Internal communication and organizational culture

Internal communication and organizational culture: what is the connection? The CERC Dialogue between Marco Leonzio, Università IULM, and Valentina Uboldi, Eni, revolves around this theme.

A double perspective, one academic and one professional, which opens the floor for further reflection.

The opinion of Marco Leonzio, Adjunct Professor of Organization theories & HR management and CERC Researcher, Università IULM

When concepts become very popular, it is generally not a good thing: they tend to lose depth, precision and boundaries. On the other hand, one does not become so widely “cited” without a reason. In recent years, the category of culture has ended up at the center of the debate on organizational development – often cited, not always fully understood.

The formation of a distinctive culture - our unique and special way of doing things together, as we sometimes call it to make the concept clearer - is coeval with the organization itself: the organized work of people necessarily produces cultural sediments, as an inevitable by-product of daily activities, conducted according to values and principles which, when useful and decisive, consolidate over time and become a mark that influences future behavior, sometimes a rut from which it is not easy to escape.

The diffusion of the concept of culture in the last thirty years is due to its fundamental control function: having noted the erosion of the traditional effectiveness of hierarchy in the new organizational morphology, management seeks the commitment and control of people through identification, rather than authority or direct supervision.

One trait of organizational culture has become a thorn in the side of its supporters over time: the pace of its evolution. As the world changes ever more rapidly, cultures rooted in time become inertial systems, struggling to accommodate the process of adaptation to the environment at an adequate speed.

Here is the conflict: the spontaneous nature and physiological time of assimilation of an identity on the one hand and the pressing needs for change on the other. The need to decline strategies in aligned behaviors pushes to try to engineer cultures, giving them a planned direction: understandable designs but destined for imperfect successes. Ambivalences, inconsistencies, sometimes ironies and resistances accompany the complex and indispensable work of those who have the responsibility - first and foremost internal communication professionals - to spread new orientations of organizational action.

The challenge lies in maintaining a dynamic balance between top-down transmission and bottom-up listening. On the one hand, internal communication is first and foremost the voice of those who lead the organization; on the other – to continue to be credible over time as an organizational connecting element – it must keep listening to those who live the organization. Skeptics included.


The opinion of Valentina Uboldi, Head of Global Internal Communications, Eni

In an era where change is continuous and disruptive, organizational culture is not an accessory but a real strategic asset.

The C Factor, the ability to activate culture, thus becomes a crucial competitive advantage. Culture is an intangible asset, but it is not abstract: it is observable, measurable and actionable, and can become visible with new processes and tools.

This is where internal communication comes into play with an unprecedented role of guidance (and communication) of the cultural process, which Anglo-Saxon models summarise in “Culture Communication & Engagement”, where the Culture Plan represents the main tool of a true cultural strategy coordinated by the Internal Communication function.

In this scenario, leadership makes the difference.

Leaders are cultural ambassadors: their communication can strengthen or weaken the corporate culture. A leader who communicates consistently and who listens gives meaning to change. The leader who does not, suffer it. Internal communication can play a key role in leadership communication, too often overlooked.

Leaders are cultural architects: they cannot communicate what they have not helped design. They need to be involved in the analysis of the current culture and the co-creation of a future culture, capable of meeting today's challenges. Here too, Internal Communication can guide, coordinating the cultural mapping process through listening, to return the portrait of the perceived culture and the elaboration of the future "cultural framework".

In conclusion, every cultural transformation passes through leaders: they are the true multipliers of the C Factor. Investing in their communication and in new culture management processes means building (and maintaining) a solid, shared culture ready for metamorphosis.

Those who deal with internal communication know that this is the ideal function to lead this change.