. Stated another way, strategic communication involves an organization communicating purposefully to advance its mission. Both communication management and strategic communication purposely look beyond differences in disciplines to focus on the similarity of strategic approaches found in various disciplines.

Table 1 compares six conceptual approaches to organizational communications that can be incorporated under this umbrella, although the conceptual focus and techniques/tactics that are [Page 155]used are often different in each traditional discipline or context.

Communication Management Approaches

Strategic approaches to conducting a public relations campaign date back to at least 1935 when Edward L. Bernays first outlined the components of a public campaign. Since publication of Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center's Effective Public Relations, public relations has been described as a four-step process. In 1952, the first edition of the classic textbook described three steps: fact-finding, planning, and implementation or communication, while the fourth step of evaluation was added in the second edition in 1958.

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