Organizations are made up of people and organizations exist to serve people. As such, the number one skill of any organization, is the ability to communicate. Everything starts with communication. Communication has been defined as the process of ‘making something common’. It is about the ‘communis’ or better still, the process of shared meanings, shared messages.
Management communication is the art of enabling this translation of shared meaning to enable the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Basically, the role of management communication is to convince the different stakeholders and publics that the goals of the organization are worth achieving.
Models of Communication
Communication rests on two major models. The first of these is the Semiotics school, enhanced by the works of Ferdinand de Saussure. In the semiotics school, communication is seen through the makeup of symbols, in the ways of icons and indexes. For example, the alphabet is a collection of symbols which once joined together form certain meanings.
The commonest model is the Process school enhanced by the works of Wilber Schramm. Wilber built and advanced the works of Information theorist, Claude Shannon. In the process school, communication is seen in three points, from the Sender, the message, and the receiver. The sender encodes a message that gets decoded by the receiver.
So why should organizations communicate? Because without communication there is no alignment on goals, on objectives, on instructions, confusion and chaos will lead the way. And in the absence of intentional communication, rumours and gossip always fill the vacuum.
Communicating Strategically
For this reason, all organizations must communicate strategically. To communicate strategically is to communicate effectively. The starting point of Strategic Communication is an understanding of the corporation. What is this corporation? Why does it exist? What are its objectives? What are the values? The identity? What resources are available to this organization? What message does the organization seek to communicate? Who are the constituencies and the target audiences? What are the desired responses? What does the organization hope the audiences should think, feel, and do based on its message? How shall it evaluate the responses? These questions start off the strategic thinking process concerning communication in an organization.
Some important theories to remember here are the Stakeholder theory. An organization should always be thought of as a collective of stakeholders. There are the internal stakeholders, the interface stakeholders and the external stakeholders. All these have communication needs that must be met.
Within the organization, information flows in three ways. It can flow formally or informally. It can flow horizontally or vertically. It can also flow internally or externally. A communicator must be aware of these flows. Communication should also be thought of as progressing from the phatic stage, then to the personal stage and the peak of communication is the intimate stage. However for organizational communication, it’s preferable to keep it at the personal stage. The extremes of intimate communication in organization could have unwanted outcomes.
Once a strategy has been drafted, an organization must have a mini-strategy and plan for each of these sections. The first is the Internal Communication section. It’s important to segment the employee audiences whether by demographics or psychographics or even based on seniority in the organization and tailor specific communications to this. A channel and content strategy could be helpful in this cause. For internal communication, it’s largely about the smooth flow of work instructions and the ability to have difficult conversations (lay-offs or performance reviews).
Media and Media Relations
The organization should also have a media relations strategy and plan. The media, thought of as a key party when viewed through the Agenda-setting theory or the Hypodermic needle theory. It’s important to build relations with the media in advance, and use them to strategically tell the story of the organization. Also when one is crafting a Public Relations campaign or program, the media comes in handy at this stage. Not forgetting in times of crisis communication, it’s important to speak to a media that has your story at heart.
The other sections for which a strategy and plan is important are: stakeholders (mainly Government and Investor relations). The salience model is helpful in defining one’s stakeholders and knowing how to engage each of them. This model classifies stakeholders based on whether they have powerful, or urgent or legitimate claims. Those with all the three are known as definitive stakeholders and must be engaged closely and informed sufficiently.
It’s also important to have a Publicity and Public Relations strategy and plan. But above all, to remember that every organization will one day have a crisis. Thus, a proper crisis communication strategy and plan is crucial. This should be simulated once drafted to ensure that some inherent gaps can be closed in advance. Nothing as bad as having a crisis and having a plan that cannot be activated. Simulate, simulate, simulate. A crisis is always waiting to happen.
Clarity, Consistency and Coherence
As I conclude, let’s not forget the message. An organization’s communication must be integrated, coherent, clear and consistent. The external audience shouldn’t have different versions from the internal audience. In the world where lines have been blurred, where employees are also members of other stakeholder groups, consistency matters. Also remember that the channel of choice matters and the message should be adapted to the channel. Know the right channel depending on the intended response. The message should be crafted with logic and persuasion. Everything rests on the logos (the reason/facts/evidence), pathos (persuasion, emotional aspect) and the ethos (the credibility of the communicator). The art of persuasion comes in handy here as one drafts the message. But also remember, there are many audiences, and they will require a custom tailoring of their messages.
If there’s one crime of communication, it’s the one of under-communication. Silence is also communication; no organization should risk playing in this reality. Organizations must say what they will do, do what they said, and the publics should see these in action, the result of which will be the reputation of the organization. In Management Communication, it’s down to relationships, reputations, responsibility, and responses. These 4Rs should be at the heart of the communicator.
That marks the end of Ortega’s reflections on Management Communication.