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CHAPTER 6
Communication similarities and differences
in listed and unlisted family enterprises
Liam Ó Móráin
In the United States, corporate governance legislation was introduced primarily directed
at listed enterprises requiring executives to certify financial statements as accurate and
requiring increased oversight of boards and auditors. Private unlisted enterprise however,
remains free from such regulatory control and security. This chapter asks if there
is a role for corporate communication in governance at enterprise, either listed or
unlisted. The chapter will look at some relevant governance issues and outline the
historical development of communication in unlisted enterprises.
Introduction
As a communication practitioner (PR, IMC,
corporate affairs, etc.) in Ireland this researcher’s
encouragement to examine corporate
communication (CorpCom) in the context
of the similarities differences, comparisons
and contrasts between listed and unlisted
family owned enterprises is to gain a greater
understanding of the unlisted family owned
enterprise decision makers’ motivation towards
communication best practice in organizations
on the one hand, and, on the other
hand, to understand the practised reluctance
of these decision makers to apply best practice
in their communication. In addition our goal
is to investigate real or imagined reasons for
the ad hoc approach to communication, i.e.
‘PR is press relations, and because we don’t
talk to the media, we don’t need PR’.
Different government agencies’ investigations
(Ireland and the United States) into certain
aspects of how governance and corporate
management operate, especially in relation to
listed enterprises, has created tighter rules
and new regulations in terms of establishing
accountability, responsibility and transparency
with respect to the interests of shareholder
investments and returns. In Ireland,
political and business–government bribery
scandals and investor tax avoidance scandals,
which involved exposing governance and
corporate management dishonesty and fraud
(the Ansbacher Inquiry, the Flood Enquiry, the
Moriarty Tribunal) have led to the establishment
of a new director of corporate enforce-
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors