A history of internal communication

Описание: Internal communication – a historical perspective

Even the very earliest of enterprises – from pyramid building to canal digging – would have needed some form of internal communication.

But our discipline gets going in earnest with the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

This film starts in 1840 when female workers at textile mills in Massachusetts start writing one of the very first internal newsletters, The Lowell Offering. A very early example of user-generated content.

It covers the Hawthorne Experiments in Illinois, Chicago – a ground-breaking study into worker productivity. This proved fulfilling employees psychological needs were as important as the right financial incentives and working conditions.

We hear about another psychologist, Abraham Maslow, who in 1943 published "A Theory of Human Motivation". This profoundly shaped our thinking about what drives and motivates employees.

It mentions Roger D’Aprix, who was managing employee communications at the Xerox Corporation and who went to write ten books on humanizing corporations and communication, and in doing so, laid the foundations for our modern discipline.

In 1982 one of the most influential business books of the 20th century is published. 'In Search of Excellence' profiled well-known corporations achieving extraordinary success through a people-centric management approach. “The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered,” said author Tom Peters, “is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.”

Then in 1990, William Kahn, professor of organizational behaviour, writes a hugely influential article entitled 'Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement'. And the concept of employee engagement was born.

In 1999, Gallup publishes, First Break All the Rules, which introduces the Q12 – its engagement survey. Pretty soon, measuring engagement becomes big business.

In 2009, Engage for Success identifies four enablers for engagement – a strong strategic narrative, engaging managers, employee voices and organisational integrity.

Apple launches the first iPhone in 2007. And within ten years, employees are spending a third of their time reading and responding to email and scrolling through 300 feet of mobile content every day. The equivalent to the height of the Statue of Liberty.

Facebook enters the IC space in 2016 with Workplace – its internal social networking tool, which is not short of competitors.

Surveys now show the biggest barrier to internal communication success is the excessive level of noise inside our organisations.

2020 brings an unprecedented event – the global pandemic. In March, the Edelman Trust Barometer finds “my employer” is the most trusted sources of credible information about the pandemic. More trusted than the media, governments and even NGOs.

Not only is there a demand for company information, but many also say the current crisis is humanising organisations and – in turn – communication.

Our discipline has a long, rich history – and, it would seem, an equally rich and fascinating future.