Corporate Communications: A Benchmark Study of the Current State of the Art and Practice

Abstract

A study was conducted by Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in cooperation with the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and Opinion Research Corporation to learn the internal values of corporations in regard to communications. From a field of 750 major American companies originally queried, 100 responded in some detail. The 1997 study was divided into four sections: Current Practices and Issues; Structure, Function and Operations; Planning Goals and Measurement, and Functional Areas and Audiences. The most significant findings were that the effectiveness of corporate communication very much depends on the level of the senior-most communications executive; budgets for communication functions seem not to be tied to their importance within a company; fewer than half the companies have mission statements or written disclosure policies for financial information, and there is little communication of corporate goals to employees.