Internal and external communication for sustainable development : Case study on the municipality of Gnosjö

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Internal and external

communication for sustainable

development

Case study on the municipality of Gnosjö

Master thesis, 15 hp

Media and Communication Studies

Supervisor:

Karin Wenström

Sustainable communication

Spring 2020

Examiner:

Leon Barkho

Franziska Hoffstaedter

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JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY

School of Education and Communication Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden +46 (0)36 101000

Master thesis, 15 credits

Course: Media and Communication Science with Specialization in Sustainable Communication Term: Spring 2020

ABSTRACT

Writer: Franziska Hoffstaedter

Title: Internal and external communication for sustainable development Subtitle:

Language:

Case study on the municipality of Gnosjö English

Pages: 38

Sweden hosted the first environmental development conference in 1972 and since then has been a European role model in sustainability issues (UN, 1972), following the triple bottom line: concern for the planet, people and profit (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). The present study deals with the application of micro-ethnography in sustainable communication, in the case of the municipality of Gnosjö in Sweden.

Based on internal, external and strategic communication literature, the case study of Gnosjö, in which different areas of organisational communication were represented and how they affected the sustainable development of the organisation, is presented and analysed.

It was investigated, which communication channels the municipality uses, how these channels look like and which aspects influence the communication and its development.

The approaches of micro-ethnography were applied to collect and evaluate data. For this purpose, data were collected from participating observations with employees at Gnosjö town hall and the collection of seven interviews with informants from the fields of communication and sustainability and constantly compared.

The exploratory data analysis reveals how the employees remained powerless in performing their work routine. Politicians, as the main decision-makers, play an important role in the development of the municipality. Therefore, they should attend training programs to understand the importance of sustainable communication internally and externally.

Keywords: Internal and external communication; Sustainable development; Micro-ethnography

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Introduction

“Whatever exists in the social world is the product of human communication” (Allen, 2016, p. 12).

In recent years sustainability became a major topic in the news, politics and for companies. The idea of sustainability is the outcome of different interdependent topics around politics, history, research and social movements (Godemann & Michelsen, 2011). Sustainability, in theory, is composed of different levels: The idea in theory of intra- and intergenerational justice, concept, key principles of resilience, sufficiency and efficiency, fields of action, target groups and implementation (Godemann & Michelsen, 2011, p. 16). Part of growing recognition is the interest in media sustainability exposing global challenges as pollution and scarcity of resources (Picard, 2017). Sustainability in the communication of media sets the impetus behind behaviour change and awareness. The sum of human activities affects not only the environment moreover the quality of life. Therefore, development in media and communication is a critical component of national development to support the effectiveness of local media. In order to deal with local, domestic and international issues people need to communicate with each other. Part of communication development is to combine and use traditional media, communications infrastructures and information technologies (Picard, 2017).

For example, Svalna, an application (app) combines forms of information with technology for raising awareness of the environment’s health (Andersson, 2020). Svalna is a Swedish service for those who want to keep track of their climate impact and how to reduce it. The app collects information from individuals about their emissions from food habits, everyday transport, travelling and living conditions, for example. Svalna uses that information to calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions individuals caused in one year (Svalna, 2017; Andersson, 2020). Confident of participation, knowledge and commitment the founders of Svalna believe in a transition to a more sustainable world. How that journey looks like is dependent on how communities are organised. In Sweden, the climate council of Jönköping county (Klimatrådet Jönköpings Län) organises seminars within a forum for the climate council to help increase knowledge about the benefits of such collaborations as with Svalna (Olsson, 2017). The start-up Svalna ran a one-year climate campaign from September 2019 until September 2020. Within this period around 7000 citizens of Jönköping county started using the app Svalna and wanted to reduce their climate impact by five per cent until the finish of the campaign. Among the participants are 17 people who are pioneering the transition, as so-called Climate Fighters, and accept the challenge of reducing their emissions by 30 per cent within one year (Andersson, 2020).

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The 290 Swedish municipalities have a joint mandate to work with Agenda 20301_{. All Swedish} municipalities have signed the Agenda 2030 to implement the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), political goals, intended to ensure sustainable development worldwide on an economic, social and ecological level (UN, 2015).

Therefore, it is important for municipalities to work consciously and continuously with sustainability, as municipality influences development on a local level. The work on Agenda 2030 in Jönköping has been implemented in different ways. For example, the global goals were translated into policy documents and decisions. The municipality further works on the fulfilment of human rights and the environment, as well as education and information about Agenda 2030 (Nilsén, 2020). Further Jönköping county wants to be a role model in increasing the dialogue with actors outside the county.

One of Jönköping county’s municipalities is Gnosjö Kommun (Swedish for a municipality), partner of Svalna and the climate council (Svalna, 2017). Gnosjö is a special municipality in the county because of its spirit of awakening, solidarity, cooperation and strong confidence in the region’s capabilities (Wigren, 2003). Gnosjö is an entrepreneur region and in its field the leader in western Småland. The municipality sets its priorities in environment & infrastructure, entrepreneurship, participation and culture. Gnosjö is famous for its spirit of tackling challenges and problems by the people and companies who operate in the region of Gnosjö. People who live this spirit stand for collaboration, motivation through others, help, generosity and the building and production of local goods (Wigren, 2003; Gnosjoandan, 2020). One of the municipality’s collaboration is the participation in Svalna’s climate campaign to motivate its own citizens to fight climate change (VanDerMeulen, 2019).

Communicating such environmental engagement is not typically easy as these challenges are often systematic and complex (EEA, 2016). Although science and research about environmental knowledge are constantly improving, incompleteness is a concern. Most people do not associate intense rainfalls and droughts with climate change, for instance, although it is similarly connected to the decision of transport and energy source people take (EEA, 2016). In the discussion of how to meet challenges of climate change, there is no doubt that mitigation activities must be carried over on a global, national and local level. To influence public knowledge and engagement, the need is to know why people differ in their attitudes.

To live well within the limits planet earth has provided means to behave well in terms of changing fundamental elements of lifestyle and adapting those into daily routines. This need for more action or change can be conveyed - in part - by efforts by public authorities to communicate about policies and to encourage citizens to act. However, the application of micro-ethnography for the investigation of sustainability communication in the environment

1_{With the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, the international community of states expresses its}

conviction that global challenges can only be solved together. The Agenda creates the basis for shaping global economic progress in harmony with social justice and within the ecological limits of the earth (UN, 2015).

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of a municipality has not yet been empirically investigated. Although there are some quantitative and qualitative research approaches to this topic, there is a lack of empirical studies and results using the example of Gnosjö Kommun. This research project, therefore, aims to investigate how the communication of the municipality is shaped regarding sustainable development. The method of micro-ethnography will be used for the investigation.

In this thesis, the researcher argues that internal and external forms of communication in the municipality of Gnosjö can be influenced by political motivation or by political decisions to a large degree. Therefore, it is interesting to discover what measures should be taken to communicate sustainability ideas and the SDG to potential electors and internally to the departments.

Structure

In the following chapters, the research topic will first be examined in more detail. For this purpose, the next chapter outlines the research objective and the research questions. This is followed by a brief overview of the current state of research on internal and external communication in communities and sustainable development. The theoretical background in the following chapter includes internal and external sustainability communication and the necessary strategic alternatives for its application. This leads the work on the further differentiation of the research interest and the chosen method of study to the detailed description. The analysis and classification of the results of the work are presented in the penultimate chapter and form the basis for the concluding discussion in the last two chapters. Here the main findings are interpreted in relation to the literature, the limitations of the work are worked out, and an outlook on future research and practical application is provided.

Aim and research questions

The municipality of Gnosjö addresses sustainability issues within their community. However, the practical aspects of communicating the needs of Gnosjö’s citizens for a more sustainable lifestyle and reducing their carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint has not been researched yet. This study shall shape a framework to understand, explain and describe the phenomenon of communication forms at Gnosjö Kommun and which practical ideas are to implement for a communication strategy. The aim of the research is to analyse internal and external communication with a focus on sustainability aspects. The study presents recommendations for an effective communication strategy for the long-term. For the present research work, it is first necessary to empirically test these theoretical preliminary considerations (see previous research). The research interest formulated in the introduction on how the communication channels of a municipality are designed regarding sustainability is therefore specified here. The following main research questions (RQ) will lead the research:

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RQ1: “How does Gnosjö Kommun handle communication-related sustainable concerns internally and externally?”

RQ2: “What changes does Gnosjö Kommun need to make in order to successfully implement sustainability communication internally and externally?”

The answer to the first RQ is intended to provide insights about which communication characteristics are integrated at which points in a communication strategy and the second RQ shell put light on how to strengthen a municipality in the changing context of sustainable development. However, to take up all aspects from the theoretical preliminary considerations, guiding sub-questions are formulated in the following, which are subject to the research question and are intended to focus it. The guiding sub-questions have the task of translating the first research question into questions for empirical research and thus form the basis for the survey instrument. Since qualitative survey methods have an open character, the guiding sub-questions play an important role. They help in the design of survey methods and serve as guidelines for the collection of data (Seale, 2018). The following guiding sub-questions were developed within the framework of the present research work:

RQ1.1: “Which forms of communication are used and how are these forms implemented?” RQ1.2: “Which aspects influence the forms of communication and its development?”

To be able to answer the guiding sub-questions posed here as well as the research questions, the methods used in the present research work are described in detail in the chapter method and material.

Previous research

One of the most important steps for the development of an appropriate research framework is to critically review existing literature and to position this study within it (Hansen & Machin, 2019). Based on the research question this review details with the state-of-the-art literature in the field of sustainable communication and development in theory, methods and data. The literature shell help to understand what has been written about the nature of internal and external communication with a focus on a local level of municipalities.

Role of internal and external communication

Communication is central to shape the understanding of the natural world and the individual’s role in it. How humans act, support or reject certain policies reflect the understanding of their role. In addition, communication is the source to discuss different points of view (Zikargae,

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2018). Sustainable development at municipality level follows laws and regulations set by the government of a country. The implementation of the prescribed laws by the government is maintained, although the tightening of individual laws varies according to the interests of the municipality. To ensure public participation in local affairs the South African Municipal System Act from 2000 directs South Africa’s (SA) municipalities to ensure that they make use of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) (Gazette, 2000). The plan includes communication with the public for integrating their voice into local processes. Molale (2019) identified with qualitative research to what extent participatory communication takes place in the case of Jouberton Township in the Matlosana local municipality.

Using participant observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, the study found that community members were passive participators in municipal IDP processes in which their involvement was limited to being informed about what would happen or had already happened. (Molale, 2019, p. 57)

The findings in Molale’s (2019) study suggest empowering the target community in participatory communication, as discussions and decision-making, during IDP processes in the municipality. An ethnographic approach made it possible to focus on the voices and feelings of the target group to elaborate on how a municipality communicates externally. The same ethnographic approach was applied by Msibi and Penzhorn (2010) studying participatory communication in the Kungwini local municipality, SA. They discovered that the participatory communication approach is prized as well as determinative to the local development for the municipality (Msibi & Penzhorn, 2010).

Zikargae (2018) sees gaps in the treatment of environmental issues due to the lack of information flow and integration of communication tools on the part of public authorities. The results of Zikargae’s (2018) study present the unavailability in the case of Ethiopia’s authorities to communicate the issue of environmental concerns on a political and public level. Developing countries are victims of climate change and therefore Ethiopia is suffering from drought, for example. This environmental relevant information needs further addressing communication strategies from the authority. Within different strategies and channels of communication people’s behaviour can be changed. Additionally, environmental communication of authority is divided into internal and external environmental communication and linked to sustainable development. Positive outcomes in sustainable development are foreseeable if the provided information is reliable, sufficient and easy to access (Zikargae, 2018). Digging deeper in the case of Ethiopia, Zikargae (2018) investigated qualitatively how an authority communicates environmental issues. The author conducted four in-depth interviews and supplemented those with documents, which are essential for the data collection. Those included authority guidelines and documentary coverage of Amhara Mass Media TV concerning environmental issues (Zikargae, 2018). In this case, Ethiopia’s environmental problem is not given much

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attention to the communication between the authorities and the public. The country’s authority lacks in creating awareness for its situation and creates a weak public dialogue (Zikargae, 2018).

Calder and Beckie (2011) used the same qualitative approach to explore the use of communication processes in municipal sustainability planning (MSC) and applied the method on a comparative case study in Canada. Data was collected by means of twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews from two different communities in Alberta. Background information of the MSC process was retrieved from documents of the federal Gas Tax Agreements and the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan for the interviews’ structure development. Environmental engagement is to involve the public in decision-making and planning. But the commitment might not last as it takes time and effort for engagement in the long-term, while the role of communication is fundamental to engagement (Calder & Beckie, 2011). Five levels of engagement of different communication methods were identified by Calder and Beckie (2011): informing, consulting, involving, collaborating (participatory decision-making) and empowering citizens. The study uncovered that the authorities must work hard to maintain public confidence. Trust is necessary for sustainable and consistent messages to communicate climate risks (Calder & Beckie, 2011).

Leiserowitz (2006) assumes that decision-making is a cognitive activity and about risk perception and policy preferences. The theoretical relation between risk perception and policy support can be explained with the cultural theory. The growing relevance of political power underlies globalisation and its power to construct news frames on climate change. With a national representative survey, Leiserowitz (2006) analyses climate change perceptions among US administration. The author’s results indicate, if people cannot feel critical consequences of climate change, US citizens consider the issue as moderate and something affecting “people and places far distant in space and time” (Leiserowitz, 2006, p. 64). However, the majority of US citizens, for instance, believe someone else should solve issues concerning the environment. Thus, climate action is externalised to the US government, industry and so on are addressed, while no changes happen in the ordinary people’s behaviour (Leiserowitz, 2006). This expresses the paradox in US risk perceptions of climate change and the distance to environmental issues. To influence public knowledge and opinion, one needs to know more about why people have different attitudes and perceptions about climate change and its possible consequences. Leiserowitz (2006) sees a general lack of urgency about climate change and its national communication from the political set of priorities. This research could be strengthened with an ethnographic approach to include knowledge of people’s attitudes and perceptions about climate change.

Acknowledging that values and beliefs from experts, in addition, play a role in risk communication, sustainable development takes environmental communication to an upper

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level (Waddel, 1995). With the “Social Constructionist Model” (Waddel, 1995, p. 207), all participants communicate and engage emotions. The model considers valuing the communication process as much as the outcome, where risk communication is an interactive exchange of information. Taking sustainable development on a regional level includes an environmental community composed of environmental activist groups, governmental organisations, companies and the civic. According to this case study, Waddel (1995) argues that sustainable development obliterates differences between experts and the public.

Réka and Borza (2012) demonstrate that organisational communication, irrespectively of which organisational field, is a complex phenomenon. Internally work productivity is dependent on communication and essential to reach joint goals. Their study reveals that cultural organisations pay more attention to their external communication. With their study, they are raising awareness of the importance of communication within an organisation to take part in a competitive environment. For the study, they used a quantitative approach in the form of a questionnaire of 300 representatives (Réka & Borza, 2012).

Dealing with sustainability issues

Everyday environmental friendly practices such as recycling, energy-saving and the use of public transport can be promoted through a routine home or school activity and by connecting the public with broader social values through the news media (Lakew & Olausson, 2019). The potential of news media differs from younger to elderly news consumers independently if they are sceptics or dogmatist of climate change. Lakew and Olausson (2019) argue, the higher the number of positive influencers (social multipliers) the more pro-environmental attitudes or behaviour and more self-efficiency. However pro-environmental attitudes and intensions do not guarantee pro-environmental behaviour (Lakew & Olausson, 2019).

With a focus on people and their nearby surroundings concerns about climate change are different (Lujala, Lein, & Rød, 2014). The results of Lujala’s et al. (2014) study moreover display that mere living in a more exposed area, but without personal harm experience, has no impact on respondents’ concerns about climate change. Risk perception not only plays an important role in shaping climate policy, but is also central to gaining support for initiatives to adapt and mitigate (Lujala, Lein, & Rød, 2014).

The current example of climate change is of a cognitive and discursive process in which the originally strictly scientific discourse is gradually transforming. Olausson (2011) indicates that taking on banal characteristics as in expressions like “carbon footprint” and “climate-friendly” are integrated as social representations into everyday cognition and discourse. The role of media can additionally be described as the agenda-setter in shaping the public’s representation of climate change (Olausson, 2011).

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Mass media influence the general public with visuals and stories. These ways help to remember messages and to communicate complex content immediately and to shape the public’s opinion on certain topics (O’Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009). Public opinion and engagement are examined by O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole (2009) using the theory of fear messages in climate change communication. The authors describe to what extent fear messages in climate change communication go in engaging the public. With two empirical multimethod studies, the research considers the role of visual and iconic representations of climate change for the public. Use of qualitative methods in both studies allows participants to freely articulate their personal view of climate change. The results explain that fear messages generate attention but rarely long-term engagement (O’Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009).

Similar results can be viewed in a study with focus groups by Olausson (2011) where fear messages generate short term engagement as well as emotional fatigue and active coping strategies.

A solution-driven way to reach the public is to frame environmental issues as something other than environmental problems, for example, climate change as a public health problem (Maibach, Nisbet, Baldwin, Akerlof, & Diao, 2010). Using an explanatory study, Maibach et al. (2010) demonstrate that people relied more positively on information about health benefits in a short, public health-framed essay on climate change than on information about climate change associated with prevention policies. The authors believe in the public health community to address the problem of climate change more personally and therefore more relevant to the public.

According to Lakoff (2010), the presentation of environmental movements reaches most attention through globalisation. As the details of environmentalism are more complex the simple way to understand social movements is to frame them (Lakoff, 2010). Movements shed a light on issues which are not visible to everyone at first appearance (Lakoff, 2010).

Olausson (2009) discusses the connection between media frames and ideological hegemony in the media’s responsibility for collective action. The responsibility for solving large-scale environmental problems like climate change is not one of the individuals, but more likely the political realm (Olausson, 2009). Olausson (2009) uses the tool of critical discourse analysis to capture the ideological and unintended to unfold the taken-for-granted values related to the dominance of power.

Positioning the study

The review of the literature indicates that scholars use mixed methods, for example, a triangulation of methods as in an ethnographic approach (Bryman, 2016) for the investigation of sustainable communication. Previous research indicates, that in most cases communication about sustainability is connected to climate change. The contexts influencing people’s

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behaviour are different but the literature about sustainable communication regularly focusses on the relation of individuals and their attitude towards the environment. The process of recognition builds on the power of authorities to communicate the issue of sustainability. Literature about the involvement of employees themselves about how they relate to such issues has not been investigated yet. “There was no observational and ethnographic work into what kinds of values, decisions and processes lie behind the use [of sustainable communication]” (Hansen & Machin, 2019, p. 75). An empirical research gap is recognizable in how authorities as in this case a municipality can communicate in the long-term issues of sustainability to their external stakeholders to understand and implement in daily life. In addition, the importance of ethnography for internal and external communication according to sustainability has not been discussed yet. In the case of Gnosjö’s communication department, existing research explicitly and implicitly investigates the characteristics of sustainable communication to the public and how different methods of communication involve or affect the public. The literature review suggests using a qualitative approach of micro-ethnography to close the gap of sustainable communication within the internal communication at the municipality of Gnosjö and the dialogue with their external stakeholders.

The contribution of this master thesis will provide new empirical knowledge through micro-ethnography on internal and external environmental communication with the aim to help authorities building on a communication strategy.

Theoretical frame and concepts

Before responding to the individual points of the theory, this research deals with the relationship between the individual terms of communication. Starting from the main research question, the focus of the study is the communication on the sustainability of the municipality of Gnosjö. However, communication cannot be described as a fixed term but is constantly influenced and shaped by internal circumstances, external factors and different forms. Communication is a broad field, so the focus of this research is on sustainability communication, which is subject to the relationship between communication and sustainable development (Bucur & Petra, 2011). The handling of sustainability communication (see introduction) is examined with a micro-ethnography approach within the municipality and in dialogue with stakeholders externally.

Sustainability communication

In organisations, communication plays a critical role (Allen, 2016). How an organisation is working relies on the language they are using. Allen (2016) sees the existence of whatever it is in the social world as the product of communication. Through diverse forms of

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communication, the concept of sustainability in an organisation has gained importance, in general. Various sources of knowledge in theory and practice allow organisations and individuals to act towards goals – for example, sustainability goals. How these goals look like are created by human interaction and are continuously challenged. This creation of defining sustainability communication exists in various forms (Allen, 2016; Bucur & Petra, 2011). Following Cox (2013), the definition of environmental communication combines the transmission of information from a source to a receiver about the broad field of environmental topics. Therefore, this research brakes down the term of environmental communication into a pragmatic and constitutive function. Pragmatically the instrument of communication is the tool for solving problems, strongly related to education. In a constitutive sense, the instrument of communication is the instrument for defining problems, the possibility of understanding the object of a problem that has arisen. In acknowledging something as a problem, constitutive communication evokes values and creates a certain perspective for people’s attention and understanding (Cox, 2013).

Within and between organisations, communication is the tool to help authorities to implement all issues of sustainability. Using this tool enables organisations to educate their employees and leaders. Further, communication warns the public how to deal with danger and natural disasters. It is the tool for organisations in persuading the public and their own staff to change their behaviour (Hansen, 2015; Allen, 2016; EEA, 2016).

Internal and external communication

For organisations, who are not related directly to the field of communications, the topic of communication is not that present on their daily agenda. Many organisations are facing challenges regarding sustainability-related messages. They fear to raise their voice about their impacts, either positive or negative, on sustainability because of the possible backlash of their audience (Allen, 2016, p. 13). Moreover, organisations are facing the challenge of internal communication, due to political disagreements what is on the internal agenda and should be communicated to the public. As a result, messages are transmitted late or not at all. For the support of internal information and control processes greater transparency in sustainability reporting can be useful (Herzig & Schaltegger, 2011).

How people act and what they believe depends on how communication is organised (Gunster, 2017). To engage the public in pro-environmental practices, they need to be accurately informed about environmental issues. According to Gunster (2017), the level of concern rises as soon as people are aware of a specific problem’s extent. Likewise, people’s reluctance can be attributable to a lack of relevant information and the deficit of authorities to communicate this issue (Gunster, 2017).

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Communication is influenced by the public sphere, a community who share concern or topics and engage others in communication how they view the environment and their relation to it (Cox, 2013). In the theory of communicative action, the German social theorist Jürgen Habermas (1984) argues that actions are communicative when the participants are coordinated based on mutual understanding and not on personal success.

Communicative rationality occurs when communication is free of coercion, deception, strategy formation and manipulation (the ideal speech situation). In short, communicative rationality suggests that people are motivated by a will to understand and learn from each other. (Svensson, 2008, p. 210)

This understanding and rationality are achieved in ideal speaking situations. Whenever individuals share their concerns through questioning, arguing, celebrating with others, they exist in the public sphere (Habermas, 1984). Communication enables participation and engagement internally and externally (EEA, 2016).

Organisational communication

Forms of communication

Communication is critical for knowledge sharing between different cultural groups. The effectiveness of work in groups depends on the forms of communication and is therefore valuable for organisational structure (Michailova & Sidorova, 2011). Professional institutions can help to structure communication departments and develop a communication plan for their organisation. Channels of formal internal and external communication stay in focus to design. To bring about change, campaigns are conducted and communication tools are established as a standard. These tools are essential for sustainability communication and are reflected in recurring documents and reports. These documents are available to the public, for example, via the company's own website. Internally, the company uses defined documents for compliance with rules and for certification (Allen, 2016).

Formal sustainability communication further requires an organisation to hold regular meetings with its employees. According to Allen (2016), the issues of sustainability must be addressed internally by the management on a regular basis, for example, through monthly internal newsletters, on the intranet site or similar. With a strong internal communication strategy, the topic of sustainability can be credibly communicated externally (Allen, 2016).

Strategic communication

For an organisational change towards sustainability, a strategy is based on the organisation’s culture. Therefore, the organisation’s leaders should prove to what extent sustainability fits into the current strategy or the existing organisational culture. Based on this, they should discuss possible changes that the organisation would like to make (Allen, 2016). According to

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McAleese and Hargie (2004), strategic communication follows five guiding principles in management: Define a guiding strategy, evolve culture leaders, spread the culture by communicating effectively between employees, measure performance, and communicate the organisations’ culture with external groups of interests. These principles can be applied to any organisation, no matter which cultural background. The authors recommend taking time on building on these principles to avoid short-time solutions. Further, these guidelines shell help an organisation to achieve common goals for sustainable development internally and externally (McAleese & Hargie, 2004).

To identify a sustainable-orientated organisational culture the human relations model after Quinn (1988) can be applied: The human relations model sets its focus on training and development for employees, open communication as well a participating culture of decision making. The cultural model stresses “environmental health and safety, human well-being, and employee skills, satisfaction, commitment, and productivity” (Allen, 2016, p. 193).

Micro-ethnography

To operationalize this study a micro-ethnography approach is applied. Micro-ethnography has its roots in ethnography and this in anthropology with the focus on people (Hansen & Machin, 2019). It’s a method and theory at the same time and involves the researcher to participate in people’s daily life (Seale, 2018; Bryman, 2016). The researcher takes an observational role by listening and watching to what happens in a specific case. This observation takes place of an extended period of time and the researcher asks questions through informal and formal interviews with the investigated unit. Ethnography is not a single method it is an approach that relies on several sources of data. Within micro-ethnography, the time of observation is limited and the focus of the study lies on a specific aspect instead of a broader field of research (Bryman, 2016; Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). For this reason, this study takes a micro-ethnography approach into account for the investigation of internal and external communication of sustainable concerns at the town hall of Gnosjö Kommun in Sweden.

Method and material

Research design

The scientific value of the present work lies in the explanatory approach of internal and external communication. The basis of qualitative research is the study of understanding how an area functions and the description of people and their culture (Hansen, 2015; Bryman, 2016; Seale, 2018). The application of a micro-ethnographic approach is one way of representing the latter by using different data sources to obtain the ideal value for the study. Within ethno-methodical research, the study follows the concept of researching and

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conducting different data in a constant comparison (Altheide, 1987; Glaser & Strauss, 2006; Bryman, 2016; Seale, 2018). The theory is generated instead of quantitatively tested. The difference is that ethnography does not use the data to produce social facts measured with a questionnaire, rather it displays evidence of human behaviour in a specific social context (Hansen, 2015; Seale, 2018).

Alternatively, a quantitative approach would be possible whereas the choice of a qualitative approach leaves the explorative core of the study intact regarding the non-holistic transferability of the theoretical principles to the research object. For reasons of a lack of generalizability of the results, which are a prerequisite for quantitative research, a hypothesis-guided, explanatory methodology is not used. Consequently, the qualitative principle of openness and the theory-building approach was followed (Hansen & Machin, 2019).

To understand meanings and behaviour ethnography constantly interacts between formulating the problem, collecting and analysing data. This process refers to ethnographic content analysis (ECA), a constant comparison between developing the concept, sampling, collecting, coding, analysing and interpreting the data (Altheide, 1987). The solution of the content-related research problem was achieved through own data collection and analysis, which means that the study can still be described as an empirical primary analysis. Accordingly, the data were collected once using a cross-sectional study.

Data collection

Observation

Systematic participatory observation is assumed if the observer himself - in this case, the researcher - is part of the event to be observed, for example, if the researcher does not make his or her observations as an outsider. If the observation is open, the observer - unlike with covert observation - does not try to hide his or her role as an observer.

For the practice of fieldwork the researcher constantly took the role between more active as participant as observer and less active as observer as participant (Seale, 2018). The phenomenon of communication is abstract and subjective together and mandates the researcher to get in personal contact with the participants and to discover communication structures. Therefore, participation and social interaction are welcomed and participants were fully aware of the overt observation. However, this role takes the risk of identifying with the people being studied. According to Hammersley and Atkinson (2007) is everyone a participant-observer in the social world gaining knowledge by simply participating in it. In the authors’ view, “such participant knowledge on the part of people in a setting is an important resource for the ethnographer”, although its validity is to be questioned, as is information from other sources (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, p. 98). The study considers that the researcher

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is the primary research instrument within micro-ethnography and critically evaluates the production and evaluation of empirical data.

This research process involves observations and interviews to understand how internal and external communication gets practically created, the organisational cultures and institutional practices that can have a huge influence on the nature of [communication and] the ideas, values and identities that help to shape the motivations, understandings and practices of [the employees at Gnosjö Kommun]. (Hansen & Machin, 2019, p. 68) In the case of Gnosjö Kommun, the researcher had open access to the field of research and held informal talks with partners from different departments to achieve most out of the ethics.

Interviews

The researcher complemented her observations with seven semi-structured interviews. All the interviews were held in Sweden with Swedish employees and private persons during the time of the investigation.

In the context of a semi-structured interview, neither the questions nor the answers are binding, thus enables the interviewer to ask questions if the answers are incomplete (Bryman, 2016). To achieve a result, research into social structures and processes requires a pre-defined categorization of the guiding questions, which is why social science, qualitative survey method of the guideline-based expert interview was used (Bryman, 2016). This should ensure that the interviewee provides information on all important aspects. The interview recordings are available as transcripts, as so-called raw data for evaluation. Qualitative research deliberately relies on interpretative and unstructured data collection. Therefore, the results are quite vague and it cannot be guaranteed that the desired information is provided in the transcripts (Bryman, 2016).

For this study, interview partners with different professional and motivational backgrounds are selected to cover a wide range of information. Thus, the study follows the quality criterion of triangulation and looks at the study from two different perspectives (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007).

Documents

The study was complemented with documents (Bryman, 2016) retrieved from the municipality’s official website, as well as projects that employees were working on. The researcher collected the relevant documents from the participants or open access documents from the case study’s website. A document was classified as relevant when it was suggested by the observed participant (Altheide, 1987).

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This data collection technique is used in this study to familiarize with the area under investigation and to check and supplement the information from the observation and the collected interviews (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007).

Investigation unit

Figure 1 Map Jönköping county from Fred, 2005

By the end of February 2020, the researcher began her observation at Gnosjö Kommun for a period of five weeks. Gnosjö Kommun is part of Jönköping County (Sweden) and borders the west and north to Gislaved municipality, east to Vaggeryd municipality and south to Värnamo municipality (see figure 1). The municipality has a total of 9,776 inhabitants according to the statistics from 2018 (VanDerMeulen, 2019). The municipality is organised in five departments: Kommunledningsförvaltning, the city/ municipality administration, that’s where the researcher was located during the time of the investigation. Teknik- och fritidsförvaltning, the technology and leisure management; Kultur- och Utbidningsförvaltning, the culture and education administration; Socialförvaltning, the social administration; Samhällsbyggnadsförvaltning, the construction & building management and Räddningstjänst ihop med Givsaldes Kommun, the emergency and rescue service together with Givslaved municipality. In total over 900 employees are working for the municipality in Gnosjö and round about 45 are located in the town hall of Gnosjö (Thorup, 2019), where the observation took place. The communication department of Gnosjö Kommun consists of one person who is responsible for internal and external communication. Further departments support this person with content for the website or the local magazine which are then gathered and published by the communication person.

Based on the investigation unit used for this case study, the communication analysis of Gnosjö Kommun’s communication department identifies strength and weaknesses in their communication strategy.

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Research process

Social setting

Within the first days of observing, the researcher was introduced to all the employees working at the town hall of Gnosjö Kommun. Noticeable from the beginning of the investigation was the openness of every single employee. No matter to whom the researcher was introduced the respondent offered help and interest to answer questions. The introduction process happened face to face, by the researcher’s contact person showing the researcher around. After the first days, the researcher received an overview of the location, the people working in each department and how the municipality is organised, by asking her way and searching the intranet as well the official website of Gnosjö Kommun. Admittedly every employee has their own office the researcher rotated for desk working through different offices within the administrative department whenever someone was out of the house for different reasons. This created a working atmosphere in which the researcher was treated like a colleague. The community spirit was strengthened by taking lunch and Fika2_{breaks together with other} colleagues. For the case of Gnosjö Kommun, the researcher was much welcomed and further help outside the period of study was offered.

Field notes and document collection

The investigation in the town hall unfolded as follows: The researcher visited a total of 19 employees in their offices, sat down and talked to them. In most talks, the respondents were open to start talking about themselves and their role in the municipality. Two out of 19 participants did not feel comfortable in having a talk in English and referred to a colleague in their department. Both requested participants were working in the social department and one of them mailed some answers in Swedish to the researcher after a request. The content was translated in the best possible way, as far as the researcher’s language skills allowed. Further, seven out of the participants shared some documents and tools on their computer screens during the talks. Subsequently, they provided the researcher with these documents and tools, they felt important to share in relation to the topic of sustainability. From two out of the latter seven respondents sent an e-mail with documents for future analysis. All the verbal chats took between 15 and 60 minutes, depending on the information flow until the researcher was satisfied with the quantity and quality of shared information. The researcher also listened and observed attentively what happened in the corridors or in the coffee corner. The researcher had more than one conversation with some of the respondents, and with one of them, the researcher spent two hours a day on the bus to work. All the information and impressions

2_{Fika is a social institution in Sweden and Finland. It means the interruption of an activity to have coffee with the} family, friends or colleagues or, less often, another drink. A Fika break can last between 15 and 45 minutes (Duxbory, 2014).

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collected were first written down in the researcher’s notebook, and in a second step put into a coherent text at the end of each observation day. These notes are full field notes and considered for the upcoming ECA (see transcription and analysis).

Interview process

In the first week of the observation period, the interview guidelines were prepared, based on the literature on sustainable communication. The researcher obtained consent verbally from every interviewee before each interview was recorded (see appendix). The first interviewee was a politician (R1) from Gnosjö Kommun. The same guideline was then applied to four further interview partners from the sector of communication outside of Gnosjö Kommun. From participant, to participant, the order of interview questions was adjusted and further questions were added if necessary. Some of the interview questions had to be rephrased during the interview process due to language barriers. This enabled a continuous flow of speech and did not interrupt the respondent’s answer or lead to the repetition of information (Bryman, 2016). During week three of observation, the second interviewee (R2) was questioned. The respondent works as a communication expert for climate adaptation projects in the public sector in Sweden. For the third interviewee, a different interview guide was prepared as the respondent (R3) was not asked because of her profession but rather for her participation in Svalna’s climate campaign, mentioned in the introduction of the study. Although the questions focussed more on the usage of the app Svalna, the answers also applied to the research aim of the communication strategy of a municipality. In the fourth week of observation, a respondent (R4) working as a strategist for sustainable growth and a respondent (R5) working in sustainable journalism were interviewed. The research was rounded off with another respondent (R6) participating in the climate fight and a respondent (R7) working as an international strategist in sustainable development. With one exception, all interviews were conducted in person at the respondents’ offices, recorded with a mobile device and then transcribed using Microsoft Word software. An interview was conducted through the software Microsoft teams, as a video call, and subsequently processed.

Transcription and analysis

For the ECA the researcher took the role of an overt observer by listening to what people say and writing drown information in full-field notes.

The analysis of data followed the dialectical process of micro-ethnography, including a constant comparison between the triangulation of data and theory emerging during the process of ethnography. The analysis’ structure follows the structure of a coding paradigm from Strauss and Corbin (1998) (see analysis and results). Following the concept of micro-ethnography, the phase of theoretical sampling (Glaser & Strauss, 2006) was done during an observation time

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of five weeks at the case of Gnosjö Kommun. For the study of the social phenomena of communication at the municipality, a triangulation of data is being applied. Webb et al. (1966) originally designated the approach of triangulation for the measurement of concepts using more than one method to build trust in the results. As such the triangulation was associated in quantitative research. Within ethnography as a qualitative approach, the triangulation of data suits until theoretical saturation is reached. Saturation means that no additional data is collected unless the researcher is confident about the category building and no further categories will be found within this time frame of investigation (Glaser & Strauss, 2006). A triangulation of data collection increases the validity of investigations in qualitative research (Bryman, 2016). For the collection of empirical information, the qualitative method of semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews and a systematic observation were used (Hansen & Machin, 2019) to develop a deeper understanding of how the municipality communicates environmental issues and problems.

Coding process

The triangulation of data is present as text documents – transcripts - and was imported to the qualitative data analysis software Nvivo12. From there the coding process started out. In the first step, open coding took place, while the researcher read several times through the material and started out coding words, phrases and paragraphs. After repeating the coding the researcher summarized the codes among concepts in a codebook (see appendix). In the second step, axial coding brought the research to an upper level following Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) coding paradigm. Main relationships between the codes were built. Therefore, the researcher took pen and paper and draw a mind map to follow the coding paradigm referring the codes to the phenomenon, causal conditions, intervening conditions, context, strategies and consequences. From there the researcher built up the first ideas of theory. In the third and final step, selective coding identified a single category as the central phenomenon of the study. In this process, the researcher systematically related the core category to other categories and added categories that needed further refinement (Bryman, 2016). The researcher was able to derive a theoretical model from the coding process, which is described in more detail in the results section.

Relationship with the research strategy

Hammersley (1992) identifies validity and relevance as important criteria for the adequacy of measures. Both in quantitative and qualitative research the issues of ecological validity is relevant as it relates to the naturalness of the research approach. Naturalistic stance particularly relates to ethnographic research, in which observing and interviewing participants is a standing out element of data collection (Bryman, 2016). Trustworthiness is a criterion of

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qualitative studies which includes the criterion of validity. Characteristically for an empirical study is, that the study must be plausible and credible. The importance of the topic of sustainable communication is considered as relevant in ethnography to study for the understanding of various relations to communication within a specific context (Glaser & Strauss, 2006). For external validity, vital to ethnographic studies is that the study follows three dimensions of sampling: Time, people and context (Seale, 2018). During five weeks of investigation, the data was collected with a variety of people from different professional backgrounds. Reliability is mainly a criterion of quantitative research to show how far a study is replicable. Since it was impossible to lock up the social setting and circumstances around the investigation of Gnosjö Kommun the conducted study is not reliable. Although the ethnographic role of the observer can “adapt a similar social role to that by the original researcher” the findings of the researcher of hearing and seeing could not be replicable (Bryman, 2016, p. 390).

The aim of the study is to gain insights from different perspectives on the forms of communication Gnosjö Kommun is using.

Analysis and results

For verifying theoretical relationships and understanding the meaning of data an ECA was used for this study. The interactive process between the researcher, concepts, data collection and analysis is distinctive for an ECA (Bryman, 2016). This study has the aim to be systematic and analytical, by receiving categorical data for every source of data to develop an analytical construct for further studies. Some elements and topics can be assigned several times since a clear demarcation to categories and concepts is not commonly possible (Altheide, 1987). This chapter presents the results of empirical research. For this purpose, a category-specific evaluation along the main topics is carried out. In other words, all the informants’ statements, participant observation and content of documents for each main thematic category, including its subcategories, are summarised and jointly evaluated. The ECA is followed by the results for each paragraph in this chapter. According to Strauss and Corbin (1998), some distinctions are to be understood more gradually than categorically and there are overlaps in the analysis and presentation of results of some categories. A relationship between the axial categories and the core category is built to explain the happening of the social process. This integrates the knowledge of the phenomenon into existing knowledge of internal and external communication on sustainable development.

For the analysis process, the formal conducted interviews are cited with the respondent’s number, for example, R7 refers to the seventh respondent, a communication strategist, introduced in the method chapter. To locate the respondent’s statement, the lines from the transcripts are included in brackets such as ‘(R7, l. 201)’. Information taken from the informal

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talks, documents and the observation itself are all recorded in the field notes, are not presented with any form of citation yet are set in context as follows:

Phenomenon

This concept is the theoretical version of what is called a phenomenon in the coding paradigm: An event in the data that was conceptualized - and in this respect theorized - and which context must be processed in this step of analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

Internal communication

Central to every type of investigation was the topic of communication and how it was dealt with. The phenomenon of communication appeared repeatedly during the research process in observing the employees communicating with each other in the municipality and while conducting the formal interviews with the informants (see method and material). Visible differences in communication are between the observation of the employees’ internal and external communication and the interpretation of the conducted interviews. Among all the employees, direct contact was more established than using communication tools. The employees visited each other in their offices and address a request verbally before writing an e-mail. E-mails, telephone calls and the transition to video calls were used for internal communication, whereas e-mails and telephone calls rather than personal meetings, were the most common ways to communicate externally. Further, internal information was reachable on the intranet, to which the researcher only had access using a local computer during the time at Gnosjö Kommun. The use of the intranet is to share knowledge and information internally and only accessible by the organisation’s employees (R7, l. 201). During the time of the investigation, the communication person at the municipality and two other colleagues were building upon a communication plan for a redesign of the intranet platform. This platform shall be the centre of information, easily accessible for every employee, in the future. For this project, the responsible employees were meeting every week in the mornings and discussed the reconstruction of the internal webpage. For the technical structure, an external IT company was delegated. Together they were working in a team, met physical and discussed the content in a calm setup.

Because of the short distances within a small municipality a good communication among each other and good knowledge of the tasks of other co-workers dominated, from the political point of view (R1, l.403). In contrast, the employees’ point of view, on the communication climate, differed. Many participants were uninformed and although the municipality is small the municipality had difficulty addressing a problem and rather waited for external solving. For example, one participant pointed out ceasing the project of implementing the UN SDG. She explained that since it is no longer on the political agenda, no one has been assigned this task,

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so it should be done on the side. This, in turn, means that for such a comprehensive project there is no time left besides the tasks that would otherwise have to be fulfilled and the project is forgotten. In general, the flow of communication is rather slow, which can be attributed to the working atmosphere. The researcher observed that the employees took much time together for the processing of a request. They visited each other in the offices and took a seat. Then the requests were addressed, but the conversation included topics beyond that, before returning to one’s own workplace.

There was a pleasant working atmosphere, which the employees themselves classified as such, yet the social interaction leads to time pressure to work on their own tasks. This conspicuousness was reflected in the change of mood throughout the day. Starting the break the participants appeared more stressed than during the break and before returning to their workplace. In the morning, the first Fika break took place at half-past ten and everyone could join in voluntarily. On average, this break lasted thirty minutes and then everyone returned to their office, before the one-hour lunch break followed between half-past eleven and twelve o’clock and the second Fika break at half-past two. For the lunch break, the employees had to punch out and everyone kept to their one-hour break. Observable was that everyone kind of has its own lunch routine. Most of the colleagues sat together in the same groups and started lunch at the same time. On some days one or two colleagues were sitting on their own and not joined by others. The group rather sat very tight to each other than joining the other colleague at another table. During the Fika break, the employees were more relaxed and these breaks were part of their working hours. It was a time and place where the employees shared personal stories rather than talking about their work. A special Fika break took place every Thursday afternoon when it was ‘quiz time’. Every week another employee prepared a quiz on a topic of their choice for their colleagues to participate. The setup was as follows: The question master stood in the middle of the room at a high table reading out the questions with the challenge cup to win standing on the table. During the quiz, everyone concentrated on their own answers and no answers were shared loudly. After the last question, the right answers were read out or discussed in the group. On the foundation of trust, everyone calculated its points together and the winner was rewarded with the challenge cup to keep until the next quiz round. The questions were held in Swedish and the researcher got a direct translation from an employee to participate as well.

The breaks are important to the employees and some were aware that this privilege is not available at every workplace. In the first interview, the respondent (R1) reported that such coffee breaks were not possible in the caring sector, for example. Every month, the respondent joined another workplace, preferential not an office job, to get experience about the different tasks in the municipality. She reported about her day in the caring sector: First, she enquired to bring anything besides her own lunch, like coffee or if there will be some. Then her contact

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person replied that she will not have any time for a coffee break. And this was verified as they started to work, taking care of the elderly, at 7 o’clock in the morning and did not return before the lunch break. That was when the interviewee realized how privileged they are in the town hall to take a break twice a day (R1, l.184-188).

Another formal respondent (R2, l.214) saw the Fika talks as an important interaction of informal communication. While these are examples of internal communication another formal respondent named the Fika talk as an external event to organise small lunch seminars around the topic of environmental sustainability in town, about six times a year (R7, l. 261-263). These informal internally meetings were social interactions between the employees and have the potential for simple strategic meetings to improve internal sustainable communication. It is simply because the employees are used to the schedule and voluntarily spend their time together. To encourage the employees, it makes sense to build on established and functioning paths: “To internal and external, not to blame anyone for not having done all kinds of things to start from where you are and do a better [job] from there” (R2, l.57-59). The Thursday quiz round offers competition in a playful way to educate employees, for keeping the informal attitude while taking the journey for integrating more issues of sustainability (R6, l.230). For improvement in internal communication, the municipality must work on their formal communication. Observable was that in many cases important information does not get brought to the politicians because the different department managers are in between. That effects that information does not reach the population or further electoral. Therefore, a feedback loop is required to clarify actions politicians are taking and actions the employees want to take (Allen, 2016). One formal respondent (R1) estimated that positive feedback has the possibility for further motivation (R1, l.233), like engagement. Further formal communication was not observable between the politicians and the staff, more verbal informal talks instead of holding meetings or sending direct e-mails. The participants from different departments independently talked about their ideas which must be brought to the politicians’ attention to make a change for the citizens, yet have not been taking into consideration because of the fulfilment of the politician’s priorities for the municipality.

In the case of internal sustainable communication and beyond, networking is essential for the employees’ own further training and the expansion of knowledge (R7, l.82). For more internal transparency in information flow, the municipality must take this approach seriously into consideration.

External communication

The challenge to efficient communication with the public requires a stable internal communication in the first stage (Allen, 2016). Both internal and external communication complement each other. In 2018, every municipality in Sweden signed a governmental paper