Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 103
Strategy first. Communication too late.
Communication creates greater organizational value when stakeholder intelligence can shape decisions before commitments become messages
Premise
Organizations often discover a communication problem only after leaders have fixed the decision. The communication team receives a proposal, prepares the announcement, and measures visibility or recall. When employees, communities, regulators, or customers resist, leaders may demand better messaging even though the conflict began in the decision process.
Excellence Theory asks whether communication operates as a strategic management function instead. The IABC research program led by James E. Grunig, with Larissa A. Grunig, David M. Dozier, and a wider research team, links communication value to early strategic involvement, environmental scanning, empowered management, integrated functions, symmetrical approaches, and relationships with consequential publics.
What the model is: Excellence Theory (of Public Relations) in Knowledge →
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- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainMedia, Publics & Society
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.