Intergrated Communication in the Business World

I. Integrated Communication Background

Communication is the essence of all human interaction, relationships and learning. Creating and maintaining strong and constructive relationships with all stakeholders is after all the main scope of organization’s communications. On this view, effective communications are vital for organizations to grow, evolve and stand out among the competitors. The new era of digital communications, the globalized economy and empowered scrutinized stakeholders have challenged the traditional communications practices. As a reaction to adapt to this new environment and changed conditions, it is not very uncommon that managers and consultants advice organizations to embrace the ideal of integrated communications.

Integrated communications can be defined as “the practice of aligning symbols, messages, procedures and behaviors in order for an organization to communicate with clarity, consistency and continuity within and across formal organizational boundaries” (Christensen et al., 2008). But can organizations transform the ideal of integrated communications into a reality? Shaping a unified, coherent and consistent corporate voice is a task challenged by several barriers that impose the necessity to re-conceptualize the notion of integrated communications as suggested by several scholars of communications (Christensen et al., 2009; Johansen & Andersen, 2011).

II. Problems with Integrated Communication

Integrated communication was, among other factors, triggered as a response to satisfy the growing demands for clarity, insight, openness and participation that altogether can be summarized as requests for more “Transparency”. In addition to transparency, integrated communications aspire especially to achieve the...

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...ncies usually is counter-productive.

• The efforts to achieve consistency usually will fail and produce less transparency.

• While the organization might be able to control the messages and voices from inside the organization usually

• How the integration is perceived is up to the receiver part.

• Communication nowadays is challenged by stakeholder resistance.

Such problems and challenges of integrated communications exists make the application of IC in practice beyond reach.

To sum up, times have changed, communications have changed and people have changed too. We are experiencing an era of intense and clutter information, with innovative means of communication and savvy audiences. The later one, stimulated from the age of information and sophisticated communications, along with the , requires for “new conceptions in the field” (Christensen et al., 2008) or ,