Horizons in Strategic Communication: Theorising a Paradigm Shift

Abstract

This article examines a possible future for strategic communication in the context of an emerging recovery from the global economic crisis of 2008–2009. It explores the role of strategic communication in building and protecting corporate reputations, promoting organisational values, and in employee communication during structural change. The article uses these roles to support the view of scholars that in its best-practice role assisting organisations to re-build reputations after the global economic crisis, strategic communication can consolidate its value to senior management. The article theorises that the economic recovery presents an opportunity for a paradigm shift that would explicitly re-align strategic communication with the second and third management horizons to consolidate its value to dominant coalitions.