BU Research Blog

The need to link organisational objectives with communication strategy was the message that Professor Tom Watson of the Faculty of Media & Communication took to a Cambridge conference this week.

“Too often, communication activity is seen as a functional activity of organisations, whereas it should be at the core. All organisations are communicators and so they should involve communication expertise in the formation of objectives and strategies, not as a downstream message delivery activity.”

Professor Watson was speaking to the East Anglia conference of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), which is the lead professional body for PR in the UK. He based his presentation on research into public relations measurement and evaluation which was a BU Impact Case Study in REF 2014.

“All research on communication effectiveness and the creation of value from communication demonstrates that the closer communicators are to organisational goal-setting and performance management, the better the results in terms of reputation, business and engagement with stakeholders,” he said.

Professor Tom Watson speaking at CIPR conference