Effective Communication Strategy For JKL Industries Essay.

1. Review the scenario in Appendix 1, particularly the background to the simulated organisation, current change issues, communication and consultation needs, and information about your role as Communications Consultant.

2. Review JKL Industries simulated business documentation, including strategic plans and operational plans. Note what the organisation does, how it does it, what its goals and objectives are, and who its stakeholders and customers are.

3. Develop a draft communications strategy for meeting organisational needs that includes:

a. two to three communications objectives
b. at least two different audiences, for example, senior management, work teams, or individual employees
c. at least two methods of communication or media
d. at least two provisions to facilitate bottom-up consultation (from employees to management); for example, consultation on employee health and safety, consultation on continuous improvement of work processes, consultation on employee conditions and pay, or consultation on job roles and performance expectations.

Note: Ensure you also provide for management feedback on consultation back to employees.

4. Develop a short (less than one page) grievance procedure.

Research, plan and deliver presentation to senior managers on your proposed communications planning.

1. Prepare a business presentation in response to the scenario described in the scenario. Determine and prepare to discuss:

a. Audience needs and relevant interpersonal skills you will need to deploy to win support for your ideas.
b. Organisational needs:
i. internal strategic needs, goals and objectives
ii. external regulatory or legal requirements, such as for WHS consultation, antidiscrimination or industrial relations
iii. business ethics requirements

c. Your proposed approach to communications and consultation to meet organisational and audience needs:
1. Prepare to explain your draft communications strategy, organisational policies and procedures, and how such communications systems and policies can support a coordinated approach to developing effective work relationships.
2. Arrange a time and location to deliver your presentation to the senior management team.
3. Deliver the presentation to the senior management team. Ensure you deliver your presentation
in accordance with deliverables and quality specifications outlined below.

Background of JKL Industries

1. JKL Industries is an Australian company that deals in forklifts, small trucks and spare parts to the industry. The company also gives some spare parts and small trucks on lease. The company has been involved in this business for the last 12 years. The company has been embarking on organizational changes. This throws light on the fact that the company has decided on exiting the rental market and in the process they intend on entering the retail market. This is an important point of consideration for the business since it allows the rental market has been on the decline due to the reduction in the cost of the medicines. The company emphasizes on the needs of develop a strategic approach towards information management. The company suffers from slow responses to internal and external customer needs and ineffective communication and consultation needs. There is no adequate and cohesive understanding of the goals and objectives of the company, in addition to sub standard level lf employee engagement and responsibility of work. The role of the consultant in that case is to revise and improve the strategies and approach that the company would take to improve communication and information management in the company. The consultant is responsible for removing the resistance to change and develop communication strategies that will solve the organizational issues.

2. The company intends on expansion and growth objectives. The company aims to exit the rental market and grow in the market. The company intends on entering the retail industry, where it will deal in medium and large trucks so that it increases its product portfolio and consequently gain competitive advantage. The sales result of the company has been on the rise and in the process substantial amount of increase in the sales percentage of the company has risen. This has encouraged the company to exit rental markets and in the process strengthen its position in retail market. The company wants to increase its profitability index and increase its scope for growth and expansion of the company. The company intends to adopt strategic operation and in the process improve its operation with regards to effective management of human respires, increasing the quality of the performance and in the process improve performance management and also improve the resources of the company. The company wants to recruit employees internally by training and harnessing the skills of the employees from the rental market. The company identifies poor communication and organization structure, which might pose as a hindrance to the goals and objectives of the company. Thus, it can be viewed that the company wants to improve the communication and organizational culture so that it helps the company to achieve its goals and objectives. The stakeholders of the company are suppliers, competitors, employees, government and customers of the company. The customers of the company are ultimate customers, dealers and retailers.

3 (a) Objectives of communication

The three communication objectives are:

• Incorporate modern technology of communication and use of social platform to improve communication methods.
• Improve the responses that are made to meet the needs of external and internal customers.
• Improve bottom to top communication flow so that employees can communicate with the management in a much better way.
• Better development of information management so that there is better and comprehensive understanding of the goals and objectives of the organization.

The target audience of the communication strategy are:

(i) Senior management

Expansion and growth objectives

(ii) Work teams

The communication strategy is intended at two key target audiences. The two key target audiences for this strategy are senior management body and the workforce of the organization. They are the two vital elements of the organization. There has to be effective communication between these two audiences. In the absence of effective communication, the organization will face hindrances in the operations of the organization (De Cock, 2015).

Methods or media of communication is the way communication is made between different audiences. It is an important part that needs to be evaluated for making strategies and approach for effective communication. In the case of JKL Industries, developing an effective communication strategy is an important aspect that needs to be evaluated. The important media of communication that is selected for this communication strategy are group discussion and email. Group discussion is a form of oral communication that the management could utilize to effectively communicate with the workforce of the organization. It involves face to face communication with the workforce and it gives a personal touch that will remove barriers to communication and also scope of understanding. It will improve employee morale and motivation of the employees. Another media that could be used for effectively used for communicating is email. Email is a form of written communication that could be used for effectively communicating with the workforce. Email helps in intonating important information and messages to the workforce about important details and roles of the various employees. Thus, email is a strategic way of improving communication within an organization.

There are certain provisions that need to be developed to facilitate bottom up consultation. Some of these topics would be information regarding the health and safety provisions of the employees. Health and the working conditions of the employees are an important fact that the employees are concerned of. Thus, they might indulge in bottom up consultation with the senior management of the health provisions and the safety aspect that the management prepares for the employees. Another important provision that will shed critical light on the bottom up consultation is consultation on job roles and performance expectations. This is an important aspect that the employees would like to communicate on since it makes them aware of what is expected from them in terms of performance and also in terms of their roles and duties (Nica, 2013). These two aspects will be important in improving communication within the organization.

Addressing the complaints and grievance of an employee is an important aspect that needs to be addressed. Employees might have various reasons for which they might develop a grievance towards the organization (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).  An employee should be aware as to how to present their grievance and complaints to the management. Some of the steps involved in this process are:

An employee can have an informal meeting with a supervisor regarding their grievances and complaints. An employee can discuss the factors that cause grievances and discontentment among the members (Jensen, 2013).  This is the initial step that can be taken by an employee for addressing its grievance.

Objectives of communication

If the informal meeting does not serve the purpose, then the employee can give a formal and written complaint to the senior management and highlight all those point and reasons that causes dissatisfaction and discontentment to an employee (Wheeler & Bertram, 2015). 

After the written complaint is made, arrangement for a meeting has to be made with the employee to understand the reasons and grounds for the grievance and the necessary ways that could be adopted for solving the issues and grievances for the employee. If this does not serve the purpose, an employee can repeat the process to get satisfaction in work.

1a. Understanding the needs of the audience is an important factor that needs to be understood. Developing effective communication strategy is an important step to meet the needs of the audience. Some of the audience needs are:

Senior management needs effective communication method to intimate necessary and critical information to the employees regarding the specific jobs that they need to undertake and the goals and objectives of the company (Xie et al. 2013).

The management body would need to pass on necessary information about a strategy or an operation to the employees and thus, it would require effective communication strategy to communicate with the employees.

The employee would need to indulge in upward communication, which would involve query, feedback and grievances. The employees might have important questions regarding health and safety conditions in the workplace, pay scale and job information and performance expectation (Chadwick, 2013). 

There needs to be necessary skills to implement effective communication strategy. Some of the skills are being patient listener, having strong conviction, showing respect to the speaker and being introspective. All these skills culminate into the formation of effective communication strategy.

(b) (i) The goals and objectives of the organization are to increase the profitability of the organization. The company intends on expanding and increasing the scope of earning and growth for the company (Foste & Botero, 2012).  The company intends o expanding into the retail sector by getting a competitive edge over it the rivals. The company intends on developing strategic and effective communication strategy to improve the communication system within the organization so that there is more transparency and comprehensive understanding of the goals and objectives of the company, which will contribute to the productivity and performance of the employees.

(ii) The company has certain legal requirements that it needs to meet. Some of the major legal requirements of the company are to develop workplace health and safety. The other requirements are to develop anti-discrimination policies that it will have to meet. The company also needs to get its financial report audited.

(iii) The ethical business requirements are training of the employees. The employees have to be properly trained and educated so that they can enhance their skills and productivity. The company needs to follow the policy of fair remuneration and incentives that need to be given to the employees as well taking care of the interests of the employees of the company (Tourish, 2014).

(c) The communication strategy that is prepared intends on solving the limitations that is observed in the organization. The communication strategy intends on improving the flow of communication between the senior management and the employees. The communication strategy will help the organization to establish a method that will give a comprehensive study of the policies and goals of the company. It will help to respond effectively to the customers. The goals and objectives of the company, which is to expand in retail market, will require effective training of the employees and thus, effective communication strategy that is devised will help in training of employees and will help in implementing effective upward communication. It will help the employees in giving feedbacks and also presenting grievances to the organization. it will remove misunderstanding and will develop strong organizational structure.

2. The most appropriate time and location to deliver the presentation to the senior management is during the annual general meeting at the head office of the organization, which is registered office of the organization.

Reference List

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Chadwick, A. (2013). The hybrid media system: Politics and power. Oxford University Press.

De Cock, S. (2015). The use of foreign words in interviews with EFL learners: An effective communication strategy?. Learner Corpus Research.

Foste, E. A., & Botero, I. C. (2012). Personal reputation effects of upward communication on impressions about new employees. Management Communication Quarterly, 26(1), 48-73.

Jensen, K. B. (Ed.). (2013). A handbook of media and communication research: Qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Routledge.

Li, H., Liao, X., Chen, G., Hill, D. J., Dong, Z., & Huang, T. (2015). Event-triggered asynchronous intermittent communication strategy for synchronization in complex dynamical networks. Neural Networks, 66, 1-10.

Nica, E. (2013). Social Responsibility, Corporate Welfare, and Business Ethics. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management, 1(1), 9-14.

Stacks, D. W., & Salwen, M. B. (Eds.). (2014). An integrated approach to communication theory and research. Routledge.

Tourish, D. (2014, July). LEADERSHIP, INGRATIATION, AND UPWARD COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS. In Meeting the Challenge of Human Resource Management: A Communication Perspective (p. 121). Routledge.

Wheeler, A. M., & Bertram, B. (2015). The counselor and the law: A guide to legal and ethical practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Xie, D., Xu, S., Zhang, B., Li, Y., & Chu, Y. (2016). Consensus for multi-agent systems with distributed adaptive control and an event-triggered communication strategy. IET Control Theory & Applications.