Browsing by Person "Schweiger, Wolfgang"

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Am Puls des Wandels - Veränderungskommunikation messen und steuern : Entwicklung und Anwendung eines Controllingansatzes für Veränderungskommunikation.
(2014) Heyder, Daniela; Schweiger, Wolfgang
The objective of the dissertation lies in the development and empirical application of a controlling approach particularly for change communication. For the success of a company continuous change is essential. As fast as the environment changed through e.g. increasing competition, shift in values or innovative technologies, the strategies, structures and processes in enterprises have to change as well as the employees, their mindset and behaviors, in order to secure continuance and growth. For the success of organizational change a special form of internal corporate communication is of central importance – change communication. It can create attention, knowledge and acceptance for the change with the employees concerned by the change and activates a mindset and behavior modification. The journalistically coined role of internal communication changes itself from the passive observer and correspondent of enterprise developments to the master clock and active designer of change processes. An interdisciplinary connection of internal corporate communication with organizational development approaches and implementation instruments of change management is demanded in times of change. So there are characteristics of the goals, strategies, contents, roles and instruments of change communication, which distinguish change communication as a special form of internal corporate communication. In continuous corporate change and with the essential meaning of communication for successful changes the need grew to measure and to steer the performance and impact of change communication systematically with success-critical indicators. This need is encouraged by the increasing attention of the communication science and management for the evaluation of corporate communication. International communication scientists and managers deal with the pressure to justify for their efficiency, effectiveness and budgets as well as with questions for planning and optimizing the success of Public Relations, market and employee communication. As an answer communication experts and controllers together with scientists developed the communication controlling. Contrary to Public relations, marketing communication or internal communication there is so far no scientific or practical approach for controlling change communication, that integrates the characteristics of change communication as a special form of internal communication conceptually or methodically. The development and empirical application of a controlling approach for change communication makes a contribution to lock the shown research gap and to the current discussion in communication controlling. First the characteristics and specific objectives of change communication are illustrated on the basis of a literature analysis. The dissertation regards the phenomenon of organizational change and the special role of communication during change processes. Their goals and tasks, strategies, contents, roles and instruments supply success-critical and steering-related factors of change communication and thus first elements for a controlling system. As a further basis for the specific measurement approach of change communication selected existing controlling approaches of corporate communication as well as change management are outlined and reviewed regarding transferable elements on a change communication controlling system. Beside a controlling tool for internal communication as well as an approach of marketing communication, the PR evaluation plays a major role in this reflection. Additionally evaluation concepts and measurement instruments of the change management deliver valuable implications. Based on this reflection the work defines measuring constructs, indicators and inquiry methods for the controlling of change communication. They are structured in a theoretical framework and an action-oriented measurement system. With the developed controlling system change communication can be evaluated and steered accompanying. The progress of the change is made visible and a rolling wave planning for a continuous optimization of the change process is made possible. The practical applicability of the innovative controlling approach for change communication is tested empirically at a case study. According to the specific goals, strategies, contents, target audiences and instruments of the corporate change initiative „CustomerFirst“ the developed controlling system is modified and applied on two measurement times. From the results of the measurement concrete recommendations for action are derived for steering the change initiative CustomerFirst. The steering mechanisms prove an optimizing effect on the change progress. The development and empirical application of the controlling approach for change communication in the context of a case study make a contribution to the current discussion in communication and change controlling, which look for best practice examples to enhance the discipline.
Issues Management unter veränderten Umweltbedingungen
(2023) Wnuck, Corinna; Schweiger, Wolfgang
The idea of issues management aims to ensure that companies actively exert influence on other environmental developments through early identification and strategically planned participation in publicly and organisationally relevant issues. The goal is to maintain their own room for manoeuvre and secure their corporate reputation. Environmental conditions play a central role in shaping issues management. These have changed noticeably since the first issues manage- ment approaches at the end of the 1970s. Digitalisation, medialisation, globalization, and the transformation of the public sphere through digital structural change are the drivers of these changes. Issues management has not yet been tested for its validity under changed environmen- tal conditions. The overarching research question of this study therefore is: How do companies shape issues management under changed environmental conditions? The empirical study uses qualitative, guideline-based expert interviews to examine how issues management is carried out today under changed environmental conditions. For this purpose, the research question is deepened on the basis of six issue management dimensions: the concept, the structure, the process, the management, the actor and the resource dimension. For the research, 22 experts from the agency/consultancy context and the corporate environment were interviewed. Conceptually, issues management has not altered under changed environmental conditions. It remains a preventive function that identifies issues in the corporate environment as early as possible in order to secure and enhance the companys reputation and to deal with these issues in a strategically planned manner. Issues management has a deprioritised existence in many companies, partly because the overlaps with other disciplines are high. Therefore, in many com- panies issues management is practised but not called such. At the structural level of issues management, changes due to digitalisation and globalisation are becoming visible. Modern is- sues management organisations have to work faster, more agile and more flexibly than before. They have to identify issues globally, in real time, and prepare them in a way that is appropriate for different cultural areas. This requires efficient and transparent information and knowledge management systems as well as flexible resource adjustment options. The study shows that changes due to digitalised environmental conditions are effective on the processual level. Due to the acceleration of environmental developments, the process phases run faster or parallel to each other. Reflection and reaction times have shortened with increasing issue complexity. Fol- lowing the sequences of the Scrum logic from software development, an alternative process model is developed in the study that maps the simultaneity and growing complexity of environ- mental developments. The management level is characterised by changes due to accelerated environmental developments, globalisation, medialisation and changed public structures, which are evident to different degrees in the individual phases of the management level. The study shows that the evaluation of issues management is still a challenge today and is only carried out with limitations in the companies. Agencies see a lack of will here, companies justify this with the lack of meaningfulness of the results about the actual performance of issues management. At the actor level, the transformation of the public sphere is having an effect. There is an in- crease in the number of situational, volatile and well-networked sub-publics, which are grouped around various issues and ensure that once an issue has arisen, it can no longer be laid to rest. In addition, the balance of power has shifted in favour of previously weakly represented groups. Furthermore, "journalism bypassing" is a frequently observed phenomenon. On the resource level, issues managers need a significantly expanded repertoire of competences and skills due to digitalisation and medialisation. Furthermore, the use of digital tools in issues management is increasing. At the time of the survey, these were primarily online monitoring tools, editorial management tools, collaborative work platforms and virtual team environments. AI and chat- bots, on the other hand, are the exception. Overall, the study concludes that the changed environmental conditions make the idea of issues management more relevant than ever. Although not always under the name, strategically planned early recognition and management of issues has become established in most compa- nies. At the same time, the environmental changes have a strong impact on implementation. Furthermore, there is a need to catch up especially in the area of digital and data-based corporate communication. This is where potential lies dormant to remedy some of the problems identified in the paper.
Kommunikationsprobleme zwischen Landwirtschaft und Naturschutz in Deutschland und ihre Ursachen
(2022) Menauer, Verena Theresa; Schweiger, Wolfgang
Communication is considered a key prerequisite for anchoring nature conservation in agriculture in the long term. However, the longlasting, sometimes heated disputes between ac-tors from both sectors in Germany show clear deficits, especially in public communication. Instead of finding solutions and compromises, the fronts are hardening in many places. The study aimed to identify and detail the existing communication problems and their causes. A coherent framework of communication studies that explicitly deals with communication problems is missing. Nevertheless, there are a number of theoretical approaches and research traditions that examine individual aspects of communication problems or, complementarily, deal with the conditions for successful communication. Of outstanding importance is research on public discourse – it forms the main theoretical point of reference of this work. Studies on journalistic news selection, approaches to strategic communication and research on group identities also appear to be relevant. Within the framework of a qualitative content analysis, 160 publications from the years 2019 and 2020 of the four relevant groups of actors (interest-led actors, state actors, news and specialist journalism) and the available user comments were examined. Thus, a current inventory of the existing communication problems was created. The analysis also provided initial indications of their possible causes. Subsequently, four group discussions were held with representatives from agriculture and nature conservation. The results of the content analysis were discussed and deepened. The initial findings of the content analysis were thus deepened, questioned and supplemented by the subjective perceptions and assessments of those affected. The results show that the observed problems and their causes are manifold: Firstly, actors are often unwilling to reach a rationally motivated agreement. Instead of openly engaging with all actors involved in the dis-course, they refuse to talk or try to influence individual target groups through strategic-manipulative communication. Secondly, not all topics, events and presentation perspectives have the same chance of being publicly discussed. Both news and specialist journalistic media usually only report on negative, conflictrelated issues, their reports are sometimes tendentious and limited to presenting one of several possible perspectives. Thirdly, it became apparent that the manner of communication is not always appropriate because actors do not sufficiently substantiate their positions with arguments, respond sufficiently to topics and arguments of the opposing side or express themselves appropriately. The following aspects can be named as causes for the lack of discourse quality: (1) Farmers seem to have an enormous distrust of outsiders, but also of their own professional representation. More or less all actors are met with great suspicion. (2) Especially among agricultural actors, emotional and financial concerns seem to play a major role. As a result, they sometimes find it difficult to communicate objectively and to accept that non-agricultural actors are also heard in the pub-lic discourse. (3) The actors involved sometimes lack the necessary knowledge to be able to participate optimally in the discourse. This applies to actors from agriculture and nature conservation as well as to journalists. (4) The media, interest groups and state actors are subject to various path dependencies and internal organisational constraints that are not only, but primarily of an economic nature. In some cases, they have the consequence that actors cannot act or communicate freely and discourse-oriented. (5) Moreover, various unresolved conflicts of objectives lead to problems. For example, actors from agriculture and nature conservation are sometimes confronted with the problem of having to pursue conflicting interests at the same time. (6) Group-specific differences in behaviour and evaluation can be cited as a further cause. Future studies should focus on the aspect of lack of knowledge, which negatively impacts the discourse quality in several respects.
Kulturwandel in der Unternehmenskommunikation : die Etablierung einer datengetriebenen Kultur und ihre Auswirkungen
(2024) Groß, Marie Sophie; Schweiger, Wolfgang
Daten nehmen als immaterielle Ressource eine immer zentralere Rolle für die Unternehmenskommunikation ein, werden jedoch häufig noch nicht für die Entscheidungsfindung genutzt. Stattdessen werden intuitive Entscheidungen basierend auf Erfahrungen und Emotionen getroffen. Um dies zu ändern, ist ein Verständnis über eine datengetriebene Kultur in der Unternehmenskommunikation essenziell. Die bisherige Forschung konzentriert sich allerdings auf den Nutzen einer etablierten datengetriebenen Kultur für die Gesamtorganisation und weist Forschungslücken hinsichtlich der Charakteristika, Etablierungsfaktoren und Reifebeurteilung auf. Mithilfe der Erkenntnisse aus zehn qualitativen Expert:innen-Interviews unterstützt die vorliegende Arbeit die Schließung dieser Forschungslücken. Dabei werden sowohl die Perspektiven von Befragten direkt aus der Unternehmenskommunikation als auch von Personen, welche die datengetriebene Kultur auf Gesamtorganisationsebene betrachten, einbezogen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich eine datengetriebene Kultur in der Unternehmenskommunikation nicht losgelöst von der Gesamtorganisation betrachten und zudem durch den Dreiklang der technischen, menschlichen und organisatorischen Ressource charakterisieren lässt. Dabei steht die menschliche Ressource im Kern des Konzeptes. In allen Ressourcen lassen sich dann wiederum für jedes Charakteristikum Etablierungsfaktoren identifizieren. Grundsätzlich ist hier die Dynamik der Charakteristika innerhalb der und zwischen den Ressourcen zu beachten. Gelingt es, eine datengetriebene Kultur in der Unternehmenskommunikation zu etablieren, führt dies zu einer Vielzahl an Vorteilen für die Abteilung selbst sowie für die Gesamtorganisation. Insgesamt zeigt sich zudem, dass das Verständnis einer datengetriebenen Kultur sehr individuell ist, wodurch nur vereinzelt Muster hinsichtlich Position und Branche erkennbar sind, keine in Bezug auf die Unternehmensgröße. Während das Verständnis bezüglich Charakteristika, Etablierungsfaktoren und Nutzen recht ausgeprägt ist, stellt die Reifebeurteilung auch Expert:innen vor Herausforderungen. Daher sollte diese im Fokus weiterführender Forschung stehen.
Lokale Kommunikation und Lokalmedien im Online-Zeitalter : Kommunikationsräume im Stadt-Land-Vergleich
(2021) Brückner, Lara; Schweiger, Wolfgang
Although the theoretical importance of the municipal level is undisputed, little research has been done to date on how local communication spaces are shaped in the online age. This is where the present study comes in and comparatively examines local communication spaces in urban and rural contexts. To this end, a theoretical framework based on sociological theories and (more recent) theories of the public sphere has been developed; it distinguishes between a structuring and an action dimension of communication spaces. The structuring dimension comprises macro-, meso-, and micro-level communication structures (e.g., competition in the local newspaper market or communication resources of actors). The action dimension comprises observable communicative action and can be characterized by two aspects: the communication networks of actors and their public communication with a large audience. Subsequently, n=49 guideline interviews with journalists and interest-led actors (politicians, administrative staff, active citizens, etc.) have been conducted on a total of six topics in three municipalities – two large cities and one small town. The actors were asked how they communicate with other actors and citizens on local political issues and what role traditional local media (still) play in this process. In all the communication spaces studied, the local or regional daily newspaper domi-nates as the most important local medium. From the point of view of the actors, the newspaper is still the central medium with which they inform citizens and reach people outside their topic-specific communities and filter bubbles. They also attribute to the newspaper a great influence on public opinion and – especially in the large cities – political decision-making. At the same time, the actors perceive that the newspapers reach is constantly decreasing and that they hardly reach young people in particular. Even if they are not seen as a substitute for local newspapers, online-only offers and blogs are useful channels for actors to address younger people who are particularly interested in the topic. In rural communication areas, actors who focus their public relations on traditional media and the press dominate. Digital tools and channels are hardly used – neither for public relations nor for communicating with other actors in the field. On the one hand, the actors argue with concerns about the users’ privacy; on the other hand they argue a lack of resources. For example, there is a lack of time and personnel to use additional online channels and to observe or even moderate user discussions. Another aspect is the lack of know-how of the mostly older local politicians, administrative staff, and journalists in dealing with digital tools. Actors who deliberately orchestrate different communication channels (online and offline, earned and owned media), digitally bring together knowledge and expertise from local, regional, and national networks and use these networks strategically for their public relations work are generally rare and predominantly found in urban communication spaces. Interest-led actors and journalists should make even greater use of the network logic of todays communication spaces. This means, for example, that interest-led actors should not only focus on journalists in their communication work but also on other central network nodes such as bloggers, politicians, and active citizens, and regularly provide them with information via topic-specific mailing lists. Journalists should make themselves visible as contact persons, adapt their work to the requirements of the respective communication networks - e.g., strengthen the voice of actors who receive little attention, bring together the arguments and positions of actors who have not been in contact so far - and more thoroughly examine options for (project-related) cooperation with other media in order to pool resources and create new buying incentives for readers by offering investigative content.
Phänomen Shitstorm - Herausforderung für die Onlinekrisenkommunikation von Unternehmen
(2015) Salzborn, Christian; Schweiger, Wolfgang
Social media has found their way into society as well as the corporate world. But the more benefits the new platforms brings to the corporate communication, the more are their responsible members afraid about the potential loss of control over their communication. Customers and consumers communicate now on "eye level" and in the case of criticism it may lead to an accumulation of critical, sometimes gleeful comments in social media, which are directed against the company - the so-called Shitstorm. The term was chosen among others as the Anglizismus of 2011 in Germany and found its way into the “Duden” dictionary. But what exactly is meant by this? How long does a Shitstorm take? Which platforms are involved and how develop it? What topics make up a Shitstorm and how can the players involved be described? What are the consequences of a Shitstorm for the company and how can it react within a professional online crisis communication before, during and after a Shitstorm? The aim of the present communication science work was to answer these and other questions in the context of a theory-based empirical study to identify and describe key characteristics and structures of the phenomenon Shitstorm. For this purpose, a combination of methods was used, which combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Based on the findings the author present also three Shitstorm types as well as a final definition and derives comprehensive recommendations for the crisis communication of the company.
Public knowledge of alternative media in times of algorithmically personalized news
(2021) Klawier, Tilman; Prochazka, Fabian; Schweiger, Wolfgang
Citizens are likely to encounter various types of alternative media online, especially on algorithmically personalized news channels (APNC) like social network sites or search engines. It is unclear, however, to what degree they are aware of these outlets and familiar with the concept of alternative media. This study investigates the relation between exposure to alternative media and knowledge of them, taking the role of APNC into account. Analyzing representative survey data of German Internet users, we find a gap: While many individuals report to use alternative media, few of them are able to name alternative media titles matching scholarly conceptions. Although the use of APNC increases self-reported exposure to alternative media, it does not improve actual knowledge of them. All in all, many Internet users have little awareness of alternative media and do not clearly distinguish between different types of sources they come across online.
VERZERRT. SCHRILL. GESPALTEN. Meinungsklima und Diskursqualität im Internet und ihre Wirkungen auf den Journalismus
(2022) Fulda, Stefanie; Schweiger, Wolfgang
Journalists play a dual role in shaping public opinion. On one hand, they influence public opinion through their publications. At the same time, they themselves continuously monitor public opinion and orient themselves to it. It seems obvious that the way journalists perceive the world can also influence their work. In fact, it has not yet been studied in terms of the perceived climate of opinion. It is similar with the perceived digital debate culture. Quality, tone and content of online discourses are already widely addressed under keywords such as incivility and hate speech. Effects on journalism are also mentioned, but they don´t focus on how journalists perceive the combined climate of opinion and quality of discourse and how this affects their work. In fact, user comments, individual opinions and opinion leaders are of particular importance to journalists in this perception. Due to the still incomplete state of research on the perception effects of public opinion and discourse quality on journalism, qualitative, guideline-supported interviews were therefore set up on the question "How do journalists perceive opinion climate and discourse quality on the Internet and how does this affect their work?" in order to approach the possible manifestations of this topic in an explorative manner. For these interviews, which lasted 1 - 1.5 hours, 20 journalists from all over Germany were interviewed. The net sample of participating journalists differed according to department, type of employment, age, location, gender, subject areas and degree of position, with the aim of obtaining answers from as many different journalists as possible and being able to compare the answers of certain groups with each other. In addition, a website was created as a central information point for the project. With the help of a repetitive change of perspective in the survey, which addresses the approach and considerations of the interviewees, but also inquires how, from the interviewees point of view, other journalists deal with the same issue, it was possible to identify some hidden perceptual effects. Beginning with the question about the central sources of public opinion perception, via processing and the mechanisms in this process, to the recognizable effects on journalistic work, it was thus possible to trace the path of perception of opinion climate and discourse quality to the effects on journalistic topic selection and topic processing. A key finding of the survey is that it remains unclear to the group of journalists surveyed whether the perceived climate of opinion on the Internet is representative of society as a whole - many do not rule out parallels of digital and general public opinion. At the same time, it is rationally clear to many journalists that they should not be too impressed by the experiences on the Net, since these represent only a small section of society, but emotionally it does happen - because the quality of the experienced, digital discourse is so impressive. On the other hand, almost all of the journalists surveyed assume that the perceived climate of opinion influences their journalistic work, but show a lack of clarity about the extent to which they are personally affected by this in their work. They do not know the concrete effects. Finally, it became obvious that journalists base their perception of public opinion quite significantly on the perceived quality of discourse. This is an understandable approach, but one that harbors the risk of misperceptions due to third person, negativity or false uniqueness effects, to name just a few of the most important potential distortions of perception. This has consequences: If those who report on public opinion are subject to a distorted perception, then they bring this into their reporting, which reinforces the tendency for recipients to also be subject to a distorted perception of public opinion. Citizens, in turn, express themselves in social media or below journalistic articles in the comments. These are read by editorial teams and in turn used for journalistic reporting. This is where the circle closes, because this is how recipients and journalists influence each others distorted perceptions and draw conclusions about public opinion in society. Minority opinions are perceived as majority opinions, the emotionally heated discourse on the Internet shapes the impression of a growing polarization of society, and journalism carries this idea into its reporting. The consequence is a possible misinterpretation of public opinion by journalistic media, so that journalism runs the risk of arguing past the actual public opinion of society through a distorted perception of public opinion and discourse quality on the Internet.