Free «Corporate Communication» Essay Paper

According to Peter Drucker, communication in a corporate organization is what brings change to its management. Given  that change is crucial in any organization, leaders should be well-equipped with communication skills in their role to support change. Communication within a corporation is what influences how an issue or crisis is handled by the organization  before the actual problem arises.

For corporate communication to be effective, it must support the strategies and objectives of an organization. This communication  should direct  leaders in the organization and motivate its members and stakeholders to encourage productiveness. Effective communication requires that the communicator have knowledge of the culture of the organization in order to establish acceptable approaches. Every corporation has its accepted cultural norms which have a major influence on the processes used to support communication.

At times, organizational leaders see emerging risks or opportunity that forces them to take a step towards change. This enhances their duty to communicate the risk to the rest of the organization at a right moment. An intensive communication is a way to help the people readily adapt; it is crucial. There is, however, a challenge to this since the leaders have to drift the attention from the employee’s routine behaviors to another greater challenge of change. 

Regardless of the type or magnitude of change, resistance must occur and the wise thing would then be to communicate on the need for  change and strive to get the attention in the start of the changing process. A failure to grasp the extent of the need to change by employees results in negative attitude and a failure in the efforts of change.

To ensure an effective transition, leaders must be up to date with what is taking place within the organization and communicate of it appropriately and with sensitivity. They should also believe in the message they present and maintain healthy contacts with the organization. To  achieve results, the people involved need appreciation and need to have their efforts recognized.

In dealing with people regarding transitions, leaders ought to communicate in order to let  the people involved  know what decisions should bring changes; they should also help to create  understanding why such changes are necessary. There is a need to provide immediate response to challenges particularly by employees when undertaking their duties. In this, communication will have helped to paint a picture of expectations from the beginning and define the roles of each individual in its achievement.

Consultation is also a means of communication  important for a corporation when making decisions. It is of importance mostly if the decision directly affects the lives of people. Consultation helps a corporation  increase its effectiveness by reducing the mistakes of making changes or even investments that have no future in them. Undertakings that can be harmful to the health of individuals or to the environment inside or outside the business should be avoided. Consultation also gives an opportunity for the affected group to express their concern related to  the preferred option. The organization then proceeds to find out the advantages of the preferred option over others and makes its decision from the information collected.

However, consultation has its demerits, and many organizational leaders tend to avoid it for fear of criticism and conflicts. Public consultation is expensive to undertake and may expose an organization to dangers imposed by external stakeholders wishing to influence this organization’s undertakings.

Corporate communication has changed by a shift to computers as a base for information transfer and exchange. The internet challenges  communication professionals forcing a competition for attention. Unlike the period when it would take the professional communicators  weeks to read and correct documents, a computer can edit the same in seconds. Many senders and receivers of information are able to work simultaneously . Communication now flows beyond the corporation to key stakeholders such as customers, partners, and the investors who were outsiders in the earlier age. Technology provides instant communication, and changes happen rapidly.

Corporate advertisements and the information they wish to convey are placed in the media preferred. Through media, the customers and other interested parties get the information they  need so much, and at the same time the sensitive corporate information is guarded. The media are, however, limited in giving customer feedback hence a need to do researches into customers views through other means.

Once the environment is information-rich, the organization’s target should be the receivers and the applicants. This can be achieved when a communicator demonstrates  the knowledge of the communities involved in the process and identifies the type of information and the individuals who need the information. The information should thereafter be  constantly repeated so that other may recall it and it will get complete reinforcement. Repetition can be selective giving much emphasis to the key issues.

In situation where the information environment is complex, there is a need for teamwork and problem-solving strategies. Communicators must be willing to work in trust and in a way that everyone’s values, responsibilities, and contributions to the group are recognized. For the growth of the teams, a communicator must act as a connector among them. Many organizations with this ability to solve problems have witnessed new worth of their services and to their products. This has encouraged them to share their problem solving skills and experiences with  others. In  summary, the identification of ways of  changing services in order to meet the expectations and communicate them to the concerned is the key to problem solving.

Define the term “learning organization,” referring to at least four characteristics of learning organizations

According to Peter Senge, a learning organization is a “place where people continually expand their capacity to create results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn.” A learning organization has five characteristics, as listed below.

Personal Mastery: this entails  learning on how to expand an employee’s capacity to create the  results that he or she desires. It also entails  building an environment that encourages fellow employees to achieve  their desired goals and desires.

Mental Models: under this discipline, each employee is supposed to reflect upon, continually clarify, and improve his or her internal views of the world and see how they influence his actions and decisions.

Shared Vision: this entails   teaming up into workgroups with the aim of developing a shared vision of the common and desired future, and the principles and guidelines to support them in attaining the desired futures.

Team Learning: team learning is geared towards developing collective thinking skills to enable the members to acquire intelligence and abilities that are greater than their individual members’ talents combined.

Systems Thinking: this entails considering an organization as a complex system composed of several smaller systems. Hence, it requires  understanding of the entire organization as well as its components. In this, Senge supports the use of system maps which help to show how systems in the organization connect.

System thinking refers to a way of thinking about and appreciating the forces and interrelationships that influence the behavior of systems. It helps an organization to identify the changes needed in the system to make it more effective and to align it with the wider natural and economic world.

To actualize them, an organization must commit the necessary resources needed to transform it into a learning organization

Discuss the role of boundaries in a learning organization.

Boundaries refer to the lines that define an employee’s role in the workplace and his/her interactions with  other employees. These boundaries define the responsibilities and  limits of these responsibilities for individuals one interacts with in the workplace. In simple terms, it is where one’s territory ends and the other’s one begins. When the boundaries are well defined, there is work efficiency since assignments redundancies are reduced or  eliminated, and one becomes accountable for the tasks performed. Boundaries in a learning organization play various roles:

-  They enable a team to work more effectively by guiding an individual’s behavior to ensure professionalism is upheld.

-  Boundaries are also important in apportioning responsibility. They define an employee’s duties and responsibilities, which enhances accountability and eliminates chances of passing the back.

- Boundaries assist employees in attaining their targets because they know what they are supposed to do and therefore they can concentrate on their core duties before taking up other responsibilities.

In addition to professional boundaries, there are the interpersonal boundaries. The combination of the two is what brings effect of the worth of the social environment and productivity in a workplace.

The interpersonal boundaries factors consist of the tone used by individuals to each other, their attitude to co-workers and clearly defined consequences when boundaries are violated. Boundaries lack meaning if individual actions are contrary to their words.

Ideally, the core skills to meet boundary requirements by individuals are for one to know his or her limits and communicate openly but tactfully about his goals. To achieve this, one must learn to give accurate estimates, meet deadlines strictly, and deliver standard results. In discussing limitations, it is wise to focus on the positive intensions, avoid complaints about issues, and  ask for help only when needed. This will ensure that one gains positive reputation and guarantees a healthy working environment free of intimidation or harassment.

Discuss the differences and similarities between social and environmental responsibility.

Differences

Social and environmental responsibilities are the two arms of corporate social responsibility. Social responsibilities deals with initiatives geared towards improving the welfare of the employees and the community served. They are also  ethical and society-friendly approaches in which firms conduct their businesses for the benefit of the whole society. Such investments are in the areas of health, education, and humanitarian needs. Social responsibilities may include initiatives such us growing employee’s talents, investing in training, building hospitals, and assisting in relief efforts such as flood victims.

Environmental responsibility focuses on initiatives that conserve the natural environment such as greening a company’s operations and making investments in projects that conserve the environment. Environmental responsibility may entail investing in energy saving initiatives, reducing waste, recycling, and opting for telecommuting instead of traveling.

Similarities

In both, tighter ties between the corporations and the community are realized. The corporation seizes to be just a place for production and employment;  it is rather viewed as a partner with the community by ensuring a clean environment; it acts as a savior of lives in  case of a disasters.

Both approaches focus on improving the living standards of  people and alleviating poverty in that they provide a means of earning some income to the society. This is of much help to the young because their  minds are actively involved and can stop relying on casual employments to individual businesses. This mostly applies when finding ways to recycle the already wasted materials. There is enhancement of employments through interests like in organizations such as “Green Peace Mission” among others.

Through campaigns, both help protect the health of the surroundings. Attitudes and behaviors to conserve and protect the environment promotion are geared to protect farming lands yields good grounds for suitable agricultural practices.

Define “cultural shift” in the context of CSR

Cultural shift refers to a change in the culture of an organization in order to benefit the community it serves and for its own welfare. The Human Resource Department with the help of other key people should pioneer the change across the departments. The causes of cultural shifts are mainly introductions of new technology, shake-ups from new competitors, or unproductive routines.

Change of culture is not easy since corporations and the people working for it resist change. Leaders in many instances fail to create a winning culture since a culture change involves exerting  influence on  individuals’ deep beliefs and habitual behaviors. The challenge comes in when old established trends have to be abolished and employees face a demand to learn new trends. However,  cooperation among the departments is the best approach to boost results.

To build a winning culture, a company needs to set expectations of the changes and the type of culture change required in order to achieve results. A company’s leaders ought to realize that they are the key factors when it comes to  change and should act responsibly in order to influence the subjects. The leaders should also be encouraged to move round clarifying roles, replacing employees where necessary and providing incentives where needed. To speed the success of the culture change, small and large achievements ought to be recognized and appreciated on a day-to-day basis. On the same note, individuals should be held accountable for the work they deliver.

What is “ethical compliance”?

Ethical compliance refers to the adherence to a profession’s best practices. It is done for the benefit of  employees and their company at large in that adherence to a profession’s best practices reduces the chances of lawsuits against the company or individual employees. It also creates an enabling work environment. Local, state, and federal laws and the company’s own laws guide its ethical standards.

Adhering to ethical standards in a company defines a working culture that is respectful. It creates an enabling environment for employees to release their full potential. In addition, it enhances teamwork and interpersonal relationships. It also reduces labor turnover besides improving morality.

For an ethical compliance program to function well, it must receive the full support of the management. If management team apply corporate ethics in their various departments according to individual style, a conflict of principles results in causing confusion in the whole organization. In this light, an ethical officer is important for the proper running of an ethics program.

Generally, implementation and maintenance of ethical programs within an organization can be time consuming and expensive. Due to this, ethics policies require constant updating to reflect any changes in the work place laws and the progressive change of cultures that goes with a growing organization.

What is a “sustainability report”?

A sustainability report is a report detailing an organization’s environmental and social performance. It informs the reader about how sustainable a business is. The report is judged according to transparency, traceability, and compliance. Sustainability report and CSR reporting are  recent trends that have evolved with greater demands for companies to conduct their businesses in a way that takes care of the environmental concerns. Effective sustainability reports are powerful tools for communicating with the stakeholders and act as boosters of the company’s performance value.