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INTRODUCTION

In ecology, sustainability refers to how biological systems remain diverse and productive. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. In more general terms, more specific to this research, sustainability refers to the endurance of systems and processes. The organising principle for sustainability is sustainable development, which includes the four interconnected domains of ecology, economics, politics and culture (James, Magee, Scerri, Steger & Manfred, 2015). In this research, it is postulated that an organisation’s sustainability can be enhanced through integrative communication between the various organisational elements responsible for sustainability, in this case: stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, financial perspectives and resource perspectives. Sustainability science is the study of sustainable development and environmental science (Kahle & Gurel-Atay, 2014).
Organisational sustainability, in general, seeks to implement sustainability strategies, which provide organisations with economic and cultural benefits, attained through environmental responsibility. Recently, the natural environment has become a key strategic issue in both the business and academic communities. Through « implementing sustainability strategies, organisations can integrate long-run profitability with their efforts to protect the ecosystem, providing them with opportunities to achieve the traditional competitive advantages” (Stead, 1995:43-66). In this study, the four fundamentals of the organisation that play a role in organisational stability, will be investigated, namely: stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, resource management and financial management. From this perspective, integrative communication affects the balance in organisational processes.
The academic and practical importance of this study posits that the integrative communication unit has an influence on organisation sustainability. The research will follow a two-dimensional approach focussing on the major constructs of integrative communication and organisational sustainability. The significant role it plays will be defined after the research data have been analysed. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the influence of integrative communication on the sustainability of an organisation. The research will examine: 1. The importance and the role of the integrative communication unit within an organisation and the major pillars representing it, namely: effective messaging; strategic positioning of the communication unit in the organisation; core competencies of the communication unit; dynamic capabilities and flexibility of the communication unit; co-value-creation by the communication unit; and the role of the communication manager as a reflective steward. 2.
The concept of organisational sustainability and the major pillars representing it, namely: stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, resource perspectives and financial perspectives. The outcome of the research will endeavour to indicate whether an integrative communication unit has a part to play in stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, financial processes and resource processes as dimensions of organisational sustainability. The study will furthermore include a theoretical foundation that will support the arguments in the research and will focus on the Systems Theory as the meta-theory. The Systems Theory plays a significant role in organisational sustainability and is seen as a holistic system, characterised by a high degree of integration between the factors intervening in the process of value creation (Grant, Shani & Krishnan, 1994). The various academic disciplines, academic fields and applicable theories supporting the study have been analysed to derive concepts and constructs for hypotheses and the final measuring instrument.
From a communication management perspective, the study will look at various theories, among them the Complexity Theory, Convergence Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Systems Theory of Organisational Communication, Integrative Strategic Communication Management Theory, as well as how these theories contribute to the research. The study will also include the academic disciplines and fields of organisational sustainability focussing on financial administration, stakeholder management, resource management and governance. A quantitative research methodology was followed, targeting respondents at various levels within corporate organisations to establish whether the integrative communication unit affects stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, financial perspectives and resource perspectives. The key focus of the study reflects on the sustainability of the organisation, which is a result of the relationship between stakeholder engagement, governance, finance and resources and the role integrative communication unit plays in each of them.

Definition

Integrative communication embraces effective messaging; strategic positioning of the communication unit in the organisation; core competencies of the communication unit; dynamic capabilities and flexibility of the communication unit; co-value-creation by the communication unit; and the part that the communication manager plays as a reflective steward. All these elements contribute to an “integrative communication unit” in the organisation and support various organisational communication processes. This integrative communication unit is reflected in the Integrative Strategic Communication Management Theory developed by De Beer (2014), which include sustainability and governance perspectives in the conceptualisation of strategic communication management. According to De Beer, strategic communication management in a triple context environment should focus on co-value-creation in the form of communicative capacity development, through communicative currency, capital, equity and value. Botan and Hazleton’s (2006:44) research furthermore focuses on the public relations function and the fact that it integrates all public relations programmes into a single department. It also provides a mechanism for coordinating programmes managed by different departments. Only in an integrated system is it possible for public relations to develop new communication programmes; to change strategic publics; and to move resources from outdated programmes designed for formerly strategic publics to new programmes (Botan & Hazleton, 2006:44-45). They also postulate that the communication unit should not be integrated into another department whose primary responsibility is a management function other than communication. This integrated system links to the Integrative Strategic Communication Management Theory developed by De Beer (2014).

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TABLE OF CONTENTS :

1 CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND AND POSITIONING
- 1.1 INTRODUCTION
- 1.2 INTEGRATIVE COMMUNICATION
  - 1.2.1 Definition
  - 1.2.2 Management
  - 1.2.3 Core competencies
  - 1.2.4 Dynamic capabilities
  - 1.2.5 Co-value-creation
  - 1.2.6 Value-add of integrative communication
  - 1.2.7 Integrative communication manager
  - 1.2.8 Organisational sustainability
- 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
- 1.4 PURPOSE STATEMENT
  - 1.4.1 Research objectives
  - 1.4.2 Concepts
  - 1.4.3 Constructs
  - 1.4.4 Hypotheses
- 1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN
- 1.6 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
- 1.7 DEMARCATION OF CHAPTERS
  - 1.7.1 Chapter, heading and content summary
- 1.8 CONCLUSION
2 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
- 2.1 INTRODUCTION
- 2.2 CONCEPTUALISATION AND META-THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
  - 2.2.1 Meta-theoretical and theoretical conceptualisation
- 2.3 META-THEORY
- 2.4 ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES
- 2.5 ACADEMIC FIELDS
- 2.6 THEORIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE RESEARCH
- 2.7 CONCLUSION
3 CHAPTER THREE: INTEGRATIVE COMMUNICATION
- 3.1 INTRODUCTION
  - 3.1.1 Integrated communication
  - 3.1.2 Integrated marketing communication
- 3.2 INTEGRATIVE COMMUNICATION
  - 3.2.1 Integrative strategic communication management
  - 3.2.2 The rationale of the concepts communication and communicative
  - 3.2.3 Integrative communication growth
  - 3.2.4 Integrative thinking
  - 3.2.5 Strategic structural positioning
  - 3.2.6 Core competencies
  - 3.2.7 Dynamic capabilities
  - 3.2.8 Coherent and shared corporate culture
  - 3.2.9 Co-creative value-creation
  - 3.2.10 Communication capital
  - 3.2.11 Integrative communication manager
- 3.3 CONCLUSION
4 CHAPTER FOUR: ORGANISATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY
- 4.1 INTRODUCTION
- 4.2 ORGANISATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY
- 4.3 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
  - 4.3.1 Stakeholder engagement
  - 4.3.2 Stakeholder management
  - 4.3.3 Stakeholder relations
  - 4.3.4 Stakeholder communication
  - 4.3.5 Stakeholder governance
- 4.4 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
  - 4.4.1 Corporate governance principles
  - 4.4.2 Triple-bottom-line reporting
  - 4.4.3 Integrated reporting
  - 4.4.4 King III and King IV
  - 4.4.5 Stockholm Accords
- 4.5 FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE
  - 4.5.1 Financial performance
  - 4.5.2 Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
  - 4.5.3 Shareholder value
  - 4.5.4 Strength of Balanced Scorecard
- 4.6 RESOURCE PERSPECTIVE
  - 4.6.1 Competencies development
  - 4.6.2 Technology utilisation
  - 4.6.3 Climate for action
- 4.7 CONCLUSION
5 CHAPTER FIVE: RESEARCH DESIGN
- 5.1 INTRODUCTION
- 5.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM
- 5.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
- 5.4 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  - 5.4.1 Research design
  - 5.4.2 Questionnaire design
  - 5.4.3 Sample design
- 5.5 QUANTITATIVE DATA COLLECTION
- 5.6 CONCLUSION
6 CHAPTER SIX: RESULTS
- 6.1 INTRODUCTION
- 6.2 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
- 6.3 INFERENTIAL ANALYSIS – ANOVA
  - 6.3.1 Private entity, government entity, NGO/NPO
  - 6.3.2 Small, medium and large organisations
  - 6.3.3 CEO/executive/managing director; senior manager/manager; practitioner
- 6.4 INFERENTIAL ANALYSIS – STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING
- 6.5 CONCLUSION
7 CHAPTER SEVEN: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
- 7.1 INTRODUCTION
- 7.2 MAIN PURPOSE AND PROBLEM STATEMENT OF THE STUDY
- 7.3 GENERAL FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH
- 7.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
  - 7.4.1 Research Objective
  - 7.4.2 Research Objective
  - 7.4.3 Research Objective
  - 7.4.4 Research Objective
  - 7.4.5 Research Objective
  - 7.4.6 Research Objective
  - 7.4.7 Research Objective
  - 7.4.8 Research Objective
  - 7.4.9 Research Objective
  - 7.4.10 Research objective
  - 7.4.11 Research Objective
  - 7.4.12 Research Objective
- 7.5 INTEGRATIVE COMMUNICATION RELATIONSHIP MODEL
- 7.6 INTEGRATIVE COMMUNICATION RELATIONS MODEL
- 7.6 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
- 7.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
- 7.8 RECOMMENDATIONS
- 7.9 CONCLUSION
- REFERENCES
- APPENDIX A: EDITORIAL LETTER