Networked and engaged? Toward a critical framework for internal communication in the public sector

Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on organizations, transforming working routines and communication practices across the world. The national lockdowns and the need to reduce social distancing pushed organizations to switch or increase remote working or working from home. After the first phase, this working model was continuously adopted at different stages following the pandemic waves. Public sector organizations were fully immersed in these processes, and they were among the few organizations to be resilient and active to deliver public services. They use communication as a strategic leverage to coordinate and empower their collaborators, and to timely inform citizens. In this context, the paper aims to describe the main dimensions of a new theoretical framework to investigate the evolution of internal and employee communication in the public sector, in an era characterized by a remotization of working activities and by a growing role of digital platforms. Within a public relations perspective, it proposes a critical analysis hybridizing three specific groups of theories: public sector communication (Canel & Luoma-aho 2019; Lovari et al. 2020); internal communication and employee engagement (Men & Bowen 2017; Mazzei 2010); social media logics and platformization (van dijck et al., 2018). The study will draw a map of practices to analyze the evolving role of internal communication and employee engagement in the public sector