Dialogue Strategies via social networks and Organisational Performance

Communication scholars have proposed a large number of definitions of dialogue. Generally speaking, communication studies conceive the concept of dialogue as rooted in philosophical and relational theories, stressing the ethical orientation of dialogue in order to develop and manage successful relationships between organizations and their publics (Kent and Taylor, 1998; 2002). From this perspective, the term dialogue has been conceived of as a product rather than a process and it has been increasingly used to describe ethical and practical approaches to communication with the aim to better understand how modern companies can serve both corporate aims and public interests (Kent and Taylor, 1998; 2002). Kent and Taylor (2002) propose some tenets of the implicit and explicit assumptions of dialogue concepts, which represent a first step towards a dialogic theory of communication, influencing the implementation of a dialogic perspective in the online environment. Recently, Kent and Taylor’s (2002) strategic framework has been applied to promote and facilitate dialogic relationships via the Internet, principally to websites and, more specifically, to Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook (Sweetser and Lariscy, 2008), blogs (Seltzer and Mitrook, 2007) and Twitter (Rybalko and Seltzer, 2010). Empirical research reveals that Web 2.0 technologies could assure high potential to build dialogic relationships if approached appropriately. Nevertheless, what does ‘appropriately’ mean? How can an online dialogic approach be developed effectively? Communication scholars seem to have been limited in considering the organizational commitment and a general acceptance of the value of building relationships as two prerequisites to develop an effective dialogic approach (Kent and Taylor, 2002). Concerning the online environment, although extant studies provide useful insights to develop a dialogic orientation through new digital technologies, they take into account those technical characteristics of specific online tools, such as websites or Facebook and Twitter, which could promote a dialogic relationship. Focusing on ethical and relational aims, communication studies seem to neglect the huge variety of corporate purposes that dialogue may serve. In this paper, we adopt an organizational perspective and we develop a strategic framework to manage online dialogue, summarized through the orientation-approach online dialogue matrix. Then, we test which are the most effective dialogic strategies within the largest organizations.