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Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the communicative factors that facilitate or hamper the development of an inclusive work environment with an emphasis on the communication about equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), while taking diversity characteristics of employees into account. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 84 persons employed in Austria and Germany, who feature various observable and non-observable diversity characteristics, were interviewed following a problem-centered approach. Findings: The results indicate that employees with (observable) diversity characteristics, who tend to feel less included, observe more excluding and marginalizing communication and practices in their organizations. Moreover, formal interpersonal communication appears to be more important to develop a highly inclusive workplace than informal interpersonal communication and other forms of communication about EDI. Research limitations/implications: The sample was rather imbalanced and comprised only employees in Austria and Germany, which limits the study's explanatory power. However, the findings stress the significance of formal interpersonal communication as the cornerstone of an inclusive workplace, which should be followed up in future research. Practical implications: In terms of the development of an inclusive work environment the findings suggest that strategic (i.e. formal) organizational communication about EDI issues is key to increase the perception of inclusion. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the importance of interpersonal communication as a key factor that facilitates, but also hampers an inclusive work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate communication increasingly evolves into newsroom-like forms. In such structures, traditional approaches of functional differentiation (i.e., internal coms, media relations, public affairs, etc.) give way to topic- and content-centered approaches to corporate communication. Megatrends like globalization, digitalization, mediatization, and the decline of journalism have facilitated these developments. This study provides insights on agile content management gathered from 32 semi-structured expert interviews with communication professionals working in 13 business organizations in Germany and Austria. Results indicate that on the strategic level, communication management reacts to rising communicative demands in organizational environments by implementing agile-like concepts in communication departments, which are content-driven and not based on departmentalized specialization. Accordingly, the importance of competent and largely autonomous content managers increases, with these experts subsequently serving as conductors of inclusive, collective storytelling that reaches far beyond the communication department, into every relevant stakeholder group. Thereby, business organizations cope with the challenges of increasing complexity in the information society of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores how consumers react in a crisis situation that happens to a brand with which they disidentify. Consumer–brand disidentification (CBD) is a state of self‐categorization regarding the separation from and rejection of a brand. It predestines individuals to move away from and go against the misbehaving company because the failure of the object of disidentification provides a perfect opportunity for them to validate their identity. We argue that disidentification is closely related not only to a person's propensity to behave but also to feel in a specific way. Surveys data were collected in the United States and Germany to answer the research question regarding the role of emotions in the relationship between CBD and consumers' intention to demonstrate brand‐opposition behavior. Volkswagen, which experienced a crisis related to its manipulation of emission tests, served as the brand stimulus. The results show that CBD can stimulate hostile emotions and schadenfreude, which can function as mediators of the influence of disidentification on brand opposition (negative word‐of‐mouth, brand avoidance, punishing the brand). This research contributes to the growing body of research on the "dark side" of consumer‐brand relationships and its perils for brands. It also enhances understanding of the role of emotions in (dis)identification and social identity research and widens the scholarship on emotions in crises. Managerial implications include to thoroughly consider trade‐offs of creating a strong and unique brand that may give rise to disidentification; monitoring negative voices, especially online; and differentiating disidentified consumers from other types of opposing stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By drawing on the German Longitudinal Election Study the following questions are answered: Who actually received political news/campaign information from social media during the 2009 federal election campaign? And, even more important from our theoretical point of view, who posted campaign information on his/her network? Parties still invest heavily in agencies and professional consultants when it comes to elections. With a shrinking number of parry members, however, a change in election (street) campaigns towards more engagement in social media is very likely. Hence, parties are looking for ways to support engaged citizens and make them part of their election campaigns. They will be taking advantage of the heterogeneity of networks in which citizens communicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to their statutes and published objectives, many foundations focus on the solution of social problems and on responding to unmet social needs. They aim at social value creation and serve as an ‘antenna’ or ‘sensor’ for societal needs and expectations. If the work of the foundation is coordinated with that of the founding corporation and knowledge is flowing between these organizational entities, corporations can profit from the foundation's activities and insights. However, since corporate foundations by their legal nature and very statutes are independent entities that are to exclusively pursue public-benefit purposes, this relationship is not free of potential conflicts of interest. Through expert interviews with representatives of five major corporate foundations in Germany and their founding corporations, the practices of this cooperation were explored and implications for its improvement were discussed.Corporate Reputation Review (2006) 9, 144–153. doi:10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550019 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluate electronic commerce in Germany as a typology of entrepreneurial communicators. Exposure of corporate communications to a high degree of pressure and to an unpredictable environment; Observation of high disregard of legal demands for the transparency of stock corporations; Evidence for the necessity to establish internal competencies before outsourcing corporate communications.