Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The role of communication - Coggle Diagram
The role of communication
Communication during change is vital to manage employee uncertainty and feelings of a loss of control
It is important to establish the need for change and to identify what will be changed
Communication is the activity of conveying information and there is a great deal of information to convey during change
Information about the change problem, process, progress and the desired outcome of the change will all need to be shared with a broad range of stakeholders
Communication is also required to gain peoples invovlement
The purpose of communication should not be one way, simply to inform staff of change but two way with managers listening and encouraging participation - should be regular and not a one off exercise
Change message
The message, verbal or non verbal, that one person transmits to another will to a certain extent depend upon the stakeholder and their needs
While the primary target of any change communication will tend to be the employees, there are other internal and external stakeholders to consider
The first job is to identify which stakeholders are most affectedly the change
In communicating with different stakeholders, a central core message will need to be maintained
The level of detail and importance of particular aspects of the change process will vary according to stakeholder
Communicating change
The effectiveness of communication depends upon the communicator, their creditability and track recordd
Recipients of a message absorb more information than just the words; they look at body language and interpret intonation and the words and phrases used
As the original message is passed on through gossip and informal channels, these subtleties are lost and the message and its meaning become distorted
One of the ways of reducing the possibility of misinterpretation is through message repetition - this may eb repeating get same message a number of times or by relating the same message in different ways
Communication does just have to be written or verbal but it can also be symbolic, eg changes of routine, stories or symbols
Timing and channel
To make people aware of the need to change and involve them in the process, organisations make use of a wide range of formal and informal communication chanells
A channel is a medium through which a message is transmitted to its intended audience
Face to face or personal communication is one of the richest channels of communication that can be used within an organisation, though they are time consuming and resource hungry
A physical prescience, the tone of the speaker's voice and facial expressions help recipients of a message interpret that message as the speaker intends; it also builds trust and shows commitment - this is the best chnnale for us for complex or emotionally charges messages because it allows for interaction between speaker and recipients to clarify ambiguity
A speaker can evaluate whether an audience has received his message as intended through feedback and ask or answer follow up questions
Written communication should be used when a message that does not require interaction needs to be communicated to an employee or group
Policies, letters, memos, notices and announcements are all messages that work well for this channel
When to communicate is just as important as what to communicate, the problem is that very often there is a time delay between the decision to undertake a change process and working out the details, this creates tension between the organisation wanting to disclose as little as possible at least until plans are clear and the stakeholder who wants to know as much as possible - employees expect to hear about change from their organisation and not from gossip or the media