ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the state of internal communication practice in the UK, how it is associated with employee engagement and how practitioners would like to change it in the future.
The UK Government-commissioned report ‘Engaging for Success’ (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009) suggests that good quality internal communication enhances engagement in public, private and voluntary sector organisations. It cites poor communication as a barrier to engagement and a cause of disengagement. Hargie and Tourish (2009: 235-236) argue that recurring themes in the communication literature include: adequate information flow concerning key change issues, supervisory communication as a preferred communication source, communication as a foundation of teamwork and positive employee attitudes, face-to-face communication as a primary method of information transmission, and the benefits obtained from conceptualising dissent as a source of useful feedback. However, they conclude that there is a disabling gap between theory and practice.
