When communication professionals become trainers: a new role
Journal of Communication Management
ISSN: 1363-254X
Article publication date: 14 May 2020
Issue publication date: 4 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how communication professionals enact an educational role aimed at improving organisational communication through communication training. Furthermore, this article analyses what this implementation means for the role of the communication professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative interviews were conducted with seven communication professionals and ten managers in two organisations. The organisations were selected due to their involvement in developing and implementing communication training programmes. The interviews were then transcribed and analysed inductively.
Findings
This study demonstrates how communication professionals are expanding their professional role to become trainers in communication. The managers who participated reported increased awareness of the communication departments and the support they can provide. The communication departments became more visible in the organisations.
Research limitations/implications
The study is qualitative and limited to two organisations. The managers' perspectives suggest that when communication professionals act as internal trainers, their role within an organisation is strengthened.
Practical implications
The results of this study indicate that in-house communication professionals enable managers to improve their communication, boosting their ability to implement simultaneous large-scale training and rendering the communication department more visible and available throughout the organisation.
Originality/value
This study adds to the existing discussion regarding the new roles of communication professionals in organisations by presenting two cases in which communication professionals are successfully functioning as internal communication trainers. The findings can help both researchers and practitioners gain insights into the future role of the communication profession.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the participants and the two organizations for making this study possible. A special thanks to associate editor Ganga Dhanesh for her wonderful support in making this article better. This study is a part of a larger research project running between 2017 and 2020 at Mid Sweden University called The value of Communicative Leadership Development (CLD). The empirical material used in this paper is collected within the scope of this project. The purpose of the project is to evaluate the effects of implementing communicative leadership development within an organization. The project is funded by the Swedish Knowledge Foundation, KK-stiftelsen.
Citation
Bergman, S. (2020), "When communication professionals become trainers: a new role", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-07-2019-0103
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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