Internal Communication: A Logistical Nightmare? Essay Example

Communication is extremely important in the business industry and the article “Internal Communication: A Logistical Nightmare?” discusses the challenges of successful communication (Evans, 2008). According to the article, communication helps employees to understand the company’s vision and to build relationships that contribute to success. However, there are many logistical aspects of enhancing a company’s communication and it is important that these considerations are used to enhance performance in the workplace.

To build effective internal communication, it is necessary for companies to define a specific “communications plan” that all employees should follow. A major aspect of this plan is to define which employees will need to interact with one another and how they should do so. It is also important to consider that certain forms of communication are more effective than others. Therefore, a company might require important questions to be conveyed face to face rather than in the form of a phone call or e-mail. On the other hand, less important but more immediately necessary messages should be transmitted by these means because speed is more essential than the mode of delivery.

This article explains that in the logistics and transport sector, it’s important to ensure that certain messages are consistent. It is important for every employee, regardless of their skill level or position, to fully understand what is being asked of them. It is also important to ensure that every individual actually reaches this message. Therefore, rather than having an in-person announcement in each department, it would be more beneficial to provide an e-mail communication. Thus, even if an employee is not currently in the office when the message is distributed, he or she will have the opportunity to learn what was said later on.

The manner in which the communication is presented is important as well. While it is necessary for messages to be truthful, it is also essential that they are not offensive. If a message is providing bad news, it is beneficial to provide this news in a way that lessens the impact of the negative message. Furthermore, company-wide internal communications should never point out one individual. Rather, it should approach issues and concerns that the company is having by treating it as an action or decision that has been made, rather than stating it has been made by a specific individual. In this way, company employees will be less likely to make the same mistake again and the employee that made the mistake does not feel singled out.

The article explains that once a communication plan has been established, it’s important to carefully consider the implementation process. It recommends that this process should focus on bottom-up communication because providing messages to lower level employees, where departments are typically larger, is more important than communicating within upper management. Since upper management is typically well aware of what is going on inside the company, it’s essential to focus on how to effectively bring their message to the rest of the employees. Different communication methods are appropriate for different situations. In some instances, e-mail, phone calls, or in-person communication is the best. While some individuals still support written messages, it is important to consider that unlike e-mail or phone communication, these messages could become lost. In order to confirm that the message was received, it may be useful to require a “mark as read” or “mark as listened” option for these type of communications. If the employee cannot be reached in these ways, other methods could be tried.

References

Evans R. (2008). Internal communication: a logistical nightmare? Supply Chain, 24-27.