Dancing Together Alone Inconsistencies and Contradictions of Strategic Communication in Swedish Universities
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Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Uppsala Studies in Media and Communication 13 Dancing Together Alone Inconsistencies and Contradictions of Strategic Communication in Swedish Universities Daniel Lövgren Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Hörsal 2, Ekonomikum, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, Uppsala, Thursday, 21 December 2017 at 14:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in Swedish. Faculty examiner: Docent Magnus Fredriksson (Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för journalistik, medier och kommunikation (JMG)). Abstract Lövgren, D. 2017. Dancing Together Alone. Inconsistencies and Contradictions of Strategic Communication in Swedish Universities. Uppsala Studies in Media and Communication 13. 221 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0148-8. Organizations increasingly use communication as a strategic function to maneuver in a challenging, complex, and demanding social landscape. Based on assumptions of centralized control and planning, the strategic communication concept aims for coordination and consistency of communication. Implied is a view of actors as intentional, rational, and deliberate decision makers. Such a conventional view on strategic communication, however, cannot satisfactorily explain the underlying characteristics of communication practices in contemporary organizations. Nor does it explain how organizational members in their everyday work interpret and relate to such practices. This thesis adopts neo-institutional theory and the translation approach to study how strategic communication operates along an institutionalized recipe for communication that through various translations is reformulated to fit local organizational contexts and preferences of the people occupying these contexts. To illustrate the process of both following and adapting the institutionalized recipe of strategic communication, qualitative and quantitative material on the role of social media in sixteen Swedish universities are examined. The material is generated and gathered through an ethnographically inspired approach and includes: interviews, a six-month observation period, the study of documents, and a content analysis of Vice-Chancellor blogs. The findings show that work with social media is pervaded with inconsistencies and contradictions, but simultaneously relating to a shared recipe for communication. Shared elements for communication at the universities include the purposes for communication, notion of one university and integration. However, in translations people rely on local organizational conditions, personal values, ambitions, and experiences. This produces tensions between: control and independence, centralization and decentralization, and one voice and multiple voices. The findings suggest that translations differ across universities and between communicators on different levels, some being more “true” to the recipe than others. Thus, differences are inevitable, underscoring the issues of managing and controlling communication in the conventional approach of strategic communication. As a result, the empirical and theoretical concept of strategic communication benefits from acknowledging its social embeddedness and local recontextualization. Strategic communication is like dancing to music. Everyone hears the music, but the dance varies with each dancer ́s experiences, ambitions, and opportunities. Keywords: Strategic communication, Social Media, Neo-Institutional Theory, Translations, Universities, Inconsistencies Daniel Lövgren, Department of Informatics and Media, Kyrkogårdsg. 10, Uppsala University, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. © Daniel Lövgren 2017 ISSN 1651-4777 ISBN 978-91-513-0148-8 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-332138 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-332138) Till morfar Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... 11 Abbreviations ................................................................................................ 15 List of Tables ................................................................................................. 17 List of Figures ............................................................................................... 18 PART I - INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 19 1. Strategic Communication: Beyond Assumptions ................................. 21 Through a Strategic Communication Lens ............................................... 23 Challenging and Elaborating the Conventional Perspective .................... 25 Context: Swedish Universities, Communication, and Social Media ........ 28 Purpose and Research Questions .............................................................. 31 2. Conventions, Issues, and an Alternative Approach to Strategic Communication ........................................................................................... 35 Historical Overview and Development .................................................... 36 A Conventional Perspective ..................................................................... 38 Central Assumptions ............................................................................ 38 Social Media and Strategic Communication ............................................ 42 An Alternative Approach: Neo-Institutional Theory ................................ 45 Chapter Summary ..................................................................................... 47 3. Neo-Institutional Theory and the Translation Approach ................... 49 Central Pillars of Neo-Institutional Theory .............................................. 50 The Concept of Institution ................................................................... 51 Broadening the Approach .................................................................... 54 The Translation Perspective ..................................................................... 55 Institutional Carriers ............................................................................ 58 Chapter Summary ..................................................................................... 59 4. Methodology and Research Design ........................................................ 61 Constructivism and Ethnographical Inspiration ....................................... 62 Design: Operationalizing the Study ..................................................... 65 A Rationale for Studying Communication and Social Media in Universities ............................................................................................... 67 Timeline .................................................................................................... 70 Generating and Gathering the Material: Using Multiple Methods ........... 71 Interviews ............................................................................................. 72 Observations ........................................................................................ 75 Documents from the Fieldwork ........................................................... 78 Content Analysis of Vice-Chancellor Blogs ........................................ 79 Analyzing the Material ............................................................................. 82 Analyzing the Content of Vice-Chancellor Blogs ............................... 82 Analyzing Interviews, Observations, and Documents ......................... 82 Reflecting on Challenges .......................................................................... 84 On the Field .......................................................................................... 85 On the Material .................................................................................... 87 Chapter Summary ..................................................................................... 88 PART II – EMPIRICAL STUDY & FINDINGS ......................................... 89 5. The Role of Social Media in Swedish Universities: A Managerial Perspective ................................................................................................... 91 The Purposes of Social Media Communication ....................................... 91 To be One University ........................................................................... 93 Social Media and Communication with External Stakeholders .......... 97 Aspiring to Dialogue: Transmission as Routine ..................................... 101 Working with Social Media .................................................................... 103 Centralized Activities and Responsibility .......................................... 103 Decentralization and Local Responsibilities ...................................... 105 Social Media and Communication Documents .................................. 107 The Developing Approach to and Role of Social Media ................... 108 Chapter Summary ................................................................................... 110 6. The Role of Vice-Chancellor Blogs ...................................................... 113 The Swedish Vice-Chancellor Blogosphere Anno 2016 ........................ 114 The Content of the Vice-Chancellor Blogs: The Dominance of Differentiation and Aspects of Uniqueness ............................................ 117 To Differentiate a University ............................................................. 118 Using the Vice-Chancellor Blog to Address Issues Common to the Higher