Organisations of all types, sizes and orientations are communicatively embedded in our society. This not only creates opportunities for organisations to build and maintain targeted relationships with relevant sub-publics, but also responsibilities to get involved in various discourses and help shape them. Traditional media channels and social media play a central role in this.

Communication in the organisational context must therefore be considered strategically, i.e. professionally planned and developed, managed and evaluated in order to contribute to the added value of organisations and to fulfil the aforementioned responsibility for social development. In addition to external communication, professional communication within organisations is also essential for their constitution, design, culture and thus their stability.

At the Institute for Strategic Organisational Communication, we deal with the theories of organisational and organising communication, its various forms in the public sphere as well as its effects and consequences for the organisations themselves and society as a whole. In short, we deal with communication in, by and about organisations of all kinds, such as companies, industrial networks, political organisations, non-governmental organisations and social movements.

We integrate interdisciplinary perspectives from communication science, organisational research and sociology, linguistics, as well as relevant research on marketing, management, psychology, environmental and political science. A particular focus is on strategic communication and organisational topic and communication management, especially in relation to social topics such as sustainability, health risks and economic transformation.

The Institute is part of the Department of Business Communication.