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
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