COMMUNICATION STRATEGICALLY

This chapter clearly brings to the fore, how important communication has been and will continue to be for businesses worldwide. To communicate effectively, a person must learn to communicate strategically. There are many different types of communications that happen inside a business. There is something as simple as a memo to face meeting to a companywide announcement. A business needs to clearly state its objectives and communicate this to the employees. This way everyone has the same goals and ideas moving forward. The message must be sent in a way that the receiver can understand exactly what point you are trying to get across. By creating a right communication strategy based on the time tested theories ,an organization is well on its ay to reinvent how to handle communication

COMMUNOCATION STRATEGY:

The theory of Aristotle had three parts-the speaker, the subject, and the person The new Corporate Communication Strategy framework is similar of that. The only difference is that, the first component is the organization, the second is the constituency, the third is the messages and the fourth is the feedback. Feedback is an important aspect of all communication, without which a company will not the growth of its performing


These are the question involved in communicating strategically:

1. Organization- what does the corporstion wants each consitutency to do?, what resources are avaliable? and what is the corporation's reputation?


2. Constituencies- who are the corporation's constituencies? and what is their attitude about the corporation and the topic?


3. Messages- what is the best communication channel? and how should the corporation structure the message?


4. Response- did each constituency responsd in the way the corporation wished? and should the corporation revise the message in light of the constituency reputation?.

Reference: http://www.chass.ncsu.edu/ccstm/scmh/model.html

COMMUNICATION THEORIES

Communication can be defined as information-related behaviour, a necessary life process. It is basically categorized in interpersonal, machine-assisted and mass communication. There were many types of theories proposed in the way the communication is carried.

The first modern communication originated during the middle of the 20th century, in 1948. This was Laswell's model. It surfaced after World War II during the cold war. Laswell's model was simple. It went from

This can also be broken into the speaker with a message that they want to convey to another person or audience. The speaker must choose the medium by which he to communicate their message.

http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/introductory/lasswell.html

The next model we discussed was the Shannon & Weaver model. This model was published in 1949. This model has the following steps:

The info source has a message that they transmit. This signal is sent through the channel to the receiver. The receiver gets the signal and the message is sent to the destination. This model is basically the same as the Laswell model, just a little more expanded.

http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/introductory/sw.html

Schramm had three models. The first model was published in 1954. It is similar to the two preceding models above. The first Schramm model has the following steps:

SOURCE--->ENCODER--->SIGNAL--->DECODER--->DESTINATION



Schramm's second model recognized that the source and the decoder/destination was influenced by their field of experiences. In other words, communicating to someone who has some experience or familiarity with the topic will receive the signal in a different way than someone who has not. This is true with source also. Someone who is more familiar with the subject they are "encoding" they will most likely send a clearer signal to the decoder.

Schramm's third model expands again on the first model. It keeps the same basic components but recognizes that there is feedback between the encoder and the decoder.

http://www.blogger.com/www.ciadvertising.org/.../Paper%20Lesck%20htm.htm

In 1957 Westley and MacLean's model was published. Their model was the first to specifically model the mass communication process. It recognized that there are many information sources that a sender accesses. The sender edits the information that is sent to the receiver. The receiver sends feedback to the sender

The final model we discussed was Kindcaid's Convergence Model published in 1979. This was by far the most complicated of all models. The model recognizes there is a psychological reality and a physical reality that affects the communication. There is not a black and white outcome and channel of communication. The signal is dependent on the understanding, believing, mutual agreement and social reality between the sender and the receiver

Reference: http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/

http://www.employee-communication.com/downward.html?gclid=CL3F4P6f3ZECFSOsGgodxUl0ew

http://uva.ulb.ac.be/cit_courseware/research/theories.htm

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS

Over the years the perception people have had of businesses has changed. It has gone from one of trust to one of deceit. This change has taken place due to the actions of large corporation’s fraudulent activities and also how business people are portrayed in television and the movies. The workplace is constantly changing. Leaders of businesses are learning that they can no longer run their business the same way they did before. New youth and ideas are moving forward and technology is advancing so fast that the older people need to learn to keep up or fall to the wayside. The world is also more globalized now. You can be working for an American company in London while working a business deal with Japanese business owners in Sydney. The concept of a "global village" is truer today than it has ever been before. The text discusses how businesses must keep aware of the ever changing economy and communities needs. The chapter also discusses the confidence that public has in businesses. This is another factor that businesses must overcome. A large part of business success is for them to listen to what the customers need and say. The chapter gives several examples where companies made changes to their policies, procedures or even menus to make the public have a more satisfied and positive outlook on the company.The chapter concludes with how communication is a key to a successful goal or vision being completed. The entire company (all employees) should and need to be informed of all policies and procedures so that they may represent the company in a positive manner.

Strategies to by Adopted by Businesses:In order for a business to steer clear of these problems. They have to make sure that they adopt certain strategies.

1. Recognize the changing environment: today’s business environment is a dynamic one-continuously changing, reshaping itself to current trends. Businesses need to understand that and be able adapt.
2. Adapt to the environment without compromising principles: companies should adopt similar strategies to what they would have adopted in their home countries. Companies are increasingly looking for cheaper labour, raw materials, etc, and they are willing to turn a blind on sub-standard working and living conditions in other countries. The main aim is to earn a satisfactory profit.
3. Not assume that problems will magically disappear: like Arthur Andersen did-a business cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening because it is obligated to give its constituencies a clear picture of what is happening.
4. Keep corporate communication connected to strategy: communication is the most important functions any enterprise has to undertake. It integrates all departments and levels of management. Its importance is almost always overlooked by managers. They need to realize that it has to stay connected to the company’s overall vision and strategy.
   
   A current issue that is concerning businesses today is global warming. Many businesses are adjusting their manufacturing procedures to improve our environment today and tomorrow. The following link is at Business Week article that addresses the issues and concerns that some companies are, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/05_50/B39630550carbon.htm

Personal Experience: along with my growth from a kid till now, I think there has been an evolution or growth in technology and change in the environment of business. From telephone to pagers to big n heavy mobile phone to small n slick blackberry. The environment of business and communication technology will keep advancing and change to better.

Reference: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/new_economy_transition.htmlhttp://www.humorwithapurpose.com/html/survival_in_today_s_changing_b.html

http://www-au.computershare.com/content/download.asp?docId=%7B24421CA3-72B8-46C7-B373-A986AD2A1CF6%7D&cc=AU&lang=en&bhjs=1&fla=1&theme=cpu

COROPARATE COMMUNICATION RELEVANCE

The corporate view of the communication has advanced, particularly during the past 30 years or so. The public relations (PR) function was primarily meant to protect the upper management from having to interact with the press. As time went by, the role of communications staff advanced. Corporate communication was viewed to be more and more important as companies were facing more communication "disasters", and the public demanded more accountability. The Corporate Communication has expanded to encompass many issues within corporations. Corporate Communication is responsible for maintaining the organization's reputation, which has become more and more difficult with the rise of public awareness. Advocacy groups, nearly instantaneous access to information via online communications, and the call for corporate responsibility have made the Corporate Communication function vital to the success of businesses. Corporate Communication is also responsible for marketing and advertising, internal communications, investor relations, government relations, and crisis management.

Corporate communication according to our text book depends on,

• Emergence of the Corporate Communication Function.
• Centralizing or decentralizing.
• Role of pudlic relation.

The functions of corporate communication are:

1. Reputation management
2. Corporate advertising and advocacy
3. Media relation
4. Marketing communication
5. Internal communications
6. Investor relations.
   

Personal experience: The many different forms of communication that I had the experienced while taking this class and were able to determine the relevance of communication in our lifes.An on-line submission of assignments, has given us the choice and the opportunity to submit assignments whenever I wanted at my convenient. Instead of having to sit in class to submit the papers but sending them over though Web CT was a new experience. It saved me a lot of time n energy."30 Seconds of Fame" This is an interesting concept. What can you get across to someone in a short period of time so they want to contact you or your company again? I can see this being very useful for everyone. With today's busy schedules, people may only have the time they are walking from their car to the building to discuss a concept. Learning how to get someone’s attention and get your point across is very challenging to do in a few seconds.Power Point Presentation When the 21st Century Trends were presented on power point this was a great way to communicate to the class. The different ways you can create the power points to keep your audience interested was also useful and fun to watch. I must agree I had no idea what power point was capable of producing until watching the other presentations in class.Blog Getting on line to produce this blog was also a learning experience and throughout the course I can see how helpful blogs and the internet can be in the communication process.

Reference: http://www.relevantcommunications.com/

http://www.it-director.com/enterprise/content.php?cid=10030

http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/02/signs_of_increa.html

IDENTITY, IMAGE AND REPUTATION

According to Wikipedia, a corporate image refers to how a corporation is perceived. It is a generally accepted image of what a company "stands for". The creation of a corporate image is an exercise in perception management. It is created primarily by marketing experts who use public relations and other forms of promotion to suggest a mental picture to the public. Typically, a corporate image is designed to be appealing to the public, so that the company can spark an interest among consumers, create share of mind, generate brand equity, and thus facilitate product sales. A corporation's image is not solely created by the company: Other contributors to a company's image could include news media, journalists, labor unions, environmental organizations, and other NGOs.
A corporate identity is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate the attainment of business objectives. It is usually visibly manifested by way of branding and the use of trademarks.


Corporate identity is often viewed as being composed of three parts:
Corporate design (logos, uniforms, etc.)
Corporate communication (commercials, public relations, information, etc.)
Corporate behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)

I have had a personal experience in this; Identity is very important for a company, especially in the recruitment process. Last year, I was looking for an internship and I made a lot of researches to find the company which matches the best with my personality. I surfed on their websites, inform me about their values, and even look at their ads. The image I made of them helps me in my final choice. I finally chose a company from which I shared the values and I was proud to be part of this company which is very important for me.

Corporate Identity Management Process:
1. Conduct an identity audit
2. Set up identity objectives
3. Develop designs and names
4. Develop prototypes
5. Launch and communicate
6. Implement the program.

With reference to Wikipedia , 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. Reputation is known to be a ubiquitous, spontaneous and highly efficient mechanism of social control in natural societies. It is a subject of study in social, management and technological sciences. Its influence ranges from competitive settings, like markets, to cooperative ones, like firms, organizations, institutions and communities. Furthermore, reputation acts on different levels of agency, individual and supra-individual. At the supra-individual level, it concerns groups, communities, collectives and abstract social entities (such as firms, corporations, organizations, countries, cultures and even civilizations). It affects phenomena of different scale, from everyday life to relationships between nations. Reputation is a fundamental instrument of social order, based upon distributed, spontaneous social control

Personal Experience: Not only do companies have an identity, image, and reputation, but so do people. When I was in high school I had an identity based on my image and reputation. I was involved in many activities such as chorus, band, art club and drama club. With those activities a certain image if me was portrayed. When I went off to college, I found a new identity, image and reputation. No one knew who I was. I had to start over. My school was very small, so when someone said my name, pretty much everyone knew who I was. Now that I was in College, no one cared what you did or didn't do in school. It was a new start and I could decide what kind of image, identity and reputation I wanted these students to have of me. I could decide to be in the college union and do a lot of service to my college. By doing this it helped to develop a new identity.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page http://valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_corporate_reputation_quotient.htmlhttp://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Co-Di/Corporate-Image.htmlhttp://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Con-Cos/Corporate-Identity.htmlhttp://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/corporatereputation/reputation-chain.aspx

CRISIS COMMUICATION

CRISIS : According to Wikipedia a crisis may occur on personal or societal level. It may be a traumatic or stressful change in a person's life, or an unstable and dangerous social situation, in political, social, economic, military affairs, , or a large-scale environmental event, especially one involving an impending abrupt change. More loosely, it is a term meaning 'a testing time' or 'emergency event'. The word crisis is derived from the Greek word called krisis which meaning a decision. A crisis is any situation in political, social and economical that threatens the image or the reputation of a company, usually that ends in adverse or negative media attention. A crisis is when an unexpected event occurs. Furthermore, a crisis can be caused by humans (oil spills, genetic engineering, etc.) or it can be caused by nature (Katrina, tsunami, etc.). A crisis always comes as a shock. Natural disasters cannot be avoided but there are many crises (human error, negligence, malicious intent) that planning could have prevented in the first place. Human-induced crises include cases in which the company is at fault and cases in which the company becomes a victim.

The four distinct characteristics of crisis communication are, firstly is the element of surprise, secondly insufficient information, thirdly the quick pace of the event and finally the intense scrutiny.

The meaning of crisis communication according to Wikipedia is, a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity. And it’s also considered a sub-specialty of the Business Continuity area of modern business. The aim of crisis communications in this context is to assist organizations to achieve continuity of critical business processes and information flows under crisis, disaster or event driven circumstances.

According to our text book the steps taken to communicate during crisis are,

1. Get control of the situation
2. Gather as much information as is possible
3. Set up a centralized management structure
4. Communicate early and often
5. Understand the media's mission during a crisis
6. Communicate directly with the affected constituents
7. Keep in mind that Business must continue
8. Make plans to avoid another crisis Immediately

Personal experience: I had two of the worst personal experiences with crisis. The first one was in 2004 when I went with my parents to Srilank for a holiday and actually experience the tsunami. The second one was when I was in the 8th standard; I was attending a NCC (national cadet cope) camp in the remote part of Bangalore. During this time a very famous Kannada actor was kidnapped and the entire state was in panic and there was a state bandh. And we stuck in the camp without food and kind of communication with the rest of the city or state.

References: http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html
http://www.e911.com/monos/A001.html
http://www.wku.edu/ur/crisis.html

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Advances in technology have dramatically changed the way we communicate with each other. From writing letter to we have moved to World Wide Web (WWW). “Online” a term is been used almost every day by thousands by business people, students and the general public. Technology has expanded very rapidly in recent years. The most notable advancement has been in how we communicate. Cell phones have become so common and useful that some people are now carrying two of them. The cell phone is also now for more than just calling people. Items such as the iPhone include internet and music features that can replace our laptops and mp3 players, thus saving room and time and potentially being more efficient. Board rooms are now having company Web meetings using technology. A head office in Bangalore can talk to his subsidiaries in LA, Tokyo, Paris, and anywhere else in the orld they might be located. Technology is improving the flow of information in business and thus making it easier to have a successful company. Businesses can communicate to their employees, community and customers through many different types of media. Many companies use a blog to discuss important company issues.

Communication as advance to a great extant, but few of the old mean of communication where,

• written letters


• telegram
  
• trunk calls

The new age technology which has help and made communication to a lot easier are,

• e-mail


• blogs


• fax


• vedio conferencing


• blackberry( a new age communication device, which not only works as a phone but a mini laptop with access to internet).


• wiki (sometimes wiki wiki is a web application designed to allow multiple authors to add, remove, and edit content).

and many others communication technology.

Personal experience: I found the the usage of webct very interesting and fascinating. This communiction technology allows professors to post assignments, communications, and various other materials so that students can access it at home or at the office which in turn would save time and energy for both.

The attached link is an article about 500 companies that are adopting a social media including blogs. The article discusses the critical role of a social media and how they will help the company to be a success.( http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200702/social.html).

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphone
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/;jsessionid=F34HI4K22GLUYQSNDLQCKH0CJUNN2JVN