eThesis - Kauppakorkeakoulun sähköiset gradut

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Objective of the Study

The objective of this study was to investigate employee perceptions of a non-profit organisation’s identity in order to provide guidelines for developing a communication strategy. The case organisation, Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), is a Finnish non-profit organisation, which operates globally in the fields of crisis management, conflict resolution and peace mediation. This study investigated the perceptions of CMI’s employees in order to provide answers to the following three research questions: 1) How do CMI’s employees perceive the features of CMI’s organisational identity? 2) How do CMI’s employees perceive CMI’s organisational reputation? and 3) How do CMI’s employees perceive the practises and challenges for CMI’s internal and external communication?

Methodology and Data

This research used a qualitative single-case study design and the empirical data consisted of 17 semi-structured interviews, which were conducted among all CMI’s employees in Helsinki and Brussels. Themes for the semi-structured interviews arose from the theoretical framework, which highlighted the importance of employees’ understanding of organisational identity as a starting point for developing a communication strategy. Data collection and analysis concentrated on three themes: features of CMI’s organisational identity, CMI’s organisational reputation and the challenges and practises for communication.

Findings and Conclusions

As a result of the interviews, several positive features were attached to CMI’s identity and reputation but also some uncertain areas of identity were identified. The interviewees pointed out that CMI is a highly appreciated expert in its field, an innovative and flexible organisation, known for its high-quality work and wide networks. Still, there was uncertainty about some areas of CMI’s identity, particularly related to CMI’s vision and future direction, core competence areas and the level of the networks. Hence, describing CMI’s operations and future direction for external stakeholders in an explicit way can be sometimes difficult. In addition, time for internal communication is limited which makes it hard to stay aware of internal matters and processes. A shared view among the employees was that CMI has a good reputation but it differs to some extent between stakeholder groups. Those who work in the same field know CMI and appreciate its work but those who do not know the field are confused about CMI. Even though CMI’s reputation was seen positive, the organisation’s internal processes are somewhat inconsistent with its reputation. As organisational identity forms the core of a communication strategy, the positive areas of the identity can be utilised when developing the communication strategy. Also, the uncertainties related to the identity need to be paid attention to when planning communication. As a result, recommendations on how CMI could, in the future, start developing a communication strategy based on its organisational identity were given for CMI’s management.