As a conclusion of the Web blog, it can be said that the importance of organizational communication has increased a lot over the last decades. In the 21st century, the function of communication is critical to every organization. Throughout the Web blog, several reasons for this trend are explained. The most important reasons are summarized in this posting.
First of all, we live in a more sophisticated era in terms of communication. As a result of technological development, information gets with high speed from one side of the world to the other.
Second, the general public is more sophisticated and demanding in its approach to communication than it was in the past. People tend to be more educated and therefore tend to be more sceptical of organization’s intentions. Furthermore, they expect information to be conveniently accessible and beautifully designed.
Finally, organizations themselves have become more complex, meaning that the exchange of organizational information has become more challenging, too. Therefore, it is much more complicated to develop and implement coherent communication strategies.
These points explain why it is critical to organizations to effectively manage its communication function. Companies that recognize the importance of communication and act accordingly are one step ahead of the competition.
Links:
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/importance-of-communication-in-an-organization-97064.html
http://www.accaglobal.com/students/publications/student_accountant/archive/2003/35/907747
http://www.negotiations.com/case/business-relationship/
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
The Concept of Consensus
The concept of consensus describes a group decision-making process which takes the opinion of all group members into consideration and results in a general agreement. A consensus cannot be reached by voting according to the majority rule but by an open minded discussion in which all members participate. All group members should confidently voice their opinion and listen to the opinion of others. Therefore, there should be no person who inappropriately controls the decision-making process to make sure that every opinion is considered equally important. The concept of consensus requires patience and a systematic approach to avoid confusion. All parties should be willing to compromise. Nevertheless, group discussions can cause conflict. But note that conflicts can be good to initiate additional thinking and develop new ideas and problem resolution opportunities. Therefore, different views should be considered helpful rather than hindering.
Advantages of the Concept Consensus
An advantage of decision-making by consensus is that it promotes open communication. Therefore, all members are more likely to support to the decision. This requires members to listen and understand all sides of an issue. At the end a decision is made, with which all members can live. Thus, decision-making by consensus provides a win-win situation.
Disadvantages of the concept of consensus
The concept of consensus requires trust among the members to encourage sharing of information and opinion.
Moreover, it takes more time to reach a consensus than it does to make a decision by voting. This is especially true in larger groups. Therefore, the concept of consensus is most efficient in smaller groups.
Finally, decision-making by consensus requires that no member dominates the group.
In Class (04/10/08)
In class, we did a group assignment that showed us how the decision-making process by consensus works. We imagined we flew through South America when the pilot of our plane had to make an emergency landing. Landing in the jungle, nearly 100 miles away from the next city, there were only a few items left we could carry with us. We were supposed to evaluate the items in terms of their importance to our survival and to rank them accordingly. First of all, we ranked the items individually without communicating with anyone else. Afterwards, we formed groups of 4 persons to reach a consensus. My experiences in this consensus-reaching process are described in personal experiences/examples.
Personal Experience/ Examples
Referring to the group assignment described above, I experienced that decision-making by consensus is a useful approach. In our group, we had an open-minded decision, in which every group member participated. First of all, we structured our decision-making plan. Afterwards, each of us explained his general idea to solve the problem. This provided the basis for discussing the importance of each single item. In this discussion, everyone’s opinion was considered. Explaining the items’ purpose, we had much fun and laughed a lot. At the end we got a ranking which satisfied each of us.
Not all consensus-reaching processes are that successful. Actually, I experienced that it can be very stressful to reach a consensus. Sometimes, I just did not like other members of my group, which made it hard to be willing to compromise. Often, points of view were too different to find a common solution. In these situations, a compromise would have led to a result that I would not have liked at all. In those cases, it was virtually impossible to reach a consensus.
Links:
http://garywinters.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/how-to-achieve-consensus-without-beating-a-dead-horse/
http://www.msu.edu/~corcora5/org/consensus.html
http://homepages.luc.edu/~hweiman/ComingToConsensus.html
Advantages of the Concept Consensus
An advantage of decision-making by consensus is that it promotes open communication. Therefore, all members are more likely to support to the decision. This requires members to listen and understand all sides of an issue. At the end a decision is made, with which all members can live. Thus, decision-making by consensus provides a win-win situation.
Disadvantages of the concept of consensus
The concept of consensus requires trust among the members to encourage sharing of information and opinion.
Moreover, it takes more time to reach a consensus than it does to make a decision by voting. This is especially true in larger groups. Therefore, the concept of consensus is most efficient in smaller groups.
Finally, decision-making by consensus requires that no member dominates the group.
In Class (04/10/08)
In class, we did a group assignment that showed us how the decision-making process by consensus works. We imagined we flew through South America when the pilot of our plane had to make an emergency landing. Landing in the jungle, nearly 100 miles away from the next city, there were only a few items left we could carry with us. We were supposed to evaluate the items in terms of their importance to our survival and to rank them accordingly. First of all, we ranked the items individually without communicating with anyone else. Afterwards, we formed groups of 4 persons to reach a consensus. My experiences in this consensus-reaching process are described in personal experiences/examples.
Personal Experience/ Examples
Referring to the group assignment described above, I experienced that decision-making by consensus is a useful approach. In our group, we had an open-minded decision, in which every group member participated. First of all, we structured our decision-making plan. Afterwards, each of us explained his general idea to solve the problem. This provided the basis for discussing the importance of each single item. In this discussion, everyone’s opinion was considered. Explaining the items’ purpose, we had much fun and laughed a lot. At the end we got a ranking which satisfied each of us.
Not all consensus-reaching processes are that successful. Actually, I experienced that it can be very stressful to reach a consensus. Sometimes, I just did not like other members of my group, which made it hard to be willing to compromise. Often, points of view were too different to find a common solution. In these situations, a compromise would have led to a result that I would not have liked at all. In those cases, it was virtually impossible to reach a consensus.
Links:
http://garywinters.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/how-to-achieve-consensus-without-beating-a-dead-horse/
http://www.msu.edu/~corcora5/org/consensus.html
http://homepages.luc.edu/~hweiman/ComingToConsensus.html
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Crisis Communication
This posting provides the definition of a crisis, a discussion of how organizations can prepare for crisis events, and an approach for organizations to follow when crisis occur. Furthermore, it gives a description of our class discussion about this issue and personal experiences and examples.
What is a crisis?
Our textbook “Corporate Communication” (Argenti, 2007, p. 213) states the following definition of a crisis: “A crisis is a major catastrophe that may occur either naturally or as a result of human error, intervention or even malicious intent. It can include tangible devastation, such as the destruction of lives or assets, or intangible devastation, such as the loss of an organization’s credibility or other reputational damage. The latter outcomes may be the result of management’s response to tangible devastation or the result of human error”. The characteristics of crises are among others: (1) the element of surprise, (2) insufficient information, (3) the quick pace of events, and (4) intense scrutiny. These characteristics make it difficult for executives to maintain control. In crisis situation, the executives often adopt a short-term focus and forget to consider long-term objectives. Attention shifts from the business as a whole to the crisis alone. This bad crisis management can be avoided if a company’s management is prepared for crises.
How to prepare for crises
Managers should be aware of the fact that crises can happen to every company at any time and that they often occur when they are least expected. History of crises shows that each industry can be affected by a crisis. Therefore, it is crucial that company’s set up and maintain crisis plans which determine what to do in a crisis situation.
There are several steps that need to be taken in order to thoroughly prepare for a crisis. First of all, an organization should assess its individual risk. Concerning this risk evaluation, managers should take into account that some industries are more prone to crises than others. They can conduct a brainstorming to list possible crisis situations. Afterwards, probabilities should be assigned to the listed situations. This makes it possible to focus on the more probable evens although less likely events should not be completely ignored. After the probability assignment is done, management should quantify the risk exposure by determining potential crises effects on constituencies.
Secondly, setting communication objectives for potential crises is important because a company should well know what it wants to say to whom in the case of crisis. In a crisis, events usually happen very rapidly. Companies that have not determined communication objectives before a crisis starts usually do not have the time to define them during a crisis. This leads to bad communication.
The third step is to analyze the channel choice and to determine which channels are most appropriate to the crisis communication to certain constituencies. It is obvious that a sensitive communication to employees requires other channels than a trust rebuilding communication to customers does. This has to be considered when a crisis plan is developed.
Another important necessity of planning for communicating in a crisis is deciding in advance who will be member of what team for each crisis. These teams should vary according to the differing nature of each crisis. In some cases, senior managers should lead a crisis communication team; in other cases, it might make more sense to assign employees who are closest to the crisis event to be spokespersons of their teams.
The fifth point that needs to be considered is that effective crisis communication is centralized. In the event of a crisis, it is important to act rapidly. Responsibilities have to be clearly defined so that everybody knows what he or she has to do. This especially is a challenge for companies that usually apply a decentralized communication approach. Therefore, a crisis preparation should include a plan for centralization.
At the end of the planning process, a formal plan should be formulated and communicated to all relevant constituencies. It is crucial that the formal crisis plan is well-known among the workforce.
A formal plan crisis plan should include following points (Argenti, 2007, p.231):
- A list of whom to notify in an emergency
- An approach to media relations
- A strategy for notifying employees
- A location to serve as crisis headquarters
- A description of the plan
Communication during the crisis
Although setting up and communicating crisis communications plans help to prepare for a crisis, all the planning does not mean that acting in an actual crisis situation is easy. I already mentioned that every mentioned that every crisis is different. Nevertheless, there are some general steps which help companies to handle a crisis.
The first is getting control of the situation as soon as possible which involved defining the real problem. Then (step 2), management should gather as much information as possible in order to develop an appropriate understanding of the problem. If it takes long to collect the information, the organization should communicate this. In step 3, a centralized crisis center needs to be set up to be able to centrally manage the crisis (see previous section). After this has been done, the crises team should start communicating early and often (Step 4). At this stage silence and delayed responses should be avoided. It is necessary to collaborate with the media in crisis situations. Therefore, crisis management should ensure that they understand the media’s mission in a crisis (Step 5). This understanding can be used to take the 6th step: communicate directly with affected constituents. Throughout the whole crisis, management should not panic and remember that business must continue (Step 7). Finally, after the crisis is survived management should immediately make plans to avoid further crises.
Class Discussion (28/03/08)
In class, we talked about the difference between natural and manmade crises. While the occurrence of natural crises is not initiated by humans, manmade crises are the result of malicious, negligent, inaccurate, or flawed human behavior. Some examples of natural crises, which were mentioned by the class, are earthquakes, tsunamis (South East Asia on Christmas 2004), or hurricanes and tornados (Katrina). Big manmade crises were the attacks on the World Trade Center, the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez (the captain was drunk), the Perrier crisis, or the Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal. After we had established a better understanding of the term crisis, we turned to the question how company should handle crises. We concluded that companies should prepare themselves for crises by developing plans how to act in a crisis situation. Dr. Szul pointed out that although preparation for crises is so crucial; there are only a few companies which set up accurate crises plans. This can lead to a costly loss of reputation.
A special crisis we focused on was the Coca Cola India Crisis. In the crisis, a non governmental organization accused Coca Cola India to use water that contains morbid germs. As a consequence of these accusations, many Indians stopped drinking Coca Cola. We analyzed the Coca Cola India’s crisis communication approach and identified the mistakes they made. We came to the conclusion that Coca Cola India should have been better prepared. This kind of crisis was not the first incident in India. Therefore, the company should have known that NGOs would try to attack them. This had given Coca Cola India the opportunity to act more proactively and handle the crisis more successfully.
Personal Experiences/ Examples
I experienced what bad crisis communication looks like when I played soccer for a club in Germany. After we lost several games in a row, our coach was heavily criticized. The local media reported that he was thinking about resigning as consequence of the bad results. No club official spoke to the team to explain what the clubs plans were. The lack of information led to even greater uncertainty within the team. Under these circumstances, the team’s performance was unlikely to get better. So we lost the next game, too, and everybody was talking about a new coach. Without informing the team, the club officials announced on a local soccer webpage that they wanted to hire a new coach. I was very disappointed that our club officials did not spoke to us before they made a decision. A lot of trust between the team and the players of the team (the club’s internal constituencies) was lost. I learned from this crisis that it is important for leaders to talk to internal constituencies before they make decisions that affect those persons within an organization. I think if our officials had been honest to us, the crisis would have been much easier to handle. Furthermore, the relationship between leaders (officials) and internal constituencies (team) would have been much better after the crises, than it was in the described case. This incidence showed me the importance of a good crisis communication.
Another example of bad crisis communication is the behavior of the Soviet Union’s government when the nuclear power plant busted in Chernobyl. I cannot remember the disaster myself but my parents told me much about it. At the end of April 1986, Swedish scientists measured unusual high radioactive radiation throughout whole Middle and Western Europe. Based on an analysis of the wind over the last days the scientists concluded that an accident must have happened in the Soviet Union. The scientist informed European government and the media which reported the scientist’s findings. The media reports caused many Europeans to be afraid. Among these people were my parents. When European governments and the media asked the Soviet Union what happened in their country, they did not get the true answer. The Soviet Union’s government stated that they experienced some problems which they handled easily. A few days later, when the truth could not been hidden any longer and the problems became so serious that the Soviet Union needed help from other countries, they told the true story. Now the direct victims in Chernobyl were helped by the world community. This help would have been available much earlier, if the Soviet Union’s government had communicated honestly. The described communication mistakes caused a huge loss of reputation and credibility.
To draw a conclusion, I can say that I learned from these crisis situations that most effective crisis communications is quick, proactive, and honest communication. Organizations which do not obey this rule will be cursed with a loss of trust of their constituencies.
Links:
http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html
http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/7_musthave_elements_.php
http://www.lsu.edu/pa/crisis.html
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/iftoolkits/toolkitsprivacy/privacycommunication/crisiscommunication/crisiscommunication.cfm
http://www.101publicrelations.com/crisis-communication.html
http://marketing.about.com/od/publicrelation1/a/crisiscomm.htm
What is a crisis?
Our textbook “Corporate Communication” (Argenti, 2007, p. 213) states the following definition of a crisis: “A crisis is a major catastrophe that may occur either naturally or as a result of human error, intervention or even malicious intent. It can include tangible devastation, such as the destruction of lives or assets, or intangible devastation, such as the loss of an organization’s credibility or other reputational damage. The latter outcomes may be the result of management’s response to tangible devastation or the result of human error”. The characteristics of crises are among others: (1) the element of surprise, (2) insufficient information, (3) the quick pace of events, and (4) intense scrutiny. These characteristics make it difficult for executives to maintain control. In crisis situation, the executives often adopt a short-term focus and forget to consider long-term objectives. Attention shifts from the business as a whole to the crisis alone. This bad crisis management can be avoided if a company’s management is prepared for crises.
How to prepare for crises
Managers should be aware of the fact that crises can happen to every company at any time and that they often occur when they are least expected. History of crises shows that each industry can be affected by a crisis. Therefore, it is crucial that company’s set up and maintain crisis plans which determine what to do in a crisis situation.
There are several steps that need to be taken in order to thoroughly prepare for a crisis. First of all, an organization should assess its individual risk. Concerning this risk evaluation, managers should take into account that some industries are more prone to crises than others. They can conduct a brainstorming to list possible crisis situations. Afterwards, probabilities should be assigned to the listed situations. This makes it possible to focus on the more probable evens although less likely events should not be completely ignored. After the probability assignment is done, management should quantify the risk exposure by determining potential crises effects on constituencies.
Secondly, setting communication objectives for potential crises is important because a company should well know what it wants to say to whom in the case of crisis. In a crisis, events usually happen very rapidly. Companies that have not determined communication objectives before a crisis starts usually do not have the time to define them during a crisis. This leads to bad communication.
The third step is to analyze the channel choice and to determine which channels are most appropriate to the crisis communication to certain constituencies. It is obvious that a sensitive communication to employees requires other channels than a trust rebuilding communication to customers does. This has to be considered when a crisis plan is developed.
Another important necessity of planning for communicating in a crisis is deciding in advance who will be member of what team for each crisis. These teams should vary according to the differing nature of each crisis. In some cases, senior managers should lead a crisis communication team; in other cases, it might make more sense to assign employees who are closest to the crisis event to be spokespersons of their teams.
The fifth point that needs to be considered is that effective crisis communication is centralized. In the event of a crisis, it is important to act rapidly. Responsibilities have to be clearly defined so that everybody knows what he or she has to do. This especially is a challenge for companies that usually apply a decentralized communication approach. Therefore, a crisis preparation should include a plan for centralization.
At the end of the planning process, a formal plan should be formulated and communicated to all relevant constituencies. It is crucial that the formal crisis plan is well-known among the workforce.
A formal plan crisis plan should include following points (Argenti, 2007, p.231):
- A list of whom to notify in an emergency
- An approach to media relations
- A strategy for notifying employees
- A location to serve as crisis headquarters
- A description of the plan
Communication during the crisis
Although setting up and communicating crisis communications plans help to prepare for a crisis, all the planning does not mean that acting in an actual crisis situation is easy. I already mentioned that every mentioned that every crisis is different. Nevertheless, there are some general steps which help companies to handle a crisis.
The first is getting control of the situation as soon as possible which involved defining the real problem. Then (step 2), management should gather as much information as possible in order to develop an appropriate understanding of the problem. If it takes long to collect the information, the organization should communicate this. In step 3, a centralized crisis center needs to be set up to be able to centrally manage the crisis (see previous section). After this has been done, the crises team should start communicating early and often (Step 4). At this stage silence and delayed responses should be avoided. It is necessary to collaborate with the media in crisis situations. Therefore, crisis management should ensure that they understand the media’s mission in a crisis (Step 5). This understanding can be used to take the 6th step: communicate directly with affected constituents. Throughout the whole crisis, management should not panic and remember that business must continue (Step 7). Finally, after the crisis is survived management should immediately make plans to avoid further crises.
Class Discussion (28/03/08)
In class, we talked about the difference between natural and manmade crises. While the occurrence of natural crises is not initiated by humans, manmade crises are the result of malicious, negligent, inaccurate, or flawed human behavior. Some examples of natural crises, which were mentioned by the class, are earthquakes, tsunamis (South East Asia on Christmas 2004), or hurricanes and tornados (Katrina). Big manmade crises were the attacks on the World Trade Center, the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez (the captain was drunk), the Perrier crisis, or the Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal. After we had established a better understanding of the term crisis, we turned to the question how company should handle crises. We concluded that companies should prepare themselves for crises by developing plans how to act in a crisis situation. Dr. Szul pointed out that although preparation for crises is so crucial; there are only a few companies which set up accurate crises plans. This can lead to a costly loss of reputation.
A special crisis we focused on was the Coca Cola India Crisis. In the crisis, a non governmental organization accused Coca Cola India to use water that contains morbid germs. As a consequence of these accusations, many Indians stopped drinking Coca Cola. We analyzed the Coca Cola India’s crisis communication approach and identified the mistakes they made. We came to the conclusion that Coca Cola India should have been better prepared. This kind of crisis was not the first incident in India. Therefore, the company should have known that NGOs would try to attack them. This had given Coca Cola India the opportunity to act more proactively and handle the crisis more successfully.
Personal Experiences/ Examples
I experienced what bad crisis communication looks like when I played soccer for a club in Germany. After we lost several games in a row, our coach was heavily criticized. The local media reported that he was thinking about resigning as consequence of the bad results. No club official spoke to the team to explain what the clubs plans were. The lack of information led to even greater uncertainty within the team. Under these circumstances, the team’s performance was unlikely to get better. So we lost the next game, too, and everybody was talking about a new coach. Without informing the team, the club officials announced on a local soccer webpage that they wanted to hire a new coach. I was very disappointed that our club officials did not spoke to us before they made a decision. A lot of trust between the team and the players of the team (the club’s internal constituencies) was lost. I learned from this crisis that it is important for leaders to talk to internal constituencies before they make decisions that affect those persons within an organization. I think if our officials had been honest to us, the crisis would have been much easier to handle. Furthermore, the relationship between leaders (officials) and internal constituencies (team) would have been much better after the crises, than it was in the described case. This incidence showed me the importance of a good crisis communication.
Another example of bad crisis communication is the behavior of the Soviet Union’s government when the nuclear power plant busted in Chernobyl. I cannot remember the disaster myself but my parents told me much about it. At the end of April 1986, Swedish scientists measured unusual high radioactive radiation throughout whole Middle and Western Europe. Based on an analysis of the wind over the last days the scientists concluded that an accident must have happened in the Soviet Union. The scientist informed European government and the media which reported the scientist’s findings. The media reports caused many Europeans to be afraid. Among these people were my parents. When European governments and the media asked the Soviet Union what happened in their country, they did not get the true answer. The Soviet Union’s government stated that they experienced some problems which they handled easily. A few days later, when the truth could not been hidden any longer and the problems became so serious that the Soviet Union needed help from other countries, they told the true story. Now the direct victims in Chernobyl were helped by the world community. This help would have been available much earlier, if the Soviet Union’s government had communicated honestly. The described communication mistakes caused a huge loss of reputation and credibility.
To draw a conclusion, I can say that I learned from these crisis situations that most effective crisis communications is quick, proactive, and honest communication. Organizations which do not obey this rule will be cursed with a loss of trust of their constituencies.
Links:
http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html
http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/7_musthave_elements_.php
http://www.lsu.edu/pa/crisis.html
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/iftoolkits/toolkitsprivacy/privacycommunication/crisiscommunication/crisiscommunication.cfm
http://www.101publicrelations.com/crisis-communication.html
http://marketing.about.com/od/publicrelation1/a/crisiscomm.htm
Moving from Tactical to Strategic Communication
Last week, our class watched a video that dealt with the issue of moving from tactical to strategic communication. Afterwards, we had an online discussion about the video in our Webct bulletin board.
Are Communication Professionals More Valued Than in the Past?
First of all, we addressed the question whether today’s communication professionals are more valued than they were in the past. All of us were of the opinion that they are more valued. Organizations have developed an understanding of how important effective internal and external communication really is. In today’s fast changing business environment, the quick but also accurate exchange of information becomes increasingly important. Communication professionals are experts in managing the effective and efficient exchange of information. This information management can help to improve a company’s bottom line results and increase its productivity. Thus, good organizational communication has gotten an important tool to improves a corporation’s competitiveness in the though, rapidly changing business environment. Another significant reason why communication professional are more valued than in the past is that today’s organizations are capable of measuring the positive effect of good communication on significant business results. These measurement opportunities help to strengthen the awareness of the value that can be added by professional communication.
The Changing Role of Communication in the Workplace
After having answered the first question, we discussed the changing role of communication in the workplace. In the past, workplace communication was linear and top-down. Managers made decisions what their subordinates should do to add value to the company. Today, communication has become a circular process. Feedback is valued because companies understand that employees are closest to a company’s operation process and therefore are able to develop good ideas how to improve these processes. Thus, the former “subordinates” are now active participants in a company’s planning process. The upper management creates systems and mechanisms to initiate dialogs with their employees and to encourage them to articulate their valuable ideas.
Major Differences Between Tactical and Strategic Communication
Afterwards, we addressed the major differences between tactical and strategic communication and came to the conclusion that a significant difference is that strategic communication is related to a company’s long term goals while tactical communication refers to the execution of a company’s strategy. In the area of tactical communication, the focus is on short-term goals which are derived from the given long-term goals. Strategic communication is much more effective to improve business results than tactical communication. Therefore, it is profitable for an organization to focus on improvements of the corporate strategic communication. However, an important point to keep in mind is that tactical communication cannot be replaced by strategic communication. Both are necessary and important. Tactical work means executing strategic goals.
How to Improve Strategic Communication?
I already mentioned that it is profitable for an organization to improve its strategic communication skills. But, how it is possible to improve this area of communication? One answer is that it is important to thoroughly develop communication strategies to achieve business objectives. These communication (media or PR) strategies should be proactive rather than reactive. To be capable of creating successful communication strategies, employees should have a clear idea of business objectives. A company’s management should ensure that the employees are aligned with the business strategy. After business and communication objectives have been determined and communicated to internal constituencies, managers can collect data to evaluate where the company is against the desired state. The analysis of this data provides information about what processes need to be improved to align the role of communications more strategically. Because this analysis should be repeated regularly, it is helpful to develop metrics to measure the impact of the communication department’s work on the company’s objectives. These metrics can give information about the value that the communication department creates. Another significant tool to establish a more strategic communication is training. Consulting with and coaching executives and managers will improve strategic communication skills of these employees.
Crossfunctional, Upward, and Downward Communication
Another measure that supports the concept of strategic communication is to increase crossfunctional, upward, and downward communication. In order to achieve this, a company’s management should design an appropriate communication infrastructure. Certain mechanism and systems should be created to support effective communication across the organization. In addition, the management should develop formal systems to ensure that the voice of the employee is heard. Because employees work close to a company’s operation processes, they often have good ideas how to improve them. Formal systems that encourage employees to articulate their ideas help to make a company’s operations more efficient and effective. It is important that employees can rely on the mentioned formal systems and mechanisms because otherwise they will not use them. Therefore, these systems should be consistent. Leaders are especially important to improve crossfunctional, upward, and downward communication because their behavior has an impact on the whole organization. Therefore, a special training on the importance of two-way communication could be helpful, to improve the crossfunctional communication skills of a company’s leaders.
My opinion about bulletin board communication
Although our online discussion was interesting and brought up some really good ideas, I think that the communication via the bulletin board was quite cumbersome. It was very time-consuming to write answers to all questions and to read the responses of my classmates. I think a lot of text in the bulletin board was duplicative because a class cannot provide more than 20 substantially different answers to all questions.
Examples
Examples of tactical communication include Tactical among others writing memos, having meetings, and communicating with the media. Examples of strategic communication are the creation of organizational communication systems, mechanisms, and action plans to achieve long-term goals.
I already mentioned the importance of creating systems that initiate dialogs with employees and foster crossfuntional, upward and downward communication. An example of such a system is an internal website on which each employee can easily ask his questions and can quickly get answers. A company discussed in the video implemented such a Web site. The Web site was a great success because it helped to start a dialog between management and employees.
Links:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval/issue16/sparks.html
http://www.rasky.com/pdfs/RaskyBaerlein.pdf
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/parameters/07autumn/halloran.pdf
Are Communication Professionals More Valued Than in the Past?
First of all, we addressed the question whether today’s communication professionals are more valued than they were in the past. All of us were of the opinion that they are more valued. Organizations have developed an understanding of how important effective internal and external communication really is. In today’s fast changing business environment, the quick but also accurate exchange of information becomes increasingly important. Communication professionals are experts in managing the effective and efficient exchange of information. This information management can help to improve a company’s bottom line results and increase its productivity. Thus, good organizational communication has gotten an important tool to improves a corporation’s competitiveness in the though, rapidly changing business environment. Another significant reason why communication professional are more valued than in the past is that today’s organizations are capable of measuring the positive effect of good communication on significant business results. These measurement opportunities help to strengthen the awareness of the value that can be added by professional communication.
The Changing Role of Communication in the Workplace
After having answered the first question, we discussed the changing role of communication in the workplace. In the past, workplace communication was linear and top-down. Managers made decisions what their subordinates should do to add value to the company. Today, communication has become a circular process. Feedback is valued because companies understand that employees are closest to a company’s operation process and therefore are able to develop good ideas how to improve these processes. Thus, the former “subordinates” are now active participants in a company’s planning process. The upper management creates systems and mechanisms to initiate dialogs with their employees and to encourage them to articulate their valuable ideas.
Major Differences Between Tactical and Strategic Communication
Afterwards, we addressed the major differences between tactical and strategic communication and came to the conclusion that a significant difference is that strategic communication is related to a company’s long term goals while tactical communication refers to the execution of a company’s strategy. In the area of tactical communication, the focus is on short-term goals which are derived from the given long-term goals. Strategic communication is much more effective to improve business results than tactical communication. Therefore, it is profitable for an organization to focus on improvements of the corporate strategic communication. However, an important point to keep in mind is that tactical communication cannot be replaced by strategic communication. Both are necessary and important. Tactical work means executing strategic goals.
How to Improve Strategic Communication?
I already mentioned that it is profitable for an organization to improve its strategic communication skills. But, how it is possible to improve this area of communication? One answer is that it is important to thoroughly develop communication strategies to achieve business objectives. These communication (media or PR) strategies should be proactive rather than reactive. To be capable of creating successful communication strategies, employees should have a clear idea of business objectives. A company’s management should ensure that the employees are aligned with the business strategy. After business and communication objectives have been determined and communicated to internal constituencies, managers can collect data to evaluate where the company is against the desired state. The analysis of this data provides information about what processes need to be improved to align the role of communications more strategically. Because this analysis should be repeated regularly, it is helpful to develop metrics to measure the impact of the communication department’s work on the company’s objectives. These metrics can give information about the value that the communication department creates. Another significant tool to establish a more strategic communication is training. Consulting with and coaching executives and managers will improve strategic communication skills of these employees.
Crossfunctional, Upward, and Downward Communication
Another measure that supports the concept of strategic communication is to increase crossfunctional, upward, and downward communication. In order to achieve this, a company’s management should design an appropriate communication infrastructure. Certain mechanism and systems should be created to support effective communication across the organization. In addition, the management should develop formal systems to ensure that the voice of the employee is heard. Because employees work close to a company’s operation processes, they often have good ideas how to improve them. Formal systems that encourage employees to articulate their ideas help to make a company’s operations more efficient and effective. It is important that employees can rely on the mentioned formal systems and mechanisms because otherwise they will not use them. Therefore, these systems should be consistent. Leaders are especially important to improve crossfunctional, upward, and downward communication because their behavior has an impact on the whole organization. Therefore, a special training on the importance of two-way communication could be helpful, to improve the crossfunctional communication skills of a company’s leaders.
My opinion about bulletin board communication
Although our online discussion was interesting and brought up some really good ideas, I think that the communication via the bulletin board was quite cumbersome. It was very time-consuming to write answers to all questions and to read the responses of my classmates. I think a lot of text in the bulletin board was duplicative because a class cannot provide more than 20 substantially different answers to all questions.
Examples
Examples of tactical communication include Tactical among others writing memos, having meetings, and communicating with the media. Examples of strategic communication are the creation of organizational communication systems, mechanisms, and action plans to achieve long-term goals.
I already mentioned the importance of creating systems that initiate dialogs with employees and foster crossfuntional, upward and downward communication. An example of such a system is an internal website on which each employee can easily ask his questions and can quickly get answers. A company discussed in the video implemented such a Web site. The Web site was a great success because it helped to start a dialog between management and employees.
Links:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval/issue16/sparks.html
http://www.rasky.com/pdfs/RaskyBaerlein.pdf
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/parameters/07autumn/halloran.pdf
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Media Relations
This blog posting deals with the issue of media relations, which is one of the most critical areas within any corporate communication function. The media are both a constituency and a conduit through which other constituencies can receive information. In this blog posting I look at what media professionals do and how companies should approach the increasingly sophisticated media.
The News Media
The news media are omnipresent in our society. Because they affect so many areas of our lives, the news media are a very powerful part of our society. The media brings the distant world of politics into the home of the average citizen. Business has always had a more antagonistic relationship with the press.
Before the 1970s, the average citizen did not care much about business news. Mostly businessmen were interested in information about the country’s companies. Therefore, business news was relegated to a few pages toward the back of the newspapers and to a handful of business magazines. There was virtually no coverage in national and local news broadcasts.
In the 1970s, these public attitudes began to change. Today, business news is a very important part of the news conveyed to the average American citizen. Typically, the media are not very excited about the good things that companies do. Instead, they are interested in reporting bad news about companies because this news is more likely to become a major story.
Building Better Relations with the Media
In order to build successful relationships with the media, organizations have to take the time to create personal relationship with important people in the media. This task can be accomplished by the company’s media relations department or can be outsourced to a public relation firm.
However, several significant points have to considered, when a company wants to manage successfully its media relations.
First of all, the organization should conduct research for targeting media. An analysis of the media and the reporters that typically reports on stories concerning the company provides valuable information. The next time when the company wants to launch a story, it can use this information obtained from the analysis and contact favorable reporters.
Another important point is that a company has sufficient staff in its media relations department to be capable of responding all media calls. Responding to media calls can make a powerful difference in how the company appears in the story.
Once the research and analysis is completed, the executive who will be interviewed needs to be prepared for the actual conversation with the reporter. The following approach works successfully. First, the executive should be given a short briefing on the reporter’s prior work. Then, he or she should be given a set of questions that the reporter is likely to ask. Afterwards, the communications specialist should arrange a trial run with the executive to talk about answers to possible questions. Prior to the interview it should be made clear what the executive wants to communicate to the reporter no matter what he or she asks. The actual interview should look as if it is totally natural and unrehearsed.
A fourth important point concerning building better relations with the media is to gauge success. A company should identify those communication activities that create the most value and evaluate how well an organization’s various communications functions perform against the industry average. A demonstration of the total value created by a corporate communication department can highlight the valuable work of the department.
After relations with the right persons in the media have been created it is equally important to maintain those ongoing relationships. A company cannot simply turn a certain relationship off and on when it needs a story to be launched. Instead, maintaining media relations is a continuous long-term job.
Building a successful Media Relations Program
Building a successful media relations program means involving media relations personnel in strategy (1), developing in-house capabilities (2), and using outside counsel sparingly (3).
(1) Companies need to involve communication executives in the decision making process. Communication professionals who are involved in the decision making process are more capable of presenting convincingly the decisions made by upper management.
(2) Organizations should develop in-house communication expertise because this expertise can save a lot of money. One problem for many companies is that they do not consider media relations to be important enough to hire professional staff in this area. However, scientists demonstrated that successful media relations have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line results.
(3) Outside counsel should only be hired if a sudden need for professional advice or information arises (major story or crisis). The ordinary and predictable work should be done by in-house experts.
Developing an Online Media Strategy
Over the last two decades, Internet has become the primary source of information. Modern companies need to use the opportunities given by the advance of the Internet in order to convey their messages to the maximum number of people. For instance, companies can establish forums for constituencies to share opinions, concerns, and complaints. Additionally, companies should extend their media relations work to blogs
because those publicly accessible Web sites that are discussion forums on a variety of topicsare becoming increasingly popular. The internet discussions can be used to monitor and influence information circulating about the company.
Class Discussion (02/28/08)
Last week, our communications class listened to and spoke with guest speaker Michelle Fryling, who is responsible for the media relations at the IUP. I learned how important media relations are for every kind of organization. Because I will surely work within an organization after I have finished studying, I need to develop a good understanding of the media relations business. Michelle Fryling helped me to develop that understanding by providing an interesting insight into practice. She has spent 15 years in the media relations job and has witnessed how media changed during that time. I learned that today’s media is faster, more sensational, and less detailed. We discussed in class that the media is the most important source of information. Therefore, it is crucial for me to know how the media works in order to be capable of appropriately evaluating the information I get through different channels. I learned that the media is a reflection of society. Thus, it changes as the society changes. When I plan my career or when I work within an organization, I should keep up with current developments in the fast changing media world.
I liked how Michelle Fryling explained and illustrated the fast changing nature of the media world and how she made clear that is a necessity to adapt to those changes in order to stay up-to-date. What I read in our textbook about the changes in the news media was a detailed addendum to Michelle Fryling’s words. Our textbook emphasizes that business news has become an increasingly important part of overall news throughout the recent decades. As opposed to forty years ago, today business news is omnipresent in the media. Since I am a business student, this was important information for me. Now I know that especially business entities are in the focus of media reporting. Therefore, business entities need to establish a close relationship with the media in order to ensure future success. I will have to remember that when I work in those organizations that deal intensively with the media.
Personal Experiences/Examples
A good example of media relation work is the German company BASF. When a person goes on the company’s website, he or she easily finds the media relation link. On the media relation site (http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/presse/?id=Qa4KdC7X6bcp.s1 ), there is current news and information. Each day, a new posting is published. Additionally, press information, photos, and contact information are provided. When I visited the webpage, I conveniently got all information I wanted to get. In my opinion, this is a good example of media relation work.
I experienced an example of bad media relation work, when “StudiVZ”, the German version of “Facebook”, changed it terms and conditions concerning the protection of personal data. “StudiVZ’ did not collaborate with the media in order to explain their changes to its customers. This led to confusion among the users of StudiVZ. Many left StudiVZ because they thought StudiVZ could use or sell their personal data. If StudiVZ had cooperated with the media in order to communicate the objectives of their change, they would have prevented the loss of several users.
Links:
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/pr_linking_strategies.aspx
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3552876
http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucdavid1.htm
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Internet-Marketing/Taking-your-PR-Campaign-to-the-Web-A-Menu-of-Smart-Partnering-Strategies.html
The News Media
The news media are omnipresent in our society. Because they affect so many areas of our lives, the news media are a very powerful part of our society. The media brings the distant world of politics into the home of the average citizen. Business has always had a more antagonistic relationship with the press.
Before the 1970s, the average citizen did not care much about business news. Mostly businessmen were interested in information about the country’s companies. Therefore, business news was relegated to a few pages toward the back of the newspapers and to a handful of business magazines. There was virtually no coverage in national and local news broadcasts.
In the 1970s, these public attitudes began to change. Today, business news is a very important part of the news conveyed to the average American citizen. Typically, the media are not very excited about the good things that companies do. Instead, they are interested in reporting bad news about companies because this news is more likely to become a major story.
Building Better Relations with the Media
In order to build successful relationships with the media, organizations have to take the time to create personal relationship with important people in the media. This task can be accomplished by the company’s media relations department or can be outsourced to a public relation firm.
However, several significant points have to considered, when a company wants to manage successfully its media relations.
First of all, the organization should conduct research for targeting media. An analysis of the media and the reporters that typically reports on stories concerning the company provides valuable information. The next time when the company wants to launch a story, it can use this information obtained from the analysis and contact favorable reporters.
Another important point is that a company has sufficient staff in its media relations department to be capable of responding all media calls. Responding to media calls can make a powerful difference in how the company appears in the story.
Once the research and analysis is completed, the executive who will be interviewed needs to be prepared for the actual conversation with the reporter. The following approach works successfully. First, the executive should be given a short briefing on the reporter’s prior work. Then, he or she should be given a set of questions that the reporter is likely to ask. Afterwards, the communications specialist should arrange a trial run with the executive to talk about answers to possible questions. Prior to the interview it should be made clear what the executive wants to communicate to the reporter no matter what he or she asks. The actual interview should look as if it is totally natural and unrehearsed.
A fourth important point concerning building better relations with the media is to gauge success. A company should identify those communication activities that create the most value and evaluate how well an organization’s various communications functions perform against the industry average. A demonstration of the total value created by a corporate communication department can highlight the valuable work of the department.
After relations with the right persons in the media have been created it is equally important to maintain those ongoing relationships. A company cannot simply turn a certain relationship off and on when it needs a story to be launched. Instead, maintaining media relations is a continuous long-term job.
Building a successful Media Relations Program
Building a successful media relations program means involving media relations personnel in strategy (1), developing in-house capabilities (2), and using outside counsel sparingly (3).
(1) Companies need to involve communication executives in the decision making process. Communication professionals who are involved in the decision making process are more capable of presenting convincingly the decisions made by upper management.
(2) Organizations should develop in-house communication expertise because this expertise can save a lot of money. One problem for many companies is that they do not consider media relations to be important enough to hire professional staff in this area. However, scientists demonstrated that successful media relations have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line results.
(3) Outside counsel should only be hired if a sudden need for professional advice or information arises (major story or crisis). The ordinary and predictable work should be done by in-house experts.
Developing an Online Media Strategy
Over the last two decades, Internet has become the primary source of information. Modern companies need to use the opportunities given by the advance of the Internet in order to convey their messages to the maximum number of people. For instance, companies can establish forums for constituencies to share opinions, concerns, and complaints. Additionally, companies should extend their media relations work to blogs
because those publicly accessible Web sites that are discussion forums on a variety of topicsare becoming increasingly popular. The internet discussions can be used to monitor and influence information circulating about the company.
Class Discussion (02/28/08)
Last week, our communications class listened to and spoke with guest speaker Michelle Fryling, who is responsible for the media relations at the IUP. I learned how important media relations are for every kind of organization. Because I will surely work within an organization after I have finished studying, I need to develop a good understanding of the media relations business. Michelle Fryling helped me to develop that understanding by providing an interesting insight into practice. She has spent 15 years in the media relations job and has witnessed how media changed during that time. I learned that today’s media is faster, more sensational, and less detailed. We discussed in class that the media is the most important source of information. Therefore, it is crucial for me to know how the media works in order to be capable of appropriately evaluating the information I get through different channels. I learned that the media is a reflection of society. Thus, it changes as the society changes. When I plan my career or when I work within an organization, I should keep up with current developments in the fast changing media world.
I liked how Michelle Fryling explained and illustrated the fast changing nature of the media world and how she made clear that is a necessity to adapt to those changes in order to stay up-to-date. What I read in our textbook about the changes in the news media was a detailed addendum to Michelle Fryling’s words. Our textbook emphasizes that business news has become an increasingly important part of overall news throughout the recent decades. As opposed to forty years ago, today business news is omnipresent in the media. Since I am a business student, this was important information for me. Now I know that especially business entities are in the focus of media reporting. Therefore, business entities need to establish a close relationship with the media in order to ensure future success. I will have to remember that when I work in those organizations that deal intensively with the media.
Personal Experiences/Examples
A good example of media relation work is the German company BASF. When a person goes on the company’s website, he or she easily finds the media relation link. On the media relation site (http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/presse/?id=Qa4KdC7X6bcp.s1 ), there is current news and information. Each day, a new posting is published. Additionally, press information, photos, and contact information are provided. When I visited the webpage, I conveniently got all information I wanted to get. In my opinion, this is a good example of media relation work.
I experienced an example of bad media relation work, when “StudiVZ”, the German version of “Facebook”, changed it terms and conditions concerning the protection of personal data. “StudiVZ’ did not collaborate with the media in order to explain their changes to its customers. This led to confusion among the users of StudiVZ. Many left StudiVZ because they thought StudiVZ could use or sell their personal data. If StudiVZ had cooperated with the media in order to communicate the objectives of their change, they would have prevented the loss of several users.
Links:
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/pr_linking_strategies.aspx
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3552876
http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucdavid1.htm
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Internet-Marketing/Taking-your-PR-Campaign-to-the-Web-A-Menu-of-Smart-Partnering-Strategies.html
Saturday, March 22, 2008
21st Century Communication Trends
This posting deals with the 21st century key organizational trends identified by Stephen P. Borgatti. The trends are called Globalization, diversity, flexibility, flat, and networked. In trhe following sections I will briefly describe each of those trends.
Globalization
An increasing number of companies operate globally. In order to be close the emerging markets, many companies decide to move from direct exports to having departments (sales, manufacturing, research, and so forth) spread across the whole world. This trend leads to the phenomenon that even companies which have only domestic operations have to care about global competition because their competitors operate globally. Thus, each and every of today’s company is affected by the globalization of markets.
Globalization is not limited to sales, manufacturing, marketing, or research markets. Also, the labor market is subject to the changes brought about by globalization. Today, organizations search for talented employees all around the globe.
The trend of globalization is a reality of today’s world. However, an interesting question is: What are the reasons why globalization occurs? First of all, we have witnessed significant cost reductions and quality improvements of international transportation and communication. Furthermore, companies, which are based in the western world, search for unsaturated markets. Moreover, those companies strive to exploit regional cost advantages and expertise differences.
Diversity
The next key organizational trend is diversity. Borgatti describes the observation that the workforce is getting more heterogeneous sexually, racially, culturally, individually, etc. This trend can be the source of innovation, but it can also cause conflict and communication problems. Challenges that go along with this trend are the need to cope with different styles of interaction, dress, presentation, physical appearance, and so forth.
The trend of diversity occurs because of changing demographics and the globalization of the labor markets.
Flexibility
The trend of flexibility is characterized by the emerging of organizational systems and processes and people that can respond differently to different situations. On the one hand, this trend is associated with fewer detailed rules and procedures. On the other hand it leads to greater autonomy and encouragement for initiative. For employees, increasing flexibility can mean greater uncertainty.
Reasons for the occurrence of the trend of flexibility are differentiated customer needs, increasing diversity in the workplace, and increased pace of change in technology and markets.
Flat
In order to be competitive, most of today’s companies decrease their levels of management, empower workers to make decisions, and fewer differences in responsibility across levels. This flattening trend arose because of the need for speed, which makes it helpful to empower employees to make decisions, which means fewer managers are needed. Additionally, changes in information technology mean lees need for the communication and control functions of middle managers. Moreover, the flattening of corporations provides the opportunity to cut cost, which is becoming increasingly important due to the intensified competition caused by globalization.
Networked
Finally, the world is becoming increasingly networked. Direct communication across units and corporate boundaries, ignoring the chain of command, is important. Companies build cross-unit team structures and decentralize their organizational structure. Outsourcing, downsizing, and strategic alliances are employed to focus on core competences. In the new business world, firms are closely coordinated to share information through open computer systems. The whole organization becomes focused on customers, who are allowed to specify their orders to their individual needs (customization).
The networked global business became possible because of the advance of new information technology, especially groupware, client-server, and distributed computing. This new technology helps to handle fast changing customer needs and competitor offerings and makes it possible to produce more complicated products that require better integration of manufacturing, design, and marketing functions.
Class Discussion (02/21/08)
We were divided into several teams, each consisting of three team members, to create and hold a presentation on Borgatti`s organizational trends. My group worked on the trend diversity. In order to find information, we looked at the web pages of the companies Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Dell. We chose those companies because we knew that they have a diverse workforce and many locations of operations around the globe. We learned that diversity is an issue of increasing importance. Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Dell, for example, set up programs to manage the diversity concerning several corporate areas. The most important area of diversity is the workforce. We learned that it is crucial to understand that a diverse workforce can foster innovation but can also cause conflicts and communication problems.
In class, we listened to several other presentations on the other Borgatti trends. It was interesting to get information about how the trends described by Bogatti affect not only the business world but also the lives of the people worldwide.
Examples/ Personal Experiences
Everybody who reads this posting has experienced at least one characteristic of globalization: the internet, or more general, the advance of modern communication tools. Twenty years ago, it would have been very cumbersome and costly for me to communicate with my family or friends backs in Germany when I am in the USA. Today, that is no problem. Via internet it is even for free. This example indicates the significant change that took place during the recent decades. Distances vanish and communication across the globe becomes feasible. Perhaps, this trend could lead to the development of a world community.
The perfect example of diversity is our communications class. International students from almost all regions of the world sit in one classroom to study organizational communication. Twenty years ago, there would have been some international students from the Western part of the world but hardly any from Asia or Africa. This has changed. Today, young people from all over the world come to the USA to study so that many classrooms are as divers as our organizational communications classroom.
Links:
http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/trendsin.htm
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/
http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/
Globalization
An increasing number of companies operate globally. In order to be close the emerging markets, many companies decide to move from direct exports to having departments (sales, manufacturing, research, and so forth) spread across the whole world. This trend leads to the phenomenon that even companies which have only domestic operations have to care about global competition because their competitors operate globally. Thus, each and every of today’s company is affected by the globalization of markets.
Globalization is not limited to sales, manufacturing, marketing, or research markets. Also, the labor market is subject to the changes brought about by globalization. Today, organizations search for talented employees all around the globe.
The trend of globalization is a reality of today’s world. However, an interesting question is: What are the reasons why globalization occurs? First of all, we have witnessed significant cost reductions and quality improvements of international transportation and communication. Furthermore, companies, which are based in the western world, search for unsaturated markets. Moreover, those companies strive to exploit regional cost advantages and expertise differences.
Diversity
The next key organizational trend is diversity. Borgatti describes the observation that the workforce is getting more heterogeneous sexually, racially, culturally, individually, etc. This trend can be the source of innovation, but it can also cause conflict and communication problems. Challenges that go along with this trend are the need to cope with different styles of interaction, dress, presentation, physical appearance, and so forth.
The trend of diversity occurs because of changing demographics and the globalization of the labor markets.
Flexibility
The trend of flexibility is characterized by the emerging of organizational systems and processes and people that can respond differently to different situations. On the one hand, this trend is associated with fewer detailed rules and procedures. On the other hand it leads to greater autonomy and encouragement for initiative. For employees, increasing flexibility can mean greater uncertainty.
Reasons for the occurrence of the trend of flexibility are differentiated customer needs, increasing diversity in the workplace, and increased pace of change in technology and markets.
Flat
In order to be competitive, most of today’s companies decrease their levels of management, empower workers to make decisions, and fewer differences in responsibility across levels. This flattening trend arose because of the need for speed, which makes it helpful to empower employees to make decisions, which means fewer managers are needed. Additionally, changes in information technology mean lees need for the communication and control functions of middle managers. Moreover, the flattening of corporations provides the opportunity to cut cost, which is becoming increasingly important due to the intensified competition caused by globalization.
Networked
Finally, the world is becoming increasingly networked. Direct communication across units and corporate boundaries, ignoring the chain of command, is important. Companies build cross-unit team structures and decentralize their organizational structure. Outsourcing, downsizing, and strategic alliances are employed to focus on core competences. In the new business world, firms are closely coordinated to share information through open computer systems. The whole organization becomes focused on customers, who are allowed to specify their orders to their individual needs (customization).
The networked global business became possible because of the advance of new information technology, especially groupware, client-server, and distributed computing. This new technology helps to handle fast changing customer needs and competitor offerings and makes it possible to produce more complicated products that require better integration of manufacturing, design, and marketing functions.
Class Discussion (02/21/08)
We were divided into several teams, each consisting of three team members, to create and hold a presentation on Borgatti`s organizational trends. My group worked on the trend diversity. In order to find information, we looked at the web pages of the companies Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Dell. We chose those companies because we knew that they have a diverse workforce and many locations of operations around the globe. We learned that diversity is an issue of increasing importance. Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Dell, for example, set up programs to manage the diversity concerning several corporate areas. The most important area of diversity is the workforce. We learned that it is crucial to understand that a diverse workforce can foster innovation but can also cause conflicts and communication problems.
In class, we listened to several other presentations on the other Borgatti trends. It was interesting to get information about how the trends described by Bogatti affect not only the business world but also the lives of the people worldwide.
Examples/ Personal Experiences
Everybody who reads this posting has experienced at least one characteristic of globalization: the internet, or more general, the advance of modern communication tools. Twenty years ago, it would have been very cumbersome and costly for me to communicate with my family or friends backs in Germany when I am in the USA. Today, that is no problem. Via internet it is even for free. This example indicates the significant change that took place during the recent decades. Distances vanish and communication across the globe becomes feasible. Perhaps, this trend could lead to the development of a world community.
The perfect example of diversity is our communications class. International students from almost all regions of the world sit in one classroom to study organizational communication. Twenty years ago, there would have been some international students from the Western part of the world but hardly any from Asia or Africa. This has changed. Today, young people from all over the world come to the USA to study so that many classrooms are as divers as our organizational communications classroom.
Links:
http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/trendsin.htm
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/
http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Identity, Image, and Reputation
Finding and maintaining an appropriate identity, image, and reputation is crucial for every company. But how are these concepts defined, how companies distinguish themselves from others, and how can image be managed? These are the questions I will deal with in this posting.
What are Identity and Image?
A company’s identity is the visual manifestation of the company’s reality as conveyed through the organization’s name, logo, motto, products, services, buildings, stationery, uniforms, and all other tangible pieces of evidence created by the organization and communicated to a variety of constituencies (definition found in the textbook).
Image is the reflection of an organization’s identity; it is how the organization is perceived by constituencies. Since constituencies can differ, there can be several images for one company. Organizations should be aware of their image. In order to evaluate the own image, organizations should conduct qualitative and quantitative research with constituents.
Differentiating Organizations through Identity and Image
In today’s competitive environment products and services frequently have similar or even identical features. So identity and image can be the only distinctive feature consumers can use to make purchasing decisions. Often differences in identity and image might be the decisive point for costumers to select a certain company’s product and not that of a competitor.
Shaping Identity
In order to build an appropriate corporate identity, organizations have to consider three major points.
First of all, a company should communicate an inspirational corporate vision, which contains core values, philosophies, standards, and goals. A successful vision provides orientation for all constituencies and influences the way they perceive an organization. Communicating the vision in terms of a narrative or a story can support the perceived coherence of a vision.
Additionally organizations should carefully choose names and logos, because names and logos function as identification tags. They can be used to quickly identify and evaluate an organization. Therefore, successful branding strategies can add great value to a company. On the other hand, poor branding can have significant negative impacts on a company’s value. Changing a brand name can either enhance a company’s identity, or it can confuse consumers and thus, damage the company’s identity.
Although branding is important, organizations should be aware of the fact that branding alone can never successfully shape a company’s identity. It should be embedded into a coherent overall identity management.
That is the third point corporation should consider, in order to create a positive corporate identity: A company should present itself consistently across all its identity elements.
Identity Management in Action
A method that has been successfully used by many organizations to manage the identity process consists of 6 steps.
In step 1 the company has to conduct an identity audit, which helps to assess the current reality. Then, the company’s senior management should set identity objectives that explain how each constituency should react to specific identity proposals. Step 3 is called: Develop design and names. Companies should be careful when choosing a design or name in order to avoid the possibility of trademark and name infringement. Therefore, companies should use the support of a consultant. After having conducted step 3, it is time to develop a prototype of a company’s name and design. In step 5 this new identity should be launched and communicated. When doing this, it is necessary to emphasize the strategic importance of the changed name and design. The last step is to implement the program and to create a consistent identity. Identity consistency can be reached by developing identity standards. The whole communication process of implementation can take several years.
In the Eye of the Beholder
Even before customers interact with a specific company they have a certain image of that company. This image can change after the customer interacts with the organization. The goal is to have that image better than before, not worse. Because one bad experience can destroy the relationship with a customer, each and every interaction is important.
Building a Solid Reputation
Managers can build a solid reputation by aligning an organization’s image and identity. In order to achieve this goal, managers should shape a unique identity and project a coherent and consistent set of images to the public (according to Charles Fombrun, New York University professor emeritus).
It is important to understand the difference between reputation and image and reputation and identity. Here is the explanation of Paul A. Argenti’s book Corporate Communications: “Reputation differs from image because it is built up over time and is not simply a perception at a given point in time. It differs from identity because it is a product of both internal and external constituencies, whereas identity is constructed by internal constituencies (the company itself).”
Class Discussion (02/21/2008)
In class, we talked about our understanding of the word “image” in a business context. We came to the conclusion that an image is a personal perception of a company. Since perceptions are subjective, an individual’s image of a company might be different from another individual’s image of the same company.
Professor Szul showed us the logos of different car companies and asked us to write down the first 5 adjectives that crossed our minds when we saw the logo. This method revealed our personal images of that company. It was interesting to see what the class thought about the different companies.
We also introduced the definitions of identity and reputation and discussed the difference between identity, image, and reputation (see explanations above). It is important for a company to align its identity and image, and to build a solid reputation in order to assure that the public perception of the company is positive.
Examples/Personal Experiences
I experienced an example of identity management in Germany. The company “KarstadtQuelle”, which major business was retailing, went into trouble because its sales went down due to a bad reputation. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Karstadt was known as quality retailer, but this reputation worsened during the 1990’s. In 2005, the bad development forced KarstadtQuelle to file for bankruptcy. KarstadtQuelle developed a plan that had the objective to organize the recovery of its business activities. One measure was to improve its image. KarstadtQuelle changed its corporation name to Arcandor (see: http://www.arcandor.com/en/konzern/konzern.asp). The change of the corporation name showed that a new period had begun that should be more successful than the past period. Also, the corporation wanted to emphasize that it consisted of more businesses than just the retail business. Simultaneously, Arcandor strived to improve their stores that were subject to critiques. The whole campaign was a success. Today, Arcandor is a profitable company.
An example for a business that needs a good identity, image, and reputation management is banking. The business of banks is based upon their reliability. Because banks deal with the money of other persons, they are in a very delicate business. Banks need to assure that they have a solid reputation in order gain the deposits of their customers. Individuals will not give their money to organizations they do not trust. Thus, a bad reputation can seriously hurt the business of banks. This makes banks a good example of companies that need a thorough reputation image.
In Germany, banks played a major role in the Great Depression from 1929-1933. At the beginning of the crisis, the public got to know that the German banking system was not refunded appropriately. The public became nervous and lost their faith in the banking system as a whole. Because so many people wanted to withdraw their deposits and savings, there were long lines in front of bank buildings were the result. Although the message of the improper refunding referred to the banking system as a whole, each and every bank went into trouble due to the loss in the banking system’s reputation. This example shows how sensitive the public is to the banking business. Furthermore, it shows another important point: The trust of the public is the most important asset a bank or the banking system possesses.
Links:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/10.html
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Con-Cos/Corporate-Identity.html
http://www.morrisseyco.com/insight/pdfs/MVRv6_1.pdf
What are Identity and Image?
A company’s identity is the visual manifestation of the company’s reality as conveyed through the organization’s name, logo, motto, products, services, buildings, stationery, uniforms, and all other tangible pieces of evidence created by the organization and communicated to a variety of constituencies (definition found in the textbook).
Image is the reflection of an organization’s identity; it is how the organization is perceived by constituencies. Since constituencies can differ, there can be several images for one company. Organizations should be aware of their image. In order to evaluate the own image, organizations should conduct qualitative and quantitative research with constituents.
Differentiating Organizations through Identity and Image
In today’s competitive environment products and services frequently have similar or even identical features. So identity and image can be the only distinctive feature consumers can use to make purchasing decisions. Often differences in identity and image might be the decisive point for costumers to select a certain company’s product and not that of a competitor.
Shaping Identity
In order to build an appropriate corporate identity, organizations have to consider three major points.
First of all, a company should communicate an inspirational corporate vision, which contains core values, philosophies, standards, and goals. A successful vision provides orientation for all constituencies and influences the way they perceive an organization. Communicating the vision in terms of a narrative or a story can support the perceived coherence of a vision.
Additionally organizations should carefully choose names and logos, because names and logos function as identification tags. They can be used to quickly identify and evaluate an organization. Therefore, successful branding strategies can add great value to a company. On the other hand, poor branding can have significant negative impacts on a company’s value. Changing a brand name can either enhance a company’s identity, or it can confuse consumers and thus, damage the company’s identity.
Although branding is important, organizations should be aware of the fact that branding alone can never successfully shape a company’s identity. It should be embedded into a coherent overall identity management.
That is the third point corporation should consider, in order to create a positive corporate identity: A company should present itself consistently across all its identity elements.
Identity Management in Action
A method that has been successfully used by many organizations to manage the identity process consists of 6 steps.
In step 1 the company has to conduct an identity audit, which helps to assess the current reality. Then, the company’s senior management should set identity objectives that explain how each constituency should react to specific identity proposals. Step 3 is called: Develop design and names. Companies should be careful when choosing a design or name in order to avoid the possibility of trademark and name infringement. Therefore, companies should use the support of a consultant. After having conducted step 3, it is time to develop a prototype of a company’s name and design. In step 5 this new identity should be launched and communicated. When doing this, it is necessary to emphasize the strategic importance of the changed name and design. The last step is to implement the program and to create a consistent identity. Identity consistency can be reached by developing identity standards. The whole communication process of implementation can take several years.
In the Eye of the Beholder
Even before customers interact with a specific company they have a certain image of that company. This image can change after the customer interacts with the organization. The goal is to have that image better than before, not worse. Because one bad experience can destroy the relationship with a customer, each and every interaction is important.
Building a Solid Reputation
Managers can build a solid reputation by aligning an organization’s image and identity. In order to achieve this goal, managers should shape a unique identity and project a coherent and consistent set of images to the public (according to Charles Fombrun, New York University professor emeritus).
It is important to understand the difference between reputation and image and reputation and identity. Here is the explanation of Paul A. Argenti’s book Corporate Communications: “Reputation differs from image because it is built up over time and is not simply a perception at a given point in time. It differs from identity because it is a product of both internal and external constituencies, whereas identity is constructed by internal constituencies (the company itself).”
Class Discussion (02/21/2008)
In class, we talked about our understanding of the word “image” in a business context. We came to the conclusion that an image is a personal perception of a company. Since perceptions are subjective, an individual’s image of a company might be different from another individual’s image of the same company.
Professor Szul showed us the logos of different car companies and asked us to write down the first 5 adjectives that crossed our minds when we saw the logo. This method revealed our personal images of that company. It was interesting to see what the class thought about the different companies.
We also introduced the definitions of identity and reputation and discussed the difference between identity, image, and reputation (see explanations above). It is important for a company to align its identity and image, and to build a solid reputation in order to assure that the public perception of the company is positive.
Examples/Personal Experiences
I experienced an example of identity management in Germany. The company “KarstadtQuelle”, which major business was retailing, went into trouble because its sales went down due to a bad reputation. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Karstadt was known as quality retailer, but this reputation worsened during the 1990’s. In 2005, the bad development forced KarstadtQuelle to file for bankruptcy. KarstadtQuelle developed a plan that had the objective to organize the recovery of its business activities. One measure was to improve its image. KarstadtQuelle changed its corporation name to Arcandor (see: http://www.arcandor.com/en/konzern/konzern.asp). The change of the corporation name showed that a new period had begun that should be more successful than the past period. Also, the corporation wanted to emphasize that it consisted of more businesses than just the retail business. Simultaneously, Arcandor strived to improve their stores that were subject to critiques. The whole campaign was a success. Today, Arcandor is a profitable company.
An example for a business that needs a good identity, image, and reputation management is banking. The business of banks is based upon their reliability. Because banks deal with the money of other persons, they are in a very delicate business. Banks need to assure that they have a solid reputation in order gain the deposits of their customers. Individuals will not give their money to organizations they do not trust. Thus, a bad reputation can seriously hurt the business of banks. This makes banks a good example of companies that need a thorough reputation image.
In Germany, banks played a major role in the Great Depression from 1929-1933. At the beginning of the crisis, the public got to know that the German banking system was not refunded appropriately. The public became nervous and lost their faith in the banking system as a whole. Because so many people wanted to withdraw their deposits and savings, there were long lines in front of bank buildings were the result. Although the message of the improper refunding referred to the banking system as a whole, each and every bank went into trouble due to the loss in the banking system’s reputation. This example shows how sensitive the public is to the banking business. Furthermore, it shows another important point: The trust of the public is the most important asset a bank or the banking system possesses.
Links:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/10.html
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Con-Cos/Corporate-Identity.html
http://www.morrisseyco.com/insight/pdfs/MVRv6_1.pdf
Internal Communications
In the past, managers mainly focused on the communication with customers. Today, managers dedicate the same attention to their employees because they realized that employees are major contributors to a company’s success.
Thus, an important question for companies is how to establish successful relationships with employees through internal communications. This will be the issue of this posting.
Internal Communications and the Changing Environment
The business environment has strongly changed in the last decades. These changes also affect internal communications.
In many ways today’s employees are different from former employees. Today’s employees obey modern values, they are more knowledgeable, and they have higher expectations of their careers. Modern employees have the skills and the expectation to be increasingly engaged in their company’s vision and strategy. Managers need to recognize that they should provide information to employee and that they should listen to what their employees have to say. By doing this, employees will be able to contribute all their strength to their company’s achievement of its goals.
Besides the employees, also the workplace has changed dramatically during the last decades; tighter staffing, longer hours, greater workloads, and more emphasis on performance are the norm. The increasing number of layoffs (often a consequence of outsourcing) has caused great uncertainty among the workforce.
Companies have to adapt their internal communications to the changing environment in order to recruit and retain the best talent. A forecast of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a labor shortage of 5 to 10 million by 2010. Obviously, this environment will make it very hard to recruit and retain skilled workers. Companies better should prepare themselves for this situation by establishing good internal communications.
Organizing the Internal Communication Effort
There are some things that should to be done when a company wants to organize its internal communication effort. A first step can be a communication audit. A communication audit can help to determine the employee’s attitudes about a company and can functions as a base to develop goals for effective internal communications. These goals should support the overall mission of the company and reinforce their employee’s beliefs that they are important to the company.
An important question that needs to be answered when a company’s internal communications are organized is where internal communications should report. The answer to the questions depends on the specific situation of a company. However, regardless of where internal communications is positioned in a company’s organizational structure, the company should make sure that internal communicators work closely with external communicators. The messages sent to internal and external constituencies should be consistent. When company’s news becomes open to the public, employees should be informed beforehand.
Implementing an Effective internal Communication Program
Implementing an effective internal communication program is the final step of a organizing a company’s internal communication efforts. Regarding that issue several suggestions can be made:
First of all, it is important to communicate up and down. Organizations should give employees the chance to communicate upward to the management and create a workplace environment in which employees feel free and secure to ask questions and offer advice. The most helpful employee feedback can usually be achieved when a company’s supervisors communicates with employees through informal discussions.
The next suggestion is: Make time for face-to-face meetings. In order to provide employees the opportunity to access senior management, this senior management should hold regular, in-person meetings with as small as possible groups of employees. In these meetings specific problems can be solved and employees can ask questions in an open forum.
Although meeting face-to-face is very important, it is a necessity for companies to communicate online. Intranets make it possible to reach employees easily. For example, corporate news can quickly be sent to a great number of internal constituencies. Furthermore, a corporate intranet can be a platform that gives employees the opportunity to meet and share ideas.
Another suggestion regarding the implementation of an effective internal communication program is to create employee-oriented publications. Often it makes sense to hire a former journalist who writes these publications for the employees.
When a company tries to reach its employees, it should consider that modern ways of communications are visual. An increasing number of companies run their own television studios to communicate with their employees.
As mentioned earlier, companies should align internal and external communication in order to avoid confusion among constituencies. This suggestion also refers to the use of branding. Besides the external branding, a company should also thoroughly create an internal branding strategy (especially, when a company’s identity s in the process of change).
The last suggestion is: Consider the company grapevine. A company grapevine is an informal communications network. Employees use it to talk privately, share the latest anecdotes, and exchange information. A company should consider this informal network when implementing a communication program.
Management’s Role in Internal Communication
A company’s top management is especially important for internal communications because top mangers are a company’s visionaries and its culture carriers. Since all organizational communication starts with them, top managers should work closely with internal communication professionals to make sure that their messages are received and understand by the relevant audience.
Class Discussion and Online Recruitment Activity (02/14/08)
Last week, we had an online chat. In a group of three persons we discussed several questions that dealt with the issue of employee recruitment and retention. We talked about the opportunities of working from home, online recruiting, changes in work related values, the need for companies to adapt to the changing environment, corporate culture, corporate identity, work ethics, and many other issues related to employee recruitment and retention.
Based on the chat, each of us created a to-do list for managers who want to improve their company’s recruitment and retention capabilities. My to-do list was a result of previous literature research, a video called “Generational Divide,” which we found on the Wall Street Journal’s webpage (www.wsj.com/businessinsight), and our online chat. This is the to-do list I created:
1. Create an informal corporate culture if this is possible for your specific business.
2. Build a positive corporate reputation. Be social responsible.
3. Choose an organizational structure that is as flat as possible.
4. Provide the opportunity to work from home.
5. Do a lot of work through team projects.
6. Reward your employees. Do not only use money as reward. Positive feedback is important.
7. Give employees the chance to advance. Provide internal and external training opportunities in order to develop skills.
8. Make sure that employees develop self-confidence.
In class we talked about advantages and disadvantages of communicating via online chat. An advantage is that people who do not like to speak in front of a group (in our case the class) often have fewer problems with communicating via chat. Because they have more time to formulate their ideas, they participate more intensively. This is especially an advantage for international students who often need time to translate their thoughts. In an online chat, they have this time.
A disadvantage is the slow pace of the conversation. An online chat needs too much time to exchange little information. Often person have to wait for another person to write his or her response. If the persons that are communicating via online chat do not use a webcam, confusion can arise whether a person is responding or whether she or he needs more time to respond.
Personal Experiences/ Examples
When I had an internship in a logistics company, I experienced a successful method of organizing internal communications. The company had a suggestion box that was intensively used by the employees. Each employee who had a suggestion could write an
anonymous message and put in into the box. On regular bases, the management conducted discussion meetings with its employees to talk about the collected suggestion. But the suggestions were not the sole purpose of the meetings. The employees were given the opportunity to ask questions and the management shared new company information with the workers. The open communication channels of the company created a positive work climate. The employees liked to work for their company and strived to contribute as much as they could to its success. I think this is a really good example for good internal communication management.
As mentioned earlier, one big issue of our online chat was online recruitment. This topic is becoming increasingly important (see: http://www.indiawebdevelopers.com/articles/internet_recruiting.asp ). As I learned when I applied for an internship in a bank, many companies do not even accept non-electronic applications anymore. It is much easier for companies to handle electronic applications. Electronic applications are fast and convenient, can be replied to easily and do not create as much waste as real paper applications.
Links:
http://www.managementhelp.org/mrktng/org_cmm.htm
http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/Edelman_Employee_Communications_Trend_Report.pdf
Thus, an important question for companies is how to establish successful relationships with employees through internal communications. This will be the issue of this posting.
Internal Communications and the Changing Environment
The business environment has strongly changed in the last decades. These changes also affect internal communications.
In many ways today’s employees are different from former employees. Today’s employees obey modern values, they are more knowledgeable, and they have higher expectations of their careers. Modern employees have the skills and the expectation to be increasingly engaged in their company’s vision and strategy. Managers need to recognize that they should provide information to employee and that they should listen to what their employees have to say. By doing this, employees will be able to contribute all their strength to their company’s achievement of its goals.
Besides the employees, also the workplace has changed dramatically during the last decades; tighter staffing, longer hours, greater workloads, and more emphasis on performance are the norm. The increasing number of layoffs (often a consequence of outsourcing) has caused great uncertainty among the workforce.
Companies have to adapt their internal communications to the changing environment in order to recruit and retain the best talent. A forecast of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a labor shortage of 5 to 10 million by 2010. Obviously, this environment will make it very hard to recruit and retain skilled workers. Companies better should prepare themselves for this situation by establishing good internal communications.
Organizing the Internal Communication Effort
There are some things that should to be done when a company wants to organize its internal communication effort. A first step can be a communication audit. A communication audit can help to determine the employee’s attitudes about a company and can functions as a base to develop goals for effective internal communications. These goals should support the overall mission of the company and reinforce their employee’s beliefs that they are important to the company.
An important question that needs to be answered when a company’s internal communications are organized is where internal communications should report. The answer to the questions depends on the specific situation of a company. However, regardless of where internal communications is positioned in a company’s organizational structure, the company should make sure that internal communicators work closely with external communicators. The messages sent to internal and external constituencies should be consistent. When company’s news becomes open to the public, employees should be informed beforehand.
Implementing an Effective internal Communication Program
Implementing an effective internal communication program is the final step of a organizing a company’s internal communication efforts. Regarding that issue several suggestions can be made:
First of all, it is important to communicate up and down. Organizations should give employees the chance to communicate upward to the management and create a workplace environment in which employees feel free and secure to ask questions and offer advice. The most helpful employee feedback can usually be achieved when a company’s supervisors communicates with employees through informal discussions.
The next suggestion is: Make time for face-to-face meetings. In order to provide employees the opportunity to access senior management, this senior management should hold regular, in-person meetings with as small as possible groups of employees. In these meetings specific problems can be solved and employees can ask questions in an open forum.
Although meeting face-to-face is very important, it is a necessity for companies to communicate online. Intranets make it possible to reach employees easily. For example, corporate news can quickly be sent to a great number of internal constituencies. Furthermore, a corporate intranet can be a platform that gives employees the opportunity to meet and share ideas.
Another suggestion regarding the implementation of an effective internal communication program is to create employee-oriented publications. Often it makes sense to hire a former journalist who writes these publications for the employees.
When a company tries to reach its employees, it should consider that modern ways of communications are visual. An increasing number of companies run their own television studios to communicate with their employees.
As mentioned earlier, companies should align internal and external communication in order to avoid confusion among constituencies. This suggestion also refers to the use of branding. Besides the external branding, a company should also thoroughly create an internal branding strategy (especially, when a company’s identity s in the process of change).
The last suggestion is: Consider the company grapevine. A company grapevine is an informal communications network. Employees use it to talk privately, share the latest anecdotes, and exchange information. A company should consider this informal network when implementing a communication program.
Management’s Role in Internal Communication
A company’s top management is especially important for internal communications because top mangers are a company’s visionaries and its culture carriers. Since all organizational communication starts with them, top managers should work closely with internal communication professionals to make sure that their messages are received and understand by the relevant audience.
Class Discussion and Online Recruitment Activity (02/14/08)
Last week, we had an online chat. In a group of three persons we discussed several questions that dealt with the issue of employee recruitment and retention. We talked about the opportunities of working from home, online recruiting, changes in work related values, the need for companies to adapt to the changing environment, corporate culture, corporate identity, work ethics, and many other issues related to employee recruitment and retention.
Based on the chat, each of us created a to-do list for managers who want to improve their company’s recruitment and retention capabilities. My to-do list was a result of previous literature research, a video called “Generational Divide,” which we found on the Wall Street Journal’s webpage (www.wsj.com/businessinsight), and our online chat. This is the to-do list I created:
1. Create an informal corporate culture if this is possible for your specific business.
2. Build a positive corporate reputation. Be social responsible.
3. Choose an organizational structure that is as flat as possible.
4. Provide the opportunity to work from home.
5. Do a lot of work through team projects.
6. Reward your employees. Do not only use money as reward. Positive feedback is important.
7. Give employees the chance to advance. Provide internal and external training opportunities in order to develop skills.
8. Make sure that employees develop self-confidence.
In class we talked about advantages and disadvantages of communicating via online chat. An advantage is that people who do not like to speak in front of a group (in our case the class) often have fewer problems with communicating via chat. Because they have more time to formulate their ideas, they participate more intensively. This is especially an advantage for international students who often need time to translate their thoughts. In an online chat, they have this time.
A disadvantage is the slow pace of the conversation. An online chat needs too much time to exchange little information. Often person have to wait for another person to write his or her response. If the persons that are communicating via online chat do not use a webcam, confusion can arise whether a person is responding or whether she or he needs more time to respond.
Personal Experiences/ Examples
When I had an internship in a logistics company, I experienced a successful method of organizing internal communications. The company had a suggestion box that was intensively used by the employees. Each employee who had a suggestion could write an
anonymous message and put in into the box. On regular bases, the management conducted discussion meetings with its employees to talk about the collected suggestion. But the suggestions were not the sole purpose of the meetings. The employees were given the opportunity to ask questions and the management shared new company information with the workers. The open communication channels of the company created a positive work climate. The employees liked to work for their company and strived to contribute as much as they could to its success. I think this is a really good example for good internal communication management.
As mentioned earlier, one big issue of our online chat was online recruitment. This topic is becoming increasingly important (see: http://www.indiawebdevelopers.com/articles/internet_recruiting.asp ). As I learned when I applied for an internship in a bank, many companies do not even accept non-electronic applications anymore. It is much easier for companies to handle electronic applications. Electronic applications are fast and convenient, can be replied to easily and do not create as much waste as real paper applications.
Links:
http://www.managementhelp.org/mrktng/org_cmm.htm
http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/Edelman_Employee_Communications_Trend_Report.pdf
Corporate Advertising
This blog posting deals with the issue of corporate advertising. Because corporate advertising is an easy and fast method of communicating a company’s identity, many companies use it. In order to communicate successfully, companies should consider that any corporate advertising campaign should be strategic (should look toward the future of a company) and consistent (advertising should fit with company vision).
What is Corporate Advertising?
According to our textbook’s author Paul A. Argenti, corporate advertising can be defined as “paid use of media that seeks to benefit the image of the corporation as a whole rather than its products or services alone,” (2007), p. 87. It is important that companies choose corporate advertising campaigns that are consistent with product advertising campaigns because all forms of a company’s advertising contribute to its image.
There are three different categories of corporate advertising: image advertising, financial advertising, and issue advocacy.
Image advertising serves the purpose to reinforce a company’s identity or enhance its reputation. Often image advertising is used by companies that have experienced structural changes because these companies need to explain their new vision and strategy.
Financial advertising is used to attract investments and to enhance a company’s image in the financial community. Companies using a financial advertising hope to raise their stock prices. And indeed, Professors at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business conducted an econometric analysis and determined that corporate advertising has a statistically significant positive effect on stock prices.
The goal of issue advocacy advertising is to influence opinions. It used when a company’s environment challenges the status quo and, by doing this, threatens the company’s business. Since issue advertising usually deals with controversial subjects and almost always offends particular groups, companies should be very cautious when they decide to use this kind of communication.
The History of Corporate Advertising in America
At the beginning of the 20th century, corporate advertising campaigns started to become popular. AT&T published an issue-oriented campaign that had the objective to defend its monopoly status and create public faith in the company’s good intentions. This was one of the earliest corporate advertising campaigns in the USA. Because corporate advertising seemed to be successful, during the 1910’s, many companies used this form of identity communication. After World War II corporate advertising lost its significance until its revival in the 1970’s, when oil companies needed to influence the public opinion to fight accusation of exorbitant profits during the oil crisis. Today, corporate advertising is intensively used by companies.
Who Uses Corporate Advertising and Why?
Corporate Advertising is often used by large, diversified companies that need to build a coherent reputation out of a variety of activities and by companies within “controversial” industries, such as tobacco, oil, and pharmaceuticals.
There are several reasons why companies invest in corporate advertising campaigns. The most important ones refer to the points that corporate advertising creates a stronger reputation (see the posting “Identity, Image, and Reputation”), helps to recruit and retain employees (see the posting “Internal Communications”), and (indirectly) increases sales. Although the relationship between corporate advertising and increased sales might not be as clear as the relationship between product advertising and increased sales, many companies regard corporate advertising as a strategic investment that indirectly raises sales.
Class Discussion (02/07/08)
In class, we discussed the difference between corporate and product advertising. While product advertising serves the sole purpose of selling a product, corporate advertising is a much broader concept. Corporate advertising refers to a company’s image, identity, and reputation.
Personal Experiences/Examples
An example for good corporate advertising is the oil company BP. I like the television ads of BP, which I saw in Germany as well as in the USA. The ads deal with the issue of environmental responsibility in the energy industry. Originally, BP stood for British petrol, but today, the company’s advertising campaign translates BP as “Beyond Petroleum”. These words show that BP cares about more than just the oil business. The message of BP’s corporate advertising is that the company strives to find sustainable and environment-friendly solutions for the controversial energy industry. The fact that I know the campaign shows that I paid attention to it. I know the message of the campaign and appreciate the environment policy of BP. This all demonstrates BP’s corporate advertising campaign was a success, in Germany as well as in the USA.
Another positive example for corporate advertising is the German company Bayer. Bayer is a global producer of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Sometimes, Bayer is subject to controversies because of drug testing. Furthermore, Bayer’s chemical business (now called Lanxess) has the image of being harmful to the environment. In its corporate advertising campaign Bayer tries to enhance its image by illustrating how the benefits of its products improve the lives of people worldwide. The TV ads show how science can contribute to the health of people. Additionally, Bayer shows the modern technology it uses that avoids polluting the environment.
Links:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/25/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_gunther_exxonmobil.fortune/
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2006.00460.x?cookieSet=1
http://www.reputationinstitute.com/members/nyc06/Rubin.pdf
What is Corporate Advertising?
According to our textbook’s author Paul A. Argenti, corporate advertising can be defined as “paid use of media that seeks to benefit the image of the corporation as a whole rather than its products or services alone,” (2007), p. 87. It is important that companies choose corporate advertising campaigns that are consistent with product advertising campaigns because all forms of a company’s advertising contribute to its image.
There are three different categories of corporate advertising: image advertising, financial advertising, and issue advocacy.
Image advertising serves the purpose to reinforce a company’s identity or enhance its reputation. Often image advertising is used by companies that have experienced structural changes because these companies need to explain their new vision and strategy.
Financial advertising is used to attract investments and to enhance a company’s image in the financial community. Companies using a financial advertising hope to raise their stock prices. And indeed, Professors at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business conducted an econometric analysis and determined that corporate advertising has a statistically significant positive effect on stock prices.
The goal of issue advocacy advertising is to influence opinions. It used when a company’s environment challenges the status quo and, by doing this, threatens the company’s business. Since issue advertising usually deals with controversial subjects and almost always offends particular groups, companies should be very cautious when they decide to use this kind of communication.
The History of Corporate Advertising in America
At the beginning of the 20th century, corporate advertising campaigns started to become popular. AT&T published an issue-oriented campaign that had the objective to defend its monopoly status and create public faith in the company’s good intentions. This was one of the earliest corporate advertising campaigns in the USA. Because corporate advertising seemed to be successful, during the 1910’s, many companies used this form of identity communication. After World War II corporate advertising lost its significance until its revival in the 1970’s, when oil companies needed to influence the public opinion to fight accusation of exorbitant profits during the oil crisis. Today, corporate advertising is intensively used by companies.
Who Uses Corporate Advertising and Why?
Corporate Advertising is often used by large, diversified companies that need to build a coherent reputation out of a variety of activities and by companies within “controversial” industries, such as tobacco, oil, and pharmaceuticals.
There are several reasons why companies invest in corporate advertising campaigns. The most important ones refer to the points that corporate advertising creates a stronger reputation (see the posting “Identity, Image, and Reputation”), helps to recruit and retain employees (see the posting “Internal Communications”), and (indirectly) increases sales. Although the relationship between corporate advertising and increased sales might not be as clear as the relationship between product advertising and increased sales, many companies regard corporate advertising as a strategic investment that indirectly raises sales.
Class Discussion (02/07/08)
In class, we discussed the difference between corporate and product advertising. While product advertising serves the sole purpose of selling a product, corporate advertising is a much broader concept. Corporate advertising refers to a company’s image, identity, and reputation.
Personal Experiences/Examples
An example for good corporate advertising is the oil company BP. I like the television ads of BP, which I saw in Germany as well as in the USA. The ads deal with the issue of environmental responsibility in the energy industry. Originally, BP stood for British petrol, but today, the company’s advertising campaign translates BP as “Beyond Petroleum”. These words show that BP cares about more than just the oil business. The message of BP’s corporate advertising is that the company strives to find sustainable and environment-friendly solutions for the controversial energy industry. The fact that I know the campaign shows that I paid attention to it. I know the message of the campaign and appreciate the environment policy of BP. This all demonstrates BP’s corporate advertising campaign was a success, in Germany as well as in the USA.
Another positive example for corporate advertising is the German company Bayer. Bayer is a global producer of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Sometimes, Bayer is subject to controversies because of drug testing. Furthermore, Bayer’s chemical business (now called Lanxess) has the image of being harmful to the environment. In its corporate advertising campaign Bayer tries to enhance its image by illustrating how the benefits of its products improve the lives of people worldwide. The TV ads show how science can contribute to the health of people. Additionally, Bayer shows the modern technology it uses that avoids polluting the environment.
Links:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/25/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_gunther_exxonmobil.fortune/
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2006.00460.x?cookieSet=1
http://www.reputationinstitute.com/members/nyc06/Rubin.pdf
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Communication Theories
Last week, we talked about communications as a science. Several communication theories have been developed by sociologists and political scientists after World War II. I would like to introduce them in this posting.
Harold Lasswell Model
The first discussed theory was a linear communications model of Harold Lasswell, which was developed in 1948. The model includes a sender of a message, a channel, and a recipient of the message. The result of the message is the effect, which can consist of a variety of outcomes.
The Harold Lasswell Model, 1948
Who (speaker) --> What (message) --> Channel (or medium) --> Whom (audience or listener)
= Effect
Shannon and Weaver Model
The next model was developed shortly after Lasswell’s model by Shannon and Weaver. This model emphasizes the transmission of information; the message is not as important in the Shannon and Weaver Model as it is in most other communication models. Shannon and Weaver were of the opinion that communication does not contribute to meaning; the sole purpose of communication is getting information from A to B. Shannon and Weaver introduced the term “noise” and described ways to overcome the problems that are related to the occurrence of noise. Noise is defined as an interference of communication; thus, it is a disruption of the transmission of information. Noise can be overcome by redundancy: The sender should say things twice when he thinks the problem of noise could exist.
Because of his important theoretical findings, Shannon is called the “father of information theory.”
Schramm’s Model
While Shannon is called the “father of information theory,” Schramm is referred to as the “founder of communication studies.” Schramm elaborated on Shannon’s models and included some very important new findings.
His later models were the first ones to describe communication as a circular process. Schramm included the recipient’s response to the sent message in his model. This feedback creates a communication circle, which connects sender and recipient. Additionally, Schramm introduced the terms encoding and decoding. Encoding is the sender’s way to create a message and decoding is the recipient’s way to take a message apart. Successful encoding and decoding necessitates the use of a common vocabulary. Schramm defined the common field of experiences, which is an area of commonalties or an area that both (sender and recipient) know about. Messages have to be in this common field of commonalities in order to be understood appropriately. If they are not in this field, communication is disturbed and frustration can arise.
Katz and Lazarsfeld Model
Katz & Lazarsfeld’s Model is important because of its political implications. The political scientists Katz & Lazarsfeld observed that individuals are greatly affected by opinion leaders who are able to reach a great number of people through the (at their time) newly developed mass media. Katz & Lazarsfeld’s model of communication through mass media is linear again.
Wesley MacLean-Model
The next discussed model was the Wesley- MacLean model, which describes potential messages as “events.” The model includes an advocate who supports transmitting an event.
Kincaid’s Model
The last model we talked about was the Kincaid’s Convergence model. The model describes the way to create and share information in order to reach mutual understanding, which is defined as the final result of successful communication. Kincaid’s model depicts the fact that communication is a cyclical process. Kincaid uses the term information rather than the term message.
My personal opinion about communication theories
Models are a simplistic description of the reality. Therefore, they provide a convenient way to look at complicated relations of reality. The advantage of models is simultaneously a threat to everybody who works with models, because models should not oversimplify the reality. If that happens, models will lose their capability to appropriately describe the reality.
The communication models help us to understand the important facts of communication, which I should consider when I try to become a good communicator. In consequence of our class discussion, I recognized that today’s communication is understood as a circular process. The feedback is an important component of communication. Feedback should be analyzed in order to figure out whether a communication process was successful.
Another important point is the necessity to use a common vocabulary to avoid frustrating communication experiences. Some people who are experts in a specific field often use their “technical language” when talking to persons who do not know much about that specific field. The consequence is a bad understanding of the message and frustration because the sender and the recipient do not communicate in a “common field of experiences.” This mistake should be avoided in order to effectively communicate.
Examples/ Personal Experiences
I had bad experiences when I communicated with my university in Germany. I emailed a certain office of the university in order to figure out what I had to do to apply for a specific waiver. Unfortunately, I got no response the following week; it took the office of the university 10 days to write a response. A few weeks later, I had another question and emailed the same office again. Again, I had to wait several days for an email response. This was a frustrating experience. However, this occurrence helped me to recognize the importance of feedback. I learned that communication is a circular process, and that after a message is sent, there should always follow a response.
This finding is very important for companies that want their customers to be satisfied with their service (or product). When it takes too long to respond to a customer’s message, the customer can become frustrated and unsatisfied. The dissatisfaction could induce the customer to choose a competing company the next time he wants to purchase a similar product or service.
My university had not to be afraid of losing a customer, because it seems to be clear that once a student has been enrolled, it is unlikely that the student will leave the university and choose another with a better customer service. This is especially true for German universities, because German universities do not face very tough competition, because they are all state owned.
That is another thing a learned from this occurrence: Competition forces companies to be good communicators; if there is only little competition, companies do not have a strong incentive to communicate efficiently.
I had a positive communication experience with my bank in Germany. The bank assigned one certain person I could contact whenever I had questions, wishes, or some transactions to do. This person was responsible for my satisfaction regarding financial issues. Therefore, she was very kind and helped whenever she could (she gave positive feedback). I felt that I, as a customer, was a very important person for the bank. That gave me an idea of how communications should be if companies want to achieve their goal of customer satisfaction.
Links:
http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/psekhar/2006/12/post.html
http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/volkmer.html
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf
http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/
Harold Lasswell Model
The first discussed theory was a linear communications model of Harold Lasswell, which was developed in 1948. The model includes a sender of a message, a channel, and a recipient of the message. The result of the message is the effect, which can consist of a variety of outcomes.
The Harold Lasswell Model, 1948
Who (speaker) --> What (message) --> Channel (or medium) --> Whom (audience or listener)
= Effect
Shannon and Weaver Model
The next model was developed shortly after Lasswell’s model by Shannon and Weaver. This model emphasizes the transmission of information; the message is not as important in the Shannon and Weaver Model as it is in most other communication models. Shannon and Weaver were of the opinion that communication does not contribute to meaning; the sole purpose of communication is getting information from A to B. Shannon and Weaver introduced the term “noise” and described ways to overcome the problems that are related to the occurrence of noise. Noise is defined as an interference of communication; thus, it is a disruption of the transmission of information. Noise can be overcome by redundancy: The sender should say things twice when he thinks the problem of noise could exist.
Because of his important theoretical findings, Shannon is called the “father of information theory.”
Schramm’s Model
While Shannon is called the “father of information theory,” Schramm is referred to as the “founder of communication studies.” Schramm elaborated on Shannon’s models and included some very important new findings.
His later models were the first ones to describe communication as a circular process. Schramm included the recipient’s response to the sent message in his model. This feedback creates a communication circle, which connects sender and recipient. Additionally, Schramm introduced the terms encoding and decoding. Encoding is the sender’s way to create a message and decoding is the recipient’s way to take a message apart. Successful encoding and decoding necessitates the use of a common vocabulary. Schramm defined the common field of experiences, which is an area of commonalties or an area that both (sender and recipient) know about. Messages have to be in this common field of commonalities in order to be understood appropriately. If they are not in this field, communication is disturbed and frustration can arise.
Katz and Lazarsfeld Model
Katz & Lazarsfeld’s Model is important because of its political implications. The political scientists Katz & Lazarsfeld observed that individuals are greatly affected by opinion leaders who are able to reach a great number of people through the (at their time) newly developed mass media. Katz & Lazarsfeld’s model of communication through mass media is linear again.
Wesley MacLean-Model
The next discussed model was the Wesley- MacLean model, which describes potential messages as “events.” The model includes an advocate who supports transmitting an event.
Kincaid’s Model
The last model we talked about was the Kincaid’s Convergence model. The model describes the way to create and share information in order to reach mutual understanding, which is defined as the final result of successful communication. Kincaid’s model depicts the fact that communication is a cyclical process. Kincaid uses the term information rather than the term message.
My personal opinion about communication theories
Models are a simplistic description of the reality. Therefore, they provide a convenient way to look at complicated relations of reality. The advantage of models is simultaneously a threat to everybody who works with models, because models should not oversimplify the reality. If that happens, models will lose their capability to appropriately describe the reality.
The communication models help us to understand the important facts of communication, which I should consider when I try to become a good communicator. In consequence of our class discussion, I recognized that today’s communication is understood as a circular process. The feedback is an important component of communication. Feedback should be analyzed in order to figure out whether a communication process was successful.
Another important point is the necessity to use a common vocabulary to avoid frustrating communication experiences. Some people who are experts in a specific field often use their “technical language” when talking to persons who do not know much about that specific field. The consequence is a bad understanding of the message and frustration because the sender and the recipient do not communicate in a “common field of experiences.” This mistake should be avoided in order to effectively communicate.
Examples/ Personal Experiences
I had bad experiences when I communicated with my university in Germany. I emailed a certain office of the university in order to figure out what I had to do to apply for a specific waiver. Unfortunately, I got no response the following week; it took the office of the university 10 days to write a response. A few weeks later, I had another question and emailed the same office again. Again, I had to wait several days for an email response. This was a frustrating experience. However, this occurrence helped me to recognize the importance of feedback. I learned that communication is a circular process, and that after a message is sent, there should always follow a response.
This finding is very important for companies that want their customers to be satisfied with their service (or product). When it takes too long to respond to a customer’s message, the customer can become frustrated and unsatisfied. The dissatisfaction could induce the customer to choose a competing company the next time he wants to purchase a similar product or service.
My university had not to be afraid of losing a customer, because it seems to be clear that once a student has been enrolled, it is unlikely that the student will leave the university and choose another with a better customer service. This is especially true for German universities, because German universities do not face very tough competition, because they are all state owned.
That is another thing a learned from this occurrence: Competition forces companies to be good communicators; if there is only little competition, companies do not have a strong incentive to communicate efficiently.
I had a positive communication experience with my bank in Germany. The bank assigned one certain person I could contact whenever I had questions, wishes, or some transactions to do. This person was responsible for my satisfaction regarding financial issues. Therefore, she was very kind and helped whenever she could (she gave positive feedback). I felt that I, as a customer, was a very important person for the bank. That gave me an idea of how communications should be if companies want to achieve their goal of customer satisfaction.
Links:
http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/psekhar/2006/12/post.html
http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/volkmer.html
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf
http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Communication Technologies and Elevator Speech
Communication Technologies
Technological progress has significantly increased the number of tools available to communicate. Today, the choice of communication media is larger than it has ever been before. Therefore, today’s communicators have the opportunity to vary their communication channels depending on the audience they want to reach. Possible new channels are, for example, E-mails, blogs, and electronic newsletters; just to name a few. The greater choice goes along with higher efforts to thoroughly analyze the appropriateness of a communication tool in certain circumstances, because the selection of the wrong channel can make the delivery of the message ineffective.
Moreover, the technological progress, especially the advance of the internet, has made information easily accessible. Today, valuable information is often just one click away. A downside of this trend is the possible information overload and the loss of privacy. Data protection, for example, becomes increasingly difficult.
Additionally, improved technology has made communication cheaper. Today, a long distance call can be cheaper than a local call was 25 years ago. If somebody uses the internet, a call will even be for free regardless of the distance of the call. The fallen price of communication led to a more intense use of communication tools. Today, people use communication tools whenever they need them without thinking about the price of the communication. That has caused the mental distances between people to disappear, even if the physical distances are great.
Finally, communication is much faster today than it was in the past. The possibility of quickly exchanging information especially affects the business world. Many businesses, which are dependent on the rapid flow of information, benefit from modern tools of high speed communication.
Class Discussion (01/17/08)
The development of modern communication media has given us a lot of new tools to communicate. In class, we discussed the new possibilities of communicating via Skype and teaching in online class-rooms. We concluded that Skype is an example of the trend that communication becomes increasingly convenient, cheaper, and faster. Today, there are a lot of communication tools available which make it possible to communicate with every person we like to communicate with. On the one hand, online class-rooms are an opportunity to disassociate education from physical location. This could be beneficial for people who are not able to physically move to a college campus. On the other hand, online class-rooms make it easier for students to cheat. Furthermore, online education is impersonal because usually no personal relationships between teachers and students develop in an online class-room. Furthermore there is no physical community like a college campus in the virtual world.
At the end of the discussion, we inferred that it is important to get to know the new communications tools. Only if an individual has made experiences with a special kind of communication tool, he or she can evaluate its advantages and disadvantages and make a decision whether he or she is willing to use it. In our organizational communication course we will experience a variety of ways of communication. This will help us to assess what tools suits best to us.
Examples/ Personal Experience
I experience the benefits of the communication technology progress during my time in the USA. I am really glad that today it is no problem to stay in touch with my family, girlfriend, and my friends back in Germany. The internet makes global communication cheap and convenient. When I want to call somebody in Germany I use Skype or ICQ. Even if somebody is on vacation in another country it is no problem to talk to him or her. For example, I often call a friend of mine who studies in Denmark.
I also use instant messengers to send written messengers. Instant messengers provide the opportunity to talk to different person simultaneously. However, if information becomes more complex, it is cumbersome to use an instant messenger to convey a message. Another drawback of instant messengers is that there is no opportunity to use non-verbal communication in order to convey your message.
Links:
http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/blogs-wikis-and-im-communication-tools-for-subject-specialists/
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/cthistory.html
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/ctimpact.html
http://www.myownbusiness.org/s3/
Elevator Speech
Last week, every student presented a thirty second “elevator speech.” Our task was to sell a product by explaining its features and benefits in the short period of thirty seconds. Some people may think this is an easy task because you could not make many mistakes in such a short period; but this isn’t true.
In order to make a good elevator speech, you have to be well-prepared. One of the most important things is to be confident, to speak clearly, and to choose an appropriate pace of speech. Even though you will probably be nervous; you should avoid showing this. One method to achieve self-confidence is to practice. I learned that it is important to practice your presentation in front of a mirror; try to use different kinds of body language and different kinds of wording. You should do this until you are satisfied with your presentation. Although I practiced a lot, I was very nervous when I stood in front of the class. I figured out that another way to control my nerves could be the method of imagining my audience naked and I would be the only one who wears clothes. This helps to become more confident. I think the elevator speech was a very interesting experience.
As mentioned above, it is hard to believe that making such a short presentation could be such a difficult task. Now I experienced the importance of being confident when making a presentation. In a few weeks, we will have a second thirty second presentation. Then I will have the opportunity to apply the things I learned in my first elevator speech.
Links:
http://www.quintcareers.com/elevator_speech_dos-donts.html
http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/career/content/elevatorspeech.pdf
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jun2007/ca20070618_134959.htm
Technological progress has significantly increased the number of tools available to communicate. Today, the choice of communication media is larger than it has ever been before. Therefore, today’s communicators have the opportunity to vary their communication channels depending on the audience they want to reach. Possible new channels are, for example, E-mails, blogs, and electronic newsletters; just to name a few. The greater choice goes along with higher efforts to thoroughly analyze the appropriateness of a communication tool in certain circumstances, because the selection of the wrong channel can make the delivery of the message ineffective.
Moreover, the technological progress, especially the advance of the internet, has made information easily accessible. Today, valuable information is often just one click away. A downside of this trend is the possible information overload and the loss of privacy. Data protection, for example, becomes increasingly difficult.
Additionally, improved technology has made communication cheaper. Today, a long distance call can be cheaper than a local call was 25 years ago. If somebody uses the internet, a call will even be for free regardless of the distance of the call. The fallen price of communication led to a more intense use of communication tools. Today, people use communication tools whenever they need them without thinking about the price of the communication. That has caused the mental distances between people to disappear, even if the physical distances are great.
Finally, communication is much faster today than it was in the past. The possibility of quickly exchanging information especially affects the business world. Many businesses, which are dependent on the rapid flow of information, benefit from modern tools of high speed communication.
Class Discussion (01/17/08)
The development of modern communication media has given us a lot of new tools to communicate. In class, we discussed the new possibilities of communicating via Skype and teaching in online class-rooms. We concluded that Skype is an example of the trend that communication becomes increasingly convenient, cheaper, and faster. Today, there are a lot of communication tools available which make it possible to communicate with every person we like to communicate with. On the one hand, online class-rooms are an opportunity to disassociate education from physical location. This could be beneficial for people who are not able to physically move to a college campus. On the other hand, online class-rooms make it easier for students to cheat. Furthermore, online education is impersonal because usually no personal relationships between teachers and students develop in an online class-room. Furthermore there is no physical community like a college campus in the virtual world.
At the end of the discussion, we inferred that it is important to get to know the new communications tools. Only if an individual has made experiences with a special kind of communication tool, he or she can evaluate its advantages and disadvantages and make a decision whether he or she is willing to use it. In our organizational communication course we will experience a variety of ways of communication. This will help us to assess what tools suits best to us.
Examples/ Personal Experience
I experience the benefits of the communication technology progress during my time in the USA. I am really glad that today it is no problem to stay in touch with my family, girlfriend, and my friends back in Germany. The internet makes global communication cheap and convenient. When I want to call somebody in Germany I use Skype or ICQ. Even if somebody is on vacation in another country it is no problem to talk to him or her. For example, I often call a friend of mine who studies in Denmark.
I also use instant messengers to send written messengers. Instant messengers provide the opportunity to talk to different person simultaneously. However, if information becomes more complex, it is cumbersome to use an instant messenger to convey a message. Another drawback of instant messengers is that there is no opportunity to use non-verbal communication in order to convey your message.
Links:
http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/blogs-wikis-and-im-communication-tools-for-subject-specialists/
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/cthistory.html
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/ctimpact.html
http://www.myownbusiness.org/s3/
Elevator Speech
Last week, every student presented a thirty second “elevator speech.” Our task was to sell a product by explaining its features and benefits in the short period of thirty seconds. Some people may think this is an easy task because you could not make many mistakes in such a short period; but this isn’t true.
In order to make a good elevator speech, you have to be well-prepared. One of the most important things is to be confident, to speak clearly, and to choose an appropriate pace of speech. Even though you will probably be nervous; you should avoid showing this. One method to achieve self-confidence is to practice. I learned that it is important to practice your presentation in front of a mirror; try to use different kinds of body language and different kinds of wording. You should do this until you are satisfied with your presentation. Although I practiced a lot, I was very nervous when I stood in front of the class. I figured out that another way to control my nerves could be the method of imagining my audience naked and I would be the only one who wears clothes. This helps to become more confident. I think the elevator speech was a very interesting experience.
As mentioned above, it is hard to believe that making such a short presentation could be such a difficult task. Now I experienced the importance of being confident when making a presentation. In a few weeks, we will have a second thirty second presentation. Then I will have the opportunity to apply the things I learned in my first elevator speech.
Links:
http://www.quintcareers.com/elevator_speech_dos-donts.html
http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/career/content/elevatorspeech.pdf
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jun2007/ca20070618_134959.htm
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Communicating Strategically
Most managers are concerned about conducting appropriate strategies, but only a few recognize the importance of connecting their company’s strategies to its communications. In this posting, I would like to discuss communication theories and how these theories can be used to set up successful communication strategies.
Communication Theory
Aristotle’s major work “The Art of Rhetoric” is the root of modern communication theory. According to Aristotle, in every speech a speaker (source) sends the “subject of which he treats” (message) to a hearer (constituency). These three components of speeches are interrelated so that a communication process is never linear, but rather circular.
By applying this concept, organizations can create a coherent communication strategy.
Developing Corporate Communication Strategies
Four steps have to be made to develop a sound corporate communication strategy:
1) Setting an effective organization strategy
2) Analyzing constituencies
3) Delivering messages appropriately
4) Evaluation of constituency responses
1) Setting an Effective Organization Strategy
First of all, managers should determine their organization’s objectives regarding communication in order to get an idea what could be a sound strategy. Possible responses from the constituency are the basis for defining an objective. It is important that the organization’s managers know how they want to influence the constituency through their communication. In order to gain that knowledge, managers should diagnose their company’s reputation and image. They have to notice that image is based on the constituency’s perception of the company and that this perception can differ from the reality.
Additionally, managers should base their decision on what resources are available within the organization. These resources are for example money, human resources, and time. Managers should take into account short-term cost as well as long-term costs. Furthermore, they should assure that sufficient human resources and time are allocated to achieve the company’s goals and avoid the kind of mistake many organizations make: they underestimate the required resources needed for successful communication.
2) Analyzing Constituencies
Communication managers should determine their organization’s constituencies. Often, this is an easy task, since the constituencies are obvious; however, sometimes, managers cannot clearly recognize all constituencies or important interrelations between them. These relationships have to be considered in order to set sound strategies. It is possible that an organization has to work through one constituency to reach another. Employees, for example, can be used as “brand ambassadors” to reach customers.
In order to assess what methods can be applied to reach the organization’s objectives, managers should take into account what the constituency’s attitude toward the organization is. Whether an organization has created a good reputation with its constituencies or a bad one, determines the methods of communication it has to apply.
Furthermore, a communication team should gain an understanding about what constituencies already know about the topic and how they feel about it.
3) Delivering Message Appropriately
In order to deliver a message appropriately, an organization has to determine what communication channel (press release, e-mail, memo, posting on company’s intranet, speech) to choose and what approach to take in structuring the message itself.
The most effective structures of messages are direct and indirect structured messages. Direct structure means revealing the main point first, and then explaining why; the indirect structure means explaining why first, then revealing your main point.
As experience shows, organizations should structure their messages as direct as possible because indirect communication is confusing and harder to understand.
Another possible message structure is communicating without having any message. However, since consumers are becoming more sensitive regarding communication, this structure cannot be recommended.
4) Constituency Responses
After the constituency received the message, an organization should analyze the constituency’s responses to assess whether the communication had the desired result. Since the received feedback is the basis for a reaction of the organization, communication is a circular process, which connects the organization, the message, the constituency, and the constituency’s responses. That is the nature of the corporation communication strategy framework.
Class Discussion (01/17/08)
In class, we talked about the term strategy. We stated that strategy has long range nature and that it is closely related to setting goals. In order to successfully implement a strategy, it is important that an organization defines long-term objectives. These long-term objectives can be written in a mission or vision statement. This mission statement should be communicated to all individuals within an organization. Professor Linda Szul asked us whether we know where the mission statement of the Eberly College can be found. Most students did not know the place before.
Personal Experiences/Examples
3 years ago, the German bank “Deutsche Bank” made a great strategic communication mistake. When the bank published its annual report the bank’s managers could be proud of what they reached: historical record profits. Simultaneously with the historical results the bank announced that it decided to cut a lot of jobs. The managers of the “Deutsche Bank” argued that this would be a necessary measure in order to remain succeeding in the difficult environment of global competition.
Perhaps, this reasoning was right, but it was communicated disastrously. The public could not believe that a corporation that make record profits need to cut so many jobs. Thus, the reputation of the bank suffered from the simultaneous announcement of job cuts and record profits.
An example of positive strategic communication is Starbucks Coffee. Starbucks has effectively communicated its fair-trade program, which ensures farmers in South America a fair and stable income (see: http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/StarbucksAndFairTrade.pdf ). This fair-trade agreement enhanced Starbucks image and may have convinced many customers to choose Starbucks coffee rather than other company’s coffee. This is the result of a well organized campaign, which does not merely help poor farmers in South America; but it is also one reason for Starbucks' staggering success.
Links:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_n8_v15/ai_21244391
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval/issue16/sparks.html
http://www.e911.com/monos/A001.html
http://www.cbd.int/cepa/toolkit/html/resources/34/34404DBC-7BBF-48CA-BFCA-1F5A3BBD906D/Section%204%20_final_.pdf
http://mpimeetdifferent.com/CMS/mpiweb/mpicontent.aspx?id=2308
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_4_21/ai_n14710024
Communication Theory
Aristotle’s major work “The Art of Rhetoric” is the root of modern communication theory. According to Aristotle, in every speech a speaker (source) sends the “subject of which he treats” (message) to a hearer (constituency). These three components of speeches are interrelated so that a communication process is never linear, but rather circular.
By applying this concept, organizations can create a coherent communication strategy.
Developing Corporate Communication Strategies
Four steps have to be made to develop a sound corporate communication strategy:
1) Setting an effective organization strategy
2) Analyzing constituencies
3) Delivering messages appropriately
4) Evaluation of constituency responses
1) Setting an Effective Organization Strategy
First of all, managers should determine their organization’s objectives regarding communication in order to get an idea what could be a sound strategy. Possible responses from the constituency are the basis for defining an objective. It is important that the organization’s managers know how they want to influence the constituency through their communication. In order to gain that knowledge, managers should diagnose their company’s reputation and image. They have to notice that image is based on the constituency’s perception of the company and that this perception can differ from the reality.
Additionally, managers should base their decision on what resources are available within the organization. These resources are for example money, human resources, and time. Managers should take into account short-term cost as well as long-term costs. Furthermore, they should assure that sufficient human resources and time are allocated to achieve the company’s goals and avoid the kind of mistake many organizations make: they underestimate the required resources needed for successful communication.
2) Analyzing Constituencies
Communication managers should determine their organization’s constituencies. Often, this is an easy task, since the constituencies are obvious; however, sometimes, managers cannot clearly recognize all constituencies or important interrelations between them. These relationships have to be considered in order to set sound strategies. It is possible that an organization has to work through one constituency to reach another. Employees, for example, can be used as “brand ambassadors” to reach customers.
In order to assess what methods can be applied to reach the organization’s objectives, managers should take into account what the constituency’s attitude toward the organization is. Whether an organization has created a good reputation with its constituencies or a bad one, determines the methods of communication it has to apply.
Furthermore, a communication team should gain an understanding about what constituencies already know about the topic and how they feel about it.
3) Delivering Message Appropriately
In order to deliver a message appropriately, an organization has to determine what communication channel (press release, e-mail, memo, posting on company’s intranet, speech) to choose and what approach to take in structuring the message itself.
The most effective structures of messages are direct and indirect structured messages. Direct structure means revealing the main point first, and then explaining why; the indirect structure means explaining why first, then revealing your main point.
As experience shows, organizations should structure their messages as direct as possible because indirect communication is confusing and harder to understand.
Another possible message structure is communicating without having any message. However, since consumers are becoming more sensitive regarding communication, this structure cannot be recommended.
4) Constituency Responses
After the constituency received the message, an organization should analyze the constituency’s responses to assess whether the communication had the desired result. Since the received feedback is the basis for a reaction of the organization, communication is a circular process, which connects the organization, the message, the constituency, and the constituency’s responses. That is the nature of the corporation communication strategy framework.
Class Discussion (01/17/08)
In class, we talked about the term strategy. We stated that strategy has long range nature and that it is closely related to setting goals. In order to successfully implement a strategy, it is important that an organization defines long-term objectives. These long-term objectives can be written in a mission or vision statement. This mission statement should be communicated to all individuals within an organization. Professor Linda Szul asked us whether we know where the mission statement of the Eberly College can be found. Most students did not know the place before.
Personal Experiences/Examples
3 years ago, the German bank “Deutsche Bank” made a great strategic communication mistake. When the bank published its annual report the bank’s managers could be proud of what they reached: historical record profits. Simultaneously with the historical results the bank announced that it decided to cut a lot of jobs. The managers of the “Deutsche Bank” argued that this would be a necessary measure in order to remain succeeding in the difficult environment of global competition.
Perhaps, this reasoning was right, but it was communicated disastrously. The public could not believe that a corporation that make record profits need to cut so many jobs. Thus, the reputation of the bank suffered from the simultaneous announcement of job cuts and record profits.
An example of positive strategic communication is Starbucks Coffee. Starbucks has effectively communicated its fair-trade program, which ensures farmers in South America a fair and stable income (see: http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/StarbucksAndFairTrade.pdf ). This fair-trade agreement enhanced Starbucks image and may have convinced many customers to choose Starbucks coffee rather than other company’s coffee. This is the result of a well organized campaign, which does not merely help poor farmers in South America; but it is also one reason for Starbucks' staggering success.
Links:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_n8_v15/ai_21244391
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval/issue16/sparks.html
http://www.e911.com/monos/A001.html
http://www.cbd.int/cepa/toolkit/html/resources/34/34404DBC-7BBF-48CA-BFCA-1F5A3BBD906D/Section%204%20_final_.pdf
http://mpimeetdifferent.com/CMS/mpiweb/mpicontent.aspx?id=2308
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_4_21/ai_n14710024
The Changing Environment for Business
Since the world is getting increasingly dynamic, significant changes of the business environment occur more often in shorter periods of time. In order to have a chance to survive in the tough global competition, it is crucial for corporations to have the capability to recognize important changes and adapt the corporation’s strategy. My first posting deals with this issue.
Attitudes towards American Business throughout the Years
In the United States, business has never been perceived completely positive. In the late 19th century, industrial mass production and the creation of the transcontinental rail system led to harsh and dangerous working conditions, which had a bad impact on business’ reputation.
In the 1920s, the fast growth of the economy brought about great disparities in wealth distribution. The stock market crash in 1929 and the following “Great Depression” further worsened business’ image.
The prosperity of the 50s and 60’s enhanced the population’s confidence in business. The fact that the expression “golden age” is used by the Americans to describe this period gives evidence to the population’s positive perception of that time.
Because of the Watergate Scandal, the Vietnam War, and the oil embargo by the OPEC business’ image turned into negative again. In the 1970s, Americans lost their faith in the society’s big institutions and even the economic boom of the 80s and 90s could not restore this faith. Due to the burst of the “Internet Bubble” in 2000 and the frauds at large companies such as WorldCom, Tyco, and Enron, this situation has not changed in the new century.
Hollywood: A Window on Main Street and Wall Street
History shows that arts and literature have always affected and reflected a population’s perception of institutions. Today, TV is the most important media. Since people in the USA spend much time in front of the TV set, TV has become the most important source of information for the majority of Americans. Businesspeople are portrayed negatively in almost two third of all TV programs. The negative portrayal of business in films and news is rather a reflection of business’ negative public image than its cause. However, the dramatization and exaggeration in TV programs and Hollywood movies can reinforce the negative image of business.
The Global Village
According to the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, the strengthening of global communications channels resulted in a disintegration of national borders and the creation of a “global village”. Because the world is getting smaller, corporations will not be able to avoid operating in foreign countries with unstable political, economic and social environments. Another trend is the corporation’s specialization on core competencies and the outsourcing of strategically not important activities, or alternatively, mergers to integrate suppliers.
Since corporations are becoming global organizations, they have to deal with the anti-globalization movement, which has developed in the last years. Technological progress made the worldwide organization of protests possible; the 1999 anti-globalization protests at the World Trade Organizations annual meeting were mainly online planned.
How to Compete in a Changing Environment
Since the world has become more dynamic in the last years, corporations face a variety of environmental changes. When dealing with environmental changes, managers should concern following things in order to support a company’s success:
1) Recognize the Changing Environment
Managers need to recognize that the constantly developing environment make it necessary for corporations to thoroughly observe changes that could affect their business. They should be able to anticipate the most important changes, such as evolving consumer tastes or technological innovations in order to determine appropriate responses to those changes.
2) Adapt to Environment without Compromising Principles
Although corporations should adapt to the evolving environment, they must not violate their corporate identity or principles. Since the stability of a corporation’s principles is a very important source of success, those principles should not be changed when a company responds to environmental development.
3) Do not Assume Problems Will Magically Disappear
Problems cannot be solved by simply waiting and doing nothing. Sometimes managers have to try new, unprecedented methods to solve problems.
4) Keep Corporate Communication Connected to Strategy
Many managers disregard the strategic importance of communication. However, successful companies closely link communications to a company’s overall vision and strategy. They create structures, in which the head of corporate communications reports directly to the CEO. The consequence is that communication becomes more focused on the company’s strategy.
In order to communicate efficiently, a corporate mission should be defined and communicated to internal and external constituents.
Class Discussion (01/17/08)
In class, we talked about our understanding of the term communication. We came to the cocnlusion that communication is the interaction between at least two persons in order to exchange information. There are different ways of communication; persons can communicate verbal or non-verbal (body-language). Verbal communication, for example, can be written or spoken. A person's behaviour in interaction with others is always a kind of communication since information is sent from the source (the person who sends the information) to the recipient. The way of transmission of the information is called channel and noise is defined as any interference of communication.
The development of modern communication media has given us a lot of new tools to communicate. In class ,we discussed several new possibilities of communicating. Many of them are related to the develpment of new technolgies. These new technologies will be introduced in the posting "Communication technologies."
In our organizational communication course, we will experience a variety of ways of communication. This will help us to assess what tools suits best to us. Perhaps, we will find new insights about our personal comfort-zone. A comfort-zone is an individual’s most appreciated way of communicating. The comfort-zone can refer to the environment (communication in small or big groups) or can refer to the form of communication, such as speaking, writing, and listening.
Personal Experiences/Examples
Since I am from Europe, I witnessed the process of integration of the European Union. The so called “Schengen Agreement” between 28 European countries came into effect in 1995. It arranged the abolition of systematic border controls between West- and Middle-European countries. Back in the early 90s, travelling in Europe was very cumbersome, but in the course of the last decade physical and mental borders vanished.
Since today there is a single European market, former national corporations are striving to become huge European corporations. Today, the domestic market for those corporations is the whole European market. Thus, corporations can rely on a bigger European domestic market as a base for their global operations. This helps to be successful in the tough global competition.
Furthermore, the abolition of borders caused increasing competition within the European Union. The increasing competitive pressure makes companies to work efficiently and to be innovative. European consumers benefit from the increased competition through lower prices and improved quality.
Another personal experience is the development of information technology. In the late 90s, progress in technology allowed European people to purchase cell phones; I was one of the persons who bought one. The cell phone meant new mobility since you could be contacted at any time and wherever you were. Simultaneously the spread of the internet gave the people quick access to information. Information could be exchanged quick and convenient. This resulted in a mental reduction of physical distances.
Also, companies benefited from this trend since they could create faster and more effective information channels. This could raise their productivity.
A threat for companies referring to the technological progress is the more dynamic environment, which was caused by the improvement of information technology. The increased dynamic of the environment created a greater uncertainty for corporations. Organizations have to analyze the advancing technology thoroughly in order to stay up to date.
Links:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/25/business/25climate.php
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2006/06/drug_companies_need_change_strategy.asp
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201803575
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=998
Attitudes towards American Business throughout the Years
In the United States, business has never been perceived completely positive. In the late 19th century, industrial mass production and the creation of the transcontinental rail system led to harsh and dangerous working conditions, which had a bad impact on business’ reputation.
In the 1920s, the fast growth of the economy brought about great disparities in wealth distribution. The stock market crash in 1929 and the following “Great Depression” further worsened business’ image.
The prosperity of the 50s and 60’s enhanced the population’s confidence in business. The fact that the expression “golden age” is used by the Americans to describe this period gives evidence to the population’s positive perception of that time.
Because of the Watergate Scandal, the Vietnam War, and the oil embargo by the OPEC business’ image turned into negative again. In the 1970s, Americans lost their faith in the society’s big institutions and even the economic boom of the 80s and 90s could not restore this faith. Due to the burst of the “Internet Bubble” in 2000 and the frauds at large companies such as WorldCom, Tyco, and Enron, this situation has not changed in the new century.
Hollywood: A Window on Main Street and Wall Street
History shows that arts and literature have always affected and reflected a population’s perception of institutions. Today, TV is the most important media. Since people in the USA spend much time in front of the TV set, TV has become the most important source of information for the majority of Americans. Businesspeople are portrayed negatively in almost two third of all TV programs. The negative portrayal of business in films and news is rather a reflection of business’ negative public image than its cause. However, the dramatization and exaggeration in TV programs and Hollywood movies can reinforce the negative image of business.
The Global Village
According to the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, the strengthening of global communications channels resulted in a disintegration of national borders and the creation of a “global village”. Because the world is getting smaller, corporations will not be able to avoid operating in foreign countries with unstable political, economic and social environments. Another trend is the corporation’s specialization on core competencies and the outsourcing of strategically not important activities, or alternatively, mergers to integrate suppliers.
Since corporations are becoming global organizations, they have to deal with the anti-globalization movement, which has developed in the last years. Technological progress made the worldwide organization of protests possible; the 1999 anti-globalization protests at the World Trade Organizations annual meeting were mainly online planned.
How to Compete in a Changing Environment
Since the world has become more dynamic in the last years, corporations face a variety of environmental changes. When dealing with environmental changes, managers should concern following things in order to support a company’s success:
1) Recognize the Changing Environment
Managers need to recognize that the constantly developing environment make it necessary for corporations to thoroughly observe changes that could affect their business. They should be able to anticipate the most important changes, such as evolving consumer tastes or technological innovations in order to determine appropriate responses to those changes.
2) Adapt to Environment without Compromising Principles
Although corporations should adapt to the evolving environment, they must not violate their corporate identity or principles. Since the stability of a corporation’s principles is a very important source of success, those principles should not be changed when a company responds to environmental development.
3) Do not Assume Problems Will Magically Disappear
Problems cannot be solved by simply waiting and doing nothing. Sometimes managers have to try new, unprecedented methods to solve problems.
4) Keep Corporate Communication Connected to Strategy
Many managers disregard the strategic importance of communication. However, successful companies closely link communications to a company’s overall vision and strategy. They create structures, in which the head of corporate communications reports directly to the CEO. The consequence is that communication becomes more focused on the company’s strategy.
In order to communicate efficiently, a corporate mission should be defined and communicated to internal and external constituents.
Class Discussion (01/17/08)
In class, we talked about our understanding of the term communication. We came to the cocnlusion that communication is the interaction between at least two persons in order to exchange information. There are different ways of communication; persons can communicate verbal or non-verbal (body-language). Verbal communication, for example, can be written or spoken. A person's behaviour in interaction with others is always a kind of communication since information is sent from the source (the person who sends the information) to the recipient. The way of transmission of the information is called channel and noise is defined as any interference of communication.
The development of modern communication media has given us a lot of new tools to communicate. In class ,we discussed several new possibilities of communicating. Many of them are related to the develpment of new technolgies. These new technologies will be introduced in the posting "Communication technologies."
In our organizational communication course, we will experience a variety of ways of communication. This will help us to assess what tools suits best to us. Perhaps, we will find new insights about our personal comfort-zone. A comfort-zone is an individual’s most appreciated way of communicating. The comfort-zone can refer to the environment (communication in small or big groups) or can refer to the form of communication, such as speaking, writing, and listening.
Personal Experiences/Examples
Since I am from Europe, I witnessed the process of integration of the European Union. The so called “Schengen Agreement” between 28 European countries came into effect in 1995. It arranged the abolition of systematic border controls between West- and Middle-European countries. Back in the early 90s, travelling in Europe was very cumbersome, but in the course of the last decade physical and mental borders vanished.
Since today there is a single European market, former national corporations are striving to become huge European corporations. Today, the domestic market for those corporations is the whole European market. Thus, corporations can rely on a bigger European domestic market as a base for their global operations. This helps to be successful in the tough global competition.
Furthermore, the abolition of borders caused increasing competition within the European Union. The increasing competitive pressure makes companies to work efficiently and to be innovative. European consumers benefit from the increased competition through lower prices and improved quality.
Another personal experience is the development of information technology. In the late 90s, progress in technology allowed European people to purchase cell phones; I was one of the persons who bought one. The cell phone meant new mobility since you could be contacted at any time and wherever you were. Simultaneously the spread of the internet gave the people quick access to information. Information could be exchanged quick and convenient. This resulted in a mental reduction of physical distances.
Also, companies benefited from this trend since they could create faster and more effective information channels. This could raise their productivity.
A threat for companies referring to the technological progress is the more dynamic environment, which was caused by the improvement of information technology. The increased dynamic of the environment created a greater uncertainty for corporations. Organizations have to analyze the advancing technology thoroughly in order to stay up to date.
Links:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/25/business/25climate.php
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2006/06/drug_companies_need_change_strategy.asp
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201803575
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=998
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