Assignment

COMMUNICATION 2

Communication

Students Name:

COMMUNICATION 2

University Affiliation:

Change has always been and will always be inevitable. This is because most of the things that man has to change to are necessary for their survival. Technology has been on the rise in recent years, and most people have greatly resisted the change bit today. It is significant for survival reasons as to why it has been accepted widely. In organizations, change has to be implemented now and then to ensure that the organization remains in the competition. Change is not very easy to implement as it faces a lot of resistance. One of the strategies that help implement change successfully is open communication which will help the people affected by the change be mentally prepared.

Communication has to be made to all the stakeholders of an organization. In the simplest terms possible, a stakeholder can be defined as any party interested in a company. It can affect or be affected by the business being conducted by the organization. The main stakeholders of any organization are the employees. This is because, without them, nothing can go on in an organization. The second stakeholders are the consumers since if they decide not to buy from the organization, they will greatly affect the organization. The third stakeholder is the communities, government, suppliers, and trade associations, all of whom play a great role in the organizations.

There are different ways through which the intended change can be communicated to the stakeholders. However, not every method is effective, and the organization has to ensure that they choose the most effective one. The mode of communication used has to be very convincing, as change cannot be conducted without the support of all the stakeholders. For instance, if the employees were to agree to the change and the investors feel that the change is not necessary, it cannot be successful since if they do not invest their money, the organization will have nothing to use as capital to run the organization (Richardson,1996).

The first group of stakeholders that is very important to communicate is the investors. This is because they are the people with the financial power, and they keep the organization running financially. Investors are not always available reasons why calling a face-to-face meeting with them that is only meant for communicating the change is almost impossible. For this reason, the best time to communicate the change to them is through the organization's annual general meeting. During these meetings, the financial officer is given the duty to analyze how much profits the organization has made and what plan to increase these numbers in the next financial year. It becomes very easy to communicate the change since it might be the solution they are looking for. To make the change more vivid, a copy of the vision created earlier will be emailed to each investor. Depending on the magnitude of the pandemic, the meeting might have to be conducted online to follow the government guidelines and regulations.

The second group of stakeholders that is very important to communicate to is the employees. Speaking to individual employees might not be the very effective reason why the best thing to do is to talk to all heads of departments the organizations. the team will organize a lunch meeting will all heads of departments where they will be introduced to the change that is about to take place. They will be taken through the vision written so that they can see the bigger picture. This is the best thing to do because not all employees will be affected the same way by the change. The effects of the change will vary according to different departments. Each department head is expected to know how their department is affected, and then they will call for a meeting with the employees to whom they will communicate about all the changes; the employees emailed a copy of the vision emails (Wallbaum, 2010 ).

Consumers are the most vital stronghold of the organizations out of all the other stakeholders. This is because they can determine whether the organization will make profits or they will make losses. The consumer has the buying power of products or services that are being offered. In this case, several modes of communication have to be used to communicate about the change. This is necessary since the organization targets different groups of consumers. The first way through which communication about the change will be made is through social media. This means that the organization will post videos and even images of how the organization will be doing things after the long-waited change is implemented. The consumers will also be emailed copies of the change intended and how the change will benefit them. In this case, the organization should make the changing consumer-centric as possible. Phone technology such as SMS can be used to contact individual consumers.

The other group of stakeholders that need to be communicated to is the suppliers. This is because they play a huge role in ensuring that the organization is delivering products or services. It isn't easy to get all the suppliers in a physical meeting, and this is because most of them are not anywhere near the organization, and others are located overseas. For this reason, the best way to communicate with them is through an online call where all of them can be able to join.

The last step of communication will be listening to the views of the different groups on the change about to be implemented. This is because they might all have different ideas, not necessarily to resist change but to make change better suited for them. For instance, the suppliers may feel that their invoices should be sent to them online, which will help them save more time. The team will also hold a conference meeting with those available physically and answer all the questions that people may have regarding the change. This will help increase buy-in of the change in the organization. Questionnaires will also be handed out to evaluate people’s opinions on the change (Harbord, 2011).

Questionnaire

Dear sir/madam, I hope this questionnaire finds you well. It aims to evaluate the thoughts of different stakeholders on the changes that are about to be implemented. Your honesty in answering the questionnaire will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Name…………………………………………….

Position in the organization…………………………….

1. Are there any changes you have always wished for?……………………………

2. How do you think they would help the organization? ………………………

3. What are your thoughts on change suggested ?…………………..

4. Do you think it will help the organization ?…………………….how?………………..

5. Do you think it will help you as an individual ?…………………………….

6. What do you think should be added to the change?………………….

7. What should be removed from the change………………………..

8. Any other remarks?……………………………………………….

References

Harbord, J. (2011). Writing in Central and Eastern Europe: Stakeholders and directions in initiating change. The Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals 2010, 3.

Richardson, P., & Denton, D. K. (1996). Communicating change. Human Resource Management, 35(2), 203-216.

Wallbaum, H., Silva, L., du Plessis, C., Cole, R., Hoballah, A., & Krank, S. (2010, April). Motivating stakeholders to deliver change. In 3rd International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction-“Reinventing Construction”, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City.