Modern Changes and Challenges That Are Currently Trending in Todays Organisation - Case Study Example

A report on modern changes and challenges that are currently trending in today’s organisation Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 1.Communication problems in the age of the Internet 4 2.Making effective decisions 5 3.Employee retention 6 4.The need to be socially and environmentally responsible 7 5.Organisation growth and related challenges 8 1.Letter of request 12 2.A letter of refusal of order 13 3.A reply letter to a customer’s complaint 14 4.An announcement email informing the employees of imminent changes to company communication process 15 Executive Summary This report is premised on highlighting the modern changes and challenges that currently face today’s organisations as regards communication. The keys issues that are addressed in the report include communication challenges that organisations face in the age of the Internet, communication challenges for organisations in regard to making effective decisions and addressing employee retention, the need for organisations to be socially and environmentally responsible, and the communication challenges that arise as a result of the growth of organisations. The report notes that these changes and challenges can be addressed by making organisations more open and responsive in the way they communicate with different stakeholders such as employees and customers. Introduction Today’s workplace is surrounded by changes and challenges that arise from different macro environmental factors. Such factors include technology, regulatory requirements, awareness for the natural environment, workplace diversity, employee retention and many others. The report will delve into some of these changes and challenges and assess how they affect organisations such as Innovative Services Ltd. The report will particularly focus on changes and challenges from the perspective of contemporary communication channels and communication networks in organisations, communication flow within organisations, impact of technology and social media in organisational communication, barriers to effective communication, intercultural communication, organising and managing information in the workplace, and communication for a safe workplace in organisations locally and internationally. The changes and challenges 1. Communication problems in the age of the Internet In today’s business environment, organisations have to be good communicators by being connected to key stakeholders such as customers and employees as well as other stakeholders. Organisations have to constantly address issues raised by these stakeholders through the Internet and other forms of communication (Robbins et al. 2015, p. 594). The Internet benefits organisations by giving them a platform through which they can communicate with their stakeholders through tools such as their own websites and social media. Thus, organisations can inform their customers about new products, prices, and so forth. As well, customers use the existing Internet platforms to communicate with organisations and between themselves (Jerman & Završnik 2014, p. 148). This means that communication by organisations is no longer unidirectional. Customers and other stakeholders can talk about an organisation, its products, its actions and so forth (Jerman & Završnik 2014, p. 148). At the same time, some employees of organisations regularly contribute to social networks, blogs, wikis and other Internet-supported eservices (Robbins et al. 2015, p. 594). As such, managers of organisations have to learn, sometimes the hard way, that the Internet-based technologies like social media and blogs have created special challenges in communication (Robbins et al. 2015, p. 594). For example, an organisation’s well-known employee’s own personal view on a given issue on social media may be regarded as the view of that organisation or be associated with the organisation. This can have adverse consequences for the organisation if the issue is a controversial one. Failure to communicate effectively with stakeholders such as customers, especially during times when there is a problem or a crisis, can also have devastating consequences for an organisation (Hamilton & Kwon 2014, p. 139). 2. Making effective decisions Organisations also face the challenge of making decisions in a dynamic environment (Barat et al. 2016, p. 287). As such, there is need for a precise understanding of organisations such as their goals, their organisational structures, their operational processes, their historic information and their stakeholders (Barat et al. 2016, p. 287). It is only when all these issues are well understood that an organisation can make effective decisions. Today’s organisations have to make decisions that enable them to change significantly (Burke 2011, p. 11). Significant change means fundamentally modifying the way the organisation does things. It also implies overhauling the structure of an organisation for accountability and decision making so as to give the members of the organisation an entirely new vision for the future (Burke 2011, p. 11). In order for effective change to be achieved in an organisation, it has to be implemented effectively. This means that decisions to make the required change must involve everyone in the organisation, implying that any change that is to be implemented needs to be communicated effectively. According to Bull and Brown (2012, p. 113), communication is one of the most significant aspects of change in an organisation, and communication plays a pivotal role in the management of change. Yet, many organisations often fail to realise that without effective communication to the employees, the change that is required cannot be effected (Bull & Brown 2012, p. 113). Ironically, many organisations constantly come up with new ways of doing thins, such as by initiating programmes to improve service or product quality, installing new systems for managing sales, and so on (Burke 2011, p. 11). For all these new measures to be successful, organisations must ensure that their communication to employees about the changes is regular, clear, honest, timely, easy to comprehend, interactive, and with opportunities for feedback from the employees (Bull & Brown 2012, p. 113). Without doing this, the change programme is likely to fail (Bull & Brown 2012, p. 113). 3. Employee retention Over the recent years, employee turnover has become a key concern for organisations. In today’s world, the information revolution has had a notable impact on every aspect of human life. For instance, people use modern methods such as the Internet to locate jobs quickly. People also have more information about different types of organisations, and they will not hesitate to shift from one organisation to another that provides better opportunities (Deb 2009, p. 414). Therefore, organisations need to inculcate organisational cultures that reflect them as good employers. Deb (2009, p. 427) argues that individuals join organisations partly due to the point that they are attracted to the culture as well as structure of a given organisation, and this is where employee retention starts. Therefore, organisations that need to retain employees have to assess how effective their organisational cultures and structures are once in a while. They also need to effectively communicate their objectives, strategies, visions, and business policies. A culture of effective communication also involves ensuring that people are constantly briefed on key issues, communicating as fully as possible and in an honest way as regards issues that affect employees, encouraging organisational members to discuss various issues and give feedback, and that issues that are mentioned by team members are addressed by the senior management (Deb 2009, p. 427). It is important for organisations to foster and an environment that promotes effective management-employee relationships through open and consistent communication since such relationship are important for attracting and retaining employees in the highly competitive business environment (Westacott 2010, p. 946). 4. The need to be socially and environmentally responsible In the present day, organisations are required to embrace aspects of corporate social responsibility in their operations (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen 2010, p. 8; Ferreira-Coton & Carballo-Penela 2016, p. 153). Organisations have to incorporate measures that reflect responsible interactions with stakeholders such as customers and employees and also have to inculcate measures that depict concern for the environment and natural resources. Socially responsible organisations for instance make efforts to improve workplace conditions, engage in ethical interactions with different stakeholders, have fair pay policies for men and women, focus on achieving greater workforce diversity, and establish measures to advance their employees’ career prospects. Responsible organisations also pay attention to the environment by minimising the use of energy and reducing emissions wastes among other practices (Ferreira-Coton & Carballo-Penela 2016, p. 153). Social and environmental issues are usually addressed by organisations through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In order for CSR initiatives to be successful, they have to be well-planned and communicated to the stakeholders who are targeted by them. CSR communication needs to start with identifying and anticipating consumers’ as well as other stakeholders’ expectations regarding the CSR activities (Athanosopoulou 2014, p. 29). For example, the CSR activities could be about protecting the environment, rewarding consumers, or enhancing employee safety among other areas. Communication needs to address questions such as why the CSR initiative is being undertaken, what is being done, how intensive it is, who and what is being targeted and so forth to avoid scepticism (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen 2010, p. 9) . Furthermore, relevant communication tools need to be used (Athanosopoulou 2014, p. 29), such as social media, websites, email, print media and broadcasts among others. 5. Organisation growth and related challenges As organisations grow today, they face myriad challenges such as competition from other organisations, inadequate funding, and the need to get new customers (Lowe & Marriott 2006, p. 404). As such, communication processes in growing organisations have to be planned and conducted meticulously in order to avoid failure. One of the biggest challenges that result from the growth of any organisation is communication. As an organisation becomes bigger, it attracts people from different cultures and it also starts involving the use of various technologies in different activities. Such changes can bring about communication clashes as the organisation becomes more complex (Marlow & Wilson 2011, p. 40). Another big communication challenge that relates to the growth of organisations is in regard to the management of knowledge or expertise (Marlow & Wilson 2011, p. 40). The people with expert knowledge in an organisation become key targets by other organisations that need their skills. As well, as organisations grow, they become targets for acquisitions by larger firms (Marlow & Wilson 2011, p. 40). As such, communication within the entire organisation and especially when handling expert knowledge has to be done very carefully to avoid fallouts or errors that can be costly for an organisation’s growth. Conclusion Discussed in this report are the modern changes and challenges that today’s organisation face. The issues discussed include communication challenges in the age of the Internet, communication problems in making effective decisions, challenges relating to employee retention, the need for change towards social and environmental responsibility, and challenges associated with the growth of organisations. It has been discussed that organisation need to change their communication process in order to make them more interactive and engaging for all stakeholders such as employees and customers. This is particularly important when organisations have to make decisions that affect the various stakeholders. Recommendations Based on the discussion, it is recommended that organisations such as Innovative Services Ltd. be more open and flexible in the way they manage their communication. Organisations have to be aware that they may not be able to have control over what is communicated through new technologies such as social media and blogs. As such, they just have to provide a platform that makes it possible to address every stakeholder’s concern’s through effective communication. For instance, one way of making communication more effective it to ensure that is its regular, lucid, truthful, well-timed, easy to understand, interactive, and with opportunities for feedback from different stakeholders. References Barat, S, Kulkarni, V, Clark, T & Barn, B 2016, ‘Enterprise modelling as a decision making aid: a systematic mapping study’, in J Horkoff, M A Jeusfeld & A Persson (eds), The practice of enterprise modelling, Cham, Springer International Publishing AG, pp. 287-298. Ferreira-Coton, X & Carballo-Penela, A 2016 ‘Why manage human resources from a social responsibility perspective? An analysis of the job seekers’ and employees perceptions’, in AML Casademunt (ed), Strategic labour relations management in modern organisations, Business Science Reference, Hershey, PA, pp. 149-171. Lowe, R & Marriott, S 2006, Enterprise: entrepreneurship and innovation, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. Robbins, SP, Bergman, R, Stagg, I & Coulter, M 2015, Management, 7th edn, Pearson Australia, Melbourne. Jerman, D & Završnik, B 2014, ‘Use of social network for business in public relations’, in MM Cruz-Cunha, F Moreira & J Varajão (eds), Handbook of research on enterprise 2.0: technological, social, and organisational dimensions, Business Science Reference, Hershey, PA, pp. 147-161. Hamilton, JW & Kwon, I-W 2014, ‘Strategic success, supply chain performance, and social media: the impact of new technologies,’ in PO de Pablos (ed), International business strategy and entrepreneurship: an information technology perspective, Business Science Reference, Hershey, PA, pp. 137-144. Burke, WW 2011, Organization change: theory and practice, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, California. Bull, M & Brown, T 2012, ‘Implementing change,’ in E Finch (ed), Facilities change management, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, West Sussex, UK, pp. 108-122. Deb, T 2009, Managing human resources & industrial relations, Excel Books, New Delhi. Westacott, C 2010, ‘Employee retention,’ in CCH Australia Limited (ed), Australian master human resource guide, 8th edn, CCH Australia Limited, Sydney, pp. 943-952. Athanosopoulou, P 2014, ‘Corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a people caring concept,’ H-R Kaufmann & MFAK Panni (eds), Handbook of research on consumerism in business and marketing: concepts and practices, Business Science Reference, Hershey, PA, pp. 18-44. Du, S, Bhattacharya, CB & Sen, S 2010, ‘Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): the role of CSR communication,’ International Journal of Management Reviews, pp. 8-19, viewed 1 May 2017, Marlow, E & Wilson, PO 2011, The breakdown of hierarchy: communication in the evolving workplace, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York. Appendix: Letters 1. Letter of request Innovative Services Ltd. 65 Culloden Road Frenchs Forest 2 May 2017. The Director, Green Solutions Ltd. NSW 2213, Australia Dear Sir/Madam, We intend to reduce our energy consumption in line with the need to reduce costs and comply with the government’s requirement for sustainable business operations. Please send us details on the various solutions that we can apply to reduce power usage in regard to our computers, servers and other office equipment and processes. We look forward to working with you further in implementing the solutions that your company will suggest. Yours faithfully, Harry Chang Energy and Resources Department. 2. A letter of refusal of order Innovative Services Ltd. 65 Culloden Road Frenchs Forest 2 May 2017. The Director, Furnitureland Ltd NSW 2213, Australia We thank you for your supply of the order of furniture that our company had made on 31 March 2017. We received the order on 2 May 2017 (today) and inspected the contents in the presence of your company representatives. We are sorry to inform you that some items had been damaged, and this was confirmed by your representatives. Therefore, we could not accept the items in the current state. We hope that you will check the order and replace the damaged items. We will be glad to receive the goods once you have corrected the anomaly. Yours faithfully, Lillian Buchanan, Purchasing Department. 3. A reply letter to a customer’s complaint Innovative Services Ltd. 65 Culloden Road Frenchs Forest 2 May 2017 Dear Customer, We are in receipt of the complaint that you made on 28 April 2017 regarding a slowdown in our services. There was a network error in our servers, and as a result, you were unable to make an order for the services that you wanted. We are very sorry for the inconvenience that the problem caused to you. Our services have been restored, and you can now make your order successfully. We promise to ensure that our systems remain functional all the time since we have installed a new backup system in case of any failure. Feel free to place the order at your convenience. Yours faithfully, Michelle Bridges, Communication Manager. 4. An announcement email informing the employees of imminent changes to company communication process To all employees, To improve communication within the company and enhance sustainability, we are planning to be posting all messages on our company website and not the notice boards. This is in line with our efforts to reduce the use of paper and energy and make steps towards becoming a green company. You will be notified through your work email whenever a message is posted on the employee’s portal on the website. I would like to request you to send your responses regarding the proposed initiative. Your honest views regarding the opportunities and challenges related to the initiative are welcome. Yours faithfully, Michelle Bridges, Communication Manager, Innovative Services Ltd. Read More