ABSTRACT
Communications has had a troubled relationship with business engaging in social issues. Communications can play a more positive role in building trust and effecting change inside and outside businesses. Corporates, too, are adopting the power of communications as an accelerator of change, which can have benefits across multiple audiences including company staff. The external communication of a social mission helps to persuade the internal audience that a company means what it says. There's no going back once it's in the public domain, whereas employees in any organisation might remain cautious about pledges made in internal meeting rooms. Suddenly they are liberated to be open about their own passions rather than worry that being enthusiastic about a social mission is somehow not the corporate thing to do, or might even be career-limiting. In this way employee engagement can be built disproportionally quickly by the public communication of a social mission.
