One major concept that stuck out to me from this week’s reading was the idea of how important it can be for an organization to communicate with its employees. This concept can be important for many reasons. For example, when a company properly communicates with its employees, it can increase employee satisfaction, build company morale, and lead to the development of new ideas (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 174-183). Open communication can also increase employee participation by giving employees a voice (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 180-183; Smidts, A., Pruyn, A. T. H., & Van Riel, 2001, 1053-1057). This occurs because increased communication has a tendency to build stronger feelings of trust between an employee and the company they work for (Jo, S. & Shim, S. W., 2005, p. 277-279).
Next, there are “two central areas of employee communication” that must exist in an organization. The first of these is management communication, which is any communication between a manager and the employees they oversee. This type of communication is most frequently used when an employee needs instructions on the specifics of their job (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 175-177). For example, a restaurant manager asking a food server to clean up some dishes would fit into this category.
The second area of employee communication is corporate information and communication systems, or CICS, which is communication that updates employees about general organizational matters (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 175-176). This type of communication usually occurs when a company needs to put all their employees on the same page in regards to its general mission and objectives. An example of this might be when a corporation holds a conference to inform their employees about general issues related to company growth (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 175-178).
Additionally, there are two main directions that a stream of communication can travel in an organization. They are downward from management to employees and upward from employees to management (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 177-178). If a company is to find success in connecting with their employees, they must consistently strive to find a balance between using management communication and CICS communication. They must also make sure that the communication flows in both an upward and downward direction (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 175-178).
One example in our book that illustrates the concepts I’ve just described is the story of IBM and their experience with employee communication between 1993 and 2004. In the 1980s, IBM was a very influential computer company. In fact, it was considered one of the “best place[s] to work in the world.” However, in the 1990s, IBM started facing some financial difficulties through “negative earnings and sliding revenues.” When this happened, many employees were laid off, and the company lost a lot of credibility with its remaining employees (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 185-186). This loss of credibility was probably due to the fact that employees felt somewhat betrayed by the company that had employed them for so long.
When a new CEO named Sam Palmisano was hired to manage IBM in 2002, he realized that IBM had lost a lot of trust with its employees, and he decided to do something to fix the situation. In order to gain his employee’s trust again, Palmisano chose to use a CICS style of communication to build an online forum where any IBM employee could suggest ideas of how to make the company better. Once this forum was dispersed to everyone through downward communication, it then evolved into a source of upward communication, which gave employees a stronger voice in the company (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 175-183, 185-187).
This forum turned out to be a major success for IBM because it allowed tens of thousands of employees to share their honest thoughts on how the company could be improved. It also resulted in IBM discovering and eliminating some “bureaucratic and dysfunctional” issues which had limited the company’s growth up until this point in time (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 185-187). I believe that this new approach to communicating with its employees was a key factor that allowed IBM to survive through such a difficult time.
References:
Cornelissen, J. P. (2017). Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory and Practice. London, GB: SAGE Publications.
Jo, S. & Shim, S. W. (2005). Paradigm shift of employee communication: The effect of management communication on trusting employees. Public Relations Review, 31(2), 277-280.Smidts, A., Pruyn, A. T. H., & Van Riel, C. B. N. (2001). The impact of employee communication and perceived external prestige on organizational identification. Academy of Management Journal, 49(5), 1051-1062.
