Homework Question

Introduction

Context

There has been a breakdown of communication at Research in Motion company and it finds itself facing negative public relations (Seijts & Bigus, 2012). Apparently, one high-level employee in the organization circulated an anonymous letter showing contempt for two co-executive officers in the company. In the letter that was quickly spread through the mainstream media, the anonymous letter describes how the leadership of the two Co-executives has led the company into a downward motion. The first concern that is brought about by this letter is products development in the company. According to the employee, little has been done to ensure that product development is enhanced (Seijts & Bigus, 2012). As a result, this is leading the company into losses and the main cause of such is the leadership of the company.

The high-level employee goes ahead to blame the leadership for the culture of the organization. The organizational culture is one which does not support development of products and optimize output of the workforce. This therefore puts the company in a negative limelight and it loses its competitive advantages over industry rivals that have more robust organizational cultures. The employee goes ahead to offer their personal insight about how they expect the company to be. Initially the company was a dominant one in the industry in which it operates. However, with the supposed negative leadership of the two executives, it has lost some of its competitive advantages to its industry rivals and as a result, lost its dominant position in the industry (Seijts & Bigus, 2012). The employee therefore expresses their desire to see the company attain its competitive advantages as before and thus compete favorably attaining profitability and meeting other business goals that will see it dominate the industry once again.

This letter circulates at a wrong time for the firm because the company has had a diminishing market share in the past year. A reduction in the market share means that the company is losing its competitive advantage and as a result losing its profitability. A shrinking market share also indicates that the company is losing some of its current clients while also not in a position to getting new ones. The company has also had failed attempts at manufacturing of new products. Such failed attempts can be attributed to lack of innovation and products development as stated by the negative letter circulated in the mainstream media. Finally, the company has suffered sinking stock prices in the same year and this can be attributed to a number of factors including ineffective workforce.

Communication goals

Looking at this case study there is a breakdown of communication between different stakeholders in the business. First is a communication breakdown between executives and managers. The case study reveals that the negative letter was written by one of the high-level employees in the organization. It is not apparent if this is one of the executives or frontline managers. However, the fact that it is a high-level employee shows that they are in a management position. When it gets to a position where a high-level employee leaks a negative letter to the mainstream media containing negative comments about a company, it means that there is communication breakdown between such leaders in the organization. The first communication goal would be to ensure that there has been mending of such a breakdown of communication between leaders in the company thus ensuring that problems such as the ones that have been explained by the high-level employee are sorted internally without having to involve mainstream media and circulating negative comments about the executives.

Breakdown of communication also exists between the leaders of the company and subordinate staff. A breakdown of communication between top management normally translates to breakdown of communication at this subordinate level. This is because, in most hierarchical organizations, communication is top down while feedback is from bottom to top. However, in this case study, there is a breakdown of communication at the leadership level. This means that if high-level employees do not have access to some of the important and vital information that leads to them circulating negative comments about a company, then it means that subordinate staff also does not have any sufficient information. This becomes very dangerous for the company because implementation of strategies is supposed to begin at the top and trickle down to the bottom.

Also, organizational culture is from the top to the bottom such that with breakdown of communication at the top, it is expected that subordinate staff will also have a breakdown of communication. The subordinate staff is the one that ensures the day-to-day business processes are run and if there is a breakdown of communication, it will result in an inefficient output from the workforce thus a company having Inefficient operational excellence that will drive it into losses. The second goal of communication therefore, from this case would be to ensure that there is effective communication of strategies and other company-sensitive information right from the executives to their subordinate staff. There also needs to be effective communication from subordinate staff right to the executives. With an effective communication in both ways, it will ensure that needs internal effectiveness through sharing of ideas and strategies all geared towards meeting of business objectives that will see the company rise back to its former glory (Zerfass et al, 2018).

There is also a breakdown of communication between the organization and its External environment including suppliers, consumers and other third-parties that have an interest in the company including investors. The negative comments that have been shared in the mainstream media had reached partners of the company, its consumers and suppliers. The company is facing negative scrutiny from its external environment as a result of such negative comments heard about the company. The third goal therefore, of communication, is to ensure that the company sets the record straight by answering to the claims that have been made publicly in the same manner. By conducting effective public relations through different channels like holding press conferences to respond to the allegations, the company is able to redeem itself from the negative scrutiny and instill confidence in its partners, consumers and suppliers that it still has the issue under control and assure them that such negative comments will not be heard of in the future (Zerfass & Viertmann, 2017). More specifically the communication goal is to ensure that the company is able to communicate and respond to its external environment and thus boost confidence in such external stakeholders of their commitment towards achieving business objectives.

Internal communication

Mediums

Currently, the company is facing a breakdown in internal communication as seen in the previous section between executives, and between executives and subordinate staff. The first medium of communication would be face to face conferences between executives. Through having closed room conferences among all executives and first-line managers, internal communication can be mended between such people to ensure effective flow of information among each other. According to Cardon (2016), the three considerations that should be made before choosing a medium include control, constraints and richness. In a closed boom conference, the scope of control is very narrow and issues affecting each of the managers and executives can be raised and handled in one sitting.

The constraints of such meetings will include the absence of a critical member of the board which is likely to incapacitate the meeting because it is expected that there should be full attendance of all stakeholders involved. The richness of such a meeting using face to face conference is at maximum because there is verbal communication that allows for decision-making and addressing of issues, unanimously agreeing before proceeding to the next issue. This will be important to the company to resolve the breakdown of communication among executives. Resolutions of such meetings will ensure that all of them have unanimously agreed on how information will be shared in dependently and enterprise wide. Such a meeting will also be effective to develop organizational culture towards one which supports development and innovation thus tackling the problem of product development. The culture of an organization is one which trickles from top to the bottom and if executives ‘walk the talk’, they are able to instill positive organizational culture to the subordinate staff.

For the communication breakdown between the managerial team and the subordinate staff, the best medium of communication is through an internal memo circulated to individual emails of employees. Contents of such memos can be agreed upon in the closed-door conference among executives and then disseminated to the entire workforce communicating some of them deliberations of such a meeting and expectations from the same. As a result, employees will be encouraged to move forward with an understanding of how conflicts have been resolved and how they expected to carry on in the workforce. Coupled with an effective organizational culture as portrayed by the executives, it will ensure that positive culture of the organization has been instilled throughout the company.

Audience

The targeted audience for internal communication would be executives and the subordinate staff that is the employees. The executives form part of the first audience that need to be addressed because the anonymous letter came from one of them meaning they are not satisfied with the leadership of the two co-executives. By meeting with and understanding the needs of the executive, it is possible that communication breakdown will be addressed and any issues affecting them mitigate it fully.

The next target audience for internal communication will be the subordinate staff. As initially stated, a breakdown of communication at the managerial level means that it has spread down to the subordinate staff level. Therefore, addressing the needs of the subordinate staff will also work to ensure that there is an enterprise wide culture of effective communication that is widespread. It also provides a chance for the employees to air out some of the grievances they have that can work to ensure more productive workforce leading to effective operations in the company that will translate into competitive advantages (Geller, n.d.).

Message

The message of the closed-door meeting will be to assure the managers of effective leadership in the company. It will also be a message that prompts reaction has two any grievances that are being faced currently the company and ideas as to how they can be mitigated (Bosworth, 2016). The anonymous letter hints that there is poor leadership among the Co-executives and also expresses insights on the desire to reattain dominance in the company. Therefore, the message of the closed-door meeting will be to assure the managers of effective leadership in the company expressing that it still has every aspect of the enterprise under control. By understanding the grievances being brought forward by managers, members of such a meeting can ensure that strategies have been developed to effectively address such challenges thereby solving any issues that may have been brought forward. In an assurance that the leadership is in a good position to handle the grievances and mitigation strategies developed to address in issues within the company and various departments, confidence will be instilled among the leaders towards meeting of common objectives of the business.

The message of the internal memo circulated to employees should be one which assures them that the issues addressed in the anonymous letter are being tackled by the executive. The letter should also contain assurance to the employees that any of their demands will be taken into consideration and encourages them to forward any grievances that they have directly to the leaders and that they will be taken into consideration. Using enticing words that communicates to the employees that their grievances are taken into account, it will boost their confidence and believe in the leadership of the company (Craig, 2017). Finally, this message should also contain deliberations from the closed-door meeting including some of them agreements on how to move forward to mitigate the negative comments aired in the media. This will communicate to the employees that any grievances that they forward will be acted upon and ensures better workforce (Geller, 2019). Contents of the letter should also encourage employees to develop a positive organizational culture and show the commitment of executives towards ensuring that they too have committed towards developing such positive cultures.

Needs and development

The needs of the company as communicated by managers and employees include effective leadership, and better communication and innovation. Such needs ought to be addressed in the internal communication to instill confidence in the enterprise about the company’s commitment towards meeting of such agreement says. For example, contents of the internal memo and the closed-door meeting should communicate that the company will invest in ensuring product development by instilling desired skills among employees to enable them be competent in meeting such demands of consumers. The letter should also show the intent of the company in changing its leadership style to one which is acceptable to the entire enterprise (Heathfield, n.d).

Support

To ensure effective meeting of company objectives, there should be commitment from both executives and employees. This will work to ensure that mitigation strategies that have been developed are actually implemented and ensure that the company continues to meet its desired objectives. Executives must take the front line towards ensuring that the strategies have been implemented by being the first ones to follow the provisions of the outlined changes. As a result, with the commitment of the executives towards change, the entire subordinate staff will follow suit thus resulting in implementation of such changes in the entire enterprise.

Conflict

Although change is inevitable, change is also painful. To ensure that the company moves forward towards implementing some of the changes that have been put down, employees will have to sacrifice some portion of their freedom and this will be met with aggression. For example, increasing periods of work per day will be met with disgruntlement among employees and this is a form of conflict. However, the company has to address these conflicts by explaining why it is important to make such sacrifices towards meeting objectives of the business and any benefits that will follow suit. This will encourage employees to have a positive attitude towards adapting to the changes and thus a more successful workforce.

External communication

Medium

The medium for communicating with the external stakeholders with the company will be press conferences and social media platforms (Viens, 2019). By holding a press conference to publicly explain an answer to the allegations made against the company, it will communicate transparency and instill confidence in our external stakeholders. Further, because the letter was circulated publicly, we need to use an avenue that will ensure all of the external stakeholders have had a chance to hear the side of the company in the whole story (Revlocal.Com, 2018). A press conference that is circulated in the mainstream media will work to ensure that all external stakeholders affected by negative scrutiny have actually had an explanation from the company to reassure them that the company has control of the matter (Hall, 2019).

Also, most people nowadays use mobile phones and computers because of development in information technology (Revlocal.Com, 2017). As a result, the company will also use our social media platforms to disseminate contents of the press conference (Smart insights, 2020). Most of the consumers of the company's product will have access to such information explaining how the company intends to improve on matters that were discussed in the anonymous letter. This way it will work to ensure that they have been assured of better performance by the company thus continued support for the company.

Audience

When the letter was circulated in the mainstream media, different external stakeholders of the company got access to it and were negatively affected. Therefore, the audience of this external communication will include consumers of the company’s products, suppliers, partners of the company, and any other third parties that are affiliated with the company. The company needs to disseminate positive information that will work to inform them of its commitment towards reclaiming its former glory.

Message

The message that is supposed to be One which assures its external stakeholders of its commitment towards achieving the mission and vision statement of the company. Negative comments have been aired towards the executives and leadership of the company, inability of the company to move forward through product development and negative culture within the workforce. The message to external stakeholders of the company is one which should address each and every one of these allegations. The company should not try to defend itself from the allegations but instead own up to its mistakes and communicate strategies it is employing towards ensuring such movements have been addressed.

For example, the company should state its commitment towards ensuring effective leadership has been administered throughout the company. The company should show its commitment towards ensuring a positive culture has been instilled among its workforce and its investment towards ensuring product development has been achieved. The company should take positively the critics of the anonymous letter and even thank such whistleblowers for exposing some of the weaknesses of the company. It should then communicate through the various channels of mainstream and social media, the different strategies it is going to employ to go back to its former glory. With an understanding of the problems it is currently facing, the company should communicate that it has everything under control and assure its stakeholders of its commitment to achieving its mission and vision.

Conflict

There is likely to be a mistrust among the external stakeholders as to some of the strategies that have been in place to mitigate the negative limelight of the company. For example, there will be many calls from external stakeholders to lay down the two Co-executives who have been negatively associated with the company’s downfall. However, the company should communicate that it has everything under control and this solution does not lie in changing such executives but in changing their styles of leadership that will ensure meeting of prior set objectives.

Follow up

Mission, vision, and goals

The message that the company is communicating is that, it is committed towards meeting its business objectives as guided by the mission, vision and goals. The mission, vision, and goals of the company communicate that it wants to be customer-centric in its operations while ensuring that the welfare of its employees has been catered for and providing sustainability to the general community and world. This is the utilitarianism philosophy that the company ascribes to. Looking at the message, the company first shows its commitment to its employees by assuring them of better communication between themselves and the executives. The company communicates that it is ready to listen to grievances put forward by employees and act upon them effectively to ensure the company moves forward as one. This shows commitment to its employees as outlined by the mission, vision and goals.

The company also shows its customer-centric ability guided by its mission and vision by assuring consumers that it is going to invest in product development and instill positive culture in the organization that will increase their work force output and thus ensure meeting of consumer needs and consumer satisfaction. Also, by showing that the company has agreed to invest in positive culture right from its executives, it shows commitment to its corporate social responsibility and sustainability of the planet by employment of effective strategies that will work for the better good of everyone in the society.

Monitor and Measure: Internal

To monitor and measure the effectiveness of the internal communication, we will first have to determine if employees are positively accepting and adapting to the new culture of the organization. A positive rate of adapting to the culture shows that employees are committed towards ensuring they have understood the changes in the company and their commitment towards adapting to such changes. This will show that there is effective reception of the message that was shared internally. Positive response from some of the employees and managers will guide understanding of weather positive communication has been employed in the company. More feedback from employees will be a measure of the confidence that employees are airing out any grievances that they have or sharing insights about areas to be improved within the company.

Monitor and measure: External

Engagement in the social media platforms including likes, comments and shares of our posts will work to ensure we have understood if the information shared to our external stakeholders was received positively or negatively. Increased appreciation of the commitment of the company towards ensuring it has improved will be measure that the message was received positively and that external stakeholders still believe in the efforts that the company is putting forward to ensure it has met its business objectives. Positive response shared by suppliers, partners and other stockholders of the company indicating a show of faith in the company’s commitment towards meeting its objectives will measure the effectiveness of external communication strategies that were employed by the company.

Lessons Learnt

Communication is important for any business to ensure it has met its objectives. The case study reveals how communication breakdown can see the company lose its competitive advantages and receive negative public scrutiny. However, it is possible to mitigate the impact of communication breakdown by developing effective strategies to handle communication breakdown in the company. In the process of developing communication strategies, one has to ensure they are aware of the areas suffering from communication breakdown. This will inform what needs to be addressed to mitigate such areas. This will be followed by an understanding of the target audience, the medium that is supposed to be used to disseminate in the communication and the contents of such messages. One should also anticipate conflicts that arise as a result of the communication made, areas of support and how to mitigate such conflicts to ensure effective perception of the message and meeting all its intended objective. With effective communication of both its internal and external stakeholders, Research in Motion can ensure that it has increased efficiency in the workforce, molded positive public relations with its external stakeholders and increased its rate of meeting business objectives and thus profitability and maintaining competitive advantage against industry rivals.

References

Bosworth, P. (2016). The Power of Good Communication in the Workplace. Retrieved from Leadership Choice: https://leadershipchoice.com/power-good-communication-workplace/

Craig, W. (2017, August 29). How Positive Employee Morale Benefits Your Business. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2017/08/29/how-positive-employee-morale-benefits-your-business/#2a5b5fa72549

Geller, J. S. (2019, June 30). Open letter to BlackBerry bosses: Senior RIM exec tells all as company crumbles around him. Retrieved from BGR: https://bgr.com/2011/06/30/open-letter-to-blackberry-bosses-senior-rim-exec-tells-all-as-company-crumbles-around-him/

Geller, J. S. (n.d.). Open letter to BlackBerry bosses: Senior RIM exec tells all as company crumbles around him. Retrieved from BGR: https://bgr.com/2011/06/30/open-letter-to-blackberry-bosses-senior-rim-exec-tells-all-as-company-crumbles-around-him/

Hall, J. (2019, April 22). How To Choose The Right Medium For Your Message. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2014/04/20/how-to-choose-the-right-medium-for-your-message/?sh=672d626b2932

Heathfield, S. M. (n.d.). Executive Support and Leadership in Change Management. Retrieved from The Balance Careers. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/executive-support-and-leadership-in-change-management-1917803

Revlocal.Com.(2017). How to Reach Generation Z With These 5 Marketing Strategies. Retrieved from https://www.revlocal.com/blog/digital-marketing/how-to-reach-generation-z-with-these-5-marketing-strategies

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Seijts, J. & Bigus, P. (2012). Research in Motion: Sincerely a RIM Employee (A). Retrieved from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W12914-PDF-ENG?itemFindingMethod=Other#:~:text=Research%20in%20Motion%3A%20Sincerely%2C%20a%20RIM%20Employee%20(B)&text=On%20June%2030%2C%202011%2C%20Research,of%20their%20own%20senior%20executives.

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