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Management Communication
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Organizational Communication in the Third Sector: An Alternative
Perspective
Cicilia M. Krohling Peruzzo
Management Communication Quarterly published online 9 March 2009
DOI: 10.1177/0893318909332277
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Management Communication Quarterly OnlineFirst, published on March 9, 2009 as
doi:10.1177/0893318909332277
Organizational
Communication
in the Third Sector
An Alternative Perspective
Cicilia M. Krohling Peruzzo
Universidade Metodista de São Paulo
Management
Communication Quarterly
Volume XX Number X
Month XXXX xx-xx
© 2009 SAge Publications
10.1177/0893318909332277
http://mcq.sagepub.com
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
Brazilian society is marked by profound contradictions. These contradictions
contribute to the rise of social movements and to autonomous
civil organizations that advocate for the needs and claims of the poor who
are subjected to conditions of oppression. Through these dynamics, such
organizations forge their own communication processes and become alternative
sites for the study and practice of organizational communication.
This essay focuses on communication processes in the third sector, an arena
aimed at social transformation and the exercise of citizenship. Drawn from
bibliographic research, this essay examines an alternative perspective for
the study and practice of organizational communication.
In the 1970s, amid the harsh military dictatorship in Brazil, social movements
and other civil society organizations began to mobilize against
political control, degrading living conditions, and the disrespect of human
rights evident at that time. 1 During the years of this authoritarian military
regime (1964–1984), democracy was banned and political opponents faced
imprisonment, execution, and exile. The government monitored individual
and collective freedoms and censured the mass media. Working-class salaries
failed to cover basic family needs, including housing, day care, health,
and education. Civil society slowly became conscious of the situation and
began to mobilize for the right to participate politically and to overcome
social antagonisms.
Alternative nonprofit, community-based organizations grew out of this
context. At the same time, existing institutions, such as the church, engaged
in the social battle by supporting civil causes, working to solve problems that
affected people’s daily lives, and finding ways to broaden the rights of citizenship.
These initiatives formed what is known as “the third sector,” or
“private, non-governmental, non-lucrative, voluntary association organizations”
(Acotto & Manzur, cited in Montaño, 2002, p. 55). Third sector
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1

2 Management Communication Quarterly
organizations, such as NgOs, institutes, community associations, social
movements, foundations, and philanthropic institutions, were configured
as private but developed a public character that operated in the collective
interest.
Unlike the state which forms the first sector and the market which constitutes
the second sector, third sector organizations operate in nonprofit
and nongovernmental arenas that function outside the “laws” of profitability.
In contrast to the first and second sectors, the goals and communication
processes of third sector organizations are driven by political and ideological
values and the diverse intentions of actors. In effect, third sector organizations
are an important avenue for civil action, and they also engage in
public–private partnerships. In 2004, Brazil had 276,000 nonprofit private
institutions. 2 Moreover, private foundations and nonprofit associations
employed 1.5 million people and paid approximately $10 billion in salaries
and other remunerations. 3
Essential Considerations for the Third Sector
“Organizational communication,” in the third sector, 4 does not have a
single meaning. These different connotations occur in work-related settings as
well as in social movements, community associations, nongovernmental
organizations, and other nonprofit institutions. They differ from the approaches
that characterize business corporations, governments, and other institutions
outside the third sector.
From the perspective of community associations, new principles structure
the practices and concepts of communication. Communication in
third sector organizations focuses on social action and human development
on behalf of the community and provides an alternative to traditional
professional practice. What is at stake is the broadening of the
rights and duties of citizenship and not the fulfillment of business and
governmental interests. These principles do not replace traditional organizational
communication, although they require some conceptual and practical
revision of training in this area.
In this way, the goals and practices of third sector organizations come
together to support changes in the public interest. According to Peter
Drucker (2001), nonprofit organizations are agents of human change whose
goals can be a healed patient, a child who learns, or a young person who
develops into an adult with self-respect. In Brazilian and Latin American
societies, the third sector’s objectives are to keep a child off the streets and
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Peruzzo / Organizational Communication in the Third Sector 3
away from drug traffic and forced labor and to guarantee this child a comfortable
bed and the right to play and attend school. In addition to helping
children, third sector associations strive to end all forms of violence, to
preserve or restore the environment, to respect the rights of each and every
human being, and to help human beings achieve their potential through
being involved in active intervention for change. According to Pedro Demo
(1988), citizenship is an accomplishment. It is never a concession by the
rulers. Only social pressure causes its quality to increase, and third sector
organizations focus on exerting this social pressure.
even though third sector organizations are not homogeneous (Peruzzo,
2007), they share a goal, which is to promote changes that place a premium
on human development. Therefore, their strategies also change, based on
what the organization wants to accomplish. In the process of promoting
social transformations, third sector organizations use certain tactics to
stimulate active participation of citizens and facilitate personal involvement
and self-emancipation aimed at building a more egalitarian society. Citizen
participation in the role of the protagonists is fundamental in achieving the
proposed changes.
The modus operandi of organizational communication, public relations,
journalism, and other communication specialties also changes during this
transformation. Professional practice requires a facilitation approach and a
commitment to participative processes that extend beyond empowering
citizens with technical abilities, which are usually under the authority of
specialists. Mobilizing communication, such as forming relationships with
the beneficiary public, is developed from the group’s demands and presupposes
respect for the movement’s internal and collective dynamics as well
as for the public in question. It is not simply about listening to the public to
better adapt to their interests in the way that companies do, but it focuses
on meeting the public’s needs. In contrast, institutional communication,
directed to external publics, aims to influence the public’s impressions and
to shape a favorable organizational reputation. Moreover, traditional institutional
communication does not just serve an organization’s interests;
rather, it occupies a political space in developing the collective cultural and
societal hegemony.
Therefore, with this new model, a communication professional who
serves foundations, business corporations, governmental institutions, or
philanthropic agencies and has an interest in promoting change will move
beyond creating marketing strategies and will develop skills in listening and
incorporating citizen input in this social change effort. In working as a professional
or a voluntary member of a social movement, the communication
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4 Management Communication Quarterly
professional needs to support the social actors in question and be in harmony
with the causes that motivate them. In effect, the organizational communication
specialist, who works within the third sector, is not someone who enters
from outside the system to control it but rather a professional who works
within the dynamics of the represented groups, respects them, and allows the
thoughts, knowledge, and decisions to emerge from them.
Specifically, in the third sector, the making of a social movement’s home
page or newsletter, the creation of a video, and the development of educational
campaign materials are not primarily based on the communication
professional’s competence. With this model, the collective arrives at the
appropriate course of action for each situation. It is not simply mastering
techniques that only the professionals feel are right. In other words, communication
at this level occurs within an organization’s broad sphere of
practice, not from the intervention of an external party or the actions of a
specialist in isolation. 5 It stems from a holistic framework and a multidisciplinary
perspective for mobilizing organizational practices. Interpersonal,
group, and technological communication (radio, video, etc.) work together,
and the subfields of public relations, journalism, advertising, and organizational
communication interconnect and complement each other.
In the third sector, the main beneficiary is the public, and communication
aims to fulfill the interests and needs of the other; working on behalf of the
public is the organization’s “reason for being” rather than serving the narrow
needs of the institution itself. This is why NgOs, associations, and social
movements in Brazil place a high priority on communication with the public
rather than on the organizational communication from the institution.
Prioritizing Communication for Mobilization
Organizational communication in the third sector involves two levels:
(a) using direct interaction to mobilize the public(s) and interconnecting to
develop concrete actions for promoting citizenship and (b) providing institutional
messages to the public aimed at building the reputation, image, and
political ideology of a particular organization. These two levels are very different
spheres, even though a relationship exists between them. In the first
level, communication professionals develop the interactive processes and
pedagogical materials (e.g., video clips, radio and television programs, educational
campaigns, face-to-face contacts, newsletters, sign-in forms, blogs,
cordels [a type of popular poetry], etc.) needed to work with an organization’s
beneficiary public. Communication is more strongly developed at this level
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Peruzzo / Organizational Communication in the Third Sector 5
than at the second level because of the necessity to carry out an organization’s
objectives of contributing to social change. At the second level, practitioners
create communication channels (e.g., Web sites, letters, memos, flyers, photographs,
petitions, documentaries, press releases, videos, press kits, reports, and
projects) to spread information and to externalize demands and justifications.
Third sector organizations also enact self-managed systems that stem
from the history and development of social movements. As a result of these
dynamics, leaders typically form direct relationships with their publics and
decide, sometimes with the aid of volunteers, on communication materials
in accordance with their needs for expression and mobilization. exceptions
to this pattern are found in unions, well-structured social movements, and
large NgOs that are financially strong and usually aim to communicate
with society as a whole. These types of organizations typically hire communication
professionals, especially journalists, to mobilize the public.
Recent discussions raise the question of “professionalizing” this type of
communication practice. Although many scholars are in favor of it, the idea
has clear political implications. Not all professionals meet the requirements
for this type of organization, in their academic backgrounds, their training
for the market, or their own ideological choices. The conceptual foundations
described in this article underscore the importance of a new model for
practitioners who work in the third sector in order to contribute effectively
to social change.
Trends in the Research
Research on organizational communication in the third sector reveals
four main threads. The first, and most prominent, highlights the advantages
of communication in this arena, along with offering recommendations for
ways to improve communication, especially public relations, in shaping an
organization’s social role and in connecting with allies (see Kunsch, 2003;
Oliveira, 2002). This thread also includes demonstrating ways that companies
can address social responsibilities and enhance corporate identity. A
second research thread reveals that NgOs and social movement groups tend
to underuse communication as a way of making themselves visible (Castro
& Mendonça, 2003; Menezes, 2005; Piccin, 2005). It argues for adding the
second level of communication practices in these organizations.
The third thread examines the “way of doing” and the applicability of
organizational communication to social movements and nonprofit organizations,
based on the particularities of this arena (Meneghetti, 2001). A fourth
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6 Management Communication Quarterly
thread is starting to develop (Cesar, 1999; Henriques, Braga, Silva, & Mafra,
2004; Mafra, 2006; Peruzzo, 1993, 2004, 2007, 2008). This thread, as exemplified
in this article, examines the type of communication that third sector
organizations produce within a broad political context and with efforts to
mobilize social change.
Conclusion
This article contends that theoretical principles and traditional organizational
communication practices developed for businesses and governmental
institutions in Brazil cannot be simply transferred and reproduced in third
sector organizations, especially in nonprofits and social movements aimed
at mobilizing social change. Communication in this arena stems from a set
of premises and actions aimed at changing people’s lives as well as establishing
and facilitating the relationship among organizations, their publics,
and society at large.
Notes
1. These collectives fought for access to land and housing, improvements in public transportation
and health care, protection of the environment, respect for the rights of women,
protection of children, and political amnesty (gohn, 2004).
2. These organizations often share the same volunteers, are both autonomous and private,
and are made up of citizens who gather freely around common objectives. In contrast,
market-oriented and government-regulated associations are ones that have a specific jurisdictional
structure, such as political organizations, unions, and consortiums (Sistema de Apoio
Institucional, 2004).
3. These figures are from the System for Institutional Support of the Brazilian Institute of
geography and Statistics. Complete data are available at http://www.siai.org.br/noticia.
4. This is also valid for community public relations.
5. However, there are situations (e.g., in certain large NgOs) where specialists are hired or
firms are contracted.
References
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Cesar, R. C. e. (1999). As relações públicas frente ao desenvolvimento comunitário [The public
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8 Management Communication Quarterly
IBge/IPeA/ABONg)]. Retrieved October 14, 2006, from http://www.siai.org.br/notícia/
ver.php?id=33
Cicilia M. Krohling Peruzzo (Doctoral Degree, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, 1991) is
a full professor in the graduate Program in Social Communication at the Universidade
Metodista de São Paulo, Brazil. Her main research interests include communication in social
movements, participative communication, alternative public relations, and organizational
communication in the third sector.
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