Storytelling and Organizational Heritage Communication: towards a critical development of a new corporate-cultural profession

Abstract

Though culture-oriented study programs are on the rise across disciplines in higher education, graduates face challenges: there is a lack of clearly defined job positions for graduates aiming to work, predominantly, with cultural and historical competences. This issue, paradoxically, prevails despite an expressed need and openness by public and private sector towards cultural issues: the "cultural turn" has brought about manifold campaigns by large corporations expressing awareness of both cultural and historical ties and current practices of diversity and cultural sensitivity. However, job positions clearly dedicated to these very matters are lagging, especially in small and middle-sized organizations. An ongoing EU project on Organizational Heritage Communication 1 is aiming at filling this void. We develop an educational postgraduate program aimed at university graduates from the humanities (or related disciplines), centering cultural heritage communication (CHC). In order to develop a) a skillset for the newly defined profession and b) an educational program mediating these competences, we sampled 33 European organizations and their stances on heritage communication. We employ questionnaires and thematic analysis in order to analyze what skills and qualifications executives wish for in an employee entrusted with CHC. From here, we move towards developing an adequate educational program. Our project contributes to both theory and practice by enriching the scholarly discussion about cultural competence development, and by benefitting both jobseekers and employers.

Full text

This is a working paper, and part of a larger research project on organizational heritage communication. All
rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
Storytelling and Organizational Heritage Communication: towards a critical
development of a new corporate-cultural profession
Authors
Klarissa Lueg klueg@sdu.dk
Gianluca Vagnarelli gianluca@i-strategies.it
Rasa Pranskuniene rasa.pranskuniene@vdu.lt
Abstract
Though culture-oriented study programs are on the rise across disciplines in higher education, graduates
face challenges: there is a lack of clearly defined job positions for graduates aiming to work, predominantly,
with cultural and historical competences. This issue, paradoxically, prevails despite an expressed need and
openness by public and private sector towards cultural issues: the “cultural turn” has brought about
manifold campaigns by large corporations expressing awareness of both cultural and historical ties and
current practices of diversity and cultural sensitivity. However, job positions clearly dedicated to these very
matters are lagging, especially in small and middle-sized organizations. An ongoing EU project on
Organizational Heritage Communication1 is aiming at filling this void. We develop an educational post-
graduate program aimed at university graduates from the humanities (or related disciplines), centering
cultural heritage communication (CHC). In order to develop a) a skillset for the newly defined profession
and b) an educational program mediating these competences, we sampled 33 European organizations and
their stances on heritage communication. We employ questionnaires and thematic analysis in order to
analyze what skills and qualifications executives wish for in an employee entrusted with CHC. From here,
we move towards developing an adequate educational program. Our project contributes to both theory
and practice by enriching the scholarly discussion about cultural competence development, and by
benefitting both jobseekers and employers.
Keywords
Intercultural Communication, Storytelling, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Awareness, Post-Colonialism,
Organizational heritage
Intro and Purpose: What is Heritage Communication?
In recent years, public awareness of cultural-historical ties of corporations has been increasing. Campaigns
and social media presence by large corporations have been emphasizing organizational awareness of both
cultural and historical ties and current practices of diversity and cultural sensitivity. One prominent
example is Nike’s ad campaign with black lives matter activist Collin Kæpernik during a tense US political
1 MARHER: The Cultural Heritage Marketer. Funded by ERASMUS+ as a network project.

This is a working paper, and part of a larger research project on organizational heritage communication. All
rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
climate, amongst a large mass of mostly globally operating organizations engaging with culture, history and
inclusion in their communication. Many of these campaigns employing cultural issues as selling points are
being met with disdain and some have to be pulled by the corporations due to the backlash they face.
Making culture a selling point without proper cultural and historical research, obviously, can backfire, due
to misrepresentation and offensiveness. We argue that, before engaging with current practices of inclusion,
awareness and responsibility, organizations are to engage with the historical-cultural net of events and
experiences they are suspended in. This net of past events and experiences shines constructs the
organizations current position, and it may include sociohistorical ties with different reginal and local
communities, affiliations with country politics, founder and family stories, past relations to environmental
issues, inter alia. However, ein particular small and middle-sized organizations rarely invest in researching
and communicating cultural heritage and cultural issues. This, sometimes, can lead to premature attempts
of heritage communication, often in form of storytelling, that can be overly glossy, self-idealizing,
incomplete or otherwise flawed. Actual job positions for professionals clearly dedicated to these very
matters are lagging, especially in small and middle-sized organizations. Our project on Organizational
Heritage Communication is contributing research on organizational heritage communication: we first
determine organizational interest in and stances on organizational heritage communication. Second, we
develop post-graduate program aimed at university graduates from the humanities (or related disciplines),
centering organizational heritage communication (OHC).
In analysing 33 European cases of applied heritage communication we derive a skillset for the newly
defined profession and sketch an educational program mediating these competences. We employ
questionnaires and thematic analysis in order to analyze what skills and qualifications executives wish for in
an employee entrusted with heritage communication. From here, we move towards developing an
adequate educational program. Our findings show that the capability of mediating a compelling, truthful,
and well-researched story, and the ability to tell this story by engaging manifold medial means (from social
media to physical representations such as a museum) is one of the core skills required in organizational
heritage communication.
Storytelling as an approach to stakeholder communication in itself is not novel: stories are used in
marketing to communicate products and brands more effectively (Pulizzi, 2012). The personal stories of
candidates are part of communication strategies for political campaigns (Gadinger, Kopf, Mert, & Smith,
2016). Patient stories, and the patients’ experiences of pain and illness, are an essential element of
narrative medicine (Charon, 2008). The huge amount of digital data currently produced needs to be clearly
presented to the general public: it is what Big Data Storytelling should do (Boldosova & Luoto, 2019). After
Facebook and Instagram, even the business-focused LinkedIn, has recently introduced the “story” function
(Lund, Cohen, & Scarles, 2018). Storytelling is also used in the game industry (Carlquist, 2003), psychology
(Kugelmann, 2001), criminology (Presser & Sandberg, 2015), education (Green, 2004), food sector (Nicolosi
& Korthals, 2008) and in many other fields. However, it is in the entertainment industry that stories and
their “serialisation” – especially after the “Netflix effect” –, have the main field of application (Matrix,
2014). Nevertheless, storytelling includes not only entertainment, marketing and social media but also
sectors traditionally far away from a narrative perspective, such as research and the economy. Storytelling
is considered a useful tool to involve people from different background and ages into the scientific research
processes related to Citizen Science (Richter et al., 2019). By going into the academic research, the idea to
extend a narrative paradigm into the scholars' debate – as a way to integrate rational arguments with the
narrative capability enlarging the audiences –, is an object of critical discussion from a long time ago
(Hollihan, Baaske, & Riley, 1987).

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rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
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On the other hand, storytelling and narrative debate seem to invest even a traditional “cold” science like
the economy. The Nobel Prize Robert Shiller, states that the economic theory should consider the
contagion of ideas carried by stories, and «[…] the efforts that people make to generate new contagious
stories or to make stories more contagious» (Shiller, 2020: xi). According to this approach, oversimplified
and easily transmitted stories are a key change factor for modern economies. From this perspective,
narratives drive economies more than mathematics. More specifically, economies are driven by «popular
narratives» spread through word of mouth or social media. A “narrative” contagion that affects people and
policymakers (Shiller, 2020).
The examples we have just given make clear why Storytelling became a buzzword. The large use of this
category is a sign that we are living in a kind of “narrative era” in which narratives spread in every field of
activity. On the other hand, its wide diffusion has made the concept entirely indeterminate, asking for its
resemantization. In the following sections, we elaborate on the theoretical concept of a story, and its
functions:
Stories need discourse and vice versa
One of the definitions of narrative is «a concept that combines the narrative contents (story) and the
narrative form (discourse)» (Lugmayr et al., 2017: 5). Therefore, the narrative contents (story) identify a
series of events, while discourse is the “text” that communicates them. These series of events take place in
time and space, but they are not separate from each other but connected by a cause-effect relationship.
Following this approach, we define a story as a link among different events connected by causality, effect,
space, and time. Consequently, if “story” underlines the link amid different “pearls”, storytelling focuses on
the ability to find the right wire to make the necklace. Telling a series of events, that take place in time and
space, and connect each other through a cause-effect relationship, is what composes a story. A narrative
can be dominant in a given context, this dominance being established by being repeated over time by
different agents (K. Lueg, 2018). Discourse is further set into motion upon agents telling “counter-
narratives” (K. Lueg, 2018) that can represent an element of resistance against more dominant narratives .
They do not necessarily compete with the master-narrative but offer opposing categories that can both
“stabilize or destabilize organizations” (Lundholt & Boje, 2016: 1). Counter-narratives represent
agents’ “power to oppose” (Bamberg & Andrews, 2004: 1). Literature identifies two fundamental functions
of stories.
Two functions of stories: cognitive and social relevance
First, stories do possess a cognitive function: stories support in understanding the complexity of the world.
Simplification and the use of visual language are two elements that embody this cognitive function.
Simplification refers to a process of information reduction. By stories, we communicate the essential
information of the real world we aim to represent (Raymond A Mar & Oatley, 2008).
On the other hand, similar to the ancient use of metaphors, visual language renders stories more
memorable. The vividness of the expression «My job is a jail», is immediately understandable compared to
its descriptive version «my job is a member of the category of situations that are extremely unpleasant,
confining, and difficult to escape from» (Glucksberg, 2003: 96). In summary, stories are a “simplified”
version of the world necessary to make its complexity more intelligible and memorable.
Second, stories do fundamentally contribute to socialization. Through story sharing, humans not only learn
about the world but also interact with the people in it. Sharing stories permit to generate emotional
connections among humans, creating a sense of belonging and developing a new sense of dignity (Prasetyo,
2017). Stories allow one to enter into an imaginary world in which, thanks to characters and the
identification process with them, we directly experience how others believe, think and, in the end, feel.

This is a working paper, and part of a larger research project on organizational heritage communication. All
rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
Stories give us an “experience” of others different from the traditional way of transferring information. We
will “experience” others through emotions. Research has shown that people who have been “exposed” to
fictional literature tend to be more empathetic (Raymond A. Mar, Oatley, Hirsh, dela Paz, & Peterson,
2006). Thanks to stories we develop an open attitude towards distant “worlds” (Raymond A Mar & Oatley,
2008: 181). These two functions show how storytelling can make complexity more understandable,
developing, at the same time, empathy toward humans and diversity.
The dangers of a story: power abuse and misrepresentation
Because of this ability to offer an intense emotional human experience, storytelling has been considered
potentially manipulative. According to these critics, storytelling would define a new form of “soft”
totalitarianism able to affect souls rather than bodies. The fields of application of this new despotism would
be especially the army, marketing, management and politics (Salmon, 2013). In this perspective, the main
objective of storytelling would be the exploitation of human emotions through a cynical and unscrupulous
use of the millenary art of telling stories. The art that would no longer be a knowledge-vehicle for human
socialization but an instrument of narrative “slavery” (Salmon, 2013). With a view to corporations,
storytelling can entail some dangers as well: first, misrepresentation of history and cultural issues by
corporations – even if inadvertently - for revenue purposes can have grave consequences for social groups.
Narratives unfold their power by “being oriented towards the past: they are, often, the official tools of
organizations (often: management or governance) to frame the past in a way that benefits the organization
– they thus provide a powerful structure agents consciously or unconsciously relate to” (K. Lueg, 2021,
under review). To name one example, Disney has been subject to manifold discussions of inaccurate and
damaging storytelling. Its famous “Pocahontas” movie, arguably, embodies the idealtypical dynamics
between a powerful hegemonic narrative (K. Lueg, & Carlson, Sören Olav, 2020; K. Lueg, Graf, & Powell,
2021) and a marginalized counter-narrative (K. Lueg, Lundholt, & Bager, 2021): whilst Disney portrays a
dynamic young female Pocahontas that falls in love with a colonist, native American voices have long tried
to set the picture of the real Pocahontas (named: Amonute) right as a child abducted and exploited by
colonists (Townsend, 2005). Such powerful stories, initiated by corporations, matter as they durably impact
how the public views cultural communities and perceives of history. Whilst Disney is a prominent example,
the responsibility to tell truthful stories extends to small and medium-sized corporations as well.
Cultural heritage communication: a solution to what problem?
Heritage communication, properly framed and executed, can serve an integrative function for corporations
with their communities. In order to fully unfurl its integrative functions heritage communication is in need
of professionalization: both the purpose of heritage communication and its means have to be reconsidered.
In addition to the accurate representation of history and culture, professionalized heritage communication
could contribute to a democratization in accessibility to cultural sites. We will illustrate this in the following:
According to UNESCO, 89% of all World Heritage properties have been totally or partially closed under the
covid-19 pandemic. As a consequence, millions of citizens could not access the cultural sites and artists all
around the world are unable to express their creativity. Indeed, UNESCO is mobilizing the international
community to increase access to culture and heritage online (UNESCO, 2020). In this context, digital
storytelling could represent an opportunity to make cultural heritage sites available for all, strengthening
the resilience of the cultural heritage patrimony. Nevertheless, as claimed by the ViMM Manifesto (ViMM,
2016), development of information and communication technologies does not correspond to an effective
capacity of Digital Cultural Heritage practitioners to work with programmes, tools and digital devices.
Indeed, relatively few people have the know-how and ability to master digital tools and platforms. It is
estimated that only 20% of cultural heritage collections have been digitalized

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rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
[https://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/digitisation-of-cultural-heritage]. Apart from the insufficient level of
digitalization, there is a second factor that prevents digital storytelling from playing a role in spreading
cultural heritage: the limit in cultural heritage communication. Indeed, the activities connected to Cultural
Heritage are more focused on conservation and much less on communication and dissemination.
It has been pointed out that the low level of attendance by the large public in the museum system is also a
consequence of insufficient communication activities. A limit that reduces the possibility, for non-
traditional audiences, to experience culture (Chiapparini, 2012). As highlighted by the ICOMOS charter
(ICOMOS, 2008), public communication of Cultural Heritage (variously describing it as “dissemination”,
“popularization”, “presentation” and “interpretation”) is an essential part of the larger conservation
process. Every act of heritage conservation is, by its nature, a communicative act. In this way, heritage
communication can play a crucial role. Thanks to Virtual Reality we can visit remotely cultural heritage sites
living a vivid and interactive experience of it. Nevertheless, Virtual Reality did not only change the way in
which we live Cultural Heritage, but also the narrative paradigm to tell it. In fact, the paradox of Virtual
Reality consists in offering a Cultural Heritage experience much more engaging than before but, at the
same time, to have need to develop a different narrative paradigm to exploit it (Pausch, Snoddy, Taylor,
Watson, & Haseltine, 1996). In this sense, Virtual Reality (VR) Storytelling require to be better
conceptualized because could represent not only the next frontier for immersive stories but also a new
rhizomatic narrative model (Deleuze, Guattari, 1980). Again, this illustration serves the purpose to
demonstrate that small and middle-sized organizations could benefit from improved and professionalized
heritage communication expertise.
Theoretical Framework: Why heritage communication matters
Memory and heritage
Seeking to understand critical development of a new corporate-cultural profession it seems important to
discuss theoretical insights on heritage and memory. Thus, this theoretical part of the article presents
theoretical discussion on heritage and memory, trying to analyze the meaning of heritage and discussing
cultural heritage, looking for the patterns of heritage and memory, as well as, looking for the memory and
visuality connections and trying to understand nowadays transformation of heritage.
Despite many definitions of the concept of heritage prevalent in scholarly sources, Smith (Smith, 2006: 11)
states that "there is, really, no such thing as heritage". He elaborates that "there is rather a hegemonic
discourse about heritage, which acts to constitute the way we think, talk and write about heritage", and
that heritage is "ultimately a cultural practice, involved in the construction and regulation of a range of
values and understandings" (Smith, 2006: 11). According to Rudokas (2019), we can define the
phenomenon of heritage as a kind of mediator between the realities of mythical (constant and unchanging
holistic system) and discursive (changing system of attitude to myth only reflecting that period). Linn-Tynen
(2020) notes heritage is used as a means by which to confirm and communicate identity, just as one’s
identity influences what is recognized as heritage. Some authors argue that heritage is an incomplete and
selective process (Smith & Campbell, 2017). Linn-Tynen (2020) argues, that heritage allows individuals in
the present to connect with the past, this process contributing to understanding oneself and forming one’s
identity. Identity or cultural memory does change relatively often, but only in its formal expression or
action, which is based on conscious intention (Kastytis Rudokas, 2019). Heritage is a phenomenon
characteristic of humanity, civilization (Kastytis Rudokas, 2019). Thus, heritage, in this view, is not regarded
automatically as ‘heritage’ without preconceptions; rather, it is a discourse as well as a “cultural practice”
(Su, 2018). Consequently, the discussion about heritage leads to the discussion about cultural heritage.

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rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
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Scholars have widely discussed the importance of cultural heritage for individuals, groups and communities
(Apaydin, 2020). Numerous studies have shown that the modern world is characterized by two very
pronounced tendencies: the expansion of globalization in the economy, politics and culture and, at the
same time, the preservation of the national identity, the important indicator of the national identity,
emphasizing the preservation of the people’s cultural heritage memory. When rethinking cultural heritage
as a result of conceptual evolution, as Viejo-Rose (Viejo-Rose, 2015) notices, cultural heritage has gone
from being understood as property, an object, to being assessed as a process; passing through several
intermediary and frequently simultaneous understandings such as place, product, project, and
performance. In general, as Wang et al. (2020) point out, that the meaning of culture depends on how
people interpret it. Contemporary networking and the resulting processes of various disciplines integration
create a medium for valuing cultural heritage as a narrative phenomenon situated between the mythical
and the real dimension (K. Rudokas, 2017). For while heritage and memory are engaged at the most
personal level of an individual’s construction of self, as Viejo-Rose (2015) points out, they also firmly
intertwine it with society through an ever-expanding, and constantly re-negotiated, connectivity of
relationships between the self and the world. Di Pietro et al. (2018) discuss the relationship between
identity and heritage is revealed not only with nations, regions and localities but also with individuals,
shaping their own personal, familial or cultural ipseity. Linn-Tynen (2020) notices, that cultural heritage has
the power to evoke intense emotions. O’Donovan (2019) points out, that critical heritage offers one path to
explore the progressive and critical potential of nostalgia that draws on the intimate connection it has with
the past. Biskas et al. (2019) explain, that, though nostalgia is about the past, it influences perceptions of
the future.
Concludingly, heritage and memory are strongly interrelated and dynamically changing phenomena.
According to Sather-Wagstaff (2015), heritage and memory share many characteristics, and it is these
similarities, along with their symbiotic and dynamic relationships to one another in social life. Heritage and
memory, as Sather-Wagstaff (2015) notes, are similar in that they are productively synergistic byway of
myriad forms of communication; at the same time, we not only share but also produce memories together
with others through a variety of naratives, storytelling and activity modes, while heritage is also shared and
created through narratives and storrytelling, engagement with landscapes, performance and other efforts.
Thus, it is important to understand how that interaction is experienced. As such, heritage and memory are
also individually and collectively experiential and require sustained social, inter-personal interaction in
order to endure, thus memory and heritage in practice are both partial, subjective, contested, political,
subject to particular historical contexts and conditions, and thus dynamically changing – never fixed and
static. Therefore, the question - how could be memory defined remains open. According to Apaydin (2020),
the definition of memory is a very complex concept as it has been interpreted from different perspectives.
While many scholars have associated memory with past material culture, Apaydin (2020) notices, and many
scholars "have argued that it develops out of the active engagement of individuals’ and groups’ experiences
in the past" (Ricoeur, 1999, 2004, cit. Apaydin, 2020: 3), and "it has also been emphasised that memory is a
performance and involves active engagement with the present" (Nora 1989 cit. Apaydin, 2020). According
to Sather-Wagstaff (2015), heritage and memory have many similar characteristics, and these similarities
let their symbiotic and dynamic relationships interact with each other in social life. Thus, cultural memory
and heritage are strongly linked to one another, as heritage is itself a cultural production that further
develops values and meanings for individuals and groups, thus, perhaps, memory is one of the most
difficult areas of the social sciences to define and set within boundaries. "Cultural memory is an ongoing
process of remembrance and forgetting in which individuals and groups continue to reconfigure their
relationship to the past and hence reposition them-selves in relation to established and emergent memory

This is a working paper, and part of a larger research project on organizational heritage communication. All
rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
sites. As the word suggests, remembering is better seen as an active engagement with the past, as
performative “rather than reproductive" (Erll & Rigney, 2009: 2).
Therefore, it seems important to think about the relationship between memory and visuality. How are
memory and visuality related? How is this relationship interconnected? The ability to visualize memory and
give it a material form depends on both the human body and the media by which social writing and
embodiment practices are performed: photography, filming, writing, printing, drawing, and so on
(Gaizutyte-Filipaviciene, 2015). Thus, modern media and digital image reproduction technologies change
not only the nature of image creation and consumption, but also the individual's relationship to memories
and memory. Sather-Wagstaff (2015) notices, that digital media and virtual worlds have also transformed
the ways in which we disseminate heritage, memories and memory precipitants. Further, Gaižutytė-
Filipavičienė (2015) describes that modern society is characterized by a particularly rapid process of
communication: a large flow of information and its rapid circulation is the best way to forget. Therefore, as
Rudokas (2019) notices, heritage in each case - whether acting as a strong cultural imperative or losing that
cultural compass - acting as a clarification of the essence of identity through the nature of the relationship
between different times in the same space - is a holistic phenomenon encompassing all the aspects of
lifestyles. Visuality here becomes extremely important in shaping the study of heritage and the past,
associations, expectations and concepts (Gaizutyte-Filipaviciene, 2015), and the creation and consumption
of visual production and image becomes an integral part of cultural heritage and cultural memory.
Thus, how do we nowadays experience transformation of heritage? Living in the contemporary times of
change, we experience the destruction and transformation of heritage. In recent years heritage researchers
are developing provocative and helpful discussion about heritage process from the perspective of
transformation. Thus, Apaydin (2020) points out, that researchers have argued that destruction and
transformation of heritage are also a part of the heritage process that is necessary and can even be a
positive change, developing new heritage and memories. Thus, what does it happen nowadays with the
ideas about memory and heritage? In line with current ideas on the spread of information and knowledge,
Viejo-Rose (2015) points out, that the models for understanding both memory and heritage that are
emerging have moved on considerably from a hierarchical vision by which the brain and social authorities
ran the show, to one of a web-like network of interconnections, and finally to today’s ‘cloud’ model whose
flexible, free-floating mesh is held together through a symbiotic balance of inputs and outputs. Thus, it
seems important to support the idea of Rudokas (2017), that nowadays, we are increasingly becoming
aware of the field of cultural heritage in the 21st century through discipline integration processes involving
not only cultural but rather a holistic, all-out field covering the realms of modern human life. Therefore, in
concluding, it seems meaningful to rethink Smithʹs (2006: 11) idea that "there is, really, no such thing as
heritage".
Bringing European history in: European baggage and responsibility in cultural heritage
Cultural heritage communication is more than a means to an economic end: obviously, as other streams of
organizational communication such as CSR communication, heritage communication (HC) serves to secure
the reputation of the company and thus, maximizing revenue. However, a HC representative also
contributes to ensuring including stakeholder ideas and perspectives that could run danger to becoming
marginalized. A responsible company will try and consider diverse, sometimes conflicting stakeholder
perspectives (Cornelissen, 2020). These stakeholder perspectives might comprise ideas about cultural
belonging, heritage and identity. Companies do not operate as islands, but can be deeply connected to
feelings of belonging, history and identity (Deserno & Deserno, 2009). For European companies, numerous
issues can present avenue to heritage investigation and communication: corporate involvement in WWII

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activities, ranging from resistance support to active collaboration with national socialism or fascism,
exploitation and damage of natural resources, but also non-controversial issues such as centuries-spanning
family and corporate history, and knowledge mediation on architecture and landscapes, can be prevalent.
By way of example, the issue of colonialism has, though it might indeed be an issue limited to some
selected organizations, often been overlooked (for an exception s. Vaara, Tienari, Piekkari, & Säntti, 2005).
This goes especially for organizations that might have heritage connected to colonialism – lacking a
professional communications /marketing department engaging with the subject in an appropriate manner
can be a dangerous route. Organizations may take honest interest in properly including any link to
colonization in their communication but may be challenged by the sensitivity of the issue, by a lack in
resources and by lack of properly trained personal. Recent stakeholder generations are vocal about issues
connected to issues of inequality and injustice and have successfully employed online activism and social
media channels to voice their concerns vis-à-vis small and large corporations. Colonialism, a state-
supported appropriation of territories, combined with repression, displacement, assassination of entire
populations was fed by a belief in racial superiority and Eurocentric ideology ("blessings of civilization",
Rowley 1876, in: Jerónimo, 2015). European powers, starting with Spain and Portugal, then the
Netherlands, Great Britain, and France, violently formed new state territories. Even during the 19th century
Belgium Italy and Germany competed in expanding to Africa. Post-colonialism studies demonstrate the
continued relevance of the after-effects of colonialism: the legacies of colonialism and businesses
benefitting from colonial oppression (e.g., rum and sugar trading) still endure in the modern world.
Postcolonialism does not mean that European societies have moved beyond colonial impacts, but it implies
that colonialism still matters for our modern world. The aim of postcolonial perspectives to always
historicize and contextualize any claims that may stem form colonialist ideas. (Chowdhry, 2011) Our core
argument, here, is that some European organizations may still have ties to colonialism, be it by means of
their product history, or more direct family and company activities – and that these ties must be dealt with
in terms of acknowledgement, historical documentation and inclusion in company practices and
communications. HC should be inclusive and considerate of such history – an endeavor that requires proper
qualification and training.
Methodology: identifying a cultural heritage communication skillset
In total, we combine two steps of sampling and data analysis for identifying a cultural heritage
communication skillset. Step 1 consists of an extensive literature review on professional work related to
cultural heritage marketing, communication and / or storytelling. As a first, overarching category, we
identified “Heritage Communication” as “the ability to identify the legacy from the past to the present as
part of cultural tangible and intagible patrimony to transfer to the future generations, and awarness of
Cultural Heritage ligislation and international conventions.“ To derive this defintion we sighted literature on
cultural heritage by governance bodies (Europe, 2005; UNESCO, 1972, 2003) as well as contemporary
literature on cultural heritage (Cerquetti, 2017) and cultural heritage marketing (Misiura, 2006; Montella,
2018; Montemaggi & Severino, 2007; Parowicz, 2019; Riviezzo, Garofano, & Napolitano). We derived
further themes of competences necessary for heritage communication from the literature and integrated
these results with Step 2, our thematic analysis of cases. Step 2 comprises the sampling of 33 cases of
corporations that had been involved in heritage communication, and subsequent interviewing of
organization representatives.
Data collection and sample
A team of, in total, 10 affiliated researchers sampled initial 34 cases between May and November 2020. In
order to obtain information we contacted organizations according to the following criteria: Organizations

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rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
had to be small- or middle-sized organizations, they had to be of European descent, operating in Europe,
and they had to operate, at least as a part of the business model, on a for-profit basis. We also included
organizations with hybrid business models, e.g., being partially state funded (museums, foundations), as
long as their business model hinged on gaining revenue to an extent. Organizations were contacted partly
by using the snowball-sampling-system, partly by local and regional research by our national teams
(including: Italy, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark and Belgium). Our initial sample comprised 34 cases. One
case was eliminated from the sample due to lack in eligibility, that is, e.g. missing data. Our final sample
comprises 33 cases. All representatives of organizations agreed to answering a questionnaire, either on the
phone or in writing, and all companies agreed to publishing.
The questionnaires distributed contained 21 items, amongst them prompts for basic data (e.g., company
name, company description, contact data) as well as specific information on cultural heritage engagement
and recent projects (description of the project). Most importantly, we prompted the interviewees to
answer what skills and qualifications a cultural heritage marketer should possess (Verbatim: “Skills and
competences needed” (max 500 words)”). All cases were assessed as to their eligibility (using a 3-tier rating
system) by a scientific committee and peer-presented in the open forum / project group. Where possible,
corrections were made, data was completed, and cases re-opened.
Data analysis
We employ applied thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998; Guest, MacQueen, & Namey, 2012) to structure our
data. Thematic analysis means “identifying and describing both implicit and explicit ideas within the data,
that is, themes” (Guest et al., 2012: 10) across qualitative data in a transparent and structured manner
(Nowell, Norris, White, & Moules, 2017). Applied thematic analysis is “a rigorous, yet inductive, set of
procedures designed to identify and examine themes from textual data in a way that is transparent and
credible.” (Guest et al., 2012). The result is a rich, analytical description of the data that is accessible to
interpretation (for an example, s. K. Lueg, 2018). Themes are being actively generated by the researcher
(Braun & Clarke, 2006). We chose to conduct an inductive analysis, which led to an analysis driven by data
rather than theory. Analysis steps follow suggestions by Guest et al. to first assess the data material,
second, to “identify possible themes”, and third, “compare and contrast themes, identifying structure
among them” (Guest et al., 2012: 12). First, we applied open coding in order to develop initial codes.
Second, selective coding was developed, and we renamed the categories and sub-categories systematically.
Finally, all three authors conducted the entire coding procedure in order to achieve stability and inter-coder
reliability. When identifying possible themes, we considered each data unit individually, and summarize
main themes – “a unit of meaning” (Guest et al., 2012: 52) - by either using keywords or in vivo textual
phrases (e.g. “creativity” or “be creative” respectively). We then identified key themes by ordering them as
to their reoccurrence and salience. Moreover, overarching themes have been refined and differentiated
into sub-themes. Therefore, the thematic analysis resulted in the identification of 11 themes that allowed
for a deeper description of competences (for an in-depths overview s. figure 1).
Limitations
We point to several limitations of our overall research design. We emphasize that our sampling has a
selection bias in that we selected organizations that had displayed, virtually or on-site, an interest in and
engagement with organizational past – e.g. in form of storytelling related to family history, product history
or regional history. That is, our sample is not incorporating those companies that do lack resources telling a
story of their past in the first place, or those organizations that completely lack an engagement with their
past. The latter case is most relevant, as especially those companies that purposely omit organizational
history, and cultural and historical awareness might be those an interested public could benefit the most

This is a working paper, and part of a larger research project on organizational heritage communication. All
rights remain with the authors. Please do not distribute or copy beyond the purposes as specified by the
authors.
from. We also admit that our study is biased towards a corporate perspective by emphasizing what
corporations imagine good heritage storytelling to be. A more critical approach to heritage storytelling
might take the voices of interested graduates and jobseekers as well as diverse cultural groups and other
stakeholders into account. Finally, our catalogue of standardized questions and the subsequent thematic
analysis “may miss some of the more nuanced data” (Guest et al.) that we might have gathered by in depth
narrative interviews or virtual or on-site ethnography – however, on site investigation were restricted by
Covid19 precautions.
Results
Our thematic analysis shows several dominant themes in the accounts by organizational representatives.
Important themes were Creative competences as embracing both choosing and applying appropriate media
and technology and appealing to stakeholders in an appropriate and interesting way, Research competences,
as an umbrella term for data selection, archiving and documentation, Linguistic competences, predominantly
in English language proficiency. Further, Communication and storytelling competences can be disintegrated
into several skills related to telling a compelling story, reaching from respect for story authenticity to the
capability of appropriately assessing the audience’s needs. Marketing and digital branding competences
were described as being hinged upon social media knowledge: the idea that heritage communication needs
a digitally apt communicator was prevalent throughout. The general notion of technological and digital
aptness was echoed in the theme Multimedia, digital design and communication competence – here, skills
partly overlapped with those described earlier. Anthropological competences, Innovative strategic thinking
competences, and Writing competences were being described specifically, but partly overlap with other
themes (such as, e.g. linguistic competences). Clear emphasis was being put on Emotional & social
competences: CEOs and other executives circled back to empathy and teamwork, inter alia, several times
throughout the interviews. Finally, educational skills were brought up by interviewees, shedding light on the
understanding that organizational communication is understood as being more than mediating selling points.
We display the results of our thematic analysis, the main themes, and subthemes, in figure 1.
Figure 1: Cluster of competences of the cultural heritage marketer as derived from interviews with organization
representatives and from literature review. Competences as derived from the interviews are explained using in vivo
quotes. Competences derived from the literature review are explained in form of a short definition (cursive).
Theme
Subthemes
Examples and explanations
Creative
competences
Connecting
marketing
Creative
marketing
Film skills
Skills in
interaction and
user-experience
design
“In addition to the many skills typically required in the marketing field, in
this project it was necessary to develop and know how to apply personal
skills such as curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision-
making skills.”
„ To reach the people we want to reach it is important to only use what is
needed and make an overall interesting way to show ourselves.“
“[…] the specific skills necessary for the realization of a coherent film
product were indispensable for the authors, the director and the workers.
It is also capable of combining historical reality and imagination.”
“Essential in defining the accurate interaction and user-experience design
project that allows visitors to this multimedia space to see, learn, but above
all have direct experience of themes and values inscribed in the company's
DNA and history.”

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Photographic
skills
“[…] a picture says more than a thousand words. We can use thousands and
thousands of words but sometimes it is better said in a picture. With the
extreme nature we live in combining steep mountains and often
inhospitality ocean, the village of Reine is located. It is in this nature we
produce our products in the same way the Vikings used to do.”
Research
competences
Archiving and
research skills
Documentation
skills
Research and
team working
skills
Authentic
materials
“Research work because we have been in the archives and found some
things with dust on.”
“[…] we spent a lot of time looking back, which was untraditional. So, it was
obviously a little different what we have done with our anniversary.
In order to outline the narrative structure of this creative documentary, a
serious and long work of archival, iconographic, documentary research and
of the testimonies of people who lived more or less directly the story told
was first necessary. All this was also made possible by the enormous
amount of multimedia material preserved […]”
“Expertise in the manufacturing, culture and history of [product] research,
documentation”
“The functioning of a museum - especially such as this one, which is based
on a collection constantly enriched by donations of objects, organizes
numerous traveling exhibitions and must be coordinated with a second
location - cannot ignore, in management, the contribution of operators with
skills specific in this sector and possibly able to work in a capable, updated
and close-knit team.”
“We had already a lot of original material.”
Linguistic
competences
Foreign language,
esp. English skills
English language proficiency at business level
Slogan development
Communication
and Storytelling
competences
Ecosystem
creation
Capturing the
essence of the
product
Impact to local
community
Authenticity of
story
Enthusiasm for
the story subject
“Relationship management: create an ecosystem of supporters and
storytellers. Having a good eye for spotting, who in your ecosystem would
be good in reinterpretations, in co-branding.”
“In order to tell our story for making others interested we need to capture
not only the essence of our products but the impact the company has had
on the local community.”
“Allow stakeholders to set up own stories”
“First, and obviously, the story told has to hold true. Otherwise, storytelling
will soon be flawed. And then, second, it is vital to tell a short, concise, and
compelling narrative. This story is our founding story and thus should be
present in all press releases, and, on occasion, on social media, as well –
this, in order to be remembered by our customers.”
“A capacity for storytelling; perseverance; pleasure in handling the object;
persistence, authenticity, continuity; readiness for dialogue.”

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Narrative and
storytelling skills.
Cultural Heritage
Communication
skills
“There should be authentic historic data, e.g. pictures, available, and this
data should be employed clever on all communication channels”
Storytelling skills. Knowing how to tell a story, reviving not only the events
and their protagonists, but also a certain climax and the contribution, in
the background, of a certain historical, human and social context, is the
first objective that the authors of Borsalino set themselves.
“Knowing how to narrate this itinerary, with lightness, a playful sense, but
also concreteness and reliability of scientific sources was one of the
cornerstones of the project.”
“As this is so living production, the storytelling is an essential tool not only
to promote the business, but also to bring closer local people and to our
heritage, nation`s values, traditions, nature. It`s our family business
mission.”
Cultural Heritage Communicatio Skills consists in being able to access
information relating to cultural heritage, especially f
or educational
purposes; the ability to enlarge the audience of cultural heritage; the ability
to communicate tangible and intangible cultural and natural assets as
testimonies of civilisation; to manage public engagement techniques and,
more generally, the ability to increase the demand of culture in the public.
Marketing and
digital branding
competences
Social Media Skills
Marketing skills
Heritage
Marketing skills
“including Social Media Skills, very (!) digitally adapt, maybe both practically
and academically ability to tell a consistent story over several channels
Social media, channel coordination and management.”
“Skill for on-going development of brand, for graphics, and decorative
arrangement; media experience; visual perception; conceptional thinking.
Optimism, idealism. Up to date with social media.”
“In addition to the numerous and specific skills typically required in the
marketing field, in this project it was necessary to know how to apply
personal skills such as curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving,
decision-making skills.”
“Allow the brand to have its own life”
“We hired a communications consultant last time we updated our website
– that we did to handle our communication of mission and vision and
integrate these messages on the website.”
“Website and social media, Brand development, marketing strategy”
Heritage Marketing skills consists in identification of the legacy from the
past to the present, as part of cultural tangible and intagible patrimony,
with the aim to transfer it to the future generations and, focusing on
markeing side, in the process of capitalization and raise awareness about
the economic potential of the cultural heritage so identified.
Anthropological
competences
Connected skills
Heritage skills
“Cultural knowledge, as well, knowledge about art and history of
architecture, communication and marketing skills”

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“The heritage literature, ethnographic material, the regional park
information served to get deeper into the past and traditions”
Innovative
strategic thinking
competences
History as
innovation
“Ability to transfer history to foresight and innovation.”
“We have used EU labels for GI = Geograpical
Indication, Including
implementing and obtaining an appellation.”
Writing
competences
Academic writing
“Good copy writing”
“Academic writing skills are an asset”
Emotional &
social
competences
Empathic skills
Empathy as
relationship
establishment
Teamwork skills
“Empathy and emotional involvement”
“The empathic ability to establish a relationship with others is an essential
prerogative to update a social network, entering the communicative and
emotional dynam
ics of the public and capturing their most current
interests.”
“It is important to mention the social-emotional skills that allowed us “to
feel” the environment and to convey traditions and values through
educational activities.”
“It could be said that this type of exhibition is essentially based on the ability
and the need, for each type of person, to communicate with their peers
through empathy.”
“People skills - Never underestimate the skills of capturing people with your
words and charisma. To understand what people are driven by you need a
special character to know not only what to tell, but how to tell it.”
“Good teamwork skills - based on an aptitude for listening, delegating and
empathic and correct communication - are fundamental qualities in the
realization of an articulated and complex project such as a film or a creative
documentary. Digital and live presentation, event organization”
Multimedia,
digital design
and
communication
competence
App development
skills
Social media skills
Multimedia
narrative skills
Digital,
gamification
skills.
Design skills
“App Development and Design, Storytelling to a new target group (children
and young people)”
“Knowing how to evaluate and calibrate the impact that an object and its
representation have on the public, both to create the book and to update
the social pages, is essential.”
“It was necessary to enter the multimedia dynamics of today's public
communication. The images used both in the book and on social networks,
together with the words, constitute a story capable of recalling the
suggestiveness of atmospheres, events, stories.”
“The story of the many and diverse stories that together make up the great
history of Irish emigration, the collection and re-
presentation of real
testimonies, the reconstruction of events, environments and atmospheres
were made possible thanks to a multimedia use of communication tools.”
“Knowing how to make the most of digital technologies to create unique
interactive experiences, able to involve all the senses, was fundamental. But
it was also crucial to use these resources, taking care not to overdo it with

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Digital skills for
Cultural Heritage
too invasive and tiring technology, which can create a sort of rejection in
the visitor.”
As the communication studio author explained to us, Aboca Experience is
not a traditional business museum, but an environment where the visitor
experiences the corporate reality through new digital tools. It goes without
saying that, to give life to this project, skills in the design of exhibition
spaces, especially the most contemporary ones, were needed, as well as a
solid experience in the world of museum architecture and interior design.
The ability to use digital technologies to make accessible for all cultural
heritage sites; to use digital technologies to save, document, reproduce and
protect cultural heritage; the ability to use digital technologies to make
more significant cultural heritage experiences.
Educational
competence
Didactic/
pedagogical skills
Inclusion skills
“Since the Museum aims to transmit the history and experiences of Irish
emigration by addressing the whole public, but in particular to the younger
generations who often do not know the subject at all, its layout and the
techniques used were based on principles pedagogical and didactic
advanced and suitable for achieving the goal.”
“
Since the new section aims to transmit history, values, interactive
connections, addressing the entire public (without excluding the younger
generations), its management was also based on advanced pedagogical and
didactic principles suitable for achieving this goal.”
Discussion: Implications for organizational heritage education and for
organizations
The purpose of this paper was to outline the skillset considered necessary by organizations for adequate
heritage communication. We studied 33 organizations engaged in heritage communication and
documented their expectations towards a potential professional figure. Such a professional role was being
employed by a minority of our case organizations: most organizations developed their heritage projects “on
the go”, but clearly acknowledged the importance of further professionalization. The skillset we could
document is far-reaching. In ordering the notions brought forward by our interviewees we can safely place
heritage storytelling skills in the center of organizational ideas about professional heritage communication.
However, awareness of research skills as a prerequisite for successful story construction was high – giving
us indication that at least those organizations sampled by us were not out to construct the most convenient
story for product advertising but a story grounded in historical research. Organizational ideas about
creativity and digital skills clearly indicate that the role of heritage communication requires
professionalization: interviewees named design skills, digital aptness, social media competences and
creativity in engaging online communities as essential for heritage communication. We observed, however,
that interviewees circles back to the “story” as a core product of heritage communication, corroborating
our theoretical assumption that organizations acknowledge the existence of a narrative era. Our theoretical
framework pointed to that stories need discourse and vice versa, and our data shows that organizations
display an awareness of this dynamic. Though a professional communicator is expected to construct and
tell a story in its ground pillars, co-construction, especially in researching data and in mediating and further
building a story online, is being emphasized. Discourse, though not explicitly named by our interviewees, is
thus an essential feature of our newly defined position. In further relating to our theoretical framework,

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the skillset can clearly be related to the cognitive and the social function of a story (Raymond A Mar &
Oatley, 2008): both the mediation of information and data, but also community-building by relating, by
means of discourse, to this information and data, seem to matter. Our interviewees seem to recognize, by
emphasizing digital outreach, social media, and story co-construction that they as corporations have an
integrative social function, and a responsibility for social community and stakeholder integration.
Organizations are entangled with the identities of their communities (Linn-Tynen, 2020), and cultural
heritage is more than an organization’s property, but an active, dialogic performative engagement with
past and presence (Erll & Rigney, 2009; Viejo-Rose, 2015). Our findings in line with our theoretical
considerations have several implications for a potential education program for young professionals
interested in heritage communication: clearly, such far-reaching and broad competences as described by
interviewees cannot be taught in a single university course. The unique bland of skills spanning digital
aptness, storytelling skills, social and personal competences on a high level, as well as research skills,
deserve their institutionalization as a program and, potentially, certification. Potentially, such a program or
certification – Organizational Heritage Communication – can be integrated or added to existing under- or
graduate programs. We also alert to the possibility to decouple such a program from university education
per se, as this would foster inclusiveness and independence from established institutions, possibly
generating a new workforce from hitherto underrepresented social groups. The program itself has to
include manifold modules, due to the cross-disciplinary requirements, and it should be conducted in close
collaboration with organizations engaged in heritage communication to ensure case work. Such a program
would greatly benefit both graduates interested in culture, heritage, digital outreach, research, and
communication. It would also benefit those organizations that hitherto work on a self-taught or rather
intuitive basis or are reliant on services of external agencies not specialized in the cultural heritage sector.
Our future research will be built on these insights in order to develop an appropriate educational program.
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