The business communication report of International Committee of the Red Cross - Essay Example

?Contents Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 2 International Committee of the Red Crescent 3 Targeted Communication 5 External Outreach 6 Social Media and Online Presence 7 Effectives tools to reach to the Audience 8 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Executive Summary International Committee of the Red Cross is a privately owned humanitarian organization based in Switzerland. Considering the overall nature of the work and its mandate, Red Cross has to effectively communicate with different stakeholders. Over the period of time, it has been able to develop communication mechanism within and outside the organization which allow it to better communicate its message to all the stakeholders. Its international communication is targeted at its employees and field staff who are constantly being informed about the organization through different means. Periodic meetings, email newsletters, video conferences as well as local internet network are some of the tools through which organization communicates with the field staff. External communication takes place both through the written as well as verbal forms of communication. Through its official spoke persons as well as written material, Red Cross continues to offer information about the organization to media as well as other stakeholders. It is also critical to understand that most of the communication by Red Cross to external world takes place through face to face communication as it has to interact with the victims of crime and war through verbal communication. Introduction International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a privately owned humanitarian organization based in Switzerland. Over the period of time, it has been able to serve millions of people in terms of supporting them through various means. Regardless of the race, color, gender, and nationality, ICRC has been able to provide support which made the organization as one of the leading humanitarian organizations in the world. Due to its sheer size and the nature of operations, ICRC has to interact with different stakeholders across the whole world. Not only through the traditional means of communication, ICRC has been able to communicate with its stakeholders through different other means also. It is only through the way ICRC has communicated to people that gave it its due position at the global level. Besides using face to face communication methods, ICRC has also been communicated with its users through its websites, news, blogs, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Presence on different social media means therefore allows ICRC to communicate with different stakeholders at relatively low cost and better effectiveness. This business report will focus on what types of communications are used by the ICRC in order to communicate with its consumers. Further, there will be an analysis of what types of communication is more beneficial for the organization to effectively reach to their target audience. Further, a recommendation will be presented as to what type of communication methodologies can be used by the organization to effectively communicate with the target audience. International Committee of the Red Crescent Before discussing anything about the kind of communication types used by ICRC, it is important to provide a brief overview and background of the organization and how it actually communicates with its audience.( Torres, 2010) Red Cross is famous worldwide organisation for its purpose of aid in different pattern in society. They have gone beyond boundaries and served zillions regardless of age, gender, or any differentiation at all. This organization is flourished over years and it would have not been in the place it is today without its various communication’s tools. Their mode of communication with their consumers and also the external world are websites, news, blogs, social networks like Facebook, YouTube and so on. They do not use internet only but also events, volunteer workshops and other sort of campaigns. The official mission of Red Cross is to help the victims of war and international and domestic crime. As such Red Cross is an independent organization with the sole mandate of protecting the lives and dignity of the individuals who are mostly affected by the war. This mandate therefore offer Red Cross a much larger responsibility to reach to its audience and provide them help and support required. Since organization continues to communicate with its audience therefore it needs to focus on developing effective communication tools to ensure that its message is well understood across all the stakeholders. The involvement of international community makes communication relatively more complicated as Red Cross has to deal with audience speaking different languages and belonging to different cultures. Considering the overall organizational structure of Red Cross, it is a complex organization with a bottom up approach towards communication. Since the overall activities of Red Cross are based upon community based services therefore its members have to constantly communicate with the victims and based upon such communication devise their plans and methods to further the overall objective of Red Cross. It is also critical to understand that overall scope and breadth of the Red Cross’s activities have enlarged which also give it mandate to even provide direct and indirect help to children and women also. Such sensitive nature of work therefore requires the members of Red Cross to develop and follow such tools and techniques of communication which can effectively relay the message. Targeted Communication There is a multifaceted network of internal communication within Red Cross in which members of the Red Cross actually communicates with each other. The complex network of operations as well as associations with other non-profit organizations therefore makes the task of employees relatively tough as they have to manage communication at the relatively large level. The targeted communication within the organization takes place in the shape of written memoranda generated at various organization levels to the periodic email newsletters which are forwarded to all members to get them know about the activities of the field and activities which may be taking place at different missions of the Red Cross. This sort of communication is targeted communication therefore is always for specific purposes and targeted for special audience. (Willemin, 2006) It is also important to note that the top leaders within the organization often use conference calls with the employees in order to provide them direct information regarding what is happening within the organization and what kind of leadership qualities can be required in order to effectively deal with the field staff. These conference calls are often based upon appreciating the role of field staff as leaders. (Therkelsen & Fiebich 2004) There is also a local interanet of Red Cross’s different missions across the world which is constantly updated to provide the required information to the field staff and others who require it. The use of interanet is considered as one of the effective tools by Red Cross to effectively communicate with the staff and disseminate information to the field staff. Apart from this, the local network of Red Cross also contains detailed information and presentations in different formats such as multimedia and power point presentations thus making the overall communication more effective and penetrating for the employees. Apart from this, there are also regional and international meetings taking place during different time period of the year. These meetings therefore suggest that the top management of the organization continue to focus upon developing rapport with the field staff. Through oral communication and other means, top management of Red Cross actually provide an opportunity to the field staff to become relatively more informed about the overall plans of the organization and how it is doing. (Kulcu, & Kulcu, 2010) External Outreach Considering the overall nature of Red Cross’s work and its mandate, Red Cross has to constantly reach towards different players. At one side, Red Cross has to perform its basic function of providing support to the needy while at the other hand; it has also need to reach to media and other individuals who providing funding support to Red Cross. Red Cross maintains intense communication with the Media for the marketing purposes and as such this communication is not just limited to the media but also has to constantly communicate with its own staff to provide required information. Red Cross maintains an extensive pool of spoke persons who are readily dispatched to different areas where the need for publicity for Red Cross is required. Public relations officers of Red Cross therefore provide required information either through written material or through oral presentations. Such presentations are often made through the multi-media equipment and often contain audio-visual information about Red Cross. External reach of the organization therefore is coordinated through the local as well as regional spoke persons who utilize their expertise to disseminate the required information to the target audience. (Stoddart, 1995) Apart from this, Red Cross also depends upon external donations as one of the key sources of its funding. In order to accomplish this, Red Cross again uses different communication tools such as personal letters, meetings, online donations as well as mass communication. Such tools are used in combination to effectively provide the required information to all stakeholders to generate the required funds. Social Media and Online Presence Social Media is considered as one of the key ingredients of the overall communication strategy for any organization. The systematic use of social media by Red Cross especially by American Red Cross increased after Hurricane Katrina hit US during 2005. Red Cross extensively used this medium to reach to its audience and it was considered that the use of Social Media is one of the effective tools to basically understand about the overall perception of the people about the organization. It is important to understand that in the initial years of adaptation of social media by Red Cross, it considered it as a one way mean of communication during which only individuals discussed and provided their feedback about their individual perceptions about the organization. However, over the period of time, Red Cross realized the true power of social media and how it can be used for two-way communication to reach millions of people. Communication through social media therefore is focused mainly on executing the overall mission of the organization. In a sense, social media therefore is used as a communication medium to reach to the people who need most of the support of the organization. Apart from this, Red Cross also now monitors the social media activity in order to improve its overall image as considering the nature of its work, developing and sustaining a favorable brand image is important. Social media is largely used to maintain that brand image. Effectives tools to reach to the Audience Though the overall mediums for communication have broadened however, for Red Cross, face to face communication is the essential and most important form of communication. Face to face communication by Red Cross is mostly based upon using the verbal form of communication while at the same time using other means such as written material as well as audio-visual tools demonstrated live to the target audience. Face to face communication is important in the sense it can provide immediate feedback to the individuals working for the organization. Verbal communication along with the personal networking therefore helps Red Cross to build its positive image. It is an acceptable phenomenon in the philanthropy and care field that donations are mismanaged therefore it is critically important that a goodwill image is always maintained. This image however, can only be managed if the organization can actually continue to communicate face to face with different stakeholders. It is also critical to understand that face to face communication is also important in the sense that Red Cross has to perform its functions in the field. Often the target audience are those individuals who are victims and living in abject poverty having no access to facilities like internet and electronic media. In order to overcome this deficiency, face to face communication therefore is one of the key methods through which Red Cross can actually understand what are the real problems of the people and how it can contribute towards improving the lives of people. Red Cross is a global organization and it has to work at the international level with people belonging to different races, cultures and ethnic backgrounds. In order to cope with such diversity, it is really important that Red Cross must utilize face to face communication in most effective manner. To deal with such diverse environment may not be possible or affordable through other forms of communication except face to face communication. Face to face communication can also provide an opportunity to Red Cross to actually get to know the local conditions and trends. Understanding locals can provide most effective ways through which the overall resources of Red Cross can be deployed effectively. Face to face communication can also provide an opportunity to get richer and deeper information therefore Red Cross can use this form of communication with relative degree of success. When face to face, individuals can get more time and space to communicate the message more effectively. What is more important that communication can be clarified too easily when face to face form of communication is used? Communicating information through other media such as emails, social media as well as the internet may not help individuals to better understand Red Cross however, face to face communication can be the only effective methods which can actually allow Red Cross to disseminate information in right manner thus reducing the noise which can effectively distort the overall message. Face to face communication therefore is one of the most effective forms of communication for Red Cross. Recommendations In order to make the communication more effective and cheaper, it is important to understand that Red Cross must develop its local resources to reach out to its target audience. Face to face communication through the local representatives of Red Cross can really help the organization to disseminate its information at relatively rapid pace and with least cost. In order to overcome the cultural barriers, it is also important that Red Cross must broaden its overall scope of activities. There is a need to disseminate information in other less known languages too so that individuals can easily understand the overall message of Red Cross and how it can actually help them in order to live with dignity and peace. More focus therefore should on the development of cross cultural communication capabilities to facilitate the field staff of Red Cross to communicate with ease. Lack of cultural understanding as well very little knowledge of local culture and trends therefore may create hostility towards the organization rather than helping it to accomplish its targets. To overcome such situation, development of multi-linguistic forms of communication is must for Red Cross. Though there are efforts to overcome this lack however, Red Cross still needs to focus more on broadening its overall services. (Fox, 2009) To better develop the recognition of its brand image at global level, Red Cross therefore must communicate with its audience in local languages and provide them an opportunity to initiate a two way communication. Conclusion Red Cross is one of the leading humanitarian organizations in the world engaged into the work of providing humanitarian support to people who are affected by war and other crimes. Over the period of time, Red Cross has been able to develop a better brand image due to its constant and effective communication with all of its stakeholders. Red Cross communicates through different forms of communication including external as well as internal audiences. The internal communication system of Red Cross is a well-developed communication system which is used by all the employees and volunteers of Red Cross across the boards. Right from written memos, emails and bulletin boards, Red Cross uses tools such as local interanet services to communicate with its field staff effectively. Most of the communication however, is about the organization, its plans and how these can be carried out in the field by the staff. Its external communication is based upon the use of combination of different forms such as verbal as well as non-verbal. Nonverbal forms of communication include use of blogs, news, social media as well as organization’s own websites. Besides, Red Cross also uses face to face communication as the most important and effective methods of reaching out to its target audience. Considering the overall nature of work, face to face communication provides Red Cross with an opportunity to better disseminate the information as well as understand the cultural complexities of the places where they work and provide support. References 1. Dan O', H. (2008) Strategic Communication in Business and the Professions, New York: Pearson Education. 2. Fox, S (2009) Information and communication design for multi-disciplinary multi-national projects, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2(4), p.536 3. Kulcu, O & Kulcu, H (2010) Contextual analysis of the e-records management requirements of Turkish Red Crescent Society, Electronic Library, 28(2), p.314 4. Laufer, David et.al (2010) Communicating charity successes across cultures: Highlighting individual or collective achievement?, European Journal of Marketing, 44 (9/10), p.1322 5. Stoddart, L (1995) The use of the Internet in the development of a global network for disaster management for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Program: electronic library and information systems, 29(3), p.273 6. Therkelsen, D & Fiebich, C (2004) The supervisor: The linchpin of employee relations, Journal of Communication Management, 8(2), p.120 7. Torres, A (2010) International Committee of the Red Cross: emblems of humanity, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 28(2), p.223 8. Willemin, G (2006) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official e-mail system: An example of records management, Records Management Journal, 16(2), p.82 Read More