Book Review: What I’m reading now….

Ruck, K., (2020), Exploring Internal Communication: Towards Informed Employee Voice, 4th ed, Abingdon: Routledge

During the current pandemic, and in the future crises still to come, few things could be as important to organisations as communicating with their internal stakeholders.  Because for organisations to survive, and for them to effectively connect to their external audiences, they must first ensure that leadership, trust, honesty and joint purpose are successfully communicated to their internal ones.  

Exploring Internal Communication, edited by Dr Kevin Ruck of PR Academy, perfectly encapsulates that requirement.  A core text for any PR student of internal communication, it is also the go-to publication for any human resources practitioner wanting to ensure their practice is grounded in thorough, research-based evidence.

The book introduces key elements of understanding better organisational communication, including a thorough explanation of culture, strategy and purpose.  Ruck focuses on the need to be employee-centric and to transform organisations through a business partnering approach.  To be effective, Ruck argues that employees should not be just informed, but engaged; communication is THE key component to achieving this.  

In addition to the rationale for informed employee voice, Exploring Internal Communication outlines practical frameworks and approaches for achieving strategic internal communication, highlighting relevant theories and models to underpin practice.  Core elements of effective communication including change management, psychology and narrative story telling are each explored in their turn, with practical examples and observations incorporated from industry leaders such as Rachel Royall, Ann Pilkington and Heather Yaxley.

The Covid-19 pandemic has ushered in a period of extraordinary change.  To meet that challenge, organisations need to know they can rely on professional public relations practitioners who are experts in gauging and responding to internal audiences.  The new edition of Exploring Internal Communication will help to upskill staff as well as introducing PR students to the best current and critical thinking in this area.  Never has good internal communication been more important.