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implications and effects. Many managers see
employee communication as a ‘black box’.
Communication is either everything in the
organization (vision, strategy, business planning,
management meetings, information
flow, knowledge management, etc.) or it is
nothing more than publications intended to
keep the communication staff busy and the
employees informed of the company news.
Many managers see communication as simply
process, or the way to get information to
people, not as content, the meaningful messages
delivered by the process. To be effective,
employee communication must be both
process and content, which positions communication
on more of a strategic level within
an organization.
Effective employee communication must
be fully integrated into all aspects of a company’s
business. It is integral to the strategy
as well as essential to communication of that
strategy. Effective employee communication
informs and educates employees at all levels
in the company’s strategy, and it also motivates
and positions employees to support
the strategy and the performance goals.
During change, communication becomes
even more linked to the strategic success.
For effective employee communication during
major change, the change communication
must at a minimum accomplish the
following:
1 ensure clear and consistent messages to
educate employees in the company
vision, strategic goals, and what the
change means to them;
2 motivate employee support for the company’s
new direction;
3 encourage higher performance and discretionary
effort;
4 limit misunderstandings and rumours that
may damage productivity; and finally,
5 align employees behind the company’s
strategic and overall performance improvement
goals.
The strategic employee communication model
and change communication approach are
designed to help management accomplish
these goals.
The strategic employee
communication model and best
practices
The strategic employee communication model
(Figure 2.1) helps clarify the strategic role
communication plays in the day-to-day success
of any company as well as during major
change and can help overcome the ‘everything’
and the ‘publication-limited’ perceptions
of communication. The model and
its components emerged from research into
several Fortune 500 companies to find out
what really works when it comes to employee
communication. 1 While no company exemplifies
each best practice exactly, the better companies
demonstrate many of the best-practice
definitions. In a change programme, the
model and the best-practice definitions can
serve as benchmarks against which to measure
a company’s employee communication
strengths and weaknesses as well as a model
of effective change communications.
The model captures all of the major components
of employee communication, linking
them to each other and to the company’s
strategy and operations. Thus, it works analytically
to break employee communication
down into manageable, recognizable parts;
at the same time, it shows how intertwined
and interdependent each part is when employee
communication is positioned strategically
as it must be to facilitate change. The
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors