Batenburg (the
Facilitating Process
The internally oriented organisation with a preference for a reactive approach ends up in the bottom left quadrant. Organisations with a preference for this communication style have a tendency to strive towards conservation and to maximising their sense of security. They have a bias towards protecting their own ‘natural’ environment, which means that they generally feel strongly about keeping things the way they are. They are protective of their ‘totems’, the objects (including people, ideas, places, products, procedures) that they have chosen to respect as special symbols of their identity. The security doctrine that prevails in the most extreme instances puts these organisations firmly on the defensive. New ideas are not sought for, and anything out of the ordinary will be scrutinized. Communication initiatives in this type of organisations are mainly aimed at ‘facilitating the process’. Corporate communication is regarded as a functional tool for coordination and risk mitigation.
Creating
The internally oriented organisation with a proactive approach is seeking to maximise control in the area of corporate communication and strives towards expansion. These are in the top left quadrant. It wants to increase its area of influence through the inclusion of new themes and new captive audiences, but in a very controlled and deliberate way. New corporate communication initiatives have to go through a rigorous review and approval process. Their introduction has to be preceded by detailed planning and systematic testing. The basic attitude is that the organisation will benefit from a proactive outreach, but only when the interventions are conducted with ‘scientific discipline’. Experimenting is fine in a laboratory setting, but the replication of desired results should be assured before a practice will be adopted more generally. Whilst cautious, the corporate communication style of these kind organisations can be typified as ‘creating opportunity’. Corporate communication is regarded as a potentially useful instrument, but only ‘experts’ should be allowed to handle it.
Making History
Organisations with an external orientation and a preference for a proactive approach will be found in the top right quadrant. These companies and institutions are generally charged with energy and encourage their staff to take risks. While both the levels of energy and the acceptance of risk may vary, the prevailing conviction is: ‘no guts, no glory’. Creativity is firmly encouraged. People are expected to take initiative and radiate enthusiasm. The corporate communication function is usually firmly affiliated with the marketing and sales function. Communication output is usually high, somewhat uncontrolled, but always opportunistic. Corporate communication is regarded as a true ‘force multiplier’. If communication is not involved, the project can’t be serious. Theme and message development cycles are short. Creation and execution seem to be happening at virtually the same time. Anything that is ‘hip and happing out there’ is regarded as an opportunity to participate and engage with the (frontrunners in the) mainstream. These organisations are fired by one big ambition: ‘making history’. Corporate communication has to agile, always on top of the newest trends, and adding creative quality.
Securing Continuity
The bottom right quadrant is reserved for organisations with an external orientation, coupled with a reactive approach. These businesses and institutions are usually uncertain about the external environment, but they feel a necessity to engage and to keep a ‘strategic stakeholder dialogue going’. These organisations too are on the defensive (just like subjects in the bottom left quadrant), but their motive is to make their position of power or success stronger so that it is more likely to continue. The corporate communication function is regarded as a strategic asset to protect the interests of the organisation, while that is continuing to pursue a steady course. Just like organisations in the top left quadrant, interventions are deliberate and are conducted under intense observation of the top management. This is where boardroom advice in rooms filled with cigar smoke is being processed into sophisticated tactics. Only senior corporate communication specialists are regarded to be relevant participants, and perhaps not even them. The corporate communication effort is all about ‘securing continuity’.
The Circle of Life 
Interestingly enough, corporate communication styles tend to evolve over time. The process usually seems to follow an ‘S curve’, starting at the bottom left-hand corner. Moving from ‘facilitating process’ into the sphere of ‘securing continuity’ (bottom right), to then take a sharp upward turn to the top left-hand corner of ‘creating opportunity’, and from there to the ‘making history’ quadrant. When misfortune or self-made calamity hits the organisation, the typical fall-back position is the bottom left-hand quadrant. One is tempted to see this as a cyclical process: the circle of life. This implies that the ‘general practitioner’ in corporate communication, has to be able to adopt very different styles in order to always be effective. Another conclusion that can be drawn is that it might be worthwhile for external consultants and freelancers to specialise and become true domain experts in one of the four quadrants. One of the key questions, however, is: Does this model further our understanding, and (if so) does it have any practical value?
What holds true for modelling and stereotyping in general, applies to the ‘corporate communication styles theory’ (if I may call it that) as well. The model is an extremely simplified description of how corporate communication works and what might happen under certain circumstances. It is not reality, but it should help us to get a better grasp of reality, or at least provide us with a common language to have a meaningful discussion about the corporate communication function. Stereotyping is nothing more than a form of psychological shorthand: a powerful tool for planting ideas that are not universally true, but nevertheless form strong pointers for decision-making and behaviour in the real world. If there is any ‘truth’ in social sciences, it is that human behaviour is very hard to model and predict with absolute accuracy. But adopting behavioural styles to circumstances (context) and audiences (other people) is generally believed to increase effectiveness in social activities. Therefore, I am personally quite happy to commend this contribution as general ‘guidance and direction’. We’ll see where it brings us!
Ewold de Bruijne (42) is a PR professional with twenty years of experience at the highest corporate level. He started his professional career as public relations officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy (mandatory military service). After that he climbed the corporate ladder at AEGON insurance group, First Financial Communications, AEGON (again), Buhrmann, Organon BioSciences and Ziggo. In the latter two companies he was a member of the executive management team. He became an active naval reserve in 2007 and quickly climbed up through the ranks from lieutenant junior grade to lieutenant commander (the equivalent rank in the army is that of major). Pursuing his interest in ‘effects-based operations’, Ewold is doing research into the psychological aspects of corporate communication. His current clients include companies in the technology sector, in the business services industry, and in international public safety.
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