What is internal communication (IC)?

In the twenty-first century, organisations frequently wrestle with the risk of appearing impersonal to their staff. Internal communication (IC) between employers and employees has become a vital element of personalising the organisation and of creating and augmenting organisational voice and engagement amongst employees. In addition, IC is used for a range of other strategic organisational goals, including change management, building organisational culture, enhancing organisational identity and branding, stakeholder relations, innovation, education, equality, diversity and inclusivity, and organisational sensemaking.

IC can be defined as the strategic and operational use of communication by management within organizations which treats employees as stakeholders. It currently employs over 45,000 people in the UK. The effort to develop effective forms of communication has a much longer history than many realise and stretches back to the emergence of large-scale organisations in the late nineteenth century.

What are the aims of the project? 

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), this project is undertaking an institutional history of internal communications in the UK since 1880. It seeks to integrate historical research with organizational theory, including institutional theory and rhetorical history. You can read more about the team here. 

Its archival research is unprecedented in terms of scale and scope. It will research twenty UK based organisations, which include six institutions which have historically laid the groundwork for the practice of IC in the UK, and fourteen organisations which have historically practiced IC. The project aims to work closely with our project partners. One of its core aims is to provide IC practitioners with a sense of their occupational history so as to enhance their professional identity. Find our more by visiting the blog, podcast, and the story of IC.