This research studies the lived, emotional experiences of communication leaders in UK local government to better understand the context in which they work. In doing so it exposes a sector that struggles to impose its professional identity. Communication functions in UK government have a history stretching back more than 100 years and there have been numerous initiatives to professionalise the sector at a national level, through the Government Communications Network in 2004 and a later iteration, the Government Communication Service which launched in 2014. Yet at a local authority level, where councils have responsibility for local service delivery, they have no legal stipulations on the way they communicate and this presents challenges to the professionalisation of the sector. This research contests that, in a local government setting, communication is a sector that suffers from arrested development, struggling to shake of the shackles of being associates as an emergent profession, like HR and corporate social responsibility, and unable to reach maturity because of fundamental organisational structural constraints, where communication languishes as a non-statutory, non-essential service that is vulnerable to reorganisation and cuts in times of budget pressures. The research argues that the sector has a flawed professional identity that is threatened by internal relationships that leave communication leaders on the cusp of the top decision-making table, but frequently struggling to attain it or remain on it. The research examines the professional identity of communication leaders in this context. The research was conducted at a time of heightened sensitivities through a cycle of budget cutbacks and the public health emergency of the coronavirus pandemic. As such, it contributes new academic knowledge at times of two pressurised environments to help to understand the impact on professionals through periods of heightened sensitivities that are a regular feature of their work. The research includes fieldwork comprising of interviews with a broad range of senior communicators in public authority roles. The research studies a sector within UK local government that has rarely been alighted on by scholars, and is done so by a researcher-practitioner using their own experiences through a reflexive methodology to inform the approach to primary data collection. This approach will occasionally bring the researcher’s own voice into the study where it has the benefit of being a reference point to the findings or helps to give greater context to them. Through utilising practitioner-led research, the thesis provides a unique opportunity to gain new insights and contribute new knowledge into academic studies on emotional experiences and professional identity in communication leadership roles.
| Date of Award | 25 Nov 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Simon Kelly (Main Supervisor) |
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