Written Analysis - Essay Example

?Written Analysis 0 Scenario: Poor radio making has resulted in FBi Radio losing audience members and supporters and the station has delivered negative returns for the last two financial years. The organization cannot go on like this for another year, but despite the poor financial results, there seems to be an organizational culture of a sense of entitlement which makes life hard for both internal and external clients. Unless there are some drastic cultural, attitudinal and perhaps structural changes – and soon - the station will go bankrupt 1.1 My stakeholder: Ads and sponsorship team (paid director and assistants) – coordinate sponsors and sign up supporters (which according to the scenario we are losing). 1.2 Goal: To trigger a more intrinsically and extrinsically motivated ads and sponsorship team through direct, open and constant communication between the ads and sponsorship team and the sponsors. 2. 0 Introduction: The paper will talk about the challenges that confront FBi radio station in Sydney and ways in which to deal with them. Inferences from literature will be taken in light of the current situation at FBi and a communication strategy will be proposed for the chosen stake holder. The paper will talk in depth regarding the communication strategy, why it was chosen and how it should be implemented. 2.1 Background : FBi is an independent not-for-profit community radio station. It is located in Sydney, Australia. The station revolves around local alternative music. More than 50% of its music content is Australian and comes from local musicians in Sydney. It was established in 1995 in response to the huge hue and cry mad by the music communities Sydney. They demanded a radio service that would focus only on Sydney’s cultural life. After a lot of struggle, it was granted the license to broadcast across Sydney on 94.5 FM. This was a landmark for the radio station as today it holds the largest community radio license ever granted in the country. It runs at 150KW capacity and its signal stands at par with the most powerful commercial licenses. However numerous challenges have confounded the radio-station. It needs to deal with these challenges effectively and come up with ways to counter them. poor radio programming has led to declining ratings. It has suffered financial losses and this had led to an organizational culture of a sense of entitlement. Unless the stations comes up with ways to revamp the organizational culture and attitude the station will go bankrupt in less than a year. 3.0 Situation Analysis As mentioned before, poor-radio programming is resulting in a lot of losses for FBi. The company has incurred heavy financial losses in the last one year and if this goes on it is going to go bankrupt in the next one year. It will not have enough programs, sponsors and clients to support its existence. It will be difficult to make it sustainable. More-over it will loose all its clients. There are various stake-holders associated with the company. At the helm of the affairs are the internal and external clients of the company. These clients keep the radio running. Unless they are not satisfied, they wont be willing to invest in the company. Why would they invest in an organization which is not going to give them their desired results? They need to know that their investment of time, money and energy in the radio station will stand to benefit them. similarly, sponsors will also feel disillusioned with the company if the situation is not taken care of immediately. The organization is supported by sponsors like Pinnacle, City Jungle, and Fleet Foxes. They need to be assured that their investment is in something worthwhile and it will give them their desired benefits. The stake-holder whose point of view, I will be discussing are the ads and sponsorship team. They are the ones who bring in the money needed to run this organization. They contact and co-ordinate with the sponsors and generate funds for the radio to run. However in the current scenario, FBi radio is loosing out on sponsors. So the ads and sponsorship team needs to come up with an effective communication strategy to retain these sponsors and fetch more. As Bill Quirke puts it for us: Information can travel over wires. Communication happens between ears.(Griffin, 2002) The ads and sponsorship team, as communicators and direct link with the sponsor need to understand the purpose and the required performance objectives. They should attempt communication interventions inorder to influence the thinking and behavior of sponsors as they are the life blood of the organization. According to Quinn and Hargie, quality internal communication is the key to organizational success and fostering trusted relationships. Downs supports this claim and explains how quality internal communication will improve productivity. (Georke, 2003) 4.0 Communication Strategy During the current financial setback that the organization is going through, sponsors have to be dealt in a very clear, concise and compassionate way. The volunteers work for the ads and sponsorship team need to establish communication techniques such that the sponsors continue to foster their trust in the organization and keep investing in it. Given the circumstances that the organization is in right now, it cannot afford to lose sponsors at all. It needs their supports. Thus the ads and sponsorship needs to treat them with a lot of respect, reverence and care. They need to communicate to them the changes that the organization is going through, the steps it is taking to come out of this financial setback and to convince them about the prospect of a brighter future. Leaders, leading the ads and sponsorship team will have a very crucial role to play in establishing the right communication channel between the team and the sponsors.(Thortonmack, 2011) According to Johnson and Hackman, leaders should be pro-active in their participation, should participate early, keep the focus on communication quality as well as quality and build a cohesive unit that sees eye to eye with the organizational goals. Through these aforementioned strategies the leaders will be able to relay to the team the kind of information sponsors will need; they will nurture established relationships and seek to build on new relationships. (Tymson, 2008) In order for FBi to sustain its sponsors , it is important that it builds an effective communication system with. Such a communication system will give them good organizational identification and they will be better able to relate to the company. According to Cornelissen (2008), organizational identification is very important as through organizational identification stakeholders are better able to relate to the organization that they work for, are more cooperative and can demonstrate behavior which will help the company. Thus establishing a sound internal communication system will be crucial to satiate the sense of entitlement that sponsors are looking for. 4.1 Process objectives relevant to the stake holder: According to Smith (2011), the most important elements in any communication strategy are leadership commitment to a good communication system, the urge to establish a strategic communication partnership, emphasis on phase to phase communication and by having an understanding of the stakeholder “pulse”. The ads and sponsorship team in FBi need to have a thorough understanding of what their sponsors expect of them and then project that to them according. In the case of FBi, the following steps need to be taken: STEPS: 1. The ads and sponsorship team examine the realities, the market and its potential. Send out a newsletter to all the sponsors informing them of the current situation and the crisis that the organization is going through 2. Take them into confidence regarding the situation but also tell them about future plans. In this way the sponsors will see hope for future which will satiate their needs from the company. 3. Look for sponsor suggestions and feedback. Incorporate them. Develop a one-on-one understanding with them. 4. Conduct focus groups with the sponsors and involve them in all decisions that the company takes. 5. Create a vision in their mind for the future of FBi radio. Discuss with them the strategies that will be used to achieve that vision 6. Use every vehicle possible to communicate the vision 7. Plan for some visible short term improvements with them. 8. Create those improvements and communicating them. 9. Institutionalize the new approach. 4.2 Communication Tactics: The communication tactics that the ads and sponsorship team should pursue in the case of RBi should revolve around ICCE, that is inform, consolidate, celebrate and evaluate. It is the kind of strategy in which the stakeholder informs the sponsors about what is going on, takes opinion, counsel changes, implements them and then on successful implementation celebrates the changes. This has been discussed and mentioned before too. The sponsorship team will have to keep sponsors the loop regarding specific issues confronting the company. In stage one of this communication strategy, sponsors will have to be taken into confidence with the current scenario. They will be informed through an email or newsletter and then a meeting. This tactic would be very important to give sponsors to chance to voice out their opinion simultaneously. (Dunphy, 2001) In the second stage, which is consolidate, the ads and sponsors team will focus on face-to-face communication. In this stage, focus groups meetings and constant counselling would be done to develop a sense of organizational identification with the sponsors and take their input and concerns into account. In the third stage, consolidate, sponsors and sponsorship team acceptance has taken place. By this time the sponsors would have a developed a sense of understanding with the organization. This will be able to relate to it and feel committed, motivated and driven. This should be celebrated and commemorated through any type of social gathering. In the final stage, which is evaluated the results of implementing the campaign should be assessed. 5.0 Conclusion: The communication strategy will be very effective in boosting sponsor’s trust and confidence in the organization and in giving them confidence about the future of the organization while at the same time it will retain them. References: Goerke, J. 2003, ‘Taking the quantum leap: nonprofits are now in business. An Australian perspective’, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, vol. 8, no. 4, pp 317-327. Griffin, D. 2002, The Emergence of Leadership: Linking self-organization and ethics. Routledge, New York. Griffin, E. 2009, A First Look at Communication Theory [7th ed.]. McGraw-Hill, Boston. Hanratty, N. E. 2003, ‘Corporate spin works on the inside as well as to the buying public’. Online opinion: http//www.onlineopinion.com.au /viewasp?article=821 accessed 6/02/04. Harris, T. E. & Nelson, M. D. 2007, Applied Organizational Communication: Theory and practice in a global environment [3rd ed]. Lawrence Erlbaum, New York. Hendrix J.A. & Hayes D.C. 2007, Public Relations Cases,7th ed, Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont CA. Cornelissen, J. 2008, 'Internal Communication and Change Communication' in Corporate Communication : A Guide to Theory?and Practice, [2nd ed.] Sage, London Ch 9, pp 194-213 Stace D. & Dunphy, D. 2001, 'Taking Charge of Change: Coaches, Captains, Charismatics and Commanders' in Beyond the Boundaries:Leading and re-creating the successful enterprise, McGraw-Hill Australia, Roseville, NSW. Ch 5, pp 151-193. Tymson, C. & Lazar P. & Lazar R. 2008, ‘Internal Communications and Employee Relations’ in The New Australian and New Zealand Public Relations Manual, Tysonn Communications, Chatswood, NSW. Ch 11, pp 314-340 ThortonMack, 2011, Change Communication, UTS Strategic Organisational Communication Lecture, Sydney, NSW. Read More