Organizational integration, which is achieved through coordinated communication, is very important for organizations that do business in a competitive environment. In a competitive environment, effective communication of an organization both internally and externally is considered as a core requirement which assists the organization to compete against rivalry (Jackson, 2006).
By identifying the importance of organizational communication, this paper will analyze problems that occur in the process of organizational communication. The paper will locate these problems to identify solutions for them. The aim here is to present a discussion on ways for effective organizational communication by suggesting solutions for the problems identified.
Communication Problems in Organization
Miscommunication and Distracted Information
The basic problem that occurs in the organizational communication is miscommunication. Miscommunication refers to a situation where the right information is not delivered to the right people (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). Likewise, critical information (market information) is not communicated to stakeholders or employees, which results in misleading information being communicated, and wrong decisions are made by the management.
This detracted information causes problems and develops a communication gap between various sections of an organization. It needs to be eliminated or else it can become a major hurdle in the communication process (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008).
The Communication Distance
It is often seen in organizations that departments or working units within organizations are centrally controlled (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). Their decisions are centralized, and they are imposed on them for adherence. Due to low integration as in the case of a centralized system, there is a communication gap found between departments / working units (Jackson, 2006).
This unwanted communication gap is a major problem because it keeps the organization divided into small units, which remain distant and become unsupportive of corporate and strategic objectives (Jackson, 2006).
Low Level Feedbacks
Managers are in-charge of subordinates and are responsible for their subordinates actions, decisions and performances. In this way, if there is a communication gap in the feedback process resulting from a low level of coordination between managers and subordinates, it can create a significant organization communication problem (Jackson, 2006).
Without regular feedback, the managers-employees bond is weakened, which can have a negative impact on the overall organizational communication process. This is a major problem and has to be avoided to strengthen the organizational communication practice and structure (Corman & Poole, 2000).
A Weak Training System
In organizations, employee communication is a part of the training process. Without having a training system, an organization cannot achieve effective and efficient communication between employees (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). T
he organization must have a strong communication system a system that can engage employees and guide them to adapt to the organizational communication patterns. If the training system is weaker then the organization communication is also weak. This is because without effective training, an organization cannot sustain its effective communication activity (Corman & Poole, 2000).
Communication Solutions
Deploying Communication Plan
The foremost solution to communication problems is a well-defined communication plan (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). The plan begins with a problem statement, which identifies all major communication problems. Leaders in an organization can formulate a plan by identifying problems of miscommunication, communication gap and low coordination, which are mostly common and prominent in all contemporary organizations (Corman & Poole, 2000).
The core objective of the plan is to address all problems in a purposive and directional manner. The initial outcome of a well deployed communication plan is that it strengthens the organizations communication structure, which later addresses all challenges identified in the organizational structure (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008).
Strengthening the Organization Communication Structure
The basic communication structure in the organization should be strong as this can address all major communication problems (i.e. low coordination and communication distance). This may include ways for interactions between departments, employees, and managers (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008).
If the structure is strong, then the communication inevitably gets strong within the organization. This is a generalizing solution for all organizations, which are dealing with disintegration in their systems. This may also involve establishing a training system, which can guide new appointees to the organizations communication practices (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008).
Refining the Communication Practices
Communication practices like decision patterns between employees and managers need to be improved and refined (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). When employees are more comfortable for sharing ideas and thoughts with managers they are part of the refined system of communication. Employees confidence in managers and managers trust in employees are important, and these provide a solution for all communication problems (Jackson, 2006).
Inducing coordination and integration
Coordination and integration are two elements that form a unified system of communication. Effective communication is only possible when there is coordination and integration in the system (Jackson, 2006). A culture of team coordination should be promoted in the organization, which can overcome communication problems.
This is the responsibility of leaders in the organization who must make efforts for forming a culture of team coordination. When a culture of team integration is in place, each individual will be able to perform interactive communication. It is a solution for communication distance and low level feedbacks, which are usually identified in the organizational communication system (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008).
References List
Corman, S. R., & Poole, M. S. (2000). Perspectives on Organizational Communication: Finding Common Ground. New York: Guilford Press.
Jackson, J. (2006). The Organization and Its Communication Problems. Journal of Communication, 9 (4), 158-167.
Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2008). Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Communication is one of the key elements essential in building organizations. It is through proper and efficient exchange of information that trust is developed by individuals in an institution. Proper communication facilitates teamwork and increases transparency within the managing body. However, various challenges hinder effective information delivery within institutions. Herein discussed are intergroup communications, lack of interdependence, and ineffective ways of interaction as challenges facing communication in organizations and possible solutions to them.
The significance of communication within teams and between groups in institutions has intensely grown as organizations embrace diversity in their workforce. However, social identity has become an obstacle to achieving communication among team members and between groups at the workplace. Professional ranks have become a self-defining factor, thereby deterring free message dissemination from junior workers to managers and administrators. Moreover, teaming within organizations makes employees acquire a sense of belonging to a particular category of people, thus, unconsciously alienating interpersonal interactions at the workplace.
Communication is essential for effective business operations and proper time management in an organization. However, in the environment of work, miscommunication occurs between sub-ordinate staff and managers. Lack of interdependence makes senior staff like managers believe in themselves and sets aside sub-ordinate staff from their engagements. Moreover, poor communication skills from managers limit the chances of junior employees interacting with them freely. As a result, the unwillingness of staff at all levels of employment to co-exist with each other diminishes the chances of effective communication in an organization.
Achieving success in business operations requires reliable channels of interaction with customers. Effective communication between professionals in institutions and the targeted customers is always at stake. Normally, telephone contacts, and email and postal addresses are availed by organizations for conveying information. However, following diverse intellectual understanding among individuals, many customers find it difficult to deliver the information through these mechanisms. At times, the intended message is not delivered due to the traffic in one channel, thus hindering communication.
Group communication is essential for team building while embracing diverse points of view while operating business activities. Organizations should develop strategies for social support on their premises to allow equal consideration of employees interests at allowing ranks of employment. Policies should also be implemented in institutions of work to ensure that everyone has equal responsibility for fulfilling set goals despite the absence of another person. Thus, barriers created by social identity would be eradicated as all employees have an equal chance of self-expression.
Ensuring good communication in an organization necessitates session meetings for workers to interact freely among themselves. There should be a proper code of conduct implemented for effective message delivery between workers. During the regular sessions of interaction, supervisors, managers, and sub-ordinate staff should freely exchange information while setting aside personal life matters from professional responsibilities. It would ensure that everybodys opinion is put into consideration while addressing issues associated with the business plan.
Ineffective ways of communication make the process of interaction difficult, untimely, and inaccurate. Organizations should come up with a session of face-to-face discussions within and without their premises. It allows co-workers to address matters associated with duties they have at hand effectively. The organization can also implement strategies that reduce message traffic and are reliable for all levels of intellectual competencies.
Development of a marketing campaign could be one of the most hectic tasks since a marketer always assesses the campaign from the company and the consumers perspectives. An effective campaign assists organisations in achieving consumer goodwill, thus enabling it to attract many consumers, reduce consumer defection, and increase retention. Advertising is one of the most common campaigns used by organisations to increase consumer base within a competitive environment. Through advertising, marketers incorporate appeals geared towards changing consumer perception about a product or a service (Fill 2006).
Besides advertising, promotions, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing are equally significant throughout the campaign. They are elements of integrated marketing communication that determine consumer brand equity. This refers to the reactions of consumers to the same product after the use of different strategies and advertisers. When using celebrities for advertising, a product could receive a different response in comparison to the change of its package. Celebrity endorsements use associative appeals to achieve this, thus making their incorporation in product promotion extremely expensive. This paper intends to explain the rationale of celebrity endorsement in product or service promotion.
Integrated Marketing Communications
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) has five significant elements, which can be applied to organisations that seek to succeed in product development and promotion (Finne and Gronroos 2009). An effective IMC plan ensures that a company develops a sustainable trend in the purchase of products and services. The intention is to increase sales in a continuous manner, while improving in customer acquisition and retention.
Public Relations
This refers too efforts of marketers to achieve positive media coverage for products and services. Such publicity is important even though it is one of the most expensive types of marketing. Companies manage to get positive publicity when organising events, arranging road shows, and supporting philanthropic programs. Through such avenues, companies earn goodwill because they are able to promote their products through the celebrities that come to such events. These include socialites who earn to attend events. Some of the most renowned socialite families include the Kardashians whose association with beauty products naturally increases appeal among consumers. Paying the celebrities to attend events is quite expensive; this makes public relations the costly element of marketing (Hunter 2009).
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion refers to the incentives introduced in products and services in order to increase sales. They incorporate coupons, discounts, offers, and value added services among other avenues (Ellson 2009). When Robitussin identified competition in the American market, it decided to introduce coupons that would reduce the cost of purchasing products from AH Robins. The company planned to alter consumers attention from their competitors that mostly marketed generic drugs. The drugs contained Robitussin DAC, and are sold at a slightly low cost to the original drug. In the pharmacy business, reducing the cost of medicine is challenging because the demand for such a product is high even though the cost of production compensates the extra expenses.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is the most common avenues of celebrity endorsement in marketing. They include social media, internet communication, and other online strategies of reaching out to the target population. Many companies use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Instagram to market their products (Blythe 2006). YouTube is also a common advertisement tool; it uses celebrities to present their marketing concepts directly to the target population. For each minute an employee spends on the social media outlet, a company incurs cost. This also includes payment for the celebrity in question. Direct marketing is one of the most affordable channels of marketing because the celebrities equally use the avenue to increase their public appeal.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is the most credible tactic of marketing; it could be the most difficult aspect of celebrity endorsement considering that celebrities overly engage in different activities, thus finding limited time for employment in a single customer care section or a marketing agency. Personal selling mostly involves the engagement of the company sales team that walks from one place to another to post adverts. They also stay in offices in the customer care department to provide aftersales services. The sales team should include professionals considering that the consumers would require expert advice after purchasing the products. In addition, consumers need to get credible advice for purchase because the sales team has the capability to influence sales by convincing the consumers (Young 2011).
Advertising
Advertising uses the least amount of resources to increase sales amongst the marketing communication elements. It mostly complements the remaining elements of the IMC plan, thus enabling firms to endorse celebrities depending on their areas of interest. Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus under a contract engaging them in advertising music products would succeed in increasing sales. This explains why Nike among other companies stopped endorsing Tiger Woods following his involvement in a marital scandal. This would affect the credibility of their products even though they had to part with millions of dollars to retain the celebrity. Normally, adverts have many consumers because such opportunities provide celebrities with a chance to get publicity.
Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour refers to the characteristics displayed by different people approached by a certain product or service. Some consumers might respond positively to a product by purchasing it while others might prefer to purchase from competitors. Consumer behaviour differs depending on the demographic and psychographic makeup of the target population. Before product development, marketers often assess the target environment in order to predict the reception levels of the same product. This includes a pilot project to determine consumer responses and to gauge relevant techniques of increasing product or service appeal (Beggs 2009. Within a competitive environment, there are reasons that motivate consumers to purchase, reduce purchase, defect, or increase purchase.
Price, place, promotion, and product as elements of marketing determine the decisions of purchase made by various consumers. This raises the issue of consumer brand equity, which refers to the different appeals that products have considering their association with different people or aspects. For instance, associating a product with a local model that many people do not know might not increase the purchase of products in comparison to associating the same product with renowned football players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Marketers understand that consumer brand equity exists, and this increases the association of products and services with celebrities. The intention of marketers when assessing the consumer behaviour is to ensure the development of an excellent campaign that would increase retention. Through product promotion, marketers provide an opportunity for trail of various products, hence enabling consumers to make decisions about the products of choice.
As such, the concentration is on the product, the consumers, and the competitors when dealing with consumer behaviour. Persuasion levels and use of appeals determine the response of consumers to behaviours. Some consumers use the price strategy to purchase a product or service. Others assess the distance of purchasing the product or acquiring a service before making their purchase decisions (Young 2011). To some consumers, qualities of a product or service take precedence irrespective of celebrity endorsement. However, some celebrities naturally bring out the product quality.
Branding and Marketing Communication Models
Branding and communication theories including the campaign models explain the expectations of marketers after assessing the business environment. The model, an initial for current brand analysis, marketing communication objectives, planning, application, implementation, goal evaluation, refers to the different stages that a product undergoes in order to achieve the requisite response from the public. The campaign model investigates the current brand analysis in order to identify the improvement needed to increase product appeal. In some cases, the product packaging might reduce its appeal.
This might force the company to improve the same if it needs to increase interest in the same products or services. This could result in association of the product with prominent personalities including celebrities. When the product does fairly well in the target market, it is important for the firm to continue using the product appeals used to achieve a similar result. After assessing the current environment, the marketers investigate significant marketing objectives that would assist in changing consumer perceptions and behaviours.
Through attitude change, consumers would definitely change their consumer behaviours and respond positively to the product. Children are likely to relate with cartoons especially the super heroes. On the other hand, women might respond to product objectives that use fashion and beauty appeals. This makes it important to incorporate celebrities who they can recognise easily (Young 2011). The same applies to men who might probably relate well with wrestlers or footballers. In almost all probabilities, development of marketing objectives requires marketers to understand their target population and the business environment. Planning and application involve aspects of budgeting and development of a pilot project to investigate the impact of the new campaign to the target population. Implementation and evaluation as final elements of the campaign model enabling products and services to communicate effectively through their unique selling propositions.
Classical condition is another theory used by most marketers during product development and promotion. According to the theory, people are likely to learn through association. Favourable brands associated with various celebrities normally increases consumer appeal in the products. Classical condition asserts that people learn from others within the environment depending on the appeals that such stimuli have towards the target population.
This explains the continuous association with celebrities who display perfection in their lives. People would want to associate with them; consumers always believe that using the products or services would elicit a similar effect on them. Finally, the Elaborative Likelihood Model (ELM) creates a connection between the celebrities and the responses that consumers would display during product promotion. In essence, there is a high probability that associating the product or service with a favourable subject would stimulate behaviour adoption (Dacko 2012).
Celebrity Endorsements in Overall IMC Plan
Increase Product Appeal
Celebrities increase product or service appeals because they have a natural mass appeal. Celebrities are iconic and people connect with different celebrities following their different tastes and preferences. This explains the use of Spice Girls during Pepsi promotion in the 1990s. In such a manner, young women who connected with the girl group responded positively to Pepsi in the 1990s providing it with the opportunity to rival the Coca-Cola Company in its target market. When celebrities command mass appeal, they change the attitudes of the consumers enabling them to have a positive perception of the product while negating the competitors. The Coca-Cola Company increases public appeals by using celebrities that people from a certain demographic surrounding can recognise with ease (Pike 2008).
Charisma
Charismatic celebrities are likely to command a huge consumer base, thus enabling them to promote products and services of their endorsers (Fill 2011). Between 2009 and 2012, Samsung used Didier Drogba to advertise its plasma screen, fridges, and phones. During this period, the then Chelsea striker had a strong and devoted fan base; this made him naturally charismatic. Samsung had one of the greatest annual sales in a three-year period, thus forcing other firms to adopt a similar trend in marketing. Charisma also includes the ability to display humour in order to make comedian celebrities the best in advertising movies, songs, and company products dealing in communication. However, lack of seriousness in comic brand ambassadors would reduce its association with professionals.
Authenticity and Credibility
Brand credibility is an aspect of brand personality meaning that a person who advertises a product determines the responses the same product or service would receive from the target population (Hunter 2009). Celebrities elicit credibility because people believe them when they see them act, in red carpets, and when singing. Some of them carry out philanthropic activities by associating with NGOs. When Leonardo Dicaprio began his green movement, many NGOs wanted to associate with his foundation because they understand that the celebrity would earn them credibility. There are high chances that people will believe the ideas of the celebrity, especially when they have genuine intentions when participating in such projects. Besides, Angelina Jolie would win public goodwill when she decides to launch a campaign against human trafficking.
Attention Assurance
Celebrities ensure product recall because of the fact that their appearances and sentiments repeatedly reinforce the point to the target population. There is an assurance that the public will pay dedicated attention to a celebrity who impresses them. Naturally, this attracts consumers to a product because they would associate the same product benefits with the appeals (Bradford 2012). Consumers interpret ideas differently, but by associating with an appealing personality, people are likely to change their purchase decisions to match the celebritys choices. People feel that the quality of the products and the benefits translated from the unique selling proposition occur because of association with celebrity figures.
Conclusion
In summary, celebrity endorsement during product promotion could be expensive but the outcomes are worth the inputs. Across all integrated marketing communications, using celebrities makes it possible to have the greatest allure for product or service. In the end, the greatest beneficiary of the process is the manufacturer and the marketer because they will be able to develop a loyal consumer base and reduce defection to rival organisations.
References
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Blythe, J 2006, Essentials of marketing communications (3rd ed.), FT/Prentice Hall, New York. Web.
Bradford, B. M 2012, Planning for district energy broad recommendations for Ontario municipalities to help facilitate the development of community based energy solutions, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. Web.
Dacko, S. G 2012, Time-of-day services marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 375-388. Web.
Ellson, T 2009, Assessing contribution of research in business to practice, Journal of Business Research, vol. 62, no.11, pp. 1160-1164. Web.
Fill, C 2006, Marketing Communications: Interactivity, Communities and Content (5th ed.), Pearson Education Limited, Harlow. Web.
Fill, C 2011, Essentials of Marketing Communications, Pearson Education Limited, New York. Web.
Finne, A., and Gronroos, C 2009, Rethinking Marketing Communication: From Integrated Marketing Communication to Relationship Communication, Journal of Marketing Communications, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 179-195. Web.
Hunter, E 2009, Celebrity entrepreneurship, and celebrity endorsement: Similarities, differences and the effect of deeper engagement. Web.
Pike, S 2008, Destination marketing: an integrated marketing communication approach, Butterworth-Heinemann, Amsterdam. Web.
Young, L 2011, The marketers handbook reassessing marketing techniques for modern business, Wiley and Sons, Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. Web.
The universal laptop industry is very competitive, and firms that cannot with stand the level of competition are forced to leave the market. In the upcoming years, variations in the new-fangled expertise and marketplace orders will transform the PC business standing.
The demands for low-priced laptops will increase the number of market competitors, hence forcing laptop producing companies such as Apple Inc and Samsung to change their marketing strategies and business models to be successful. The commonly used IMC mix include direct marketing and personal selling, e-marketing, sales promotion, and advertising.
This paper offers a literature review on the integrated marketing communication (IMC) mix, as well as a review of the laptop industry market. Finally, the paper compares the IMC strategies used by Samsung and Apple Inc to market their products to dominate the laptop industry.
Introduction
The universal laptop industry has become very competitive over the last few decades. To the computer manufacturers, a laptop is a moveable small mainframe that an individual can place on the lap and use. Whereas the industry for PC (personal computers) started in the fiscal 1970, Osborne 1, which was the earliest portable commercial computer, became feasible in the year 1981.
The successive full-size affair in laptops narration materialized in the fiscal 1995. After that, Intel and Microsoft were accredited as the traditional makers of Intel laptops (hardware) and Windows (software) that are still being applied in personal computer production.
In the last fifteen years, the increased hardware life, consumer mobility preference, and the escalating performance-price ratios have made laptop growth rate to surpass the number of desktops. The market value for the universal PC industry is anticipated to rise by 5.40% annually from the fiscal 2007 to 2012, and laptops are projected to be the key contributing segment for the PC industrial growth (Dalal & Shah, 2009).
While the slow economic growth might hinder the growth rate for the PC industry, the laptop sector faces stiff rivalry from technologies and novel devices (See graphs and tables in the appendix).
Laptop Industry Market Review
In the universal laptop industry, novel technologies including HVDs (hosted virtual desktops) and cloud computing have emerged and altered the laptop industry requirements. Currently, the laptop industry has moved to the less powerful wirelessly networked laptops from the powerful stand-alone laptops.
In fact, the adoption of these advanced technologies by various PC manufacturers has made the laptop sector to be controlled by five market competitors. When arranged in the ascending order, the competing top five-laptop manufacturers include Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard (HP).
Apple Inc has been attaining dominant market share when the top ten-laptop manufacturers are mutually evaluated (Dalal & Shah, 2009, p.2).
However, when other laptop manufacturers such as Samsung, Lenovo, and Windows PCs are compared to Apple Inc, it emanates that the latter company (Apple) is globally recognized and has gained a huge market share because it has an affirmative brand status.
Hewlett-Packard, with respect to the universal personal computers volume, is currently the market leader with 18.90% and Dell Corporation, which has 15.50%, closely trails it (Dalal & Shah, 2009, p.3). MSI and ASUSTek are the renowned Taiwanese corporations that produce netbook in the laptop segment.
In the last few years, these Taiwanese netbook corporations have produced and successfully marketed their products hence increasing their market shares across the globe.
To continue being the principal marketplace directors, the key five-laptop makers are notorious of contributing the major sensational qualities or features (see the diagram below and appendices for graphs and additional information).
Table 2: Percentage of users of different brands that have attained a 4-year degree or higher
In the laptop segment, the manufacturers of PCs have continuously improved their growth rates partly because of the netbooks and global market growths. However, the laptop industry will continue to face a decline in the profitability margin.
The future demand for laptops and netbooks is uncertain thus necessitating that manufacturers should increasingly adopt the integrated marketing communication mix to focus and market their services as well as products of the laptop industry (Dalal & Shah, 2009, p.3).
The marketing communication tools commonly used by laptop manufacturers include online product placement and advertising. These marketing communication tools have helped firms in the laptop industry to build strong brand images with clients and influence stakeholders info processing.
The internet and rapid technological development have unveiled various online marketing communication opportunities for laptop market marketers. Whereas the customary approach to marketing communication was founded on the single-way client and marketer communication, marketing communication has improved due to the two-way interactive media process.
For instance, the two-way marketing communication enables marketers to receive contingent and immediate responses and actions from the consumers. In fact, the internet as an interactive medium influences the consumers perceptions thus changing the marketing communication process (Mahyari 2010, p.9).
As a novel marketing tool, the internet enables laptop manufacturers to communicate and distribute services and products to the global consumers. The internet has the interactivity capacity, which enables it to serve various marketing functions in comparison with conventional promotion (Belch & Belch, 2006).
The association and interactions amid marketers and consumers become rather complex when the internet is used as a marketing communication. To most laptop-producing corporations, the promotional mix incorporates online marketing communication.
The use of internet to market products has increased to 305.50% in the last 8 years. In the global space, Web advertising rapidly grew to accumulate over 5.80 billion in the financial year 2008 (Mahyari 2010, p.9).
Advertising via media channels such as newspapers, TVs, radios, and online is a major way to communicate products and services to the consumers. In fact, advertising is a recognized marketing tool that can be used to build a strong brand image with potential clients, and it is equally cost effective.
Advertising assists in building brand image as well as differentiating the companys brands from those of other market competitors hence creating brand awareness. The short commercial messages used in advertising generate interests and attention of the consumers by interrupting their activities.
The messages are entertaining, informative, and brief (Mahyari 2010, p.9). Advertising may include advert-gaming, poster promotion, online, TV, radio, and newspaper brand placement.
Entertainment marketing or product placement is another marketing communication mix use to promote products (Mahyari 2010, p.9). This marketing communication tool helps the marketers to change the consumers brand attitudes by enhancing their brand awareness. Product placement makes the consumers to be familiar with a particular brand and be able to remember the product.
Literature Review
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) has been conceptualized as the business process that is consultative (Kliatchko 2008, p.142). In other words, it purposefully deals with the stakeholders interest or contribution, channels and the results of the brand communication programs. This conceptualized framework of IMC is more encompassing and provides a broader understanding of the concept of the IMC.
Essentially, IMC approach to business planning is characterized by the vitality it offers to various audiences or simply the public for instance the customers and business prospects (Kliatchko 2008, p.142). The clientele or the projections are the central dynamic strengths for every judgment that an industry formulates.
The IMC concept is to be considered customer oriented and demand driven (Kliatchko 2008, p.142). That is, IMC is a business process that has an outward-looking orientation. It has moved away from the inward-looking mindset that traditional organizations used to apply while managing their marketing communication (Kitchen & De Pelsmacker, 2004).
As opposed to traditional approaches to marketing communications, IMC applies the one-to-one marketing strategies as well as the relational model. In addition, IMCs applies business and marketing strategies that are consumer focused.
The IMC mix enables organizations market their products based on the consumer benefits and customer relations (De Pelsmacker et al., 2004). Thus, IMC business process focuses on customer retention and fact based marketing.
These are not the only attributes of IMC. In fact, IMC put into consideration the consumers, convenience, consumer cost and communication while marketing products and services. The principle of IMC is based on consumer dialogue, targeted communications, and mindset to the multiple, interactive, relevant, digital contact points, and media neutrality (Kliatchko 2008, p.144).
Instead of chocking the audiences with the advertising messages as seen in the conventional communication mindset, IMC focuses on building strong brand and customer relationships. IMC focuses on the extra value proposition, behavioral, and accountable measures (De Pelsmacker et al., 2004).
As can be observed, IMC is data driven and customer-centric (Fill, 1999). The IMC business process approach should be understood from the development of its target audience as the guiding principle in determining the marketing and branding objectives as well as strategies.
In other words, the business process of IMC is the demand driven business model. IMC understands and manages the whole customers experience including their needs, desires, wants, and behavior in the market (Kliatchko 2008, p.143). Therefore, it aligns the entire organization to meet the customer requirements.
Regardless of the fact that IMC concept has received much criticism, the IMC initiative is welcomed and acknowledged by most leading writers and theorists in the field of marketing. The scholars dedicate most of their writings to IMC avowing that the concept has replaced the phrase marketing communication.
This derivative theory or IMC is currently diffused making it to be generally executed by various firms and global marketing agencies. Despite the approaches of IMC being widely developed, it is apparent that the concept is still in its premature development phases (Pickton & Broderick, 2005).
Critical Analysis and Discussion
Apple Inc and Samsung have been the budding and the most competing firms in the laptop industry. Manufacturing quality, modernized, and inexpensive laptops provide both the companies with podiums through which their values are shared among customers.
Samsung and Apple Inc embrace the values of ones abilities, pursuit of excellence, competitive spirit, sense of fair play, as well as the building of a more-peaceful and better world. The marketing strategies for these companies are founded on these values.
The companies have adopted various marketing communication tactics aimed at beating other market competitors. Apple and Samsung use various promotional, advertising, and public relations strategies to continuous build their brand images.
Marketing communication mix
During global business operations, Apple Inc and Samsung use various marketing communication mix to inform, convince, remind, and motivate their consumers about their respective brands (Keller 2001, p.821).
The advertising communication mix drawn on by both the corporations denotes the say-so of the brand name and the mode in which the business can launch a discourse with its clientele with reference to merchandise offerings.
Marketing communication mix used by Samsung Laptop Company provides comprehensive products information to the consumers and the reason why the company is identified with such products (Keller 2001, p.821).
Advertising
Advertising is used directly by both Samsung and Apple Inc to persuade the target prospects with the least cost possible selling message. Samsung has used a variety of media channels in its advert campaigns that are selected according to the frequency, reach, and the impact on the target audience.
Two of the advertising campaign slogans that the Samsung Company launched to market its laptop are, No It Doesnt Take a Genius, and The Next Big Thing is Already Here (WeKnowMemes, 2012).
The slogans have been included in all TV adverts, newspapers, and online marketing campaigns to target both younger and older generations. Unlike Apple Inc, Samsung adverts are designed to connect each generation to quality, modernized and inexpensive laptops. The slogan hit holds the young adulthood through a blending of the two main imperative universal teens zeal, melody, and games.
It is estimated that the The Next Big Thing is Already Here advert has attracted most Samsung laptop consumers. This has actually positioned Samsung to be amongst the leading laptop manufacturers in the industry.
The essence of the No It Doesnt Take a Genius reflects the positivity, optimism, and inspiration to the younger and older laptop consumer generations that have direct connections to Samsung. The company uses multi-million pounds on TV, posters, and other forms of media adverts to markets Samsung laptops compared to Apple Inc. The main aim is to increase its brand positioning.
Apple Inc on the other hand uses marketing slogans and messages such as iMac was three steps to the internet , iPod was a thousand songs in your pocket , and Mac was the Laptop for the all of us (Chazin 2007, p.6). All the marketing messages and slogan used by Apple Inc and Samsung are meant to create positive brand images and attract global customers to buy their products.
The Mac was the Laptop for the all of us and The Next Big Thing is Already Here bring in the strong social element in the advertising campaigns and the help these companies to market their products. The advertisements run in various markets across the world.
Sales promotion
Sales promotions are tactical marketing techniques, which Samsung and Apple Inc use to add value to their products or services to dominate the laptop market (Brassington 2006, p.720). Samsung and Apple Inc have been using various sales promotions to market their laptops to achieve certain marketing targets.
The most prominent promotion that Samsung Company uses is the design of the Samsung laptop replica with simple and easy to use buttons. The aim of the promotion is to bring closer the relationships between the brand, and product consumers.
With younger generation being the prominent laptop consumers, this form of sales promotion inspires the younger generation to greater heights and achievements.
It also increases Samsung Company brand positioning within the laptop industry. Other promotional techniques used by Samsung includes donating T-shirts labeled Samsung, associating Samsung products with global sporting activities, and sponsoring most of social related events.
Similarly, Apple Inc uses similar promotional campaigns strategies for its classic laptop. Apple Inc positions its products at strategic points during global marketing, and offers product discounts to its laptop consumers.
The main aim of this promotion is to offer stiff competition to the other laptop-producing firms in the industry including Samsung. Compared to its market competitors, Apple Inc focuses most of its marketing strategies towards sales promotion. Although the sales promotions depend on each company, the use of mobile and internet to market their laptop products varies (Tapp 2008, p.9).
Direct marketing and personal selling
Samsung and Apple Inc engage in personal selling and direct marketing in various platforms across the globe. Both companies currently target various markets around the globe, but they encounter difficulties because it is expensive to do direct marketing and personal selling (Kant & Heerden 2008, p.3). The companies launched websites for customers to register, view, leave feedbacks, and purchase Samsung and Apple laptop products.
The companies are also running mobile laptop campaigns aimed at generating enthusiasm and attract both the old and young people towards buying their products while increasing associations with the company products.
Samsung and Apple Inc have well developed loyalty databases, which are used to offer loyalty visa cards to their customers for participation in various social activities. They use well-developed database to boost the sales of laptop products (Shimp, 2008).
E-marketing strategy
Companies achieve their marketing objectives through utilizing electronic communication technology (Chaffey 2007, p. 339). Samsung and Apple Inc are effective in their global e-marketing laptop campaigns. The companies effectively use new media namely the internet and social networking sites like face book and twitter. The company has successfully utilized the mobile technology to reaching out to core customers.
In fact, both Samsung and Apple Inc have online marketing campaigns each with its own websites offering different products and handouts for their users. They have also taken the advantage of the larger and young internet population with the passion to use quality modern laptops.
Social networkings are amongst the largest sites where both the companies meet their target customers. For Samsung to market itself in the global laptop market, it has improved its brand awareness athwart various e-marketing outlets and channels. Samsung laptop marketing website uses a combination of commercial flair and creativity.
The companys communication and media team has yearned to maintain the positive image of Samsung across the internet, online TV, online magazines, newspapers, and via internal online communications.
Most online marketing strategies adopted by Samsung and Apple Inc focus on improving their customers after sales experience. Amongst the strap line messages available in Samsung and Apple Inc marketing sites include The Next Big Thing is Already Here and Mac was the Laptop for the all of us (Chazin, 2007).
Conclusions
The laptop and personal computer industry is very competitive. There are entrenched firms that dominate the market and enjoy economies of scale. However, these have not deterred other new market entrants that are focussed on attaining dominant market share in the laptop market from joining the PC industry.
In fact, Samsung and Apple Inc, which appear to be posing dismal threats to the established firms like Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer, Dell, and HP, are currently using different IMC strategies to market their products and create a positive brand image. Indeed, Samsung and Apple Inc have managed to position their product brands through various marketing and media campaigns.
They project positive and appealing brand image to the clients and the promotional strategies seem to be working very well. The commonly used IMC mix include direct marketing and personal selling, e-marketing, sales promotion, and advertising.
Recommendations
Samsung and Apple Inc use key marketing communication mix elements effectively when fighting marketing competition battles. Direct marketing strategy is similarly used in attracting clients albeit it appears to be costly, yet supportive for any company that might want to use it.
When implementing this marketing strategy, it is important for Samsung and Apple Inc to engage both the operational and corporate levels of an organization. Each of these levels should emphasize on the vital managerial and strategic issues that are vital in the implementation of this marketing mix strategy.
At corporate level, managers are expected to have a holistic view of the business, define the extent of business operations, and determine the business mission, vision, goals, and objectives. The managers are also supposed to focus on strategies that are driven towards building corporate brand and promote a solid customer point of reference in the management of business processes.
Conversely, Samsung and Apple are of great significance to the global laptop consumers given that they have well-developed databases to ensure that the corporations incur the least cost to reach the targeted market (Tapp 2008, p.9).
Thus, Samsung and Apple Inc should effectively use the key marketing communication mix strategic elements to position their brands strategically in the market.
Since the marketing communication strategies used by these companies are unheard-of, the companies need to adopt this strategy to have high valued messages that are cost effective. This will ensure that their marketing communication mixes extensively hit the target audience.
References
Belch, GE & Belch, MA 2006, Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective, McGraw-Hill, Boston.
Brassington, F 2006, Principles of marketing, Pitman Publishing, London.
Chaffey, D 2007, E-business and e-commerce management: strategy, implementation, and practice, Pearson Education Limited, Essex.
Every company is faced with some sort of crises from time to time. How a company decides to respond to these crises determines whether it will collapse or it will succeed. This is called crises management. There are some emergency situations that occur in a company that needs urgent measures to ensure that they do not affect the company negatively.
In todays business environment, crisis is almost inevitable and will occur from time to time. However, this does not mean that business have to collapse when faced by a crisis because with an effective communication plan, a company can be able to overcome any crisis. The management of a major corporate crisis requires a well structured process.
This involves prevention, planning, evaluation, and mitigating the crisis as well as minimizing its consequences. The method that a company adopts in managing a crisis determines the outcome of the affected individuals. A crisis can occur naturally or can be caused by negligence of the personnel or any other stakeholder. Effects of a crisis include but not limited to injuries, disabilities, death, destruction to property, and threats to a company reputation or its future performance.
This paper looks at the meaning of corporate crisis management, and effective communication as a critical strategy in managing crisis. It also gives in-depth analysis of the strategies adopted by Johnson and Johnson to deal with a crisis that occurred to itsTylenol product in 1982.
Corporate Crisis Management
Corporate crisis management can be defined as the process through which a company deals with emergencies by using effective communication strategies or channels. This involves the incorporation of both the internal and external parties involved and the steps taken to address the issue. Crisis management is part of every day life. It is normal that a company will have to respond to an emergency at some time (Nelson 1).
An emergency can range from a mistake done by one of its stake holders, a personnel related problem, or a volition of one of the rules. If these problems are not addressed properly, they can negatively affect the reputation of a company which results in lack of consumer loyalty. Consumer confidence is related to a companys social responsibility. If a company does not address the issues affecting customers, then its reputation is at stake.
For instance, if two or more consumers complain about the quality of a companys products, and the company does nothing to address the issue, then its reputation is threatened. Every organization has a social responsibility not only to its personnel but the entire public.
Effective Communication
Effective communication is composed of two major aspects: transparency and timeliness (Nelson 5). In the event of a crisis, a company has to issue a prompt response before it catches the attention of the general public. This is for the reason that once the public learn about the problem, it may be disastrous to a company which may put its reputation at stake.
It is vital that every company is able to acknowledge a problem when it emerges so that it is able to take the necessary precautions to prevent it from advancing, and at the same time, take appropriate actions to deal with the problem. This is what is referred to as timeliness. On the other hand, the messages issued by the company or an organization have to be clear. This means that the company has to go after all the promises made to the public or employees and the goals set to ensure that they are met.
A company is able to gain credibility from the public only if it remains true to its words. For instance, if a company promises to take remedial measures to ensure that a certain situation does not present itself again in the future but does not do any structural changes to prevent the occurrence of such a situation, then its reputation will be severely affected and it may diminish.
Many companies have the habit of making false promises in order to retain their consumers forgetting that the long term effects may be worse than their present benefits. Transparent information also means that a company is able to respond to its crisis within the stipulated time. Not all consumers are patient and if a company prolongs its response time, it may loss a significant number of potential consumers.
The Tylenol Crisis
Every medical practice at one time or another is confronted with a breaking news story that can have a major impact on its patients. Not uncommonly patients learn form the media about a medical development that was described in a journal or at a national meeting before their doctors have had the chance to see the relevant paper. Often medical news stories will scare or even produce panic in patients. They will call for comments, suggestions, and answers, or simply for reassurance.
There are ways to manage these all too-common situations, reduce anxiety for the existing patients, and encourage potential patients to seek treatment. One example of truly skilled crisis management was the Tylenol tragedy. Johnson and Johnson, the manufacturer of Tylenol, did a wonderful job of taking a potential disaster and turning it into a marketing advantage. It was a good example of how to cope with a media crisis.
Towards the end of 1982 (October to be precise), Johnson & Johnson, a renowned manufacturer of painkillers (Tylenol) in the U.S. was faced by a major crisis. Johnson and Johnsons subsidiary, McNeil Consumer Products has an analgesic called Tylenol which became a market leader in the 1.36 million dollars US analgesics market with 37% share. Tylenol also accounted for 18% of Johnson and Johnson net earnings and 7.4% of the companys worldwide revenues for the period 1981-82 (Effective Crisis Management 4).
Seven people from Chicago died after taking Tylenol capsules. It was later found that an anonymous person had put more than 50 milligrams of cyanide in the capsules. Cyanide is a deadly substance and the amount put into the capsules was more than 10, 000 times deadly to a human being. McNeil Consumer Products officials asserted that the cyanide-laced capsules had not emanated from either of its plants. The public was assured of control measures through the company spokesman.
Since the Cyanide-laced Tylenol had been discovered in shipments from the companys plants and had been found only in the Chicago Vicinity, it was reported that the tempering with the drugs was done when the products were placed on the shelves. These drugs were taken from the shelves, infected with the deadly substances and then taken back to the shelves to be sold to consumers. It was found that the poisoned capsules were from four manufacturing lots and they were taken from different pharmacies over a period of weeks or even months.
Before the crisis, Tylenol had managed to control 37% of the market and had reported revenue of approximately 1.2 million dollars. However, after the crisis, Tylenol market share dropped to 7% with a substantial decrease in its revenue (Effective Crisis Management 4)
The publicity about the cyanide-laced capsules created a nationwide panic immediately and with the expansion of 24 hours electronic media, people were bombarded with more and more news on the subject. Aroused by such sensational news through the media, people started calling hospitals to enquire about Tylenol. A Chicago hospital was reported to have received over 600 telephone calls just on a single day.
It was reported that within the first 10 days of the crisis, Johnson and Johnson received more that 1400 telephone calls on its most controversial product of the time (Effective Crisis Management 5). Clients were adequately warned against the products consumption.
The company was in a dilemma of which strategy to adopt to ensure that the crisis was properly dealt with without affecting the reputation and the sale of its product, which was earning the company a significant amount of profit. Its first guideline was first to protect the public before considering its property.
To deal with this crisis, the company recalled its product from the entire country and it was able to collect up to 31 million bottles and recorded a financial loss of over one hundred million dollars (Effective Crisis Management 5). A day later, the Food and Drug Administration also advised consumers to avoid taking Tylenol capsules.
Moreover, all advertisements for the product were brought to an end. Although Johnson and Johnson were aware that they were not directly responsible for the interference made on the product, they took full responsibility because they valued public safety more than profitability. They went to the extent of recalling all the capsules that were in the market and warned customers against the purchase of the product.
Not many companies would take such a brave move because most of them are concerned about the profitability of their products at the expense of public safety. It was such a costly strategy but the company was concerned about the safety of its consumers and its future reputation.
Communication about the crisis
A crisis team was formed and immediately offered a reward of one hundred thousand dollars for information about the persons responsible for the tampering. Based on its credo, J&J set out to protect the health and welfare of the families and doctors it served.
It started a massive media campaign, including a toll-free hotline. There were separate PR programmes for consumers, employees, stockholders, politicians, and the media; a special communication program for the medical community involved putting over two thousand sales representatives on the road.
There were two questions that had to be addressed urgently without any loss of time, the first was concerned about the safety of the public, and the second, was how the product would be saved. Even against the advice of some worried insiders, the company initiated its first action by cautioning the users of the medicine. The Chairman appeared in television advertisements and on talk shows explaining his companys actions.
It was estimated that there were about 80, 000 news stories printed about the crisis, and a J&J survey later concluded that nine out of ten Americans knew of the deaths within a week (Kaplan 16). Other surveys revealed that, J&Js long-standing reputation for truth-telling aggressive customer-oriented actions, and easy press access helped it weather the storm. The company fully understood the importance of protecting the companys image and customer satisfaction.
Re-introduction strategies
The strategy adopted by Johnson and Johnson to win back the trust of the public both for reinstating its product and restoring its own reputation in the aftermath of Tylenol crisis was implemented in two phases.
The first stage involved the real crisis handling. The subsequent (second) stage concentrated on a comeback plan. To restore the confidence and trust of the public in Tylenol, and to make the product tamper-free, Johnson and Johnson followed a series of concerted measures. The first strategy was to introduce a resistant triple-seal that could not be tampered with.
It was actually the first company to act in accordance with the directive given by the Food and Drug Administration regarding tamper-resistant seals. The company made the announcement of the new triple safety seal packing at a press conference at the manufacturers headquarters.
To promote the use of Tylenol among customers who might have strayed away from the brand as a result of the tampering, the deaths and the adverse media publicity, McNeil Consumer product which is a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, went further to introduce promotion strategies for motivating consumers; the purchase of the product attracted 2.5 dollars off coupon. These promotions were announced in newspapers to reach a big population.
Johnson and Johnson had already lost a significant stock due to the crisis. To recover the lost stock, they changed the pricing plan and the new one gave consumers 25% off on every purchase made (Kaplan 15). More than two thousands sales representatives were employed to market the product directly to the consumers as a way of gaining their confidence.
Tylenols Victory
The firms mission statement stated that the companys first responsibility was to ensure that both consumers and medical professionals were satisfied with its product. The second responsibility was to its employees and where they lived, and all its other stakeholders (Kaplan 3). It was therefore necessary to ensure public safety in order to protect the reputation of the company. The companys responsibility to the public was a well-organized tool to use in terms of public relations.
It ensured that the brand survived in spite of what had transpired. Tylenol is an example of the many companies that have gone through major crisis that can destroy the reputation of a company if mishandled. The way it handled this crisis was an indication of its loyalty to consumers and also to its employees.
On top of issuing public warnings against the consumption of its products, it went further to recall all its products. If the company had not recalled all the products that had already been distributed in the market, more people might have died from consumption of the dangerous products.
Conclusion
Crises are evitable in every organization. There are times when an organization has to deal with major problems which may be caused by either natural causes, accidents or can be intentional. An intentional problem may be caused by negligence of the management, the employees or other stakeholders. Not all companies are able to adopt proper strategies for dealing with their crisis. Some may opt to ignore them or discontinue the production of a certain product.
For example in the case of Tylenol, the company would have opted to discontinue the production of the product and concentrate on other products. This would have reduced the marketing costs for re-introducing the product but would not have guaranteed the companys success. The reputation of the company would also be affected which would have been more costly than the costs incurred.
To ensure that a company financial stability is maintained, both in the short term and in the long term, it is advisable to deal with a crisis as it occurs and to ensure that the crisis management team is well trained and equipped with the necessary resources. Every organization should always be ready to address issues affecting its operations by putting aside some resources as risk funds. This ensures that the organization is not drained off its available resources and that it is able to deal with the problem at hand.
Works Cited
Anon. Corporate Crisis Management. Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2005. Web.
Effective Crisis Management. The Tylenol Crisis, 1982. University of Florida, not dated. Web.
Kaplan, Tamara. The Tylenol Crisis: How Effective Public Relations Saved John And Johnson. The Pennsylvania state university, 2010. Web.
Emirates is the UAEs biggest airline and one of the two flag airlines in the country (apart from Etihad Airways). The company is part of The Emirates Group, which is under the control of the Dubai governments Investment Corporation of Dubai. Emirates was also the biggest airline in the Middle East before the Cpsndemic, with over 3,600 flights per week. The company has a net income of $5.5 billion on $16.7 billion in sales as of March 2020, and 40,801 people around the world. Emarates operates in more than 150 locations in 80 different countries and has a fleet of about 300 aircrafts. Emirates was created in March 1985 in collaboration with the royal family of Dubai. The first two aircrafts were donated to the company by Pakistan International Airlines.
Corporate Communication
In todays operations of any firm, corporate communication is a valuable instrument. It is the only method for diverse organs and persons, both internal and external, to comprehend one another in order to create harmony. Several factors must be present for business communication to be successful, including honesty, concentration, and congruence. An organization that is well-organized and has resources focused on precise pre-determined objectives is considerably more likely to succeed than one whose administration is riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainty. The concept appeared in the United States in the beginning of twentieth century and was conideb by journalist Ivy Lee. Corporate communication is one of the most important strategic instruments for modern organizations. It is utilized by managers to persuade, motivate, and raise awareness among both internal and external audiences. Emirates is a superb example of a company that has successfully integrated corporate communication into its operations.
Importance of Corporate Communication
Corporate communication in modern business environment that is highly digitalized defines the success of a company and has several advantages:
It is used for raising brand recognition throug employee involvement for external communication with customers. Companies in the past use traditional marketing strategies for this purpose, which is less effective in modern business.
Corporate communication also ensures better employee participation through building trust and engagement. These aspects, in turn, allow managers to achieve better performance, increase job satisfaction and employee retention.
It ensures knowledge exchange and inter-departmnet interaction, which is the basis for innovation development and implementation.
More effecive coprorate communication lead to better employee productivity, which results in lower costs and higher profits.
Barriers to Establishment of Corporate Communication at Emirates Airways
In the context of Emirates Airways, certain hurdles to the formation of a corporate communication process may exist:
There may be challenges with a lack of enough financial resources throughout the corporate communication change initiative.
There may be a barrier due to a lack of communication system inside the firm, which can lead to unwillingness of employees to implement relevant changes.
Insufficient employee competencies and limited knowledge of new systems and technologies can hinder the transformation process.
There may be a scarcity of managers or leaders to conduct staff training courses.
A lack of organizational structure throughout the transformation process may also be a significant hindrance.
Application of Corporate communication by Emirates Airways
In the public relations team
The Emirates Airline has used a variety of corporate communication methods to ensure healthy and long-term external interactions. The Emirates Corporation is headquartered in Dubai, has both local and global airline stations: the firms market segment is therefore the inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates as well as the populace of the world where it has customers, with the public relations department being in charge. To reach this market, the industrys PR department conducts interviews with key executives, hosts journalists, arranges media events, and distributes news.
Team in charge of events
Emirates hosts in-house events to raise brand publicity and foster positive relationships with third parties. The goal of Emirates events unit is to manage exceptional events and exhibits with the goal of marketing the Emirates brand with the refined touch that it is known for. This units responsibilities include procuring and leasing local and international entertainers, choosing distinctive locations, designing and conceiving novel and communicative events, and finally executing events with a communication focus. Gala evenings, roadshows, workplace and new lounge premieres, special events, banquets, and many other events are held by the events section.
Merchandise team
In Emirates, the unit is known as Group Merchandise. It has grown from a marketing division to a stand-alone organization with marketplace responsibilities. Its purpose is to aid and support various Emirates Group brands that have been identified as the best for improving the corporations cost savings and productivity. The merchandising team is in responsible of the Emirates Official Store, monitors all legal obligations for the Emirates Group, and handles product design for promotional, retailing, and wholesale clients. The division works closely with the sponsorship and events units to ensure that Emirates-branded items fit the departments communication goals. The merchandising team uses traditional products like pencils, mugs, and key-holders, as are more nostalgic items like travel bags and fashion collections.
Sponsorship committee
Despite the fact that Emirates is a brand in the aviation business, it is undoubtedly the most well-known firm in sports, particularly football. The company has been at the vanguard of club sponsorship in the English Football League, the countrys most successful league. It has funded a number of clubs and is the proprietor of some of the world largest most opulent and well-designed sports arenas. Its sponsorship is not confined to the football field; it also includes other sports and teams.
Organizational Structure
International communication has become ubiquitous due to advancements in technology and organizational structure. This tranformations has an impact on Emirates as a international airlines.The company has a slender corporate structure, under which the airline President is responsible for the whole aviation and is reported directly to the Firms executive deputy chairperson. The President also oversees the central carrier operations, which includes logistics, aviation industry, as well as vacation operations. Since its inception, Emirates Airlines organizational structure has remained mostly unchanged (Emirates, 2022). Only a few members of the senior management team have changed in recent years (Emirates, 2022). A small group of executives has controlled the company since its inception. The fact that one CEO was responsible for the bulk of Emirates operations minimized bloated bureaucracy.
In todays corporate environment, the ability to make rapid judgments is critical. One of the most important aspects of this skill, according to Uhl-Bien et al. (2020), is good communication among teams and supervisors. Messages are transmitted considerably quicker inside Emirates workplace since rigorous communication rules are not necessary, as they are in the majority of firms. This advantage allows the company to complete tasks more quickly without additional tome and energy losses. Another important aspect of Emirates Airlines corporate structure is how it handles conflicts (Emirates, 2022). The organization has a team-based approach, with each problem being allocated to a different team.
Cultural Diversity
Emirates hires people from all around the globe. This method makes a substantial contribution to workplace cultural diversity. Furthermore, Emirates does not believe that a persons ethnic or racial background has an impact on their professional ability. As a result, foreign workers are sought for all positions within the organization, including pilots, cabin crew, administrators, and customer service (Emirates, 2022). There are various reasons why the corporation adopted this approach that are worth analyzing. Primarily, Emirates intends to serve a diverse worldwide community of countries, ethnicities, and cultures (Emirates, 2022). The companys ability to service this group is enhanced by having a diverse team (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). The second explanation has to do with organizational behavior theory (Driskill, 2018). Companies have realized that hiring a diverse staff boosts the chances of coming up with innovative ideas that may help them gain a competitive edge (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). Furthermore, looking at a problem from a different cultural perspective might result in significantly different outcomes.
For more than a decade, the UAE has seen a steady increase in the number of international workers. Non-Emiratis made up approximately 50 % of the workers in the 1970s (Warner & Moonesar, 2019). This figure has risen to about 90% in recent years and continues to rise (Warner & Moonesar, 2019). Because of its socio-political goals, the UAE government encourages this tendency. Without proper workplace diversity, this aim will be hard to attain. The rationale for Emirates works diversity of cultures might be to fit with national goals.
Motivational theories
The adoption of Maslow theory of needs by Emirates Airways stresses career development opportunities by exposing employees to a range of problems and tough circumstances so that they may uncover their unique skills. The corporation, for example, provides outstanding accreditations and jobs to its personnel in order to boost their self-esteem (Mira et al., 2019). Social requirements are another important aspect of putting the theory into practice. Many cultural initiatives and companies involved under specific commands communicate with one another at Emirates Airlines to meet the needs of social contact and safety. In order to provide long-term protection and satisfaction, Emirates Airlines has created a sophisticated pension plan. Finally, physiological requirements include paying Emirates Airlines workers a fair wage and providing a pleasant working environment.
Emirates Airlines use two components of Herzberg theory. One is the hygiene elements, which encompass the interaction between the firm and its workers, as well as their managers, workplace culture, and co-worker interactions (Kondalkar, 2020). The other group is concerned with motivational factors like as advancement, achievement, responsibility, and the nature of the work, among others. In This case, Emirates Airlines prioritizes motivation over hygiene (Emirates, 2020). The dynamics of Herzbergs theory at Emirates Airlines are shown in the figure.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Emirates is currently focusing on being responsible for the environment and reducing its negative impact on it. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy helps the company develop and implement initiatives to reduce flights while maintaining passenger comfort. The primary objective of the CSR adopted by Emirates is to reduce carbon emissions, which requires a reduction in the number of flights and using jet furl selectively. By effectively incorporating environmental impacts into their operations, airlines have been able to achieve reductions in emissions and engine-related pollutants. This approach enables airlines to maintain the comfort of their customers while maintaining an environmental balance.
Employee Personality and Job Satisfaction
The personality of an Emirates employee is determined by the jobs function and responsibilities. Cabin crew applicants, for example, are required to complete personality tests to verify that they are a fit for the position. All Emirates personnel have outstanding communication skills and are highly customer-oriented, since the company strives to be customer-centric at all times (Emirates, 2022). They are patient, tolerant, friendly, and amiable essential personality attributes for anybody who interacts with clients (Emirates, 2022). When it comes to workplace communication, Emirates workers are eager to share fresh ideas and proposals. As a result, they are not reluctant to speak openly about working circumstances.
Employees frequently call to provide feedback on current employee job satisfaction concerns. Despite the lack of statistical data on employee perceptions of working conditions, the types of requests made by workers may give crucial information. Cabin crew workers, for example, have lately approached the companys board to seek more rest hours between flights (Emirates, 2022). As can be seen, this problem is not as serious as low pay or poor living conditions. It indicates that employee satisfaction is strong, yet the organization is constantly open to new ideas.
Need for Corporate Communication Plan
The Needs
In relation to the necessity for a Corporate communication plan in Emirates Airlines, the company should focus on building better consumer trust and enhancing customer experience by providing a variety of services. Many customers, as well as companies, have experienced challenges as a result of the recent pandemic; for example, they are afraid to go outside of the nation for fear of infection. Emirates Airlines management has to develop a Corporate Communication Plan for the company in order to improve customer experiences by delivering sanitary services on flights. As a result, the criteria listed below prompted the creation of a corporate communication strategy. Consumer tastes are changing- In the instance of Emirates Airlines, the COVID-19 problem has had a detrimental impact on the airlines business. The lack of a competitive edge and customer trust has necessitated the implementation of a Corporate Communication Plan in Emirates Airlines business operations. The airlines position influenced companies significantly, which resulted in increased operating costs and decreased profit margins.
Foreign flight limits- In essence, political and legal issues such as international flight restrictions and safety laws and guidelines have forced the airline to make modifications to its corporate communication strategy. The demographics of aviation services vary across the world. It is a chance for Emirates to boost its competitiveness in the aviation business (The Emirates Group, 2021). In order to overcome detrimental impact of the pandemic factors, ithe airline needs to discover and install technologies that would allow customers to get contactless services. The airline must devise a mechanism in which passengers do not come into touch with any staff members. In addition, new technologies and systems are needed to monitor and scan viral symptoms among travelers so that protective measures may be taken during flights.
The Plan
As previously said, initiatives should be modified in support of investors, particularly end-users of this industrys trademarks, to prevent crises of consumers switching to other organizations that provide these products. This is made feasible by using developing innovations, such as the usage of Digital devices by final consumers to obtain the companys products; customer assistance services are available around the clock any day. This is the stage at which new ideas are critical. This method include using social networks like as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, all of which are only a few phone clicks away. Customers browsing for the greatest value airfares, monitoring flight schedule, and reserving hotels should all be part of the plan of action so that the airline and its staff have access to timely and reliable data.
During the ticketing system, the consumer should be given a range of data to facilitate early engagement. A code for verification upon boarding the aircraft at the terminal should be issued to the consumers phone. To save time on human verification, it is advised that the code be recognized digitally. Changes are needed in the part of accommodating diverse mobile device dimensions, according to their homepage. In order to maximize the consumer base, these footprints should be accepted on smaller smart phones as well as all other phone sizes. Instead of simply allowing certain phones, such as smartphones, it could be improved so that individuals with more basic phones may still use the same services. Clients should get computerized communications that are as precise to their needs as possible. To prevent delivering unnecessary information to clientele, it is necessary for clients to have access to distinct identities.
Summary of Key Points
In conclusion, Emirates Airlines is one of the worlds major air transport firms, as well as a very famous Middle East airline. The corporation has been a global leader in aviation development in the field of services, innovation, and luxury, with operations across the globe. Additional crewmembers, the acquisition of more aircraft, extending corporate responsibility to workers, building new safety alliances, and extending the worldwide routing path will all help the firm grow to a greater market share. The multi-cultural background of Emirates personnel, as well as organizational culture and leadership, are also discussed. Therefore, the firm has a distinctive organizational culture that is shaped by internationalization. Employee empowerment and good leadership appeared as intervening elements in dealing with diversity. Leadership and inspiration resulted in teamwork, management culture, and business ambition.
A communication strategy is necessary to help the process, which includes accomplishing set goals linked to reliability and effectiveness, client relevance, productivity, customer base, and price. Surprisingly, Emirates Airline is able to retain its market leadership while increasing customer engagement. As a result, it can be argued that Emirates corporate communication strategy is successful and well-managed, serving as a suitable example for any company grappling with internal and external communication. Regardless of its size, little or big, the company needs to alter its communication crisis management protocol to combat the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the markets rising fuel prices in order to satisfy the expectations of the business world.
Key Recommendation
Recommendation
Specific
In light of the tough circumstances created by the pandemic and other fuel-related challenges, the airline intends to establish and activate Communication and Crisis Management Centers to carefully analyze the condition and take substantial steps and initiatives in all areas of operations.
Measurable
The company would take steps such as offering health assistance to personnel and passengers by building communication and crisis management centers. Furthermore, the establishment of appropriate airport operations to satisfy travel needs will be harmed. This entails changing timetables in response to passenger requests through effective internet communication. The initiative entails the use of cellphones or the development of an app that synchronizes client requests with airline resources.
Achievable
In this scenario, the company should utilize a mobile app where, throughout the booking process, the consumer is provided with a variety of information that is available for early communication. As a result, each customers profile should be matched to an appropriate flight attendant who meets their needs, reducing communication breakdowns, particularly in terms of language and preferences.
Relevant
Clients should get computerized communications via verification codes that are as precise to the customers request as possible. To prevent delivering unnecessary information to clients, it is necessary for customers to have access to distinct profiles. Employees problems will be addressed via online surveys sent through the app, leveraging on the difficulties that other firms offering similar goods or entering the same market have encountered.
Time-bound
Using the Emirates app, mitigation of the communication crisis is a short-term strategy, and is bound to be rolled-out and completed within the next two years.
Ethical
The companys management should perform frequent surveys to determine what aspects of the workplace may be improved after the completion of the communication and crisis management processes. Moreover, sections of the communication management process should be monitored to ensure the initiative follows stipulated guidelines.
Re-view
This technique will provide the organization with quantifiable data that can be utilized to design alternative workplace management and employee incentive tactics if the communication crisis management strategy fails to meet its objectives.
References
Driskill, G. W. (2018). Organizational culture in action: a cultural analysis workbook. New York, Routledge.
Emirates. (2022) About us. Web.
Kondalkar, V.G. (2020) Organizational behaviour. New Age.
Communication is a vital element in any organization. It determines the perspective or the image customers have towards an organization. For effective communication within an organization, information has to flow smoothly from the source to the receiver (Ojo 2002). Besides, it has to be conveyed to the right parties. When communicating, the receiver must take time to listen. This facilitates grasping the information and giving the correct response. This paper aims at highlighting communication barriers based on a video clip.
Major challenges in the communication
One of the challenges exhibited in this conversation is the lack of parties to pay attention to each other when communicating. Mrs. Richards does not give the receptionist a chance to explain herself. This is the reason why the receptionist gets furious and shouts at her. Besides, when Mr. Emanuel comes to rescue the situation there is a challenge in encoding the information he is passing to Mrs. Richards (Fawlty towers 2009). The two do not get each other leading to Mrs. Richards using abusive language. Eventually, the two leaves without getting each other when Mrs. Richards becomes annoyed.
Importance of effective communication in promoting good organizational behavior
Communication greatly influences employee behavior. Normally, employees tend to be subjective when absorbing information and only select information that favors their needs (Ojo 2002). Besides, if employees sense that there is a sort of command in the information being conveyed they tend to be rebellious. This is well demonstrated in the conversation between the receptionist and the client. Initially, the receptionist was courteous when dealing with Mrs. Richards. On learning that Mrs. Richards was sort of commanding her, the receptionist became rebellious and shouted at her. Effective communication nurtures mutual respect not only between employees but also between employees and their customers. There is a perception that customers are always right and no employee is supposed to question their behavior. However, when an employee realizes that a customer is taking advantage of him or her respect flew through the window and the employee no longer respects the customer. In this scenario, the receptionist initially addresses Mrs. Richards with respect. On realizing that Mrs. Richard was not ready to respect other customers, the receptionist runs out of patience and no longer respected her. This went to an extent of acrimony with both blaming each other.
Effective communication facilitates building trust in an organization (Ojo 2002). When employees listen to customers complaints and customers listen employees explanations a problem is amicably solved leading to the parties trusting one another. In the scenario depicted by the video clip, there is no trust between Mrs. Richards and the reception. Mrs. Richards goes to an extent of complaining that she has never seen another institution offering such poor services. This leads to the receptionist being relaxed in attending to her.
Effect of non-verbal communication on employees with disabilities
Effective communication entails both verbal and non-verbal communication. The speakers feelings are best expressed by his or her non-verbal cues. This underlines the need for communicators to pay attention to non-verbal cues. Another area where non-verbal communication plays a greater role is when conversing with people with a disability such as visual impairment and hearing problems. While a person with visual impairment would be able to hear and understand what is being said, it is imperative to use non-verbal communication especially if the communication entails showing directions (Ojo 2002). To ensure that people with hearing problems contribute to communication, communicators need to use sign language as well as diagrams to explain themselves. This would not only help the deaf to understand the context of communication but would also lead to the deaf contributing to the communication. Hence, non-verbal communication helps people with disabilities understand the message being conveyed and also partake in communication by sharing their views.
Impact of technology on organizational behavior
Organizations are continuously embracing technology in a bid to enhance their performance. Today, information is conveyed to employees through e-mails. This has helped in cutting down on the time taken for information to reach employees. Nevertheless, if this technology is not keenly monitored it may harm organizational behavior. Generally, employees wish to receive messages that motivate them (Bakan, Tasliyan, Eraslan & Coskun 2004). Besides, as information flows down the hierarchy, it is subject to distortion and filtering. This implies that employees at the bottom of the hierarchy may fail to receive the information. This may lead to the management reprimanding them for failing to respond to the message thus affecting the trust between the management and respective employees. This may affect employees confidence in carrying out their responsibilities as since then they may fear that information may fail to reach them leading to them not doing what they are expected to do.
Technology is likely to compromise employee loyalty and honesty. It is human nature to have certain inclinations when communicating (Bakan, Tasliyan, Eraslan & Coskun 2004). Hence, based on the source of a message employees may decide to respond or ignore it. The fact that one can delete an email and claim to have not received any gives employees an upper hand. Failure to communicate face to face with customers may also affect employees loyalty to them. A customer can determine when he is being lied to when communicating live with an employee. However, using mails to communicate with customers may lead to some employees being dishonest as they attempt to lure customers.
Conclusion
For parties to communicate effectively, they have to be able to encode each others messages. Also communicating parties out to have mutual respect and be willing to listen to each other. It is imperative to pay attention to the non-verbal cues of the communicator to understand the persons feelings. As organizations turn to technology as a tool of communication within organizations, the management must make a follow up to ensure that messages reach the intended people as expected.
Reference List
Bakan, S., Tasliyan, M., Eraslan, H., & Coskun, M., 2004. The effect of technology on organizational behavior and the nature of work. Web.
Fawlty towers., 2009. Problemas de comunicacion part. 1. Web.
Ojo, B. J., 2002. Effective communication: Towards a successful organizational management. Web.
The movie, Some Like it Hot, describes experiences of two main actors in a straining economy faced by high rates of unemployment. The main characters, Joe and Jerry, are victims of economic recession living in debts.
In order to find jobs, the characters pretend to be females and are recruited in a female singing group. A gang attack on their group however renders them jobless before finding another job with a sinning group (Thoeren and Logan, 1959).
Another gang attack leads to a deadly massacre though Jerry and Joe survives. Afraid of becoming victims of subsequent gangs attacks, the duo further changes their identities while still assuming the female gender. Known as Josephine and Daphne, they are absorbed into another singing team under Sues identity.
This team is also purely composed of females except Joe and Jerry who are presumed to be Josephine and Daphne. In their trip to Florida with the group, the two characters fall in love with Kane, also a member of the group. Their feelings are however restrained due to their assumed gender.
At the same time, a millionaire identified as Osgood falls in love with Daphne. Joe, now guised as a real male millionaire approaches Kane while Jerry accepts Osgoods proposal for marriage in the hope of having a share of his wealth.
Another attack is witnessed and the four are forced flee to Osgoods residence. Joe reveals his identity to Kane and admits to her that he is not good enough to be with her. Jerry also reveals his real gender to Osgood (Thoeren and Logan, 1959).
Summary
One of the major themes in the movie is gender factor in communication. Emphasis on context of a communication for example illustrates difference in communication between men and women. Men for instance put more interest and attachment on facts in a communication while womens major interest is development of a more passionate and long term relationship.
Another concept that distinguishes communication in gender is the form of language used in communication. Provisions for equality in treatment characterize mens language while women are predominantly caring in their communication (Barrett and Davidson, 2006). These concepts are well defined in the film through its major characters, Joe, Jerry, Kane and Osgood.
Females caring and intention for developing relations are for instance exhibited by Keans response to Joes revelation of his identity and gender. She remains passionate to him. Osgood on the other hand tries to impose marriage on Daphne and dismisses the whole encounter when Daphnes identity is revealed (Paludi, 2008; Thoeren and Logan, 1959).
A number of theories also explain differences in behavior and communication between males and females as illustrated in the play. Biological theories for example explain that gender based cells and organs influences different behavior and responses of men and women.
Similarly, psychodynamic theories explain that men and women develop different interactive behavior based on the social environment that brings them up. As a result, men in a given society will have a defined communication approach that is from women in the same society because of factors such as gender roles (Wood, 2010).
These theories are exhibited in the play through the main characters developed idea that their chances of survival in the society are higher if they disguise themselves as women (Thoeren and Logan, 1959).
References
Barrett, M., and Davidson, M. (2006). Gender and communication at work. London, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Paludi, M. (2008). The Psychology of Women at Work: Career liberation, history, and the new millennium. West Port, CT: ABC-CLIO
Thoeren, R. and Logan, M. (1959). Some like it hot. film
Wood, J. (2010). Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning
Critical thinking is important for the decision-making process and effective communication between people. It may be applied to all spheres of peoples lives. Emotions, unwarranted assumptions, stereotyping, denial, poor communications skills, and other factors are barriers to critical thinking. Sallys case shows that it is necessary to avoid biased opinion, dishonesty, over-reliance on feelings, and self-centered thinking in daily situations to make reasonable and weighed decisions.
Elements of Critical Thinking
The apparent barriers to critical thinking were conformism, unwarranted assumptions, and an over-reliance on feelings ( Barriers to critical thinking, 2019). They were present in the situation when Sally did not agree with her colleagues but pretended that she did to avoid confrontation. The woman decided that she would not spend time with her coworkers again only because they had a different opinion and did not feel comfortable about it. Sally may not be a good critical thinker as she relied on her emotions a lot.
Reason, Emotion, and Communication
The concept of reason was mainly presented when Sally collected evidence to support her proposal and provide the basis for her argument. Sallys critical thinking involved emotion too; the woman felt agitated and tired, which led to the inability to assess her coworkers viewpoints. Sallys communication style was passive because she was quiet, did not admit that she disagreed with others, and tried to avoid conflict.
Fallacies and Argument
The scenario presents a fallacy in Sallys thought process, which is shown in the situation at dinner. Sally concluded that she did not know enough about the topic to confront her colleagues. It was not possible to identify whether her coworkers had more knowledge than she did. The scenario does not provide an argument for this point of view as it is unreasonable.
Conclusion
Sallys example shows that a lack of critical thinking may result in emotional distress and the individuals inability to take weighed decisions. In the presented case, the barriers to critical thinking included unwarranted assumptions, conformism, and an over-reliance on feelings. They prevented Sally from making reasonable conclusions and being more open to her colleagues opinions. Moreover, a lack of critical thinking resulted in fallacies in the womans thought process.
Communication is essential in managing an organizations operations efficiently for the success of a business. Organizations undergo various changes to modify their policies, culture, structure, and infrastructure to enhance performance and achieve objectives. For an organizational change to succeed, the management must employ an effective communication strategy. A good strategy enables the employees to understand and adopt the changes within the target time for a timely transition without affecting the businesss normal operations. Netflix is one of the biggest and most successful subscription streaming services and a production company. The company has recently undergone a successful transformation that has positively impacted its position in the movie production industry (Hidayati, 2022). This paper aims to investigate how an effective communication strategy influenced the success of Netflixs organizational change.
Netflix Organizational Change
Netflix has rapidly grown into a giant movie-producing and online streaming platform offering stiff competition to other companies in the movie industry such as Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros, and Universal Pictures, who have been in the market for a significant period. The company enjoys a market cap of about $166.80 billion. A considerable amount of the companys revenue is generated from its online streaming services. However, the company has experienced several challenges that forced it to undergo several changes to find the most appropriate model that would enable it to break through the market that was already competitive. Netflixs significant change was to improve its workforce performance (Morgan, 2018). Netflix CEO Reeds Hastings aimed to improve employee performance through motivation by changing various policies to increase the employees freedom.
For instance, Hastings introduced a new leave policy that would allow employees to take leave for an unlimited time provided they acted in the companys best interest. The philosophy governing this approach is common sense, where Netflix expects its employees to use common sense rather than govern the workforce by a series of rules (Hidayati, 2022). Freedom was also introduced in the policy of compensation. The employees were free to choose to be paid their compensation in either stock form or directly into their accounts. The management also scrapped employee performance-based reviews (Hidayati, 2022). Instead, the company introduced the 360 degrees review model where the employees are reviewed based on the feedback from third parties who had had contact with the workers.
Netflixs changes lacked clear procedures and were unpopular in the industry. However, a good communication strategy played a significant role in successfully implementing the changes. Within a short period, the changes had already proved successful. For instance, it was reported that the freedom of the workforce significantly reduced stress and created self-management, and increased flexibility. As a result, the company reported increased innovation, which impacted the films quality (Morgan, 2018). Netflix considers keeping underperforming employees within the workforce as a liability that is likely to interfere with the morale of the other workers.
Netflix Communication Strategy
Hastings communication strategy was based on open discussion between the management and the employees, clear instructions, and practical communication tools. Firstly, open discussion was essential in engaging the employees to decide the policies to govern them (Abrashi, 2018). Secondly, clear instructions made it easier for the message to be understood and reduced the rate of misinterpretations. Thirdly, practical communication tools played a significant role in delivering the information to the concerned parties on time with clarity and authenticity (Abrashi, 2018). The communication tools used included emails, websites, and formal letters. The coordination of these strategies made it easier to adopt the changes without interrupting the companys service delivery to its customers. The strategy employed preserved the authenticity of the information and increased transparency within the organization because the channels used to deliver the message were easily accessible to everyone. As a result, teamwork and collaboration were developed, facilitating creativity and innovation within the workforce.
Netflix Communication Channels
The strategy was based on various communication channels ideal for implementing the changes. These channels were developed to deliver specific information to specific groups, including directors, heads of departments, and ordinary employees. The major channels used included face-to-face, written communication, and electronic media (Morgan, 2018). These channels were used strategically based on the hierarchy or management. At the top of the hierarchy, the CEO passed the information to the department heads and other senior officials. The department heads would then communicate that information using the above channels to their juniors until it reached the entire workforce. The following illustrates how the channels were used to pass information from one managerial level to another.
Firstly, Reed Hastings used a face-to-face communication channel when communicating changes with Netflixs top officials, including the directors and heads of various departments (Hidayati, 2022). His face-to-face communication model aimed to create a fluid relationship within the management that would be reflected throughout the entire workforce. This communication channel was also vital in discussing how the various departments would implement the changes. It was an inclusive discussion that included the concerned parties suggestions and ideas to make the changes better and more realistic (Morgan, 2018). Face-to-face commutation was essential for instant clarifications and corrections to the changes that would make it easier for the rest of the employees to understand.
Secondly, Netflix written communication was employed on various occasions, such as scripted speeches, press releases, fact sheets, and media statements explaining the changes to the concerned parties. For instance, Hasting mainly used written communication to coordinate the changes within the departments. The original copy of the new policies was shared across the heads of the departments to implement the changes in their respective jurisdictions (Morgan, 2018). Written communication is essential in articulating the details of the message precisely and clearly, making it easier for the subjects to understand. Thirdly, Netflix has been using electronic media, such as sending emails to communicate the change to its employees since its inception (Hidayati, 2022). In his strategy, Hastings used emails to communicate the new policies through a PowerPoint attachment during the organizational changes.
Emails are essential in sending brief messages targeting a larger group of people within a short period. Some Netflix employees work remotely as part of the companys policy on employee freedom (Hidayati, 2022). There was, therefore, the need for a communication channel that the organization could employ to transmit information to such workers within the set time frame. Electronic media has proved to be a reliable form of communication that Netflix uses when addressing its remote employees. The organization is digital-oriented, thus making it easier to implement electronic forms of communication. The advancement of technology and accessibility to an internet connection has been vital for implementing the electronic media at Netflix. The company requires employees to submit their emails to make communication easier. When communicating a change that affects every worker, the company only writes one email that is then shared with all the employees through email.
Netflix also has a website where all the information meant for the employees can be accessed. The company often publishes information on its website, where all the employees and concerned parties can easily access it (Hidayati, 2022). However, for the website to be effective, the company must inform its employees through other forms of communication such as internal memos and emails that new information is published on the website. Information published on the companys website is often detailed and maybe general such that it applies to everyone who can access it. Unlike internal memos, website use as a form of communication is not often internal. Most of the information published on the website may also be affecting consumers and the general public. For instance, the company introduced free streaming of movies for consumers with mobile phones. This change reached the targeted audience through the companys website, which is easily accessible to the public.
Role of the Communication Channels in Implementing Changes
Communication channels employed by Reed Hastings have played a significant role in determining the success of the changes introduced in the organization. Firstly, the company received a quick response from its workforce and addressed the changes concerns (Abrashi, 2018). Secondly, the used channels delivered the changes timely and gave the affected parties ample time to go through and understand the new policies. It also improved employee engagement with the management, creating a friendly environment for the employees to ask for clarification and further instructions from the administration. Employees who were also not satisfied had the chance to make suggestions to address their concerns (Morgan, 2018). The channels were ideal and flexible for the employees to read the new changes and process them at their own pace.
Thirdly, the channels made it easier for information to flow from one department to another. Effective communication between departments is essential in coordinating operations for the companys success. Coordination among the employees and department develops the spirit of teamwork, enabling workers to collaborate toward achieving a common goal. Netflixs communication strategy has significantly improved the collaboration of the departments toward implementing the changes (Abrashi, 2018). Lastly, the communication channels used played a vital role in improving transparency within the organization. The company used general and easily accessible media by all the employees. Transparency creates a sense of trust among the employees and increases the integrity and accountability of the leaders. This makes it easier for the employees to adopt changes issued by the management and efficiently implement the decisions made.
Conclusion
In conclusion, effective communication is a vital element in implementing organizational change. Communication channels used to deliver the transition to the employees and the affected parties often determine the success of the changes. Leaders must ensure that they use clear, general, and fast channels to make it easier to implement the changes. The communication strategy used by Netflix to communicate changes effectively created trust, teamwork, and a friendly environment within the workforce to achieve the organizations goals.
References
Abrashi, G. (2018). Organizational Communication-the Importance of Communication Strategy in Times of Crisis for the Organization. European Journal of Social Sciences, 1(2), 21-25.
Hidayati, N. (2022). Human Resources Management Review on Netflix. In International Conference on Economics, Management and Accounting (ICEMAC 2021) (pp. 391-397). Atlantis Press.
