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Syllabus Lectures Issues Tracking What's New

Internal Relations & Employee Communication
Dr. Linda M. Perry

  • Employees
    • Organisation’s most important public
    • Effective two-way communication is foundation for management-employee relations
      • Need understanding, teamwork and commitment by employees to achieve organisational goals and objectives


  • Effective internal relationships
    • Must balance needs for employee satisfaction with need for success
    • Chief executive must establish & maintain
      • Mutual confidence and trust
      • Honest, candid information
        • up-down and laterally
      • Satisfying status and participation
      • Continual work without strife
      • Healthy, safe environment
      • Optimism


  • Management's communication
    • Key objectives
      • Help employees understand
        • Organisation’s mission
        • Key issues affecting the organisation
        • Information needed to perform assignments
      • Promote organisational standards,
        • improve service,
        • increase social responsibility
      • Recognise employees’ achievements
    • Media most frequently used
      • Employee publications
      • Bulletin boards
      • Group meetings
      • Policy handbooks
      • Memos (print or email)
    • Face-to-face with “open door” primary for upward, two-way communication


  • Organisational culture
    • Shared meanings and assumptions
    • Common values system; behavioral norms
    • Impacts which model of PR and internal communication used


  • Co-acculturation
    • Multinational corporations have two or more cultures
      • Problems
        • Training new employees
        • Communication between managers and workers
        • Integration of new workers
    • Co-acculturation: simultaneous orientation toward others’ cultures.
    • PR function as cultural messengers within an outside organisation


  • Culture and power
    • Abililty to affect outcomes
      • Formal: Authority to carry out responsibilities
      • Informal: Influence
    • Dominant coalition
      • Holds the most power
      • Determines goals and how business conducted
      • Members hold similar ideas and agree on outcomes


  • Dominant coalition & PR
    • PR function gains power when dominant coalition values it as a vital function
      • Seat at the table
      • Input into strategic decision-making
      • Assures opinions of publics considered
        • Decisions more balanced and enduring, with fewer negative reactions


  • Worldview & organisational culture
    • Asymmetrical worldview
      • Goal is to get what it wants without adapting
      • Produces authoritarian culture
      • Centralized decision-making; military
    • Symmetrical worldview
      • Incorporates negotiation, conflict resolution and compromise in operations
      • Produces participative culture
      • Values dialogue and feedback


  • Internal communication
    • Vision statements
      • Where the organisation is headed
      • Helps manage reactions to changes
    • Mission statements
      • The organisation’s reason for being
      • Helps employees set priorities and goals
      • Helps build commitment to the mission
    • Policy documents
    • Training materials


  • Internal Media
    • Employee publications
      • Printed still primary media
        • Newsletter
        • Magazine
        • Letter
        • Inserts and enclosures
        • Brochures
        • Reprinted speeches, position papers, backgrounders


  • Images and words
    • Teleconferencing
    • Closed-circuit television
    • Video, film and slide presentations


  • Visual media
    • Displays and exhibits
    • Bulletin boards

  • New Media
    • New media have changed everything
      • The way communication is
        • Produced
        • Distributed
        • Displayed
        • Stored
    • New media are tools
      • Improved speed and quality
      • Improved traditional media
    • New media have created new ways of reaching and being reached by internal publics
      • Email
      • Intranet
      • Electronic newsletters & other periodicals
      • SMS blasts


  • New media tools
    • Need content
      • Good writing: clear & succinct
      • Visual communication competence
    • Need strategic communication
      • Message designed to achieve communication objectives for internal publics
    • Need competence in technology
      • Web & mobile device design and content
      • Interactivity
      • Digital publishing and printing


  • Unmediated communication
    • Face to face
    • Meetings
    • Speeches and Speakers Bureau
    • Grapevine

 

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