Strategic Value of Employee Relationships and Communicative Actions: Overcoming Corporate Crisis with Quality Internal Communication

Abstract

A case study was conducted to understand how continuous managerial efforts and internal communication to secure employee safety would cultivate quality of relationships between company and employee publics and further influence employee communicative actions in crisis situations. This case study shows that positive employee communicative behaviors and decreased negative communicative actions would be likely during a crisis resulted from good quality relationships. This showed the value of good relationships to corporate strategic management and enhanced adaptability to organizational turbulence.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Internal Communication Laboratory at IULM University, in partnership with ASCAI; Ferrero; Henkel Italia; Hogg Robinson Italia; IBM Italia; illycaffè; Iper, La grande i; Micron Technology Italia; Natuzzi Group; Porsche Italia; and Unicoop Firenze.

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented to the Conference “Communicating Crisis in an Age of Complexity,” Aarhus, October 6–8, 2011.

Notes

¹In this context, in Italian “white” means “innocent”.

²All data correct as of December 2010.

³These are phrases taken from the interview transcripts.