Accessing informants in
Organizational
© Jeremy Depauw 2008
Communication research
Return of experience from the case of Corporate
Information Specialists in Belgium
Jeremy Depauw  jdepauw@ulb.ac.be

CORPORATE INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
Alert threats and opportunities
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008
Collect
Treatment Mediation CIM support in Decision Making
Distribution
Influence actions

ROUND 1: JOB TITLES
‣ 51 job titles : 36 included in discussion
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008
‣ No less than 28 different wordings
‣ No leading formulation for job titles
‣ How to classify them?
‣ All Respondent checked on CIM concept

ROUND 2: EXPLICIT VS NON-EXPLICIT
‣ Explicit reference to CIM labels:
Competitive Intelligence Manager, Market intelligence
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008
officer, Head of Infodoc, Business intelligence and
information, Responsable Intelligence économique, etc.
‣ Non-Explicit reference to CIM labels:
Communication Manager, External Communication,
Marketing Manager, System integration and Technology,
Public Relations Manager, Member of General Affairs, etc.

ROUND 3: KEY ELEMENTS
‣ Market oriented titles (9) Market intelligence officer, Marketing
Manager
‣ Information/Data oriented titles (8) Head of Infodoc, Patent
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008
Officer
‣ Competition oriented titles (5) Competitive Intelligence
Manager
‣ Communication oriented titles (8) Communication
Manager, Public Relations Manager, New Media specialist
‣ Strategy/Corporate oriented (5) Strategic Intelligence,
Member of Corporate Strategy

GROUPS OF TITLES AND CIM
CONCEPT
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008

FINAL ROUND: IN, OUT, IN/OUT
‣ IN: Almost all Information/Data oriented
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titles, including KM
‣ OUT: All titles from Competition and
Market oriented titles
‣ IN/OUT: Communication and Strategy
oriented titles

BACK TO CIM CONCEPT
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008

KEY TAKE-AWAYS
‣ Organizational Communication research
suffers from boundaries of job titles.
‣ Activity with scattered skills
© JEREMY DEPAUW 2008
‣ Job titles are not enough to cover all potential
respondents profiles
‣ Communication oriented titles have not to be
neglected as potential sources for relevant
CIM respondents
‣ Typology helps in understanding how CIM
materialize within organizations