Purpose

Although the market for communication consultancies has been booming worldwide for many years now, there are still only a handful of theoretical concepts and empirical findings pertaining to communication consulting. This is the fundamental starting point for this paper, which sets out to answer the following research questions: What is the function of communication consulting? What are the differences between consultants' expectations of consulting and those of clients? How do consultants and clients deal with the contradiction between proximity and distance? What are the potential threats to the autonomy of consulting?

Design/methodology/approach

The paper combines a theoretical framework of communication consulting with a survey of German communication consultants and clients.

Findings

First, a theoretical framework is developed in which communication consulting is defined as follows: First, it opens up decision-related contingency and thus produces additional options for managing communicative relationships with internal and external target groups, before helping to close decision-related contingency. The results of the survey show that the expectations of clients and consultants for communication consulting are largely similar. In the closing dimension especially, most clients share the active role of self-conception of most consultants. On the other hand, in some opening activities, clients wish for more critical, independent and courageous consulting.

Research limitations/implications

The scope of the empirical material is limited to communication consultants and clients in Germany and may therefore not be valid in other cultural contexts.

Originality/value

The paper closes a gap in both theory building and empirical research in communication consulting. The theory presented conceives of communication consulting as a hybrid of management consulting and process consulting and, in addition to the opening dimension, also takes the closing dimension of consulting into consideration for the first time. The study reveals a certain schizophrenia in clients: on the one hand, clients demand more critical consultants and thus call for more distance; on the other hand, clients prefer to be close to their consultants, particularly if they wish to work with them for the long-term.

中文翻译：

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为突发事件做好准备：交流咨询的理论框架和实证研究结果

目的

尽管通信咨询市场在全球范围内发展了很多年，但仍然仅有少数与通信咨询有关的理论概念和经验发现。这是本文的基本出发点，旨在回答以下研究问题：沟通咨询的功能是什么？顾问对咨询的期望与客户对期望的区别是什么？顾问和客户如何处理距离和距离之间的矛盾？咨询自主权的潜在威胁是什么？

设计/方法/方法

本文将传播咨询的理论框架与对德国传播顾问和客户的调查相结合。

发现

首先，建立了一个理论框架，其中沟通咨询的定义如下：首先，它打开了与决策相关的偶然性，从而在帮助解决与决策相关的偶然性之前，提供了用于管理与内部和外部目标群体的沟通关系的其他选择。调查结果表明，客户和顾问对沟通咨询的期望基本相似。特别是在最后阶段，大多数客户承担着大多数顾问的自我构想的积极角色。另一方面，在一些开业活动中，客户希望获得更多关键，独立和勇敢的咨询。

研究局限/意义

经验材料的范围仅限于德国的传播顾问和客户，因此在其他文化背景下可能无效。

创意/价值

本文填补了沟通咨询理论构建和实证研究之间的空白。提出的理论将通信咨询视为管理咨询和过程咨询的混合体，除了开放性方面，还首次考虑了咨询的封闭性。该研究揭示了客户中的某种精神分裂症：一方面，客户需要更多关键顾问，因此需要更多距离。另一方面，客户更喜欢与顾问保持亲密关系，特别是如果他们希望与他们长期合作。