3. Transferring the concept of strategy to communication management
In the last two sections we have presented some basic assumptions of strategy
formation within the decision-making and the interpretative paradigm. The two
approaches highlight distinctive features of strategy, yet they can complement each
other well. By combining the two approaches and applying them to strategy making in
communication management, different aspects can be brought together: The focus of
the sensemaking perspective is mainly on questions of perception and interpretation of
ambiguous information. The decision-making perspective, on the other hand, deals
primarily with problems of rationality respectively irrationality of decision-making as
a sequence of consecutive operations. Both approaches refer to actions which are
embedded in a specific context. A linkage of decision-making and interpretative
perspectives sheds light on essential problems of communication management
strategies. In the next section, we will demonstrate this with regard to the act of
decision-making itself and thus for the development of communication strategies,
internal and external effects of communication strategies and finally, a retrospective
and prospective view on communication strategies.