1 Communication / Public relations Strategy Drafting Strategy Prof Danny Moss BUSINESS SCHOOL 22nd International Public Relations Research Symposium BLEDCOM 2015 - July 3 - 4, 2015 Awakening a Sleeping Issue: Communication Department Structure, An International Study Danny Moss, Fraser Likely, Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Peter Stokes, Maria Aparecida Ferrari & Bert Regeer (University of Chester, UK; Likely Communication Strategies, Canada; Purdue University, USA; University of Chester, UK; University of Såo Paulo, Brazil ; Shell International BV, The Netherlands)
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Communication / Public relations Strategy
Drafting Strategy
Prof Danny Moss
BUSINESS SCHOOL
22nd International Public Relations Research Symposium BLEDCOM 2015 - July 3 - 4, 2015
Awakening a Sleeping Issue: Communication Department Structure,
An International Study
Danny Moss, Fraser Likely, Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Peter Stokes, Maria Aparecida Ferrari & Bert Regeer
(University of Chester, UK; Likely Communication Strategies, Canada;
Purdue University, USA; University of Chester, UK;
University of Såo Paulo, Brazil; Shell International BV, The Netherlands)
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BUSINESS SCHOOL
The International Association of Business
Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation funded an
international study of communication department
structure
The main purpose of this international research study was
identified as;
This international study calls for progressively deep
investigations of top-performing communication
functions within organizations, with the goal of
identifying the factors that influence communication
department structure and effectiveness.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL
Our three related objectives:
(1) the identification of communication department structures;
(2) the identification of factors that influenced communication
department structure;
and
(3) the identification of which of these factors that are the most
important in designing an effective organizational structure for
the communication department.
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The study began with a detailed review of both the
communication and public relations literature as well as the
management and organizational studies literatures examining
the theme of organization and department structures and
the key factors influencing structure and structural choice
decisions.
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The significant themes identified from the literature
review as particularly relevant to the development of this
study’s research focus and questions Included:
• Structural change occurs over time;
• From a traditional perspective, the key dimensions of
structure comprise complexity, specialization,
centralization and configuration;
• From the configuration perspective, five key structural
models dominated the literature: Simple Form; U Form; M
Form; Matrix Form; and Virtual Form;
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The significant themes identified from the literature
review as particularly relevant to the development of this
study’s research focus and questions Included:
• Organizational and communication department size
emerged as the key initial determinant of department
structure;
• The need to recognize that structure and structural choice
decisions are contingent on a range of factors (rather than
simple cause-and-effect relationships), not the least being
the role of the human agents involved;
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The significant themes identified from the literature
review as particularly relevant to the development of this
study’s research focus and questions Included:
• The international / global scope of an organization’s
operations are likely to have a significant influence on
structural choice decisions and functional structures;
• Organizational and societal culture likely to play a
significant role in shaping functional structures;
• Key decision-makers / CCOs‘ perceptions and
preferences generally play a key part in determining
structural options.
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Research Questions: Drawing on the analysis of the
literature we developed 7 key Research Questions -
RQ 1:
Are there specific structures / models for communication
departments?
RQ 2:
Is there a relationship between communication department
structure and organizational structure?
RQ 3:
What are the most critical factors determining communication
department structure?
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RQ 4:
Is there a link between the structure of the communication
department and organizational efficacy?
RQ 5:
Does the structure of communication departments remain
constant across different geographic regions?
RQ 6:
If there are global differences in communication department
structures, what are they?
RQ 7:
Is it possible for there to be a universally effective
communication department structure?
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Methodology: Two step sequential approach enabling
triangulation of both data collection and analysis methods
Stage 1: In-depth interviews with CCOs from 26
organisations drawn from all 5 continents across the world
Stage 2: Snowball Survey of CCOs using an internet based
survey questionnaire [in English and Portuguese/Spanish]
targeted at CCOs through IABC membership, National
Professional Bodies and other practitioner databases
The survey yielded 278 usable responses [15responses
from government agencies were excluded]
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The interview protocol used by all the researchers comprised
15 primary questions. The resulting data was analysed
thematically [Miles and Huberman, 1994] to identify any
patterns emerging from the collective data set (Eisenhardt,
1989).
A survey questionnaire comprising 39 questions was
constructed drawing on both the literature review and the
findings from the qualitative stage of the research. The
questionnaire was designed to provide a broader range of
data about communication department structures that would
enable further elaboration and generalization of the findings.
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The survey was hosted on the university web server of one of
the members of the research team. The data were analyzed
using the latest version of SPSS - Predictive Analytics
Software Statistics (PASW) .
The analysis sought to identify key trends and patterns within
the data responses, as well as key relationships between
variables that might help explain why particular structural