Internal Communications

"Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them."
Leo Rosten (1908 - )

According to a Harvard Business Review study of Project Management Best Practices in Global 500 Enterprises face-to-face meetings and interaction in the work place is declining rapidly – and instead many teams are working virtually. Among the results from the study:
Fewer than 4% of teams ever meet physically as a whole.

• Fewer than 17% even have individual team members meet in person.
• More than 66% of teams include members from at least three time zones.
• 57% are cross-functional.
• 48% extend beyond company walls to include outside contractors, agencies, counsel, outsourcers and other third parties.

The above studies not only suggest the importance of communication for an effective team work but also point out that traditional face-to-face communication is getting harder. While technology has opened up new possibilities for communicating to staff, in practice the best results are often achieved through a mix of traditional and contemporary media. Moreover, if internal communications are to be fully effective, management has to have a genuine commitment to creating a dialogue with staff that involves as well as informs them. Consider the case of software industry.

Almost every major software corporations have development centers scattered in various parts of the world. For any given project, these development centers work on certain parts of the project. If they did not have effective internal communication then completing such complex tasks would have been impossible.

Most experts on organizations, management and leadership, assert that effective communications is the foundation for effectiveness in any type of organization. They assert there can't be too much communication. Some leaders misinterpret communications to be the same as paperwork or bureaucracy and so they're averse to a high degree of communications. As leaders and managers mature, they realize the need to effective convey and receive information, and efforts at communications (internal and external) increase substantially.

Common Causes of Problems in Internal Communications:

1. If I know it, then everyone must know it.

2. We hate bureaucracy -- we're "lean and mean."

3. I told everyone, or some people, or ...?

4. Did you hear what I meant for you to hear?

5. Our problems are too big to have to listen to each other!

6. So what's to talk about? 7. There's data and there's information.

7. If I need your opinion, I'll tell it to you.

Lastly, communications problems can arise when management simply sees no value whatsoever in communicating with subordinates, believing subordinates should shut up and do their jobs.

Clampitt (2005) lists three approaches managers use to communicate with their employees.

Arrow approach – This is one way communication approach where message is clear and target audience known. Problems arise when it is taken for granted that information is mostly transmitted by words and that recipients are passive receptors.

Circuit approach – This is two way communication approach. It assumes that communicating is grounded in mutual understanding. Problems arise because of the myopic view that understanding will lead to agreement and that this understanding should be the sole goal of communications.

Dance approach – Communications are achieved through an intricate combination of the practice, understanding, and intuition. It believes that the communication involves the coordination of meanings, the understanding of common rules, and the recognition of patterns between two or more people.

Now every organization is taking internal communication more seriously. Managers have understood the effectiveness of internal communication as a motivational tool. With the sophisticated technology available to communicate with the employees today, the most important factor in internal communications beings with the manager who cares to listen to the employees and get to know who they really are as individuals. One of the examples is Nokia. In 2006 Nokia launched internal news hub aimed at Nokia personnel worldwide, allowing employees to publish their comments about current news items. This feature was added due to requests from employees, and has received very positive feedback. It has increased Nokia’s internal engagement capabilities by generating meaningful conversations on a wide range of business topics. Nokia News Service is accessed by approximately 156,000 readers, on multiple occasions, each month.