Impact of Internal Communication on Employee Trust and Commitment

Relationship management is the practice of building strong relationships with important publics, including employees. It is expected that richer communication flowing between both employees and management will enhance feelings of trust between management and employees, ultimately resulting in stronger commitment to each other and to the organisation. In addition, these feelings of trust and commitment will lead to a more positive reputation for the firm, as employees are happy to be employed by the organisation and, in turn, share their positive feelings with customers and other stakeholders. This relationship management effort is thought to build long-term relationships for the mutual benefit of an organisation and its stakeholders. As employees have been thought to have more credibility with the public as representatives of the organisation than corporate communication efforts, their opinions can influence other stakeholders to have a more positive opinion about the reputation of the firm. Internal communication describes this goal of communicating richly with employees to engage them in the priorities of the organisation. Face-to-face communication was usually considered the best method for building close relationships with employee publics. This paper presents a review of available literature on the role that communication plays in relationship management with employees and its usefulness for building organisational reputation. It also recommends next actions for researchers, teachers and practitioners of internal public relations.