Crisis Communication

Crisis communications are generally considered 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.

By definition a crisis is an unexpected and detrimental situation or event. Crisis communications can play a significant role by transforming the unexpected into the anticipated and responding accordingly.

A crisis is any situation that threatens the integrity or reputation of a company, usually brought on by adverse or negative media attention. These situations can be any kind of legal dispute, theft, accident, fire, flood or manmade disaster that could be attributed to the company. It can also be a situation where in the eyes of the media or general public the company is not reacting to one of the above situations in the appropriate manner.

If handled correctly the damage can be minimized.

One thing to remember that is crucial in a crisis is tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth. If the does this, they have done all that can to minimize the situation.

Effectively responding to the challenges of a crisis requires more than the typical skills of the public relations professional, requiring instead experience at the highest levels of the field, such as investigative reporting, politics, etc. Crisis communications can include crafting thorough and compelling statements, known as “messages,” often tested by research and polling.
Effective crisis communications strategies will typically consider achieving most, if not all, of the following objectives:

> Maintain connectivity > Allow distributed access > Streamline communication processes > Maintain information security > Ensure uninterrupted audit trails > Deliver high volume communications > Support multi-channel communications > Remove dependencies on paper based processes > Provide instant access to accurate information.

Employees play a very vital role in crisis situation, as they are the representatives of the company. Along with external constituents it is required that internal constituents be communicated of the situation. Timely communication of crisis situation helps in avoiding rumors and false facts. Management should communicate in oral and in written with its constituent’s viz. employees, stake holders, suppliers etc. These days’ companies use various means to keep its constituents informed like company newsletter, e-mail communication.

21st Century Communication Trends

Communication, data, speed, digital, security, Internet... All these words are all over the media, in most commercials and advertisements - there is no doubt that 21st century will be the century of information. And of course all the information should be accessible and here comes communication. So whether to call it Information Century or Communication Century is a bit unclear.

Borgatti's Theory identifies five trends into viz. globalization, diversity, flexibility, flat hierarchical structure and network. In some or the other way all these five trends are inter linked or connected. If organizations are going global they need to be flat and flexible to adapt to the diversities and network plays a vital role in continuous floe of information within and outside organization among the constituents.

Nations are becoming increasingly integrated through trade, foreign investment, technological advances and cultural influences. Globalization offers extensive opportunities for truly worldwide development and can be attributed to sales, management, research, and manufacturing. As a company wants to grow, it requires market expansion thus increase its visibility, exposure, and accessibility to increase the demand for the product in the markets. Globalization helps in increasing visibility of the company, increase in revenue and profits and also helps in achieving economies of scale thereby reducing production cost. Globalization has both positives and negatives associated with it.

Adoption of Flat Organization Structure is another trend, which is rapidly spreading around the corporate world. Few layers of management characterize it, Chain of Command from top to bottom is short, and span of control is wide.




Links: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2000/041200.htm#X

Corporate v/s Product Advertising

Corporate advertisement is usually done with an intention to reinforce corporate identity, promote its positive image and to influence about company reputation. Mostly corporate advertisement is targeted towards investors (existing and prospective), community, public, governmental departments, prospective talent pool etc. Corporate advertisement can serve dual purpose for the organization. It can help built identity, image and reputation, which are followed by increased sales and profitability.

Product advertisement on the other hand is more targeted towards a particular brand or category of products. The main purpose of product advertisement is to induce a particular brand of the product against its competitor brand by giving product features and other related details. These advertisements are targeted towards customers to increase the market share and sales. If we turn around the pages of magazines, newspapers or for that matter even TV channels, we come across many product advertisements.

Both these advertisements have their individual target audiences and medium of communication. Corporate advertisements can be found in business magazines, business section of the newspaper and news channels whereas product advertisement is more visible in any entertainment channel, gossip magazines etc.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising

Media Relations

Media relation plays a very important role in shaping company’s image among its stakeholders. The first and most important communication to economically essential individuals and audiences is an accurate description of what the company is and does. To be successful in today’s business environment, companies need to be open to its constituents. This openness helps company to preserve its corporate image, enhancing reputation, weathering crises, and maximizing organizational potential. Earlier the role of media relation person or spokesperson was not so well defined and there was no specific person assigned for the task of spokesperson. However with the development of communication technologies the role of spokesperson has become very vital and media relation is becoming as crucial as it was never before.

A positive relation with media by proving correct and required information helps organization create a strong public image. Media relation’s activities include helping the public to understand the organization and its products. Similar to effective advertising and promotions, effective media relations often depends on designing and implementing a well-designed media relation’s 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 can be very useful, as this helps in specifying what media methods that are used and when.

Often, message is communicated 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. Thus “no comment” policy can never be an option while talking to media. The media has the power to build organization up or knock it down, but it will likely have no interest in doing so if organization provides all the required information, co-operate and play by the book.

Internal Communication

Internal communications, also known as employee relations, includes all communication within an organization. Internal communications may be oral or written, face to face or virtual, one-on-one or in a small group.

Effective internal communication - which can be said to be "downward, upward, and horizontal" - is a vital means of addressing organizational concerns. Good internal communication helps to establish formal roles and responsibilities for employees. Listening to employees (an integral part of two-way communication) enables management to identify strengths and weaknesses, which helps in the process of decision making, and fosters esprit du corps.

Internal communications helps employees to understand the organization's vision, values, and culture. Furthermore, internal communication, when implemented effectively, can be crucial in a time of crisis, providing employees with not only a strategy to handle a crisis, but the facts surrounding such an event. As arguably some of the most invested individuals in an organization, trusted and valued employees can prove to be excellent partners when addressing a crisis. By maintaining open lines of communication between management and employees, effective internal communications can enhance stronger relationships throughout all levels of the organization.
Excellent internal communications cannot simply be implemented and left alone; the process must be ever-changing and adaptable for success.

Some of the features of Internal communication are,
Transparent and timely (when details have been confirmed and approved, messages should be presented to employees before any external public);
Clear;
Concise;
Informative;
Independent.

Some of the channels of Internal Communication adopted by the companies are,
Intranet,
A regular Town Hall (an informal session where employees can listen to and talk with the organizational representative such as a managing director, CEO, etc),
Conference calls,
Internal newsletters,
E-mail,
Message boards,
Print materials and Virtual meetings.

Common Causes of Problems in Internal Communications.

1. Attitude of ‘If I know it, then everyone must know it’, practiced by top management.
2. Assumption of ‘I told everyone, or some people, or...?’.
3. Negligence on the part of peers quoting like, ‘Our problems are too big to have to listen to each other!’

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_communications
http://www.managementhelp.org/mrktng/org_cmm.htm

Communication Relevance

Communicating professional knowledge is a key activity for today’s specialized workforce.

The efficient and effective transfer of experiences, insights, and know-how among different experts and decision makers is a prerequisite for high-quality decision-making and coordinated organizational action. Situations of such deliberate knowledge transfer through interpersonal communication or group conversations can be found in many business constellations.

Experts from various domains need to share their views and insights regarding a common goal in order to agree on a common rating of risks, requirements, industries or clients. Project leaders need to present their results to the upper management and share their experiences of past projects in order to assess the potential of new project candidates. Scientists who work as drug developers present new avenues for future products those business unit managers must assess.

Market researchers present their statistical analyses of recent consumer surveys to the head of marketing. Strategy consultants present the findings of their strategic company assessment to the board of directors in order to devise adequate measures.

What these diverse situations all have in common is the problem of knowledge asymmetry, which has to be resolved through interpersonal communication. While the manager typically has the authority to make strategic or tactical decisions, he often lacks the specialized expertise required to make an informed decision on a complex issue. Because of the wide scope of decisions that need to be made, a manager frequently has to delegate the decision preparation to experts who – based on their professional training and previous experience – can analyze complex situations or technological options in a more reliable manner. The results of such analyses then need to be communicated back to the manager, often under considerable time constraints.
The knowledge communication challenge, however, begins long before that, at the time when the manager has to convey his or her knowledge needs and decision constraints to the experts in order to delegate the analysis task effectively.

Links:
http://www.knowledge-communication.org/Research%20Note%20on%20Knowledge%20Communication%20and%20Management%202.0.pdf

Communication Technologies

Communication is a process that allows beings - in particular humans - to exchange information by one of several methods. Communication requires that some kinds of symbols from a kind of language are exchanged. There are auditory means, such as speaking or singing, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch or eye contact.
Communication happens at many levels (even for one single action), in many different ways, and for all beings, and some machines. Communication is usually described along a few major dimensions:
Content (what type of things are communicated)
Source (by whom)
Form (in which form)
Channel (through which medium)
Destination/Receiver (to whom)
Purpose/Pragmatic aspect (with what kind of results)

Between parties, communication content include, acts that declare knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, including all variations of nonverbal communication. The form depends on the symbol systems used. Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another person (in interpersonal communication), or another entity (such as a corporation or group).

As a process, communication has synonyms such as expressing feelings, conversing, speaking, corresponding, writing, listening and exchanging. Communication is often formed around the principles of respect, promises and the want for social improvement. People communicate to satisfy needs in both their work and non-work lives. People want to be heard, to be appreciated and to be wanted. They also want to accomplish tasks and to achieve goals. Obviously, then, a major purpose of communication is to help people feel good about themselves and about their friends, groups, and organizations. For these types of communication, there must be a transmission of thoughts, ideas and feelings from one mind to another.


Forms of Communication
Non-verbal
Nonverbal communication is the act of imparting or interchanging thoughts, opinions or information without the use of words, using gestures, sign language, facial expressions and body language instead. Much of the “emotional meaning” we take from other people is found in the person’s facial expressions and tone of voice, comparatively little is taken from what the person actually says (More Than Talk).

Language
A language is a syntactically organized system of signals, such as voice sounds, intonations or pitch, gestures or, written symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings. If a language is about communicating with signals, voice, sounds, gestures, or
Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols and the grammars by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages.

Channels / Media
The beginning of human communication through artificial channels, i.e. not vocalization or gestures, goes back to ancient cave paintings, drawn maps, and writing.
The adoption of a dominant communication medium is important enough that historians have folded civilization into "ages" according to the medium most widely used. The media effects what people think about themselves and how they perceive people as well. What we think about self image and what others should look like comes from the media.
Digital and computer communication shows concrete evidence of changing the way humans organize. The latest trend in communication, termed smartmobbing, involves ad-hoc organization through mobile devices, allowing for effective many-to-many communication and social networking.

Electronic media
The previous century was a revolution in telecommunications, which has greatly altered communication by providing new media for long distance communication. The common communication channels via analogue and digital media are,
Analog telecommunications include traditional telephony, radio, and TV broadcasts.
Digital telecommunications allow for computer-mediated communication, telegraphy, and computer networks.
Communications media impact more than the reach of messages. Modern communication media allows for intense long-distance exchanges between larger numbers of people (many-to-many communication via e-mail, Internet forums). On the other hand, many traditional broadcast media and mass media favor one-to-many communication (television, cinema, radio, newspaper, magazines).

Mass media
Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). The mass-media audience have been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication

Identity, Image, Reputation.

A corporate identity is the communication of a company’s personality and the company personality reflects the inner values, which are the company’s philosophy. Consistent corporate identity can be favorable for the company as consistency can help strengthening the company’s image. In some cases the consistency of identity can help to strengthen the products of the company although such scenarios are created with a very conscious thought as most of the time product has a different profile than the rest of the company. This can be best explained with the help of car brand Mercedes that has brand identity of its own away from the company identity of DymlerCrysler

Corporate image is the way in which a company presents itself to its target groups. By being aware of how a company wishes to appear to its constituents, it can control its image and it is the projection of company’s corporate identity. Image is the perception of people about the organization, which can very well be changed by continuous efforts. A strong corporate image strengthens brand awareness of the company’s products. However, formation of company includes everything from written materials or promotional material to the way it deals with customers and other constituents.

Positive company reputation among its constituents is the utmost thing that any company would like to achieve. Company reputation relates to areas such as preferred employer (Google), good corporate citizen (P&G, IBM, HP) and openness in sharing information with constituents. The corporate reputation is built usually through internal and external communication. Bad company reputation due to reasons like dishonesty in financial dealing can cause serious damage to the company both internally and externally. The best example to this could be Enron, which is facing bankruptcy and various criminal charges thus affecting company reputation badly.

In today’s scenario, all three mentioned above i.e. corporate identity, image and reputation play a very important role in making or breaking organization and companies need to give time and resources in creating and retaining it.

Communication Theory

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.

History of Communication Theory
In the history of philosophy, Aristotle first addressed the problem of communication and attempted to work out a theory of it in The Rhetoric. He was primarily focused on the art of persuasion.
Humanistic and rhetorical viewpoints and theories dominated the discipline prior to the twentieth century, when more scientific methodologies and insights from psychology, sociology, linguistics and advertising began to influence communication thought and practice.

Communication Theory Framework
It is helpful to examine communication and communication theory through one of the following viewpoints:
Mechanistic: This view considers communication to be a perfect transaction of a message from the sender to the receiver. (as seen in the diagram above)
Psychological: This view considers communication as the act of sending a message to a receiver, and the feelings and thoughts of the receiver upon interpreting the message.
Social Constructionist (Symbolic Interactionist): This view considers communication to be the product of the interactants sharing and creating meaning.
Systemic: This view considers communication to be the new messages created via “through-put”, or what happens as the message is being interpreted and re-interpreted as it travels through people.

Some of the Communication theories are,

By Harold Lasswell (1948): Lasswell was a political scientist. His theory states the following, “Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect.”

By Shannon and Weaver: Shannon and Weaver produced a general model of communication and they suggested that all communication must have six elements such as source, encoder, message, channel, decoder and receiver.



Schramm’s Model: In his model Schramm provides the additional concept of “field of experience” which refers to the kind of attitude, which two people maintain towards each other while interacting. He says that communication is two-way and includes “feedback” in his model.




Westley and MacLean’s Model: Westley and MacLean realized that communication begins when a person responds selectively to his physical surroundings. In their model they considered feedback and said that communication is not always between two people rather it is more than just two people. Also they talked about different modes of communication like interpersonal, mass mediated communication etc.

Links:
http://envstudies.brown.edu/Thesis/2003/Jessica_Galante/pages/commmodels.htm

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

A Changing Environment for Business

Impact of mass media in shaping people’s idea about business houses.
A country’s previous history, religion, culture, mass media and orators portray businessmen are biased against society and people. All of these depict that businessmen look for they’re for own good and not for the well being of the society.
To illustrate with my own experience, a year ago a movie was released in India by the name ‘ Corporate’, in that movie the founder director of the company releases a product harmful for people’s health. In order for his and his company’s survival he pushes down the blame on his company’s CEO and spoils her life, as a result she could not shape her life further. These kinds of movies play a significant role in the minds of people shaping their attitudes towards the modern day companies, as movies and television are a popular source of entertainment and source of knowledge to the people.
As they say there are two faces to a coin, all business houses will not do the same thing. There are many companies who are working for serving the society. They are having separate units which work on these issues.

Growth in Information & Technology
The concept of ‘Global Village’ has grown to its peak in connecting people around the world. People are able to bring in their cultures, communities, etc. into the blend of the businesses. Many governments are liberalizing their country’s economic policies, in order to facilitate cross-border trade and commerce. Some of the reaping benefits of global village concept are, large-scale mergers and acquisitions that are taking place around the world, outsourcing of work and services, specializing in core-competencies, etc.
With a large-scale globalization, companies have become powerful blocks, in running the governments or being influential in framing the policies of a country. One of the evil effects of globalization is that, exploitation of cheap labour, the natives of a country might loose an opportunity on the preference of being selected for jobs. This is for the reason that companies can get employees from all round the world and choose best out of them for less amount of salary and benefits.
A rapid growth in technology has made people around the world to share their ideas and communicate easily. Instant messaging, on-line chatting, websites like orkut.com and others help in sharing the ideas of people and bring them under one community. Any activity done by the companies is instantly revealed whether positive or negative.

Competition in Changing Environment.
Competitive players seek to capitalize on emerging events to get a competitive edge. The recent competition is characterized by developments like networking at and across local, regional, national, international and global levels, a competitive edge is realized by utilizing instant information, governments compete globally to attract firms and FDI, consumers worldwide seek access to the best available commodities and services.
In the Internet economy, digital connectivity and capacity have altered the rules of competition. To be ahead of competitors, to leap forward, to be imaginative and agile, and most important to shape the competition game, a company must embark creatively on two activities: it must utilize digital tools and refocus its priorities.
Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and CEO, argues that in the globalization era firms must have the ability to run smoothly and efficiently, respond quickly to emergencies and opportunities, get valuable information on a timely basis to the people in the company who need it and to make prompt decisions and interact with customers. Gates also emphasizes that companies appear to realize that the race for competitiveness in the era of globalization situates the customer as the focal point. It is the customer who drives and determines their business. That is, companies compete to obtain access to customers on a global scale. Therefore, the global company has to build a competitive advantage founded upon discovering and fulfilling, on a timely basis, customers’ needs and ever-changing demands. Bill Gates provides some imperatives for achieving the capabilities mentioned above. They are, insist on communication flow, and use digital tools to eliminate single-task jobs, create a digital feedback loop, use digital communication to redefine boundaries, use digital tools to help customers solve problems for themselves.

Links

www.changeperform.com.au/change readimess.html
http://www.fund/ articles.com /p/articles/mi m/1038/is n5 v34 /ai 11308380



Communicating Strategically

Communication Theory
Communication is the expression and exchange of facts, opinions, ideas or feelings. Communication may be intrapersonal i.e., when we are trying to communicate with ourselves or it may be interpersonal when we convey a message to others. In interpersonal communication, there must be at least two persons to allow the completion of the process. One takes up the role of a sender and the other that of receiver. A medium is used to enable the transmission of the message.
Companies need to communicate strategically in order to transact some commercial activity i.e., providing goods and services, with the intention of generating profits. It is useful to acquire the skills of effective writing and speaking. In fact, lack of these may result in loss of business opportunities.
Modern business houses have recently started emphasizing on strategies in its communication. For this purpose the companies are considering many theories for its strategy under this area. The birth of these communication theories can be traced back to civilization of ancient Greece. The roots of modern communication find its roots in a work of Aristotle named ‘The Art of Rhetoric’. But the modern communication strategy improvises Aristotle’s theory emphasizing on organization in place of speaker in his theory, constituency takes the place of person to which it is addressed to and subject is being replaced by messages. The relationship between above variables determines whether the messages passed through the channel will be effective or not.

Developing Corporate Communication Strategies.
The first step in developing corporate communication strategies is setting an effective organization strategy. It includes determining objectives, deciding on resources available, diagnosis of organizations reputation. Determination of objective means the reason for communication. The reason for communication might be within the organization or outside the organization. The basic idea behind defining the objective is to get back the reaction from the constituent it is targeted upon.
The company must decide upon its resources how to communicate about its ideas. The basic resource includes money, human resource and time. Money plays a very important role in any aspect of life. A minimal expense must realize in maximum benefits.
A company’s Human Resources Department plays a major role in communicating its company’s ideas internally or externally. The effectiveness of the HR personnel can help the company to reach its greatest heights through there experience and networking.
Time is also important factor in implementing a communication strategy. A company must consider time factor in the flow of information. It will not be feasible for a company to consume too much time in passing on the information required. This may result in dilution of information and miscommunication.
I would like to quote my own experience in this regard. The company where I was doing my internship in HR used a strategy of using a type of method of formally conveying a message to its employees in an informal way. This method worked out in that company and the management was successful in conveying its messages to its employees in a very short span of time. The company saved its financial resources. As said before the message also reached its employees.
The reputation of a company also counts a very long way in accomplishing its objectives. The reputation of a company counts only when it is into specific constituencies. This can act as a lifesaver at the time of crisis to the companies.
Finally we can say that determining objectives, deciding on resources available, and diagnosis of organizations reputation are the building blocks on which communication strategy depends on.
The second step in developing communication strategy is analyzing constituencies of a company. The constituencies of a firm are of two they are primary and secondary. Primary constituencies include employees, customers, shareholders and communities. Secondary constituencies include media, suppliers, government, etc.
A company should analyze its priority constituencies through which it can goodwill and carry out its objectives. There should be mutual trust between the organization and its constituencies to build a strong relationship among them.


Delivering Messages Appropriately.
A company must choose a proper communication channel to deliver its information to its constituencies. Modern channels of communication are e-mail, Weblogs, Intranet, Internet, etc. The structure of message delivered should be short, adequate, precise and to the point. It should not waste the receivers’ time.

Assessment of Constituent Responses.
After delivery of information to the constituent, the feedback from the constituent should be assessed by the organization, whether the desired result of communication is achieved or not. If a negative response is received, the company should adopt alternative techniques of communication in order to achieve desired results.

Links:
www.collaborotry.nunet.net/dsimpsym/comtheory.html