The Organizational Listening Imperative

Beginning with an illustrative case study, this chapter proposes that aligning organizational policies, resources, processes, and practices with the needs and requirements of external stakeholders is key to organizational sustainability and survival. Embracing an open systems approach to organizational communication, we argue that messages captured from external stakeholders must be transformed into intelligence used to focus and direct internal communication—and communication with partners—to plan and manage organizational roles and structure, and to coordinate how work is performed. In developing this perspective, we attempt to leverage the “Four Flows” model of organizational communication, along with the concepts of “outside-in” thinking and value chain analysis. Throughout the chapter, the constitutive role of organizational listening as it relates to realizing the above approach is emphasized.