The Communicating Company: Towards an Alternative Theory of Corporate Communication

Corporate communication has developed as a domain of management, embracing fields like public relations and marketing communication. Most research on the topic has concentrated on positivist approaches, leading to a limited view. The purpose of this study is to review extant corporate communication theory from discourse and strategy-as-practice perspectives, expanding the picture by more ‘communicational’ aspects. An integrative framework of alternative corporate communication is proposed as a key contribution to corporate communication theory. Following an ethnographic case study approach, an extensive pool of data was collected over a period of 15 months, representing corporate communication discourse at a major international conglomerate. The author completed his PhD at the University of Salford, UK, after having worked in several management positions in the financial services industry, heading an international corporate communications team for several years.