Skip to main content
Top

2024 | Book

Organizational Listening and Response

Attending to External Stakeholders

insite
SEARCH

About this book

This book argues that listening to constituents who reside outside organizational boundaries, but who are essential members of an organization’s ecosystem, is a vital constitutive element of organizational communication. It also attempts to demonstrate that, by and large, the field of organizational communication has neglected such listening.

The book goes on to introduce a conceptual and methodological framework organizations can use to assess listening practices and effectiveness. Through a combination of theory, research, and case illustrations, the book will be valuable to both scholars and practitioners in the fields of organizational communication, marketing, and public relations. It will provide insight and direction for theory-building, knowledge development, and implementation of best practices.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. The Organizational Listening Imperative
Abstract
Beginning with an illustrative case study, this chapter proposes that aligning organizational policies, resources, processes, and practices with the needs and requirements of external stakeholders is key to organizational sustainability and survival. Embracing an open systems approach to organizational communication, we argue that messages captured from external stakeholders must be transformed into intelligence used to focus and direct internal communication—and communication with partners—to plan and manage organizational roles and structure, and to coordinate how work is performed. In developing this perspective, we attempt to leverage the “Four Flows” model of organizational communication, along with the concepts of “outside-in” thinking and value chain analysis. Throughout the chapter, the constitutive role of organizational listening as it relates to realizing the above approach is emphasized.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 2. Foundations of Organizational Listening
Abstract
In this chapter, we attempt to explicate the concept of listening, to describe what it means to listen in interpersonal versus organizational contexts, and to provide an overview of how organizational listening is viewed from alternative disciplinary perspectives. This chapter also introduces a second case study that illustrates common challenges and obstacles to organizational listening effectiveness. A review of relevant literature in areas of study such as organizational development, public relations, marketing, and organizational communication reveals considerable overlap in the way scholars and practitioners think about how organizations should orient and structure themselves for the purpose of listening and responding to external stakeholders. From this review, we derive eight generalizations that may serve as guidelines for the conceptual and operational framework described in subsequent chapters.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 3. A Conceptual Model of Listening and Responding to External Stakeholders
Abstract
In this chapter, we introduce a conceptual model of organizational listening and response to external stakeholders emphasizing four facets of a listening system. Three of these—orientation, scale, and sustainability—provide the foundation for a listening system, while the fourth focuses on a proposed four-step closed-loop listening process itself. After discussing each of the four facets in detail, we introduce a third illustrative case study in which the system is implemented by a community college as the basis for listening and responding to a variety of that institution’s external stakeholders and communities.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 4. Capturing and Leveraging the “Voice of the Customer”
Abstract
This chapter begins by revisiting the organization described in the case study introduced in Chapter 1, focusing on how insights drawn from interviews with customers enabled that organization to align its internal perspective of quality with the customer perspective. We transition to a discussion of how and why customer centricity is a central theme in our current commercial milieu, and how it has paved the way for widespread development and implementation of corporate “voice of the customer” (VoC) programs. The pivotal idea behind these programs is obtaining information via listening to customers that can be used to focus and direct efforts to improve customer experiences and relationships. The concepts of relationship marketing and value-chain analysis are applied to provide increased clarity regarding why firms are investing in VoC programs, and we conclude with a discussion of how our proposed model of organizational listening and response can be used in the design, implementation, and evaluation of such programs.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 5. A Program of Research on Organizational Listening Practices and Effectiveness
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of our five-phased, mixed-methods program of research. The overarching objective of this research was to determine how—and how effectively—commercial business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations listen and respond to their customers (the external stakeholders in this case). We also examined potential hierarchical and role-based influencers of perceived organizational listening practices and effectiveness. The research program included two qualitative studies, one cross-sectional survey, and two quasi-experiments. The specific objectives of each of these studies are briefly discussed. Chapter 5 also includes a description of the initial exploratory qualitative study conducted to identify organizational listening elements that (a) align with our proposed conceptual model, (b) are specific to corporate VoC programs in a B2C setting, and (c) could be transformed into quantitative survey measures.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 6. Assessing the Current State of Corporate Voice of the Customer Programs: Part One
Abstract
In this chapter we describe the objectives of and method used to conduct a survey of managers and executives in North American B2C firms, focusing on these individuals’ perceptions of VoC practices and effectiveness in their respective organizations. We also describe the measurement model that was developed and tested using the survey data. This model aligns some individual survey items with the Foundational aspects of our conceptual model of organizational listening and response (Orientation, Scale, and Sustainability), and others with the Process aspects of our model (Capture, Analyze, Share, and Respond). Results indicate that the measurement demonstrates good fit to the data, and as a consequence, can be used to create reliable sub-scales for each of the key constructs of our conceptual model.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 7. Assessing the Current State of Corporate Voice of the Customer Programs: Part Two
Abstract
This chapter summarizes key findings from the survey of North American B2C firms regarding the “current state” of corporate VoC programs. Results reveal that: (a) Overall, most organizations are not yet where they want to be when it comes to capturing and leveraging the Voice of the Customer; (b) For the most part, organizations have been successful at establishing a foundation for listening and responding to customers, but there are gaps to be addressed with regard to VoC sustainability; and (c) Assessments of effectiveness at capturing customer feedback are significantly more favorable than those regarding the ability to analyze, share, or utilize intelligence drawn from such feedback, suggesting that most organizations are better at capturing the VoC than they are at using it to improve customer experiences and relationships.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 8. Assessing the Current State of Corporate Voice of the Customer Programs: Part Three
Abstract
This chapter describes two quasi-experiments conducted to examine potential hierarchical and role-based influencers of perceived organizational listening effectiveness. For each quasi-experiment, we present a brief background/literature review, the hypotheses that were developed and tested, and the research methods employed. With regard to location in the organizational hierarchy, results supported hypotheses that assessments of VoC program effectiveness made by senior executives would be more favorable than those made by middle managers. With regard to a member’s role in the organizational listening process, results supported hypotheses that assessments of VoC program effectiveness made by consumer intelligence providers would be more favorable than those made by customer intelligence users. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for long-term success and sustainability of corporate VoC programs.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 9. Organizational Listening in 2024: Perspectives of Thought Leaders and Subject Matter Experts
Abstract
This chapter describes the final phase of our research program, which involved qualitative depth interviews conducted with organizational listening and VoC subject matter experts representing both academic and practitioner communities. The general objective of these interviews was to determine if the conclusions drawn from our survey research still hold in the current milieu. Results reinforced the general conclusion from our earlier research that most firms continue to be better at capturing the Voice of the Customer than they are at putting it to work. While advancements in technology and methods have improved the ease and efficiency with which customer feedback can be collected and distributed, for the most part, VoC programs still are managed in the same ways—and suffer from the same limitations—that were identified from our earlier survey findings and conclusions.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Chapter 10. Addressing Organizational Listening Challenges and Opportunities: Some Best Practices and Potential Solutions
Abstract
This chapter returns to the Digital Era case study, introducing some best practices and potential solutions to the most common organizational listening obstacles identified earlier in the book. We attempt to demonstrate how creating a pan-organizational steering team can strengthen the foundation of an organizational listening program, and how CX roadmapping makes it possible to connect intelligence derived from listening to customers or other external stakeholders to people, processes, and activities within the organization itself. We attempt to show how convergence mapping and other data blending methods can make all external stakeholder data “work together” to pinpoint and support priorities for organizational planning and improvement. We also introduce and illustrate a ten-step process for using intelligence gained via listening to customers and other external stakeholders to drive systemic improvement. We conclude with a call to action, urging organizations to embrace and integrate the preceding best practices/potential solutions into their respective approaches to listening and responding to external stakeholders.
David Randall Brandt, William A. Donohue
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Organizational Listening and Response
Authors
David Randall Brandt
William A. Donohue
Copyright Year
2024
Electronic ISBN
978-3-031-58779-5
Print ISBN
978-3-031-58778-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58779-5