NM2219 Principles of Communication Management

Week 8 / March 10, 2010

Fran Nathan

Part I. Internal Relations & Employee Communication

What is Internal Relations?

- Defined as building and maintaining relationships with all the publics within an
organization. It is one of the major activities/specialties of PR.

- The goal of internal relations is to establish and maintain mutually beneficial

relationships between an organization and the employees on whom its success or
failure depends. (Sound familiar?)

Why is Internal Relations important?

- Internal publics are an organization’s most important public.

Effective two-way communication is the foundation for management-employee

relations. In fact, internal communications is viewed as more important than
communications with external publics. Why?

Need understanding, teamwork and commitment by employees to achieve

organizational goals and objectives.

(Internal communications is viewed as more important than external publics

because excellence in internal communication influences the effectiveness of an
organization in attaining its goals, whether in business or otherwise.)

(An organization cannot survive or excel unless its employees subscribe to

organizational goals (that have to be communicated within all levels of an
organization).

Why engage staff?

“Loyal employees in any company create loyal customers, who in turn create
happy shareholders. The process sounds easy but it’s not, and it has defeated
some of the bigger organizations of the 20th century.” - Sir Richard Branson

Two developments shaping internal communication:

- Organizations are beginning to understand that effective communication shapes

positive worker behaviours that contribute to bottom-line results

- Organizations are beginning to understand that good managers are also good
communicators; every supervisor is accountable for communicating effectively
with subordinates
Effective Internal relationships

- Confidence & trust between employee & employer

- Honest, candid info flowing freely vertically and horizontally. Read p. 250 for the
textbook discussion on “Listening to Employees”.

- Satisfying status & participative culture

- Strife-free work

- Healthy/safe surroundings

- Success for organization

- Optimism for the future

The Impact of Culture

Culture plays an important role in influencing an organization’s practices and the
internal communications within an organization. It impacts which model of PR is
used, and how one organization differs from another.

- Organizational Culture is defined in various ways (see p. 233), including:

- Shared meanings & assumptions of group members

- Common values system

- Behavioral norms

Two theoretical perspectives based on culture help us to understand organizational

culture:

- Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture

- Systems Theory (Worldview)

Hofstede’s Dimensions
Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture are: Power Distance, Individualism, Uncertainty
Avoidance, and Masculinity.

1. Power Distance: The extent to which people see inequities as natural and
fixed. High: Top-down comm. from management. Low: Direct interaction
with CEO, blogs for employees to converse with management. See Google
example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_qG1NPsSwBA&feature=channel

2. Individualism: The extent that people put their individual needs ahead of the
needs of the group. High: Emphasis on competition & individual achievement.
Low: Focus on team goals & achievement
 3. Uncertainty Avoidance: The extent to which people prefer communication
and structures that reduce their social anxiety. Low: More tolerant of
ambiguities, lower resistance to change, more risk-taking, organizations with
low uncertainty avoidance are more likely to use two-way PR activities. High:
Prefer clear instructions, less risk-taking.

4. Masculinity: The extent to which male-related behaviors are evident. High:

Competition. Low: Nurturing, cooperation

Note: Hofstede’s work focused on national cultures or averages or tendencies,

not characteristics of individuals. Is there a uniform national culture?

Systems Theory
- Ecological approach that classifies organizations in terms of open systems vs.
closed systems.
- Organizations receive input from environment and adjust themselves in
response to the input from the environment.

- Symmetrical worldview (Open)

- Focus on aligning organization goals with publics’ expectations/goals
- Negotiation, dialogue, & compromise
- Power is shared with publics

-Asymmetrical worldview (Closed)

- Achieve goals without changing
- Resist change
- Power is held by the organization, not shared with publics

Symmetrical Worldview is characterized by Participative Organizational Worldview

Symmetrical worldview: Incorporates negotiation, conflict resolution and

compromise in operations. Produces participative culture. Values dialogue and
feedback

- Decentralized decision-making
- Values dialogue & exchange of input
- Feedback, upward communication
- Teamwork, collective goals
- Integrated or multifunctional departments
- Organic structure
- Morphogenesis to maintain homeostasis

Asymmetrical Worldview is characterized by Authoritarian Organizational Culture

- Structured, formalized communication; top to bottom
- Top-level decision-making/centralized
- Little/no input from mid-/low-level employees
- Individual accountability
- Independent organizational departments
- Mechanistic structure
Multinational Organizations
Multinational corporations have two or more cultures. They face unique challenges in
resolving cultural differences.

Problems:
- Training new employees
- Communication between managers and workers
- Integration of new workers

One model that helps explain the work of PR practitioners in the new global economy
is the Co-acculturation Model, defined as simultaneous orientation toward each other
and toward aspects of each other’s culture.

PR staff function as cultural messengers within and outside the organization

Culture and power

 Ability to affect outcomes
 Formal: Authority to carry out responsibilities
 Informal: Influence
 Dominant coalition
 Holds the most power
 Determines goals and how business conducted
 Members hold similar ideas and agree on outcomes

Dominant coalition & PR

 PR function gains power when dominant coalition values it as a vital
function
 Seat at the table
 Input into strategic decision-making
 Assures opinions of publics considered
 Decisions more balanced and enduring, with fewer negative reactions

Contexts of Internal Communication

Internal communication is not practiced in isolation but is an integral component that
addresses and occurs within important legal and business realities that include:

1. Safety and compliance. Different countries use different governing

standards; there is a need to educate employees about the compliance with
government regulations. In essence, internal communication is a means to
communicate with employees about country standards, government
regulations and worker safety rules (see p. 237)
 2. Labour relations. Labour relations are an important component in internal
relations in organizations that operate in environments with strong labour
movements.

- In particular, there is a need for internal relations to navigate the tensions over
control of resource allocations.

3. Communicating change & uncertainties - Mergers, Acquisitions, & Layoffs

These are aspects of organizational change that impact employees and create great
uncertainties and anxieties for publics within an organization.

Goals of Internal communication:

Internal communication plays an important role in acculturating employees
through various methods.

Objectives:
Help employees understand organization’s mission
Key issues affecting the organization
Information needed to perform assignments
Promote organizational standards, improve service, and increase social
responsibility
Recognize employees’ achievements
Promote organizational culture through policies and training

The organization’s culture is often articulated in:

 Vision statements
 Mission statements
 Policy documents
 Training materials
 Ethics statements

Informing Employees through Nonmediated Communication:

- The grapevine (“word of mouth” – neither controlled nor formal but is
often the quickest means for communicating information. Could be risky
because of unreliable or possibly “enhanced” information.
- Meetings, teleconferences, videoconferences

Informing Employees through Mediated Communication in the forms of:

- Printed publications: Newsletter, inserts, speeches, bulletin boards
- Hotlines
- Intranet
- E-mail
- New media: Podcasts, blogs, Facebook

Controlled media are the primary methods for communicating with internal publics
because internal publics are a form of “captive public” and easy to reach through
controlled media such as newsletters and intranets.
 II. External Media & Media Relations

Controlled vs. Uncontrolled Media

1. When using controlled media, PR practitioners have direct control over:

- What is said

- How it is said

- When it is said

- To whom it is said

2. Uncontrolled media: PR has no direct role in decisions about media content

Practitioners use both forms to communicate with the publics but choose one over the
other depending on the context and characteristics of the public. For example,
external publics, unlike internal publics, are large and dispersed and prove a challenge
for controlled media efforts.

Impact of Technology

- Technology has changed PR practitioners’ approach because

- More fragmented audiences exist today, with greater reliance on niche media

- More active audiences are preferring interactivity/two-way communication

- The definition of “journalist” has changed, allowing bloggers and citizen

journalists to produce & disseminate media content

Traditional Media

Effective, economical means of communicating with large & widely dispersed publics

- Newspapers

- Wire services & news syndicates

- Magazines

- Radio

- TV

- Cable & Satellite TV

New Media
- Mostly Internet-based media
 Three challenges:

- Staying abreast of new technology

- Conducting media relations with untraditional “journalists”

- Representing organizations in the new media environment

Media Relations

- PR practitioners must build & maintain relationships of mutual respect and trust
with media gatekeepers. Gatekeeping is the internal newsroom process through
which news is filtered for publication.

- The relationships between PR practitioners and journalists are both:

- Symbiotic (Mutually beneficial/dependent), and

- Adversarial:

- Arises from different communication goals

- Serves the public interest

- Fulfills needs of the public information system

Working with the Media

Guidelines for media relations (p. 274):

- Be honest

- Provide newsworthy, interesting, timely stories

- Do not beg, whine or threaten

- Do not ask for “kills”

- Do not flood the media

See also “Guidelines for working with the Press” on pp. 276-278

Limits to Info Given to Journalists

- PR practitioners must balance the public’s right to know and their clients’ interests,
keeping in mind that there are limits to information given to or sought by journalists:
 - Confidentiality

- Individual privacy

- Propriety information

Embargo is another form of control over information given to journalists.

- An embargoed release is a press release or information shared with the media well in
advance of its publishing date. This is an understanding between PR
practitioners and journalists that they will not publish/broadcast the news item
until the specified date and time, for example, “Embargoed until 8am on March
22, 2010.”

Media Relations in Singapore

Much of PR practice in Singapore is media relations because PR in Singapore:

- is a relatively young field

- has lower status compared with advertising or marketing

- is not used as a strategic business tool, and PR professionals do not practice

strategic public relations mostly due to a lack of training

Media Relations in Singapore

- Is characterized by a dominance of the Press Agentry Model

- Practitioners view their main purpose as getting publicity for their

organizations

- PR is synonymous with publicity

- Role of PR is to build favorable image of organization through dissemination

of positive information to media and publics
- The technician role is more dominant than the managerial role

- Primary forms of evaluation: maintaining media clippings, tracking the

number of people who use a product or attend an event.

Media Relations in Singapore

 The main activities of PR practitioners include:

- Writing press releases

- Coordinating events

- Media scanning (The most frequently used method of evaluating a PR

programme is by measuring volume & quality of press coverage

- Conducting media relations - “Take a journalist To Lunch” Day

- Handling customer/public complaints - Involves monitoring the Forum pages

of the local newspapers (e.g. The Straits Times), and responding to letters to
the editors from members of the public to complain about products/services

Media Relations in Singapore

- The Public Information Model is the second most prevalent model in Singapore.

Practitioners in government agencies tend to favour this model compared Press

Agentry

- Communicating economic or civic policies

- Government and statutory boards use PR to plan & execute public

information campaigns

- Focus on communicating accurately & truthfully

Media Relations in Singapore

In Singapore, “personal friendships” play an important role in media relations:

- Guanxi is most apparent in media relations

- Defining Guanxi: Two ideographs: “Guan” functions both as an action-

verb (“to close,” “to shut”). “Xi” means a physical site (“gateway,”
“pass”) or a state of affairs (“barrier”)

- Complex concept that goes beyond dropping names, networking,

socializing in formal and informal settings

- Rooted in a deep sense of trust, mutual obligation, and face-giving.

- Friendships with journalists (who are gatekeepers) to generate publicity favourable

to- their organizations.
- Many PR practitioners in Singapore are former journalists.

- Their close ties with journalists and their background in journalism shape
their PR approach toward the media.

- Building and maintaining relationships through practices of gift-giving,

goodie bags, junkets, media luncheons to journalists.

- The unique characteristics of media relations in Singapore has led scholars to

explain media relations in Singapore through a Personal Influence Model of
Media Relations instead of a Western-oriented model of media relations
(based on a more adversarial notion of media relations, especially when media
view themselves as watchdogs and the fourth estate).

Media Relations in Singapore

Although the Singapore media is receptive toward PR, there are differences among
the media:

- The Chinese-language media tend to be more receptive to PR efforts than

English-language and foreign media

- Local media are more supportive/less adversarial than foreign media toward
PR efforts

- In some cases, guanxi is sometimes not as important as the newsworthiness

of a story or event.

- Problem:
These practices based on guanxi raise the issue of ethics.