INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

LECTURE 4

Learning outcome By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

Define internal communication and recognise it in

practice

Evaluate internal communication from the

employee’s perspective

Describe and evaluate corporate strategies and

methods for communicating with employees

Definition Internal communication is also known as

employee communication.

It is defined as ‘the planned use of

communication actions to systematically

influence the knowledge, attitudes and

behaviours of current employees’. (Stauss

and Hoffman, 2000)

Who are our internal publics? - the group of people as having a stake in an

organisation

Employees Part-timers

Casual

workers Volunteers

Contractors

Pat Jackson’s Total Relationship Management Model

Investor Relations or Fundraising

Public Affairs

Customer Relations

Social Responsibility

Community Relations

Employee

Relations

Why is internal communication important?

Easy to communicate during difficult

situations (crisis, conflicts, reputation

building)

Facilitate dissemination of information in

building the organisation reputation

To ensure everyone in the organisation

understands the mission and vision

To encourage a two-way communication

(feedback, suggestions)

Continue… The relationship with external stakeholders would

best served if internal stakeholders were

attended to.

In order to reflect the importance of employees in

organisations, the term “employers of choice”

was created – attract the best talent and gain

competitive advantages in the industry.

Family benefits

Values employees’ education/ training

Has diversity programmes

Its purpose…..

The strategic purpose of internal

communication involves:

2-way communication between the employer

and employees

Trusting relationship

Skills to strategy…

The roots of internal communication are:

communication skills (writing, speaking)

Tools used: noticeboard, newsletters, blogs, websites, factsheets, facebook, face-to-face meeting, walk-about, corporate video, etc.

Involves the combination of interpersonal and new media channels

Strategic internal communication

Factors leading to the trend towards strategic

internal communication:

Political

Economic

Social (and cultural)

Technological

Factors leading to strategic internal communication

Political /legal

Economic

Social/culture

Technological

Organisation

Re-branding

Re-branding

What is employee engagement?

This is when employees ‘go the extra mile’

How do you get to this?

When employees believe in the orgnisational

values

Employees given the opportunity to

‘experience’ company products

Create company ‘ambassadors’

What do internal communication practitioners need to know?

Communication

‘Articulating’ or ‘verbalising’ a message

Listening

Reflection

Inquiry

advocacy

Continue…

Internal communicators need to understand:

Organisational structure

Organisational culture

Organisational history

Communication networks

Business goals and priorities

External industry environment

External stakeholders

Previous communication activities

Corporate strategies

In order to create a good internal relationship with all employees, organisations create:

‘Psychological contract’- due to low level of trust/ commitment/ loyalty

- employee and employer commitments

Corporate culture – values or practices that account for an organisation’s success

Example 1: Disney’s values

Innovation: we follow a strong tradition of innovations

Continue….

Examples 2: Tesco’s values

The way we work:- The way we work is how we

deliver. Every Little Helps to make Tesco a

better place to shop and work in. We use

simple processes so that shopping is Better for

customers, Simpler for staff and Cheaper for

Tesco

Continue….

Organisational Culture – a set of beliefs held my

members of an organisation

Example: Freedom of speech, dress code

Leadership and strategic change

A good leader provides a clear direction to

employees

‘Charismatic’ leaders – emotionally connect with

their audiences

The communication approach is important to the

credibility and effectiveness of internal

communication

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have:

examined the key issues in building internal

relationships in an organisation

outlined the changing nature of work, in particular

the importance of achieving the sense of unity

within the organisation

emphasised the importance of corporate

strategies in order to create good practices in

organisations