eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Abstract: Objectives of the study This Master's thesis had three objectives. The ?rst objective was to examine the employees' needs and preferences of the case company's internal communication channels, speci?cally internal corporate communication channels that convey the company's corporate strategy. The second was to investigate success of the internal strategy (corporate) communication by analysing the employees' perception of their strategy knowledge. The third was to research the relation between internal strategy (corporate) communication (ISCC) and employee commitment.

Methodology and theoretical framework The research method was a single-case study and the data was collected using a background study, semi-structured interviews and a survey. The qualitative data was analysed and emerging patterns were identi?ed, whereas the quantitative data was statistically analysed using the R programming environment. The theoretical framework presents how internal corporate communication conveys corporate strategy messages via rich and lean media, how the channel attributes affect employee preference and choice, and how the communication and interpretation of the strategy eventually result in commitment.

Findings and conclusions of the study In the case company, top-down and primarily one-way internal corporate communication conveying strategy (ISCC) met the employees' needs better than lateral and two-way internal strategy communication. The needs were recognised to include gaining strategy knowledge, gaining ability to use the knowledge, and reducing equivocality and uncertainty. Apart from the needs, the employees' communication channel preferences and satisfaction seemed to be affected more with the channel accessibility and information quality attributes than with the richness of the channel. Internal strategy (corporate) communication (ISCC) was successful because the employees perceived to have corporate strategy knowledge. This strategy knowledge had a strong relationship with employee commitment, especially affective commitment. The main implication of this study was the recommendation that companies invest resources in internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC), because it was preferred by the employees at the case company, it corresponded to their needs and it contributed to their affective commitment.