A NEED TO RESTRUCTURE

A need to Restructure



Table of Contents

1. Introduction2

2. Policy By Behavior2

3. What Policies Can Do2

4. Communication Philosophy Statements2

5. Media Relations And Spokesperson Policies2

6. Procedures And Practices2

7. Final Thought2

8. The Change Plan2

9. Change Issues at Organizational Level2

9.1 There are explicit and implicit modes of working with the relational reflexivity2

References2

A need to Restructure

1. Introduction

A well-formed communication policy is to your organization what the IABC Code of Ethics is to you: a set of guiding principles and behaviors to help double-check consistent, fair and ethical communication with all of your constituents. Few organizations have written communication policies and even less share those policies broadly within or after the organization.

But that doesn't negate the need for such an important document. "All firms with more than one worker should have a clearly written media policy that magic charms out who in the organization may reply to media inquiries, what kinds of information can or should be released to reporters and what information should be kept confidential," write David M. Freedman and Janice E. Purtell in an article published by Media Relations Central, an online asset for media relations professionals.

Beyond the media, companies and organizations also need to consider their other audiences who anticipate to hear official positions and answers, or at various business junctures or when report breaks.

So if they're called media relations, disclosure, public relations or public information policies, there are widespread components of communication policies that can help guide you and your leadership to the development of a formal, written and agreed-upon method for communicating both internally and externally.

2. Policy By Behavior

Your organization may already have a communication policy, albeit unstated, as glimpsed in your overall behavior and attitude toward your constituencies.

Customers, workers, reporters, investors and community leaders make judgment calls about your organization's stance on communication based on what they glimpse, hear and read.

Conversely, if your corporate logo is on T-shirts damaged by company volunteers cleaning a park, passersby may referee your company to be community-spirited and your workers happy to work for you.

If your method for responding to inquiries from the media is convoluted, or delays or denies access to executives, reporters may assume that you and your company are hiding something.

You'll also find an undeclared policy in the language and method utilised in the written pieces disseminated by your organization, including worker communication, advertising, merchandise come back policies, workplace guidelines, benefits materials and speeches. Your communication policy might be evident in the company's grade of involvement in the community, its directions for workplace advancement and training, its media guidelines and activity or the perform of your annual meeting.

It's vital that you determine what your perceived communication policy is before you begin developing a formal, written one.

3. What Policies Can Do

Written policies can define your communication philosophy (e.g., proactive) as well as your practices (the function of the primary spokesperson) and methods (how to reply to media inquiries).

Policies can be evolved for general communication and/or for specific areas such as financial communication or legal ...