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Internal and External Communication for Sustainable Development

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Internal and External Communication for Sustainable Development Internal and external communication for sustainable development Case study on the municipality of Gnosjö Franziska Hoffstaedter Master thesis, 15 hp Supervisor: Media and Communication Studies Karin Wenström Sustainable communication Examiner: Spring 2020 Leon Barkho JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY Master thesis, 15 credits School of Education and Communication Course: Media and Communication Science with Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden Specialization in Sustainable Communication +46 (0)36 101000 Term: Spring 2020 ABSTRACT Writer: Franziska Hoffstaedter Title: Internal and external communication for sustainable development Subtitle: Case study on the municipality of Gnosjö Language: English Pages: 38 Sweden hosted the first environmental development conference in 1972 and since then has been a European role model in sustainability issues (UN, 1972), following the triple bottom line: concern for the planet, people and profit (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). The present study deals with the application of micro-ethnography in sustainable communication, in the case of the municipality of Gnosjö in Sweden. Based on internal, external and strategic communication literature, the case study of Gnosjö, in which different areas of organisational communication were represented and how they affected the sustainable development of the organisation, is presented and analysed. It was investigated, which communication channels the municipality uses, how these channels look like and which aspects influence the communication and its development. The approaches of micro-ethnography were applied to collect and evaluate data. For this purpose, data were collected from participating observations with employees at Gnosjö town hall and the collection of seven interviews with informants from the fields of communication and sustainability and constantly compared. The exploratory data analysis reveals how the employees remained powerless in performing their work routine. Politicians, as the main decision-makers, play an important role in the development of the municipality. Therefore, they should attend training programs to understand the importance of sustainable communication internally and externally. Keywords: Internal and external communication; Sustainable development; Micro- ethnography 2 Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 4 Aim and research questions ........................................................................................................ 6 Previous research ........................................................................................................................ 7 Role of internal and external communication ......................................................................... 7 Dealing with sustainability issues .......................................................................................... 10 Positioning the study .............................................................................................................. 11 Theoretical frame and concepts ................................................................................................. 12 Sustainability communication ................................................................................................ 12 Internal and external communication .................................................................................... 13 Organisational communication .............................................................................................. 14 Micro-ethnography ................................................................................................................. 15 Method and material .................................................................................................................. 15 Research design ....................................................................................................................... 15 Data collection ......................................................................................................................... 16 Research process ..................................................................................................................... 19 Transcription and analysis ..................................................................................................... 20 Relationship with the research strategy ................................................................................. 21 Analysis and results ................................................................................................................... 22 Phenomenon .......................................................................................................................... 23 Context ................................................................................................................................... 27 Causal conditions ................................................................................................................... 29 Intervening conditions ............................................................................................................ 31 Strategies and consequences ................................................................................................. 33 Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 38 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 40 Limitations of the study .......................................................................................................... 41 Future research ...................................................................................................................... 42 References .................................................................................................................................. 43 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 46 Interview request ................................................................................................................... 46 Interview guidelines ............................................................................................................... 47 Codebook ................................................................................................................................ 49 3 Introduction “Whatever exists in the social world is the product of human communication” (Allen, 2016, p. 12). In recent years sustainability became a major topic in the news, politics and for companies. The idea of sustainability is the outcome of different interdependent topics around politics, history, research and social movements (Godemann & Michelsen, 2011). Sustainability, in theory, is composed of different levels: The idea in theory of intra- and intergenerational justice, concept, key principles of resilience, sufficiency and efficiency, fields of action, target groups and implementation (Godemann & Michelsen, 2011, p. 16). Part of growing recognition is the interest in media sustainability exposing global challenges as pollution and scarcity of resources (Picard, 2017). Sustainability in the communication of media sets the impetus behind behaviour change and awareness. The sum of human activities affects not only the environment moreover the quality of life. Therefore, development in media and communication is a critical component of national development to support the effectiveness of local media. In order to deal with local, domestic and international issues people need to communicate with each other. Part of communication development is to combine and use traditional media, communications infrastructures and information technologies (Picard, 2017). For example, Svalna, an application (app) combines forms of information with technology for raising awareness of the environment’s health (Andersson, 2020). Svalna is a Swedish service for those who want to keep track of their climate impact and how to reduce it. The app collects information from individuals about their emissions from food habits, everyday transport, travelling and living conditions, for example. Svalna uses that information to calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions individuals caused in one year (Svalna, 2017; Andersson, 2020). Confident of participation, knowledge and commitment the founders of Svalna believe in a transition to a more sustainable world. How that journey looks like is dependent on how communities are organised. In Sweden, the climate council of Jönköping county (Klimatrådet Jönköpings Län) organises seminars within a forum for the climate council to help increase knowledge about the benefits of such collaborations as with Svalna (Olsson, 2017). The start- up Svalna ran a one-year climate campaign from September 2019 until September 2020. Within this period around 7000 citizens of Jönköping county started using the app Svalna and wanted to reduce their climate impact by five per cent until the finish of the campaign. Among the participants are 17 people who are pioneering the transition, as so-called Climate Fighters, and accept the challenge of reducing their emissions by 30 per cent within one year (Andersson, 2020). 4 The 290 Swedish municipalities have a joint mandate to
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