Book Review: Organizational listening - The missing essential in public communication
A comprehensive assessment of how institutions, including governments and businesses, fail to listen to their publics effectively, and the damage that results.
This book, by one of the public relations profession’s most renowned scholars Professor Dr Jim Macnamara, is an appeal to public relations leaders to put down the loudhailer and move from broadcast mode to listening mode, not just for professional effectiveness, but ultimately for the good of society.
Macnamara, a Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology Sydney and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, is an advisor to national governments and international institutions. He is one of the world’s leading public relations evaluation authorities – his academic rigour and pioneering approach are well in evidence here.
Organizational Listening, is a meticulous assessment of the degree to which organisations of all types listen to their publics and stakeholders (or not); this work is based on a two-year, three-continent study into organisations of all types (governments, businesses, NGOs), and contains an impressive collection of data from first person interviews to statistical surveys.
It starts with three everyday encounters with organisations – a local council, a car manufacturer, and an airline - which will be familiar to everyone. The author’s frustration at his inability to contact any of them sets the scene for exposing the overwhelmingly one-way nature of much organisational communication. The book then delves deeper to quantify and understand this lack of listening.
It focuses on Australia, the UK and the US, giving it a distinct Anglo-Saxon quality, which could be a weakness, but it also makes sense to look at territories with similar language, economic and political systems, and civic landscapes. The research reveals how these systems are set up to favour the loudhailer approach to politics, public relations and customer engagement, and the damage that’s doing.
Macnamara outlines the high stakes, looking at the commercial, political and social consequences of organisations failing to listen. The author argues that “a lack of listening can cause voter frustration that can ultimately topple governments.”
And without proper listening, he says, are we public relations professionals all just shouting into the void?
The author outlines how to turn an “architecture of speaking” into an “architecture of listening” and is realistic about communicators' challenges – internal opposition, culture, resource constraints, and what to do with all the information and insights gathered.
The book examines the role of communications and voice, how organisations say they communicate - and how they really do - the crisis of listening and the benefits of organisational listening for democratic politics, government, business and society.
The interviews with communications professionals reveal an appreciation of the need for change, in better evaluation and pivoting from broadcast to creating genuine feedback opportunities, supported by an internal culture which encourages that feedback to be considered.
Furthermore, the analysis of the ethics of listening in the book is very pertinent for public relations teams, given the current interest in cases of ‘social listening,’ often dubbed “spying,” in the media.
Macnamara extracts many memorable insights from research (“engagement is impossible without listening”) which help to clarify and emphasise the message of what could have been a purely academic work. It builds a convincing case that the legitimacy of Western institutions is at risk from the deaf ear being turned, far too regularly, to the voices of citizens.
The stakes could hardly be higher: the case for better organisational listening more than deserves a hearing.
Organizational Listening: The Missing Essential in Public Communication
Jim Macnamara
£27.00
2016
Peter Lang Publishing, New York
About Claire Munro
Claire Munro Chart.PR, CMktr is an award-winning communications professional and manager with over 15 years’ experience in Scotland’s environment and housing sectors.
She’s on the Committee of CIPR Scotland and has a CIPR Diploma in Internal Communications and the AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation. Claire is both a Chartered PR and a Chartered Marketer.