The face-to-face communication medium is a reliable interaction method that can facilitate the sharing of ideas. As a form of oral communication, this mode of interaction facilitates the transfer of data from the sender to the receiver through verbal and visual aid. The face-to-face medium is the most natural medium that arises from the natural selection of the most efficient way of data exchange between different stakeholders. The medium allows users to share essential data, offer a clear explanation, and enable the audience to connect with it. Face-to-face is the medium of choice since it remains one of the wealthiest communication mediums allowing simultaneous interpersonal exchange ranging from the tone of voice, linguistic content, gaze direction, facial expressions, and postures (Prabavathi & Nagasubramani, 2018). Since the communication issues within this company require a human touch, there is a need for instant communication, detailed explanation of concepts, development of a direct relationship, and immediate response on how companies can address the issue, which is only attainable through one-on-one communication channels. Hence, face-to-face contact will be one of the most effective oral communication channels to improve internal communication within any firm.
Internal Communication: Audience
The primary audience of this internal message is the employees who manage daily business operations. Precisely, the directive intends to inform the employees on the importance of communicating with one another and sharing ideas as a strategy to enhance corporate productivity while still maintaining healthy working relationships. However, in culturally diverse workplaces, it is evident that the employees might have different beliefs and opinions that influence their communication strategies and effectiveness. According to Hendrith (2018), culture greatly influences communication through various aspects like language and non-verbal cues, which may have different meanings across cultures. The diversity of languages, communication forms, and signs affects employee communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution strategies. Altogether, regardless of the cultural differences, this message will take the employees as the primary audience, who can help the company create a favorable environment to strengthen communication processes.
Internal Communication: Message
As an organization, we have experienced numerous communication challenges, which adversely affected corporate productivity and performance. The lack of practical communication skills within the organization has reduced productivity and profitability within the firm. Indeed, poor communication channels and processes have adversely affected interactions during one-on-one meetings and training of the marketing employees. The company’s product development and innovation levels have considerably declined due to a lack of open platforms to dialogue and share ideas. With the ongoing business internalization, we must use product development and corporate performance as the only source of our competitiveness. It is, therefore, essential to enhance our cooperation skills and create a favorable working environment.
As a strategy to solve the communication challenges that adversely affect the company, all the stakeholders have a role to play in solving the challenges. First, this company should set up open communication in-person meetings to help introduce a favorable environment to all the new workers. Specifically, the company should create a fair working environment that appreciates the worker’s openness and stresses freedom of expression. We expect all the senior employees within the firm to approach the junior workers with a friendlier other than an official tone to make them more comfortable and contented to work for the company. Secondly, given that people are different and hold diverse beliefs and opinions, the company stakeholders should understand the employees at the individual levels and create a conducive environment for them to engage in business development processes. In other words, the company can solve the current communication and product development issues by creating a favorable and accommodative environment for every employee.
Additionally, applying the principle of change management, the workers need to understand their role in enhancing the company communication process. Understanding diverse communication styles to accommodate different personalities to ensure effective conversations. Developing good body language and being familiar with different audiences improves communication. Since we all work jointly within the company, the employees should understand each other’s roles to prevent conflicts and limited productivity. With this information, it is expected that the employees should alter their communication approaches and boost their understanding of the corporate vision and mission.
Internal Communications: Needs and Development
This internal message puts into consideration the employee’s needs and development. First, the news appreciated the role of the employees in improving the communication process and overall organizational productivity. Their recognition addressed employees’ belonging needs, whereby the workers seek to belong to a cohesive and supportive team. Their praise and illustration of their role made them feel valued and addressed their social needs. Besides, by advocating for a healthy working environment, I supported the employee’s development needs since communication would allow them to share ideas, information, and thoughts to make them more productive. Indeed, according to Radovic Markovic & Salamzadeh (2018), clear and effective communication of the corporate goals to workers is a reliable strategy to enhance the employees’ trust in the corporate leadership and their productivity. Hence, the messaging met both the employee’s social and development needs.
Internal Communications: Support
The company is putting a wide range of considerations to make the change in the corporate communication strategies more compelling to the employees. The company intends to effectively manage the difference at every level, from the senior to the middle managers and the frontline employees, to create a favorable environment that accommodates employees of all levels. The company will make the responsibilities of every employee clear and make them understand the reasons for changing the company’s communication change processes. Besides, to help the workforce manage change, the management intends to approach the transition with apathy through an enhanced understanding of the employee’s emotions and needs. According to a survey by Culver et al. (2020), communication, the creation of a supportive environment, and healthy feedback are some of the approaches that an organization can use to enhance employee work experiences. Regardless of the employee reactions, the available evidence shows that setting a positive, honest, and compelling narrative can help encounter the emergence of any form of confusion, anxiety, and rumors.
Internal Communications: Conflict
One of the most potential conflicts to emerge in this case is the resistance to change by some of the business employees. Employees hold on to the habits they think are easy to follow and familiar. Since change can be stressful, the difference can cause conflict between the management and the team members. Many employees face anger, denial, and confusion before embracing change (Chavan & Bhattacharya, 2022). Thus, it is common for humans to resist the unknown, and it is not uncommon for this resistance to turn to hostility. The denial will, in turn, lead to resistance and coordination within the workplace.
Additionally, personality differences can cause conflicts due to different expectations of the change process. Different experiences, preferences, backgrounds, and temperaments can affect the operation of internal communication and acceptability of the perceived change. Indeed, the internal communication process can generate personality clashes due to conflicting work approaches, differing life outlooks, incompatible personalities, and diverse cultural backgrounds. Hence, although the company seeks to promote a conducive environment and accommodates various views, it can lead to the emergence of personality conflicts.
References
Chavan, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2022). Study of employees’ behavior during organizational change: effects of business theatre on Kübler-Ross model. Cardiometry, (22), p. 237-243.
Culver, K. C., Young, R. L., & Barnhardt, C. L. (2020). Communicating support: Examining perceived organizational support among faculty members with differing appointment types. Innovative Higher Education, 45(4), 299-315.
Hendrith, M. (2018). The effects culture and communication have on businesses. Integrated Studies, 120. Web.
Prabavathi, R., & Nagasubramani, P. C. (2018). Effective oral and written communication. Journal of Applied and Advanced Research, 3(1), 29-32.
Radovic Markovic, M., & Salamzadeh, A. (2018). The importance of communication in business management. In Radovic Markovic, M., & Salamzadeh, A.(2018). The Importance of Communication in Business Management, The 7th International Scientific Conference on Employment, Education and Entrepreneurship, Belgrade, Serbia.