Business Communication Program

Question: Discuss about the Business Communication Program. Answer: Introduction: Being the communication advisor of the organization. I have asked to design a communication program announcing a reduction in employees, when the company has just announces that they have recorded profitability. The plan needs to be devised that will minimize the amount of friction, tension down-time in the organization. Moreover the plan communication plan will include provisions for coping with difficulties after announcing the news of staff layoff. The organization employs around 1800 employees the layoff of 300 employees was the last resort measure even though the company was in profit. The reason behind layoff is because the company is incurring too much cost on automation which will reduce manual efforts and make the work process automated. Communication Objectives, Audience Analysis Communication Process The objective of the program is to ease the transmission of layoffs in the best possible way for the entire organization. By creating outplacement service developing a firm foundation for the workers that are being laid off, well be able to build a steady level of morale amongst the employees throughout. (Sollier, 2008) For the audience analysis well use the model Change Planning Worksheet which is adapted from Clampitt (2009). The model will help us in identifying the best means to relate the message of change to the prospective audience. There would be 4 main audiences that need to analysed and should be identified, i.e. the employees who are leaving the organization (laid off employees), those employees that would accept the early retirement option, employees who will stay with the organization those who are the part of the exterior audience (i.e. community public). There would be some variation in the channels messages for the external audience and for rest of the audience it would be very much similar. (Baily, 2009) For each group opinion leaders or lions need to be identified. These opinion leaders will assist in influencing the resistant members of a given audience. It is best to seek out the group who have accepted the changes (i.e. who are living the organization), as they will help the other group to understand the situation and will bring them on board. In the group of employees who are staying with the organization, the managers need to identified to assist reinforce why the changes were made, and try to support the goal of job security for future. For the audience external to the organization well run a PR campaign will seek out media. This would be the best way to reach out to the large audience. (Wagner Harter, 2010) Next step should be to analyse how the audience will be impacted. The people who are leaving the organization will have two major concerns i.e. uncertainty about their future they will be jobless. The people who will stay with the company would have a relief, but perhaps will be depressed for their lost colleagues. The external audience might be impacted by the concern over access to organization. They may see this decision as the weakness might fear the state of the organization. (Clmpitt, Philip,2009) In order to send the message right channel needs to be selected. The message is quite complex and non-routine. Hence, the communication channel that should be chosen should be richest, in order to give news to those employees who are directly impacted. The richest channel would be face-to-face communication, as this will allow for immediate feedback. For external audience, the channel chosen would be rich media, but will not be getting face to face treatment because they are in large number, the best way would be to conduct a press conference launch a PR campaign which could clearly demonstrate the concern for the departing employees. (Vroom, 2006) You are the chair of a local community service group. How would you encourage attendance, participation and commitment from members? Being the chair of a local community service group, I need to design a communication program which will encourage attendance, participation commitment from the members. Analyse the target audience Reasons for absenteeism from the meeting. Strategies to encourage the attendance participation commitment from the members Target Audience The target audience for this case will be the younger members between the age group of 24-34 years; the population for younger members constitutes approximately 80 percent of the total community group population. There are many reasons, younger members dont attend and participate in the local community service group, and some of them include: Some people of the group view the dinner/lunch meetings as intimidating or boring, as they might not know people in the event. Some of them are unaware of the events happening at their areas. (Porges Stephen, 2011) Objectives The objective of the program is not only to increase the attendance among younger members, but also to increase the participation commitments from the members. As engineers, we often succeed on repetition because it makes the planning simpler does not force us to think out of the box. However, we sometimes forget that people love new events enjoy change. (Connolly Viswesvaran, 2000) Communication Process In order to better communicate and reach out to the target audience well have to bypass many barriers that would include the cost for reaching out to the audience, there should be a quite high budget that needs to be allocated in order to complete this communication process. Also this task might be time consuming, as reaching out to the correct audience and ask them to participate will full attendance and commitment will be a biggest challenge. (Dobson, Deb, 2009) The best way to communicate and encourage the targeted audience (i.e. young people of the community) would be through face-to-face meeting, as this will allow for immediate feedback. The next way to communicate could be through print media, where in pamphlets and broachers could be printed and delivered to the residence address of the members. These pamphlets and broachers would include the information on the benefits of the program, how their participation and contribution can help the society, how they can get more information about the events happening in their society, important contact information and ways to contact the community head and how they can register themselves for the events and ensure their participation. (Mwah, 2012) Most of these events are conducted at the same location every month. For members who are working living on the outskirts of a region, may cause difficulties for them to participate. So, holding these events at different location may lead to success. Another way to encourage the young crowd and bring new attendance to the events would be to ask the younger member group to host a meeting at the location of their choice. Also, in order not to disturb the people routines, the meeting can be scheduled on weekends. (Saari Judge, 2004) Following these steps will encourage the young members of the community and will definitely lead to participation and commitment from the targeted audience. References: Bailey, Ben (2009). Personal Interview. Clampitt, Phillip (2009). Communicating for Managerial Effectiveness. Sage Publications, Inc,. Print. Dobson, Deb. Personal Interview. 2009 Vroom, V. H. (2006). Work and Motivation. New York: John Wiley. Saari, L. M., Judge, T. A. (2004) Employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 43(4), 395-407. Connolly, J. J., Viswesvaran, C. (2000). The role of affectivity in job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 29(2), 265-281. Porges, Stephen W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. New York: W. W. Norton Company. Sollier, Pierre (2008). Listening for Wellness: An Introduction to the Tomatis Method. MWah, L. (2012). Engaging employees a big challenge. Management Review, 88(9), Wagner, R., Harter, J. K. (2010). 12: The elements of great managing. New York, NY: Gallup Press..ozart Center Press.