Communication as the Fulcrum of Management in the Modern Company - Case Study Example

Briefing nоtе – Based on sсеnаriо NAME: UNIVERSITY: COURSE: INSTRUCTOR: DATE: © 2013 ATTENTION TO: Alexis Hundall ORGANISATION: The Social Creative (TSC) PURPOSE Communication in general forms an integral part in our day-to-day dealings. Without communication, it has emerged that living may become a challenge in itself. This is attested by a simple definition of the same by Foss & Littlejohn (2008) who maintain that communication entails the mutual exchange of understanding between individuals and or organisations. When looked from the perspective of business sense, then communication becomes even more fundamental. Commenting on this, Katherine (2005) state that communication is the fulcrum of management and must therefore be effective in order to perform all the basic functions of management. There are various channels of communication that are at our disposal but the briefing note has emerged the most effective and simplest to comprehend. The reason for its popularity resides in the fact that it captures key issues, analyses them and offers recommendations in a brief and succinct way as noted by Jimenez & Susana (2009). It is because of its simplicity that Alexis Hundall requests me to identify the key issues bedeviling her organisation TSC, and based on my careful assessment of these issues be able to make recommendations that are deemed to propel the organisation to a higher level. BACKGROUND AND CURRENT SITUATION Based on the information provided in the scenario, The Social Creative (TSC) Company is very keen on succeeding in her business segment of the sector of creative design and thus assist other organisations adopt the idea of Ecommerce (Robbins & Judge, 2007). The advent of electronic commerce (Ecommerce) has taken the business world by a storm, and is currently forcing companies and organisations to embrace innovative online content particularly the social media in doing business. According to Powell et al (2011), the social media has become a very important business tool in virtual communities where people generate and share interactive web content using modern day technology. This is the idea that was originally envisaged by Alexis Hundall when she started The Social Creative (TSC) Company way back in 2010. This has not been very easy because her company has gone through a very bumpy road as is demonstrated in the following paragraphs. From the outset, Alexis Hundall intended to have a company in her own class as compared to the rest in her market segment. A review of most of the companies in the said business segment indicated that they operated with very minimal application of online or social media content. This was opposed to her training which emphasised on the power of online advertising to build organisations’ profiles and subsequently their levels of doing business (Lim et al, 2010). This argument is in line with other study findings which illustrate the strength of social media in exposing companies and their products. Arthur and friends (2010) and Gentle (2009) for instance claim that social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter for example have been instrumental in creating awareness of the availability of certain companies and the products and services they offer. Similarly, proactive organisations are using the “content marketing initiative” to advertise themselves and their products. An example of this initiative is found in the ‘bull’s eye view’ and the ‘Coca Cola’s Journey’ as cited by Powell and colleagues (2011). Initiatives like these ones have largely contributed to the notable success story of The Social Creative Company, not without some challenges. Since 2010, the company has developed representations in Gosford on the Central Coast; the Hunter region as well as in Sydney and counting a total of eight staff. This according to my view is not a staff size commensurate to the company status envisioned by Alexis. The company also lacks the appropriate organisational structure, policies and strategic objectives that will guide it in doing effective business. But in spite of all these shortcomings, TSC is indicated to have helped one of her clients develop “a more appealing website and online store; ‘corporate’ as well as ‘individual store’ Facebook pages; a Twitter interface; Instagram and Pinterest accounts to showcase design trends; and a dedicated YouTube channel to broadcast styling tips and in-store fashion shows”. Three months after this initiative, the stores belonging to the said client started registering an excessively large numbers of customers resulting in an overwhelming increase in the general revenues and purchases. This one shot made TSC to grapple with an ever swelling client base in need of innovative online marketing. This consequently required that TSC increases the number of her employees in order to be able to cope up with the new challenges. KEY ISSUES From the given scenario, it is evident that TSC lacks an appropriate organisational structure that should be used for effective management of the affairs of the company. Instead, the company has a staff of two graphic designers, two IT specialists, and four communications/digital strategists. An ideal structure should have a hierarchical order with a CEO at the top, middle level managers, supervisors and the rest of the staff. This is largely missing in TSC with almost all the employees at the same level, including Alexis. Additionally, there is no mention of strategic objectives which are considered very fundamental in running an organisation. In fact, it is indicated that Alexis has never been keen on strategy but is merely concerned with getting clients and having fun helping them build up their brands through the use of online media (Anderson, 2006). To do this, all the employees including Alexis herself work collectively from an open plan office on any one project that is brought in every time. There is no strategy or defined job description whatsoever. It is also clear that there is no concrete communication channel that will direct the flow of information from the lower echelons of authority to the top management (Lim et al, 2010). This is attributed to the apparent lack of appropriate structure identified above. Obviously, TSC lacks a modern day web content technology to fast track all the information coming from her clients and other organisations as well. This is an area that requires quick innovations for the organisation to remain focused in the business world. ASSESSMENT OF ISSUES Repenning (2002) underscores the importance of having an appropriate organisational structure for any business to stand upright and be competitive in this fast moving world. Any organisation is said to be structured in line with its business ideals and as it develops, then the basic structure starts evolving to take on other attributes (Lim et al, 2010). But generally, all organisations pass through the same kind of cycle namely: “the simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisionalised form and adhocracy” (Lim et al, 2010). According to observations by Wellman (2012), the same structure purposes to link all the departments and jobs within the organisation. Moreover, Rogers (2003) contends that technology greatly affects organisational structures and will work in conjunction with other variables such as strategy and goals; size; and environment to determine its success story. This on one part underlines the importance of strategy in any business venture, a fact which is largely missing in TSC. On the issue of communication, Robert & Israel (2006) maintain that effective communication will “lead to better customer service, more efficient production, and help overcome barriers”. The absence of an effective communication channel, particularly for online content in TSC deprives the organisation a very crucial opportunity of prospering. A part from the traditionally known methods of communication namely oral and written, modern day methods guided by technology are in use including web-based, emailing, video conferencing (Robert & Israel, 2006) as well as reporting among others. Adoption of these methods can help organisations deal with a myriad of challenges including that of new entrants. RECOMMENDATIONS Having identified the key issues bedeviling TSC and requiring quick intervention, it is in order for me to recommend the following. First and foremost, TSC must formulate a working strategy that will define where the company is headed to and where it is coming from. The strategy is usually outlined in the objectives and goals of the organisation which are formulated from the outset. It will therefore be my humble suggestion that TSC goes back to the drawing board and come up with new strategic objectives defining clearly where the company wants to be in the future. Likewise, a good organisational structure defining the tasks of each employee and at which level will be the first thing to undertake. In the views of Lim and associates (2010), organisations that are structurally weak are plagued by a myriad of problems among them being: “delayed decision making, absence of innovative responses to the changing environments, and conflict among departments due to lack of clear strategies and goals”. To allay all these problems, I suggest that TSC must take stringent measures and come up with a very foolproof structure complete with defined tasks for everyone. Finally, communication channels must be looked into to encompass all those within and without the organisation. It should be build on the basis of modern day technology that uses both mobile and web-based technologies to create user interfaces that are quite interactive for both the staff and clients. This should become very much divorced from the traditional modes of communication so as to overcome the inherent effects namely obstructed efficiency, reduced employee morale and decreased innovation (Wellman, 2012). REFERENCES Anderson, C (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. New York, NY: Hyperion. Arthur, J. L., Jackie, A. M., & Mary, E. K (2010). Social media at work: how networking tools propel organizational performance (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Braha, D & Bar-Yam, Y (2007) The Statistical Mechanics of Complex Product Development: Empirical and Analytical Results. Management Science, 53, 7: 1127–1145. Foss, K & Littlejohn, S (2008). Theories of Human Communication (9th ed.). Thomson and Wadsworth. Gentle, A (2009). Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation. Fort Collins, CO: XML Press. Jimenez, L & Susana, G (2009) “Does Communication Studies Have an Identity? Setting the Bases for Contemporary Research”. Catalan Journal of Communication and Cultural Studies (Intellect Ltd.) 1 (1): 15–27. Katherine, M (2005). Communication Theories: Perspectives, Processes, and Contexts (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill. Lim, M., Griffiths, G & Sambrook, S (2010). Organizational structure for the twenty-first century. Presented at the annual meeting of The Institute for Operations Research and The Management Sciences, Austin. Powell, G. R., Groves, S. W., & Jerry, D (2011). ROI of Social Media: How to improve the return on your social marketing investment. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Repenning, N (2002). A Simulation-Based Approach to Understanding the Dynamics of Innovation Implementation. Organization Science, 13, 2: 109-127. Robbins, S. F & Judge, T. A (2007). Organizational Behaviour. 12th edition. Pearson Education Inc., p. 551-557. Robert, S & Israel, S (2006). Naked Conversations: How Blogs are changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press. Wellman, B (2012). Networked: The New Social Operating System. MIT. Read More