Integrated Capstone Project: Corporate Communication for Qantas

This project undertakes a comprehensive analysis of Qantas Airways' corporate communication and public relations strategies, particularly focusing on the airline's challenges in crisis management and stakeholder relations. It begins with an executive summary and an overview of the company, followed by problem identification, which highlights the inefficiencies in Qantas's PR strategies, especially during crises. A critical analysis of the issues explores the importance of corporate communication and public relations in maintaining a positive brand image and organizational performance. The project then recommends solutions, including arranging regular meetings, leveraging social media for external communication, and fostering interpersonal relationships. Finally, an action plan is presented, outlining steps for future study and implementation of the recommended strategies. The project emphasizes the necessity of effective communication for maintaining a strong corporate reputation and achieving business sustainability.

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Integrated Capstone Project
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Background of the Research and Company.....................................................................................3
Problem Identification.....................................................................................................................4
Critical Analysis of the Issues.........................................................................................................5
Recommended Solutions/Implications............................................................................................7
Action Plan......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Executive Summary
The study focuses on the development of corporate communication and public relations
for improving the organizational performance. The research area is based on the case scenario of
Qantas Airways, which has been experiencing the greater PR disasters due to lack of crisis
communication. The study provides the insightful knowledge about the necessity of managing
corporate communication and managing public relations. Corporate reputation is considered as
an intangible asset for different companies from any industry. Therefore, the corporate reputation
is one of the most significant aspects of managing organizational position in a competitive
scenario. Maintenance of the effective corporate communication and public relation process
helps in retaining the reputed position of an organization. Therefore, it is recommended that the
company needs to improve the internal communication by arranging weekly, monthly, and
annual meetings. On the other hand, using social media platform would be effective enough in
managing the public relations. The further action plan provides the insights about the future
actions that would be undertake for the completion of the project.

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Research Area: Impact of Corporate Communication and public relation on Organizational
Performance: Case Scenario of Qantas Airways
Background of the Research and Company
Public relations play the most significant role in maintaining business sustainability. Most
of the businesses utilize the corporate communication strategy to improve the public relation
process. According to Christensen and Cornelissen (2013), the maintenance of the effective
public relation is the key to business success. Different organizations adopt the unique strategies
to enhance the public relation process that eventually improves the organizational performance.
Corporate communication is a process of encompassing the different communication activities
undertaken by an organization both inside and outside of the company. On the other hand, the
public relation process deals with the identification and establishment of the effective
relationships with the internal and external stakeholders (Eberle, Berens & Li, 2013). The
implementation of the effective communication media inside and outside of the company helps
in building up the transparency in a cohesive way. The organizational performance depends on
such clearance of the goals and objectives (Kim, 2014). Moreover, it ensures growth for the
future prospects as well. The project would thus focus on the issues with public relation
management of Qantas Airways that affects the business performance.
Qantas is considered as the flag bearer of Australian airline industry. The company has
sustained the reputational value as a low cost carrier and the provider of the effective airline
services to the passengers. Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas Airlines felt the necessity of improve
the value added services for securing the competitive edge and participate in the global
competition (Qantas.com, 2017). It required reducing the costs for participating in the

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competition with the low cost carriers as well as the new entrants in the market. The senior
management team of Qantas is concentrating on delivering the high quality experiences to the
travelers. Moreover, the management is looking forward to promote the stakeholder
communication policies to improve the communicational transparency. The major focus of the
company is increase the reliability of both the internal and external stakeholders for the business
progresses. This airline brand provides services to the regional, international, and domestic
markets. Over 30,000 people are associated with the company to provide the best airline
experiences to the regional, domestic, and international travelers. Currently, the increasing
competition in the business market is posing challenges for the future sustainability of the
company. Therefore, the management is looking forward to improve several important areas for
maintaining the competitive value.
Problem Identification
In today’s world, the unique approaches used for the business promotions are essential
for every organization. In usual cases, social media is used as the major media of
communication. Moreover, it is essential for every business is to develop the effective public
relations to improve the organizational performance and secure the competitive edge. It is true
that Qantas Airline has the greater reputational value. The company uses the traditional media
for promoting the business. The advancements of the business strategies are expecting more from
the business marketers to ensure the greater impact on the customers (Nijkrake, Gosselt &
Gutteling, 2015). However, it is noticed that Qantas Airways has been facing the considerable
issues with their PR strategies. One of the airlines is grounded due to which it affected the
customers’ perception about the brand and quality of the airline parts. The major issue was not
with the move, but with the method of handling the situation (Bbscommunications.com.au,

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2017). The inefficiency was mostly visible in communicating the problems with the internal and
the external stakeholders. The company was quite inefficient in conveying the messages during
the crisis scenario. The company is a significant part of the national psyche. Therefore, it is the
responsibility of the company to maintain the effective relationships with the shareholders for
securing the business future (Austin, Fisher Liu & Jin, 2012). Ineffective maintenance of the
honest and open communications was the major issue behind such discrepancy. It is thus noticed
that the major concern of the company is with the maintenance public relations. The ineffective
communication process is the concern for the job sustainability of the people from different
department. It can be predicted that the company may face the considerable issues with the
public relation management. The further study would thus focus on developing the effective
business communication and public relation for improving the organizational performance and
sustaining the competitive position.
Critical Analysis of the Issues
Apparently, it is notable that the public communication and corporate communication
share many commonalities in nature. These elements or strategies are generally used for making
profits in business and improve the organizational position in a competitive market. Mazzei
(2014) explained that the effective public relations and communicational process within an
organization can improve the performance parameter in a significant way. Supporting this view,
Wright and Hinson (2017) implied that the public relation is the key driver to the organizational
reputation. Every organization focuses on developing the performance parameter by
concentrating on several components that have the interrelations with each other. In order to
present a critical analysis of these elements, it is essential to explore the conceptual ideas about
these elements. The further section of the study would focus on understanding the necessity of

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maintaining the public relations and corporate communications for resolving the issues faced by
Qantas Airways.
Necessity of Corporate Communication
According to Van Ruler (2015), the corporate reputation determines state of the
organization within an industry. It also implies a specific characteristic for managing the brand
image. Corporate communication plays the important role in developing the organizational
performance level. Koch, Obermaier and Riesmeyer (2017) pointed out that corporate
communication serves several purposes and external audience of the organization. It is essential
to communicate with the media for engaging the media and public relations. On the contrary, the
corporate communication even contributes to secure the internal management relations as well.
The internal corporate communication can be developed both in formal and informal way. It is
the responsibility of the senior management to arrange the meeting and gather the employee to
communicate the mission of the organization (Toth, 2013). Clarifying the business objectives
and goals would be helpful for the employees to schedule their work functionalities in a
sequential way.
On the other hand, the advertising, news media, and PR media are selected for
performing the external corporate communication with the business shareholders. Ruck and
Welch (2012) suggested that every company needs to keep the focus on the engaging the media
professionals and public by communicating in an effective way. For instance, if any organization
requires liaising with the government, it is essential to establish the effective communication
with the government relation experts. Another most necessary terminology of corporate
communication is crisis communication. According to Schaltegger,S., Lüdeke-Freund and

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Hansen (2012), crisis communication is considered as the facet of corporate communication,
which helps in drawing the special attention. The high-profile companies may face one uncertain
situation that can alter their current positioning or affect the business reputation in the market. It
could a situational crisis, product failure, mass layoffs, or any accidental hazards. In such cases,
it is important for the company to pay attention towards the method of handling the situation. A
structured crisis communication plan is essential in such matter.
Necessity of Building Public Relations
It is to be indicated that the public relations help in boosting up the credibility of an
organization. In usual cases, public relations communicate through numerous trusted
intermediaries. It focuses on certain audiences that are suitable for the business development.
Schmeltz (2012) identified that the public relations are developed to focus on the different
business opportunities that would be helpful enough in building the competitive edge.
Maintaining effective public relations helps in increasing reliability among the business
shareholders. Therefore, it is considered as one of the most helpful components for improving
the organizational performance. Qantas Airways has been facing the issues with the PR when the
company was at their crisis moment (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). If the company had
communicated with the public during the crisis moment, the issues would not have affected the
brand reputation. However, the further section of the study would provide some of the helpful
implications to improve the public relations and business communications.
Recommended Solutions/Implications
The identified issues indicate that during the crisis situations, Qantas Airways did not
maintain the effective communication strategies with the associated stakeholders. As a result, the

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company faced trouble in retaining reputed position in a competitive scenario. The theoretical
background and the critical analysis of the issues determine that the company requires
understanding the importance of the effective corporate communications and maintenance of the
public relations. The following recommendations would help the company to improve the
internal and external communication process and maintain the effective public relations.
Arranging the weekly/monthly/annual meeting
The senior management and the board of directors require arranging meeting with the
business associates weekly, monthly, or annually. In this meeting session, the goals and
objectives of the company would be communicated. The associated people can also present their
concerns about their job. In fact, the senior management can even convey the updated
information about the products or services of Qantas Airlines. The method is quite effective for
establishing the communication transparency.
Undertaking Social Media Platform for External Communication
The company requires actively promoting the brand image through social media sites. In
today’s world, the social media platform has become the most effective medium of
communicating with the external consumers and other stakeholders. Sharing views and updated
information as well as communicating through online mediums would be effective for the
company to gain the trust of the target audience. Moreover, it would be helpful in managing the
proper communication with the outside world for the betterment of the business process.
Establishment of the interpersonal relationships

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The company requires paying attention towards the maintenance of the effective
interpersonal relationships with both the internal and external stakeholders. Building the
effective relationships with the people would help in managing the organizational reputation in a
crisis situation. Especially, during the crisis scenario, maintaining the continuous communication
process and effective relationship would generate the reliability among the shareholders.
Action Plan
Concentrating on the issues with the corporate communication and public relations, the
future study is planned further:
Activities Implementation of
plan
Involved People Duration
Recognizing the
underlying problems
The entire study and
the discussion help in
identifying the
underlying problem.
The critical analysis of
the issues presents the
in-depth analysis of the
context-based subject
matter. Recognizing
this subject matter, the
further study would be
structured
Researcher 1 day
Collection of the In order to conduct the Researcher 2 days

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secondary sources and
research scholar
papers
clear and detailed
analysis, the study
focuses on gathering
the information from
the secondary sources.
Collecting the analysis
of the scholars would
present the conceptual
analysis of the research
areas.
Use of the appropriate
methodologies
The use of the relevant
methodological
structures and tools is
quite helpful in
collecting the necessary
data for the study.
1 day
Ensuring appropriate
data collection
technique
Managing the proper
process and techniques
for collecting the
secondary data is
necessary for this
study. It would provide
the focus on the subject
matter more widely and
present the fruitful
Researcher 3 days

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results.