21st CENTURY COMMUNICATION TRENDS

According to Stephen P. Borgatti there are major trends which have changed the organizational environment. These five organizational trends influence workplace of the 21st century. These trends also have an effect on workplace communication.

GLOBALISATION: in its literal sense is the process of making, transformation of some things or phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Advent in the communication technology has contributed to the globalization to a great extend. Today companies are able to carry on the business all over the world due to the increase use of communication technologies such as internet and cell phones. Effective communication has made this world a “borderless world”. E.g.: coca cola

DIVERSITY: Globalization has led to the diversity in most of the organizations. In the present scenario as most of the companies operate in different social and cultural background it is necessary for these organizations to follow good communication strategy as they will have to communicate with people from different cultural background having different values, believes, practices etc. The workforce of a company is getting more heterogeneous sexually, racially, culturally, and individually. Though, this is a desired development, organizations also face challenges through this increased diversity. It can be both a source of innovation and a source of conflict and communication problems. E.g.: Google.

FLEXIBILITY: organizations should be flexible to survive in this changing environment. They should be able to adopt themselves to the changing environment. Flexible organizations are the ones in which organization systems, processes, and people are able to respond differently to different situations. By being flexible, the corporations have fewer detailed rules, greater autonomy, and special job schedules. The work environment is very flexible in most of the companies today and this motivates them to perform better. Thus, employees within organizations have greater autonomy. Diversity, as mentioned above is another reason for making the work place flexible as people from different environment and with different ideas and thoughts work together under one roof. E.g.: Wipro

FLAT: The structural hierarchies in most of the organizations are disappearing. This means better communication within the organization due to the decrease of middle and lower level managers. This also reduces the communication cost within the organization. The flat structure in organizations also contribute to the better communication between management and workers, less bureaucracy, easier decision-making and better team work. With the help of flat organization structure the decision making process mostly involves most of the employees. Every employee’s feedback as well as opinion is taken into consideration. Due to this kind of structure employees and the top management interact on regular basis and there is a very understanding bonding that takes place in the organization. E.g.: The Hindu Opportunities.
NETWORKING: In the world of computers, networking is the practice of linking two or more computing devices together for the purpose of sharing data. Networks are built with a mix of computer hardware and computer software. Networking is adopted by the organizations for easy data sharing and it also helps in equal distribution of information. Exchanging information is a key benefit of networking. Other members of the network gain useful information which they may not have had access to. Sharing information also helps to decrease the duplication of services, either in the same geographical area or in targeting the same group. Many companies are organizing themselves in cross-unit teams, exploiting the strengths of different units working together. Furthermore, opportunities arose in the areas of outsourcing, off-shoring, and the resulting downsizing. This new trends help organizations to decrease their costs. E.g.: IBM

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: in my MBA class at PES, Bangalore there are lots of students from other states and even from other countries. That’s when I realized the importance of 21st century communication trends as I had to socialize with people from different geographical area having different values and perceptions. I had to adopt myself to different cultural believes and thought processes whenever I was involved in group work with them.

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/jobs/0205/05290001.htm

http://tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/Footsteps+41-50/Footsteps+44/Networking+organisations.htm


http://www.andalucia.com/spain/business/networking.htm

COMMUNICATING STRATEGICALLY

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~George Bernard Shaw
In this age and time much has changed in the modes of communication. More information then ever before in the history of mankind is now available at the click of a button. Communication in this age and time acquires an altogether new definition.

Communication does not just happen. It must be organized, developed, and built. The first step in the process is to define a communications strategy. A good communications strategy allows you to exercise better control over your work and to frame the issues in a perspective other than research. A communications strategy removes doubt, emphasizes planning, and involves all the project participants in raising the visibility of the research.

An ABC of communication:
For communication to occur there must be:

A source of information — In this case, the source of in­formation is you, with all your strengths and weaknesses, your knowledge and skills. It includes your research and the elements that make up that research.

One or more objectives — these objectives will vary depending on the target audience.

A message for each target audience — the message is the formulation of an idea. It includes data that have been processed and adapted to make sure they can be under­stood by your target audiences and it takes into account the information needs of the various groups you wish to reach. What information do you want to transmit? What needs to be known and understood? What behaviors are you researching? Considering these factors will help you compose the message.

Transmission channel — the channel is both the me­dium that you use to transmit your information and the understanding that you expect to achieve in those who receive the message.

A receiver (constituencies) — the receiver is the destination of your mes­sage. The receiver interprets the message according to his or her own perspective, knowledge, and logic. A good message takes this into account. To whom do you want to transmit your information? What groups, people, associa­tions, projects, departments might be interested in the methods and outcomes of your research?


Example: when Vodaphone took over Hutch it was very effective in communicating it the change in the operations by changing its identity color from pink to red but it still uses it “pug” in all its advertisements. Through this the company was trying to convey the message to its constituencies that only its internal operations are changed but it still provides the same service as Hutch did.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: during the initial days of my MBA classes, we had to come to college even on Sundays to attend classes and this frustrated me and my friends. The reason for our frustration was not because we had to attend classes on Sundays but because we were not given a reasonable explanation for conducting classes even during our weekends. The management did not communicate with us strategically though the actual reason behind it was reasonable i.e. There was very little time left for the students from non commerce background to learn the basics before our lecturers from IUP came down to Bangalore.

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.work911.com/planningmaster/Communication_Planning_and_Communication_Strategy/

http://www.thebusinessedition.com/corporate-communication-strategy-in-the-new-media-corporate-blogs-394/


http://www.rcwob.doshisha.ac.jp/review/8_2/8_2_026.pdf

CRISIS COMMUNICATION

First of all what is crisis?? A crisis is a major, unpredictable event that threatens to harm an organization and its stakeholders. Crises are unpredictable and unexpected. They affect all the constituencies of an organization. Crisis can be categorized into avoidable and unavoidable crisis. Avoidable crisis are those crisis which occur due to employee negligence, carelessness, malicious intent etc. unavoidable crisis are due to natural calamities such as fire accidents, earthquakes, tsunami etc. hence a company should have the ability to manage these crisis effectively for its survival. The practice of crisis management involves attempts to eliminate technological failure as well as the development of formal communication systems to avoid or to manage crisis situations and is a discipline within the broader context of management. Crisis management consists of skills and techniques required to assess, understand, and cope with any serious situation, especially from the moment it first occurs to the point that recovery procedures start. Crisis management consists of methods used to respond to both the reality and perception of crises such as a Crisis Management Plan. Crisis management also involves establishing metrics to define what scenarios constitute a crisis and should consequently trigger the necessary response mechanisms. It consists of the communication that occurs within the response phase of emergency management scenarios.

Centralized communication is the most efficient component during the crisis. In today’s world there are a number of companies facing crisis due to the lack of efficient internal and external communication network. Some of the companies which faced the crisis in the recent years are Coke India (pesticide issue), Cadbury (worms in the chocolates), Johnson & Johnson (Tylenol) etc. But all these companies are still successfully running their business in the market and the reason being they all developed a good communicating strategy during the crisis. One important decision to be made by the corporate communication manager during the crisis is Channel Choice to convey the message directly to the affected constituencies.

Few years back there was a sudden change in the packaging of Cadbury’s chocolates from its traditional style. The reason behind this was the company was trying to communicate to its customers through its new look, that it was selling a quality product. It immediately removed its affected products which was accused of containing worms from the self and stopped its production for few months. Then it came up with a new product advertisement endorsed by the Bollywood superstar “Amitab Bachan”. Cadbury was successful in overcoming this crisis and this was done by adopting the most strategic communication.


RELATED LINKS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_management

http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html

http://www.managementhelp.org/crisis/crisis.htm

CORPORATE ADVERTISING

Corporate advertising is the advertising that is more public relations than sales promotion. Its objective is to build a firm's corporate image, reputation, and name-awareness among the general public or within an industry. Corporate advertising is in the Advertising, Marketing, & Sales and Business Communications & Presentations subjects. Corporate advertising appears in the definitions of the following terms: corporate image and institutional advertising. Advertising all over the world has historically been product oriented. However, with the advent of modern corporations with multiple product and/or service offerings, a different type of advertising has appeared, the primary purpose being to promote the corporation. "Corporate," "institutional," or "corporate image" advertising has been defined with some very basic consistency since the 1950's but has broadened to include "advocacy" and "issue" advertising and the current "hybrid ads" which blend product and company promotion.
Over the past two decades, numerous case studies and strategy articles have been written describing the ways in which corporate advertising has facilitated positive public perceptions of business all over the world. In addition, survey research has been published that has assessed perceptions of corporate advertising effectiveness.
As we move into the last decade of the 20th century, certain factors in the physical, social, and economic environment suggest an expanded role for corporate advertising. Social issues that directly relate to business and industry are also gaining public forum. For example, issues of gender in the marketplace (e.g. equal pay for equal work, equality of job roles) have been given recent publicity through a number of legal actions (Time 1989). Salary figures have consistently reflected that women are generally paid less than men for the same work and that some companies have policies limiting the jobs that women can perform (Nadler 1989; Stechert 1988; Topolnicki 1990). As these inequities gain greater public attention, companies that violate equal rights will be forced to reconsider their long-standing policies. Other social factors relating to the environmental concerns, bringing awareness to the public etc are communicated to the constituencies through corporate advertising, which helps the company in the image building process.

Personal experience:

I was really astonished to see an advertisement on internet stating that not to use their brand or brand imagery to be depicted in any of the movies. I was wondering what was the motto behind this statement when they getting free advertisement through movies but that’s when something struck my mind- “Corporate Advertisement”. I remember studying this topic in my corporate communication class and recalled all the aspects behind corporate advertisement. Then I realized the objective behind this ad, which was to build an image to their organization by discouraging youths from smoking.


RELATED LINKS:
http://www.allbusiness.com/professional-scientific/advertising-related-services/270182-1.html http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-advertising.html

COMMUNICATION THEORY

COMMUNICATION THEORIES

There is much discussion in the academic world of communication as to what actually constitutes communication. Currently, many definitions of communication are used in order to conceptualize the processes by which people navigate and assign meaning. Communication is also understood as the exchanging of understanding.
There are three common settings of communications: Interpersonal, machine-assisted, and mass communication. Popular theorists of communication are Harold Laswell, Shannon & Weaver, Wilbur Schramm, Katz & Lazarsfeld, Westley & MacLean, and Kincaid. We might say that communication consists of transmitting information from one person to another. In fact, many scholars of communication take this as a working definition, and use Lasswell's maxim, "who says what to whom in what channel with what effect," as a means of circumscribing the field of communication theory. Lasswell emphasis on speaker, message, and audience and provides a more generalized view of goal or effect of communication.
The Shannon-Weaver model is typical of what are often referred to as transmission models of communication. The Shannon-Weaver Model (1947) proposes that all communication must include six elements: A SOURCE, AN ENCODER, A MESSAGE, A CHANNEL, A DECODER, and A RECEIVER. This model of Shannon and Weaver is applicable in our daily lives e.g. we use radios, newspapers and telephones almost everyday in our lives.

Schramm developed his first model in 1954. It is a simple model of communications where a source encoders a signal, sends it to a destination which has to decoder the signal. In his second model Schramm introduced the “field of experience” on sides, source and destination, for the correct interpretation. The purpose was to overcome the problem of noise. Communication becomes circular and a relational model is created. Schramm’s third model is a further development in terms of feedback that the destination sends to the source.
The model developed by Katz and Lazarsfeld laid emphasis on mass communication. It was assumed that a message would be transmitted from the mass media to a 'mass audience', who would absorb the message. Furthermore, it involves opinion leaders who influence the message on its way from the source to the public.
The Westley-MacLean Model states that communication begins with a potential message. Then, an advocate is involved and selects an event to form a new message. The model accounts for both, interpersonal and mass media communication. It broadened and elaborated the feedback concept.
Communication is the production and exchange of information and meaning by use of signs and symbols. Thus communication theories, with the help of signs and symbols make it easy for us to understand the complex communication process and leads to the better understanding of the message sent by the “encoder or sender”.
Almost every medium used today in the business or the work environment is the examples of the above discussed models such as televisions, telephones, radios, internets, intranets etc
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: everyday when I drive to college or drive back home I listen to radio. Radio is the perfect example for the model developed by Shannon – Weaver. For most of my assignment I use internet and internet fits into the model developed by the Westley- MacLean.

RELATED LINKS:
http://www.answers.com/topic/communication-theory-1?cat=technology
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/kl.html
http://web.bentley.edu/empl/c/rcrooks/courses/en381/en381010.html

IDENTITY,IMAGE AND REPUTATION

IDENTITY, IMAGE & REPUTATION … the three important constituents of the organizational communication.
An organization’s identity is the visual manifestation of the organization’s reality as expressed through the organization’s name, logo, motto, products, services etc. and all other tangible pieces created by the organization and communicated to the constituencies.
An organization’s image is a reflection of the organization’s identity seen from the viewpoint of the company’s constituencies. By conducting research with constituents a company can get an idea about its image among those constituents.
Reputation is the opinion (more technically, a social evaluation) of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as business, online communities or social status.
Image, identity and reputations cannot be built in one day. A company needs to work hard to build them. There are some complexes and hard tasks are needed to be executed in order to build successful image and identity. First thing the organization needs to do is conduct an identity audit by an external “identity firms”. This helps to find out how does the general public currently view the organization? Next goal is to clearly define its objective and goal. Here consistency is the key. An organization’s vision should manifest itself consistently across all its identity elements, from logos and mottos to employee behavior. Next step is- develop designs and names. This is a step that simply cannot happen without the help of consultants because so many names are already in use that companies need to avoid any possible legal issues. Next is developing prototypes. Once the final design is selected and approved by everyone involved, consultants develop models using the new symbols or names. Once the prototype is done company must launch and communicate. Companies can use various communication technologies to do that. His final step is implementation. Implementing an identity program is a communication process involving lots of interpersonal savvy and coordinated approach to deal with many constituencies.
In the changing business environment image and reputation is the key for survival. A company that has good understanding of its constituencies and what is important for them can successfully create good reputation programs and implement them.
Off late there is so much of hype for the latest TATA car “NANO”. People are talking about this car even before it is actually introduced into the market. The driving factor behind this is not just its affordable price but also the Identity, Image, & Reputation built up the TATA Company over the years.

According to my experience, I always prefer buying branded pants like LEVIS and I do not buy these pants just for comfort and style but also because of its brand. Brand here refers to its Image and reputation and of course its identity i.e. the “LEVIS TAG” on it.


RELATED LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_identity

http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=X41&q=identity%2C+image+%26+reputation&btnG=Search&meta=

MEDIA RELATIONS

Public relations include ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image. Public relations activities include helping the public to understand the organization and its products. Similar to effective advertising and promotions, effective public relations often depends on designing and implementing a well-designed public relations plan. The plan often includes description of what you want to convey to whom, how you plan to convey it, who is responsible for various activities and by when, and how much money is budgeted to fund these activities. Similar to advertising and promotions, a media plan and calendar can be very useful, which specifies what media methods that are used and when.
Often, public relations are conducted through the Media that is, newspapers, television, magazines, etc. Publicity is mention in the media. Organizations usually have little control over the message in the media, at least, not as much as they do in advertising. Regarding publicity, reporters and writers decide what will be said. Hence it is mandatory for the organizations to have good media relations.
The Media is an important medium through which the investors, consumers, retailers & suppliers get to know the actual status of a company and its developing image. Some of the media examples are television, news channels, newspapers, internet etc.
Steps involved in handling the media by the organizations are:
Conduct research for the targeting media.
Create a good media team.
Appoint a capable media coordinator.
Identify a good spokesperson who is a good listener, have camera presence, be well-informed about your issue, be able to think quickly on his/her feet, have credibility, be able to develop a good rapport with a reporter, and be intuitive enough to know when a reporter is not friendly.
Appoint a good Editor for your organization to "tighten up" news releases. Everything that is written and released must reflect accurately the position of your organization.
Respond to media calls.
Prepare for media interviews.
Monitor the success.
Maintain the ongoing success.

Companies can also communicate effectively to their constituencies by creating Blogs which will help them track their constituency’s points of view and concerns. Some of the examples for such blogs are Instapundit, Daily Kos etc.

Personal experience: when I was studying in my degree college, I had to coordinate an event for our cultural fest. I wanted some help from my principal but I did not communicate with her directly. Instead I made my lecturers talk to my principal on my behalf which led to a lot of confusion. I could have avoided this confusion by communicating directly with my principal or by asking one of my friends to do so. This is applicable to the big organizations too. It is important for the head of the communication department to decide the media through which planning to communicate with their constituiencies.


RELATED LINKS:

http://www.webmarketingtoday.com/webmarket/pr.htm
http://tenant.net/Organize/media.html
http://www.pertinent.com/articles/publicity/index.asp