The Listening Practitioner: Behind the Scenes of Organizational Listening Processes and Practices

Organizations that actively listen to stakeholders often face the same public criticism as those that do not. This paradox highlights a core challenge: despite dedicating resources to organizational listening, practitioners must navigate a complex web of conflicting viewpoints both internally and externally. While existing literature emphasizes the theoretical importance of stakeholder voice in decision-making, empirical research on communication practitioners’ daily realities of organizational listening processes and practices remains scarce. Acknowledging this complexity, this study explores two primary questions: (1) What are the current processes and practices of organizational listening? and (2) How do practitioners negotiate competing organizational and stakeholder expectations? Through in-depth interviews with 28 public relations and communication practitioners in Australia, this research identifies several key dynamics. Findings highlight the tension between stakeholder- and organization-centric goals; the expansive responsibilities of practitioners from listening system design to feedback implementation; the relational skills required to bridge gaps; strategies for capturing diverse perspectives; and methods for evaluating listening effectiveness. Ultimately, these findings illuminate how practitioners manage the intricacies of organizational listening in pursuit of mutual understanding.