Communicators in the Loop — Attractions in technical communications management

The relationship between humans and machines has been a defining feature of the world of work in its various eras since the first industrial revolution. Now, there is intense debate about the role that artificially intelligent machines and their applications might play in production, creation, and decision-making processes in the future. Significant changes are expected in communications management in particular, because the unique characteristic of humans as designers, distributors, and interpreters of content and messages, which has existed since ancient clay tablets, is coming to an end. Yuval Noah Hariri argues that AI will be not only an artificial “myth-maker” but also a digital “bureaucrat,” whose dark side is more likely to be read in Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” than seen in James Cameron’s “Terminator.”

Continue reading “Communicators in the Loop — Attractions in technical communications management”

Thinking in the second future tense – communications management as an orientation task

There is an inherent tension in the nature of corporate communications: between an organization that is directionally geared towards achieving goals and resource efficiency and the collaterally effective ability of people to communicate, which is a natural characteristic that eludes all-encompassing control. In the roughly one hundred years of development into a modern management discipline, the focus has nevertheless always been on the instrumental, goal-oriented aspects of communication. If we as representatives of our profession today confidently claim strategic approaches for ourselves, then we are also meeting the increased expectations of the reliable transmission performance of corporate communication.

Continue reading “Thinking in the second future tense – communications management as an orientation task”