| Abstract [eng] |
The research problem is formulated as the following question: how are communication strategies on social networks formed, implemented and evaluated in general education schools? Research Aim. The aim of the research is to theoretically substantiate an analytical framework for general education schools’ communication strategies on social networks and to empirically examine how these strategies are formed, implemented and evaluated by analysing communication goals, audiences, content strategy, resources, responsibilities, monitoring, and the use of feedback. Research Object. School communication strategies in social media. Research Methods. The thesis applies scientific literature analysis and qualitative empirical research methods. The theoretical part of the thesis is based on the theoretical approaches of strategic communication, emergent strategy, stakeholders, and the resource-based view. Strategic communication theory enables school communication on social networks to be analysed as purposeful organizational communication activity linked to school goals and stakeholder expectations. H. Mintzberg’s concept of emergent strategy is applied to explain informally formed communication strategies; R. E. Freeman’s stakeholder theory is used to analyse school audiences and their expectations; and J. Barney’s resource-based view is applied to assess the human, time and competence-based resources required for communication implementation. The empirical part consists of a qualitative study comprising two stages of data collection and analysis: 1) semi-structured interviews with 12 heads of Lithuanian general education schools or persons responsible for communication on social networks; the interview data were analysed using thematic content analysis; 2) an analysis of content published over a one-year period on the social network accounts of two schools that participated in the study, which made it possible to compare the informants’ statements with actual communication practice. The research instruments were developed on the basis of the analytical framework for school communication strategies on social networks substantiated in the theoretical part; in this thesis, the framework is applied as methodological steps for analysing the research object. Conclusions. The research showed that the communication strategies of general education schools on social networks are most often emergent in nature: they are formed not as formal strategic documents but through everyday communication practice, managerial decisions, internal agreements, and staff initiative. This makes it possible to understand a communication strategy in the school context not only as a documented plan, but also as an established set of strategic communication decisions. By applying the theoretically substantiated analytical framework, it was found that the areas most consistently expressed in schools are communication goals, audience prioritization and content strategy, whereas the areas of resources, responsibilities, monitoring and feedback are managed the least systematically. The analysis of social network content confirmed that value-based, community-oriented and authentic content is the most consistently implemented part of schools’ communication strategies. The main strategic problem is not the absence of communication on social networks, but its limited formalization, dependence on the initiative of individual employees, and unsystematic evaluation of results. |
