The big idea of employees as strategic communicators in public relations

Purpose: As PR professionals are increasingly taking on a coaching and training role, and communication technology has made employees more visible and approachable, employees more and more take on active roles in the communication with external publics. While PR professionals’ roles are conceptualized fairly well, no framework exists that describes the many communication roles that employees play in contemporary organizations. This paper identifies different employee communication roles proposed in academic research in order to point out the increasing role of employees as strategic communicators in public relations.Design/methodology/approach: Literature in public relations, corporate communication and related fields is reviewed to identify the suggested communication roles employee fulfill. Findings: A typology of eight different employee communication roles is developed based on different expected employee communication behavior found in the literature: Externally, employees (1) embody, (2) promote, and (3) defend the organization. In addition, employees use communication to (4) scout for information and insights about environmental changes, and (5) build and maintain relationships with stakeholders. Internally, employees use communication to (6) make sense of information, (7) initiate and stimulate innovation, and (8) criticize organizational behavior and decisions.Research limitations/implications: Empirical studies have yet to explore employees’ extended communication roles, the extent to which employees are expected to drive public relations on internal and public social media, and who forms these role expectations in what way.Practical implications: Employees increasingly fulfill the tactic communication roles as producers and executers of corporate communication as social media have made them more visible and approachable. The communication roles require considerable tactical skills and resources on the part of employees, which they may not always possess sufficiently. PR professionals can play a coaching role in terms of helping employee frame content and communicate in a manner appropriate for the organization, the context and the media., Originality/value: The chapter provides a new framework of employees’ communication roles on the basis of existing literature. Employees’ communication roles had so far remained poorly conceptualized. By mapping out the many different communication roles employees are expected to play, the chapter improves our understanding of what it means that employees are increasingly expected to be active communicators in public relations. It can help PR professionals and scholars understand the changed role of PR professionals, as well as the changed relationships between organizations and their environment, in the context of dissolving organizational boundaries.