Sustainable communication? : A study about strategic communication in a network organization

The study deals with the importance of strategic communication and the purpose of this thesis is to examine the challenges for strategic communication in a network organization. A network organization is an organizational form that arises increasingly as a result of today's rapid change and leads to a greater need to collaborate and exchange knowledge among stakeholders. Strategic communication has its basis in communication theory, organizational theory and management theory and therefore the theoretical reference framework is built from these areas. The research questions are as follows: What meanings do goals and vision have for strategic communication in a network organization? What are the challenges of strategic communication in a network organization? In order to investigate these research questions the study is based on a qualitative study and more specially a case-study. The study was conducted on Green Umeå which is a network organization and is particularly interesting as it is based on a co-creation logic. The interviews were conducted using semi-structured interviews on site and the selection of respondents was made with a snowball selection. The results of the study are as followings: - Clear goals and a vision are important to be successful with strategic communication. - Value creation has a significant role in network organizations and thus influences strategic communication. - Conflicts of interest among actors within network organizations can lead to difficulties with common goals and visions. - Communication has a crucial role for the strategic communication in a network organization