Research Paper on Corporate Communication

Introduction: Corporate communication

Corporate communication, like any other communication, should be intentional and purposeful if it is to be successful. Intentional means that there is a desired effect of such a communication. Spamming may not be taken lightly by the decoder and neither would be too frequent communications even by word of mouth. The information packaging in communication, especially for organizations, should succinct. The message or communication will always be through formal or informal channels of communication and pass from a sender to a receiver through the transceiver, which, in this case, means the channel of communication. The sender will encode it, the bearer will conduct it and the receiver will decode it. If the information is not clear, the receiver may get stuck. The communication channel, thus, should always be kept from free failure which has the capacity to hinder effectiveness in the whole organization. Corporate communication enhances control, motivation, expression and access and flow of information as shown in Samsung Corporation.

Communication and corporate control

Information is a key factor in ensuring that the behavior and manifestations of employees and management are controlled to some extent. Corporate control is essential for the sake of ensuring that all parties to the corporation, the joint venture or the organization, be it a self-help initiative or a multinational, are doing what they should when they should and how they should. This is a tool for effective organizational operations. When, for example, an employee is handed over a user manual for operation a certain plant, which is a tool of corporate control of both functionality and behavior (Robbins, 2001). Should the employee misgive, he will be answerable to a certain structured authority as to why they didn't operate as per the rules. Employees may be required as per the organizational rules and regulations, to always report any grievances arising from their job, job description or working environment to the officer directly in charge of them. If not addressed, they can then report the matter to a higher authority. This is because every organization has a bureaucratic chain of command which establishes authorities in the corporation. The hierarchies and guidelines established for employees and even for customers are meant to exert corporate control. As one scientist notes, all people dislike work and thus, if left unattended in terms of setting goals and standards, for instance, they will be inclined to underperform, an act that would translate o the overall underperformance of the entire firm. However, informal communication should also be checked for an effective organization. It can serve to reduce the performance of outstanding employees in order to lower the standard output or to disempower informal leadership which can lead to conflicted union or employee group leaders (Robbins, 2001).

Communication and motivation

Communication, again, is a powerful tool for motivation. When one is given a standard or a description of what they ought to do, for instance, they expect the guidelines to be clear (Robbins, 2001). Clarity in instructions helps to increase motivation in several ways. First, it ensures that there will be few or no mistakes in the undertaking. Lack of mistakes increases self-esteem and thus productivity is enhanced. With this enhancement, the employee is motivated to outperform himself through learning and doing better next time. According to the learning curve, the efficiency of such an employee will keep improving until the technology is changed or they are shifted to a different workstation. Secondly, it reduces wastage of materials or resources. Clear corporate communication especially when coded in the rules of operations, user manuals, operational plans and service delivery process configuration or basically the technology of the organization, it ensures a seamless flow of processes and activities and reduces the waste of raw materials as all steps will be followed, having been well understood. Alongside user manual and instructions are organizational goals and targets, be they daily, weekly, monthly or annual targets. These goals and targets have to be well articulated in the organization to avoid blind spots. When an employee, for instance, is working in a bank as a teller, they need to know what the organization expects of them daily, weekly, monthly and annually. When such expectations are communicated early and clearly, they become a motivation towards goal achievement (Robbins, 2001). An employee who knows what to do does what they are to do and succeeds in what they do are motivated to perform better (Leigh, n.d.).

Communication and emotional expression

Corporate communication should be a two-way channel in which the management express their expectations and the employees their feelings, attitudes and opinions about their work. An employee who is not free to air his opinions and emotions will always feel dictated. Good corporate communication between the informal and formal organizational authorities should be encouraged and even documented to ensure that the employee group leaders can communicate and be listened to by the senior management (Robbins, 2001). Should there be a misunderstanding between the group members and their supervisors, for instance, the members may react in different ways. First, employees or clients may decide to go on a cold strike by absconding duty, which means the organization will suffer losses. Secondly. The employees or clients may suffer reduced morale for work and this can result in reduced sales, output and even increased consumer complaints. Thirdly, there may result in discontent so significant that employee turnover skyrockets in the firm, which implies increased training and retention costs by the firm as new employees have to be equipped with necessary skills through training (Chan, 2010). The worst scenario would be the employees going on strike and tarnishing the name of the corporation. All these are possibilities that can result from lack of means for self-expression. Corporate communication ensures that there are means for self-expression of one's satisfaction, dissatisfaction, frustration or needs (Chan, 2010). The needs extend to customers as well. They need feedback channels and platforms where they can make suggestions, complaints, comments and other observations. This would enhance customer loyalty. In the galaxy s7 saga where phones would explode unexpectedly, the company suffered many losses. However, with a communication to recall and compensate all galaxy s7 holders, the company was able to restore order and trust in the market. Clients also had an opportunity to air their views, even their frustrations, to the company for redress (Burton, 2016).

Communication for information

Good corporate communication enhances information in the firm. Information is power. It is the main tool for decision making. Strategists use facts and sometimes data to make decisions that have the potential to make or break the firm (Robbins, 2001). For instance, if good communication channels are provided, customers can channel their suggestions for improvement to the team in charge of product redesigning and development. Upon the reception of such an information, the team will ask itself a number of questions: what makes the customer dissatisfied? What can fill such a gap? What will be the cost involved? What benefits will be realized from the improvement? Is the benefit worth the capital investment needed in the product to enhance acceptability? For the team to navigate through these questions, also, they will need to have clear information concerning the firm's capacity to support and implement such changes. These are changes that directly affect shareholders so they also need to be informed about the implications of such changes, especially on their profitability. When Samsung, for instance, got the first complaint about the S7, it couldn't just act without proper information. However, when the cases were repeatedly reported all over, it had to act quickly. This is an advantage of good communication with large corporations like Samsung, hiring thousands of people and running multimillion ventures all over the world (Lee, 2008)

Barriers to corporate communication

In corporate communication, there will always emerge barriers to effective communication which can, again, lead to the loss of control of employee behavior, lack of motivation, reduced information flow and poor expression in the firms. These can collectively be called noise, that is, elements distorting communication. First, there is the problem of perception and perceptual bias. There is also the challenge of information overload which can lead to some people misunderstanding, mixing or doing away with information. Also, there is the problem of semantic differences which could lead to misunderstandings or misquotations (Chan, 2010). Lastly, there are cultural differences which can water down the effectiveness of communication. To avoid these challenges, the management and supervisory teams should ensure that there is always a good feedback loop in which users can pick and drop communications (Robbins, 2001). With enterprise management systems or business management systems in use today, communication has been made easy. In Samsung, for instance, the firm uses seminars, business meetings, shareholder's meetings, conferences and VOC and CS to communicate to all stakeholders and shareholders, including the government and clients (Samsungsecurities.com).

Information technology for a better organization

In a world where technology is taking up everything including physiological duties, it is important to ensure the incorporation of information technology in the workplace. First., it makes the interaction between employees easier and convenient. One form of achieving this is by employing the local network in the organization's intranet that allows employees to exchange information and discuss ways to meet and enhance organizational output. The employee may not need to wake up and go the respondents working station but just to talk to them over the phone or through emails. They will see that they are being empowered to get and release information when and where necessary. They can break through physical barriers and virtual noise. This makes them more productive, highly motivated and positive towards self-expressionism in the firm (Golden, 2013). The management can then track their success and even associate well with the economic bulwarks of the firm; the employees.

Conclusion

In conclusion, every firm needs proper corporate communication. As aforesaid, the effectiveness of communication will by large determine the overall performance of the firm. All instructions, directives, manuals and policies that are communicated to parties in an organization should be so done in a clear, simple and exhaustive yet succinct manner. Broken information can cause accidents, misunderstanding, lost morale, demotivation, demoralization, employee turnover, unwanted conflicts, suspicions, poor corporate relations and even customer loss. It's through fine-tuned corporate communication that the organization can effectively control its employees and customers, achieve its goals and targets and formulate informed policies and processes. Good and effective corporate communication will lead to motivated people who can achieve and even challenge set standards because they have understood them and have given themselves to perform them. The firm management should constantly search for any emerging faults with the communication channels, both hardware and liveware, and eliminate such challenges before they pose threats to the organization's stakeholders.

References

Burton...