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Charlotte Simonsson

Leadership, internal communication & communication professionals

Senior lecturer with a research interest in the role of communication professionals and internal communication processes related to aspects such as leadership and coworkership, changes and crises. Has a background as head of department and has worked outside the university as a senior communication consultant.

Background

I have served as the head of the department for six years (2012-2017) and have also worked as a senior communication consultant for several years. My main focus as a consultant was training and development of leaders, but also evaluation and measurement of communication.

In 2002 I earned my Ph.D. at the Department of Sociology, Media and Communication Studies at Lund University. The focus of my dissertation was leaders’ communication roles and communication between managers and coworkers. The research questions concerned ideas, practices and organizational conditions in relation to leadership communication. Communication has always had a key role in leadership, but the shift towards loosely structured networks, visions and values, self-managed teams etc. means that leaders’ communication role has changed dramatically. The challenge for leaders is no longer to control employees’ physical actions, but to manage their imaginations and interpretations. In this view, leaders’ primary role is to act as managers of meaning, which calls for new and more difficult ways of communicating.

Area of Research

My research interests are primarily related to various aspects of internal communication processes such as leadership, coworkership and changes, but also what happens inside an organization in a crisis situation. Another research interest concerns roles and practices of communication professionals. At present I am engaged in the research project The communicative organization with the purpose to clarify how communication contributes to value creation and organizational goal accomplishment.

Selection of recent projects:

Communicative organizations | 2014–2018
The aim of this project is to clarify how communication contributes to value creation and organizational goal accomplishment. The project is based on a survey and interviews in eleven different organizations. The project is funded by The Swedish Communication Association and the City of Helsingborg and the ten organizations which are part of the study. See more about the project.
Internal crisis communication | 2011–2013
The aim of the project was to contribute with new knowledge, strategies and methods for internal crisis communication. The project was based on a case study within Skane university hospital and was funded by The Swedish Agency for Contingency Management.
Communication in change processes | 2006 –2008
This project focused on communication in change processes, including communication between managers and employees, roles of communication professionals and organizational learning. The project, funded by The Knowledge Foundation (2006–2007), was based on the study of change process within three companies: Astra Zeneca, Eon and SCA.

Teaching

At present I am teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, usually in courses covering organizational communication, change communication and crisis communication. I also act as a supervisor of master’s and bachelor’s thesis. In 2013 I was awarded the title Qualified Teaching Practitioner (QTP) from the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Teaching Academy, Lund university.