Il comunicatore d'impresa in tempi di crisi e di complessità: l'uomo, il manager, il leader

Purposes of the paper: This study is aimed at depicting the distinctive traits of the professional identity of the CCOs in order to explore how they shape their organizational role and the corporate communication practice in the firm. Methodology: The study is based on autobiographical narrative interviews with a multi-sector purposive sample of 15 among the largest-sided Italian companies operating in global markets quoted on the Italian Stock Exchange. Findings: The CCO emerges as a “romantic character” assuming multiple heterogeneous identities to cope with environmental complexity. He appears as a manager with a flexible view of the world, somehow suspended between present and past, but with a strong future orientation. Furhermore, the multiple identity traits translate into two main roles enacted by the CCO in the firm: a “commander” role and a “chamberlain” role. Research limits: The study is exploratory and preliminary, therefore its validity cannot be indiscriminately generalized. Practical implications: The ideal educational background of the CCO combines a humanistic culture with an economic and managerial set of knowledge. Educational multisciplinarity seems to encourage a higher consideration of corporate communication as a strategic function by the top management, also facilitating the development of leadership behaviours of the CCO. Originality of the study: The narrative perspective aimed at collecting and reconstructing slice of life stories of our selected CCOs allowed an ecological and trustworthy exploration of the main features of both the professional identity and the role of CCO in current complex organizations.