New book highlights Page Center research on organizational listening

June 14, 2023 • Jonathan McVerry

Listening plays a part in every facet of strategic communication. In 2020, the Page Center funded 12 research projects that studied listening’s role in the corporate world. That compilation of original work is featured in a new book edited by senior research fellow Katie Place.

Each chapter of “Organizational Listening for Strategic Communication: Building Theory and Practice,” published by Routledge, uncovers important and timely insights about listening – externally and internally – at organizations.

“I’m thrilled for this book to develop organizational listening theory and practice across a variety of strategic communication and public relations contexts,” said Place, professor of strategic communication at Quinnipiac University. “It offers fresh perspectives and best practices that will appeal to both scholars and practitioners in the discipline.”

Contributing scholars represent a diverse collection of expertise. Their research examines a range of issues, themes and trends that reveals insights and examples of listening from corporate, government and nonprofit entities. Studies cover an equally wide array of areas within the topic, including advocacy, artificial intelligence, employee relations, diversity, and more. The book also asks what happens to companies that don’t listen, as well as addresses the challenges of listening at a global level.

“I love how the book fills a dearth of research on a variety of emerging organizational listening research areas, providing insights on listening techniques harnessing the power chatbots, social media, employee resource groups (ERGs), dialogic loops, and mutually beneficial relationships,” said Place.

Place said that by studying listening habits, one can learn a lot about a company’s culture, philosophy, and workplace environment. However, despite its importance, it doesn’t receive proper attention. She hopes this book will give organizational listening much needed representation in the literature.

In the Foreword, preeminent listening expert Jim Macnamara writes that over the course of recent history the practice of communication has been skewed to focus on speaking. When in fact, communication is defined as an exchange, a two-way street. Listening is equally vital.

“Organizations face particular challenges as well as responsibility in relation to listening,” he wrote. “Understanding these is the first step in examining how organizations listen and how their listening can enhance to generate substantial benefits for stakeholders, society and organizations themselves.”

Print editions of “Organizational Listening for Strategic Communication” are available for preorder and will be available for order on June 19. Special thanks to senior research fellow Katie Place for leading the call, recruiting the scholars, and publishing this incredibly timely and important book.