Week 4

I think the key points to remember from the Gray's chapter entitled 'internal communications' in the new Australian and New Zealand public relations manual,

1. illustrates an in-depth view of the workings of internal communications within large organisations.

2. in large, communicators should prescribe to their organisation's values to effectively communicate these to employees within the organisation structure in order to change behaviour within the environment. There will be an objective for a change of behaviour that is usually to achieve economics of sales.

3. There are many tools that the communicator may use transfer information within the organisation to enable change. These include the traditional media formats of newsletters and magazines, digital media such an email, intranet, sms live television. Research shows that the most effective form of communication that impacts upon employee behaviour is the face to face contact with company executives.

4. Communicators must remember that communication is a tailored process and it must meet the needs of the organisation. However one communication process for a particular organisation may not be appropriate for another.

This weeks readings made me think of the necessary strategies a communicator must utilise in order to communicate effectively within an organisation. Change is better effected when communication lines are open between executive, management, supervisors and front line employees. Success can be measured by the rate of participation from employees that are aligned to an organisation's set values. On the other hand, if the communication process does not enable open communication between front line employees and management through various means, but especially face to face, morale is usually found to be low.