Mats Heide is a professor of strategic communication at Lund University, Sweden, and works in the Department of Strategic Communication. He earned his Ph.D. in Media and Communication Studies in 2002.

His overall research interests are primarily in strategic communication. Still, he has specialized in internal and organizational communication and studied aspects such as coworkership, leadership, change processes, crises, and strategic listening. Since 2014, he has been involved in research on communicative organizations. Together with colleagues at the department, he has studied what characterizes communicative organizations, communicative challenges, coworkership and leadership, the role of communication professionals, and the relationship between communicative organizations and trust. In January 2024, together with Charlotte Simonsson he initiated the three-year project Communicative Organizations 2.0, where they will study flexible working life and the relationship to communication, organization culture, leadership, and coworkership.

He is interested in the philosophy of science and use a social constructionist perspective in his research. This implies he understands communication as constitutive and performative of our social reality, which means that communication is a prerequisite for the existence of organizations and society.

Among his latest publications, the following books can be mentioned: Strategic Listening (Routledge 2024 with Svingstedt), Research Handbook on Strategic Communication (Elgar 2024 with Falkheimer), Strategic Communication: An Introduction (Routledge 2023 with Falkheimer), Strategic Internal Communication (Routledge 2019 with Dahlman). He has also written many book chapters and articles that are published in, e.g., Corporate Communications, Journal of Communication Management, Public Relations Review, and International Journal of Strategic Communication.

Regularly, he gives talks to and advise communication professionals and managers in organizations.

Researcher ID H-3540-2011
Scopus 24724226800

 

He has a broad interest in strategic communication but have mainly focused on internal communication in relation to organizational change, organizational crisis, coworkership, leadership, social media and ICT, value creation, engagement, and listening.

 

 

He’s the course director for two courses: Organizational Communication (master’s course, 7 credits) and Strategic Communication in Crisis and Change (bachelor’s course, 7 credits). He also supervises and examine master’s theses and give lectures in other courses, such as the introduction course in strategic communication.

Recent meaningful publications

Heide, M. & Svingstedt, A. (2024). Strategic listening. New York, NY. Routledge.

Falkheimer, J. & Heide, M. (2024) (Eds.). Research Handbook on Strategic Communication. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Falkheimer, J. & Heide, M. (2023). Strategic communication: An introduction. New York, NY: Routledge.

Andersson, R., Heide, M. & Simonsson, C. (2023). Voicing the Organization on Social Media: Towards A Nuanced Understanding of Coworker Voice and Sources of Control. Journal of Communication Management.

Blasco, L., Falkheimer, J. & Heide, M. (2022). Crisis communication in service ecosystems: perspectives and future challenges. Journal of Service Management, 33(4–5), 601–613.

Falkheimer, J., Heide, M., Simonsson, C., & Andersson, R. (2022). Rally-around-the-organizational-flag? Internal communication in a professional organization during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 27(5), 23–38.

Heide, M. & Simonsson, C. (2021). What Was That All About? On Internal Communication and Communicative Coworkership during a Pandemic. Journal of Communication Management, 25(3):256–275.

Heide, M. & Simonsson, C. (2021). Developing a communicative logic— The key to communication professionalism. International Journal of Strategic Communication.

Dahlman, S. & Heide, M. (2020). Strategic Internal Communication: A Practitioner’s Guide to Implementing Cutting-Edge Methods for Improved Workplace Culture. London: Routledge.

Heide, M. & Simonsson, C. (2019). Internal crisis communication: On crisis awareness, leadership and internal communication. London: Routledge.