Enabling, Advising, Supporting, Executing: A Theoretical Framework for Internal Communication Consulting Within Organizations

Abstract

This article analyzes the consulting and enabling function within the role set of communication managers and provides an initial theoretical framework for internal communication consulting in organizations. The idea of communication professionals as consultants has already been introduced by a number of researchers. Nevertheless, the necessity of this task as well as the specific dimensions and practices of internal communication consulting have not been elaborated until now. This article takes an initial step towards closing this gap by developing a new framework. After a short introduction, the necessity of the consulting function will be emphasized by introducing the concept of the communicative organization. In order to fulfill this requirement, communicative competencies in a much broader sense have to be developed. This leads to a new challenge for communication professionals: they are asked to advise organizational members and to enable them to resolve communication-related issues as well as task-related issues. Based on a research review, a framework for internal communication consulting has been constructed by combining the dimensions of consulting forms and objectives. Qualitative interviews with communication executives have been conducted to verify the plausibility of this framework. The article closes by outlining implications for research, education, and practice.

Notes

¹Because training and development traditionally lie within human resource departments (HR), it has to be noted that the approach of building communicative competencies by communication experts does not neglect the responsibilities and tasks of HR. Although communication experts take the responsibility for focusing on communicative aspects within everybody's roles, the execution of training and skill development can be conceptualized as a joint approach of HR and communication departments (Heide & Simonsson, 2011, p. 215).