Communicating core values and mission （五）

ACCA P3 考試：Communicating core values and mission （五）

A communication model

A commonly-used model of communication is the Shannon-Weaver model. This depicts the communication process as:

For communication to be successful the message has to get from the sender to the recipient and be understood and acted upon. When communicating core values and mission, the five elements would typically be:

• information source: the board

• transmitter: encoding the message – deciding what needs to be said or what needs to be shown and designing the message

• the communication channel – eg internet, letters, meetings. These are listed more fully in the next section

• the receiver: decodes the message – eg a web-browser displaying a page

• destination – employees, customers, shareholders.

Noise can interfere with the message at any stage and this can be termed a barrier to communication. Noise can prevent or distort communication. Typical sources of noise are:

• language difficulties – ensuring that the message is properly translated into foreign languages and that any terminology used can be understood

• information overload – too much information so that recipients are overwhelmed and fail to see the most important information

• failure to receive – wrong email addresses, trying to display Flash animations on iPhones

• reluctance to receive the message – eg employees might be reluctant to change their behaviour and might ignore the communication

• status differences – eg management stays remote from employees and is reluctant to hear bad news about the organisation’s performance

• inappropriate communications channels – eg expecting employees to read and digest a long text on the organisation’s core values when a training course, video presentation or discussion might be much more effective.

Communications can break down very easily and the organisation’s management might not even be aware of this. A survey carried out by the Boston Consulting Group (1) found that although around 27% of bosses believe their employees are guided by a ‘set of core principles and values that inspire everyone to align around a company’s mission’ only 4% of employees agree. Similarly, 41% of bosses say their firm rewards performance based on values rather than merely on financial results. Only 14% of employees believe this. So, quite obviously there are serious communications failures relating to the core values of the organisations in the survey.

Communication methods (channels)

Mission and core values cannot guide behaviour or support performance and create a common understanding among the various stakeholders if they are not effectively communicated. There is no point in shareholders believing that they are investing in an innovative company if perceptions of customers and employees are quite different. Although messages and sentiments must be consistent, there is a wide choice as to which types of communication are likely to work best for each stakeholder group.

Methods of communication include:

• conversations and discussions

• advertising

• publications, such as journals, newsletters and mail shots

• financial statements

• meetings, such as the AGM

• company stationery

• company merchandise

• presentations

• training courses

• press releases and other public relations activities

• collaboration

• video

• SMS (texting)

• internet (organisation’s web site) and intranet

• email

• social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

This list is set out, very approximately, in the order in which the techniques became available over time: talking to one’s employees face-to-face came long before Tweeting to one’s valued employees. Generally, any communications campaign will use a mix of techniques and the methods chosen will depend on which audience is being targeted, the nature of the message and expense, both in terms of money, time and environmental impact. For example, instead of sending printed financial statements to every shareholder, many companies now email a web link to shareholders showing where the financial statements can be viewed online and downloaded if required.

Similarly, sending newsletters by email is faster, cheaper and causes less environmental impact than producing and despatching printed copies. This shift in communication methods is an example of a common organisational core value in action – the wish to minimise environmental impact and to promote sustainability.

Examples of organisations communicating mission and core values

Good communications requires a plan and typically this would have the following steps:

• Listing your communications stakeholder groups (here, shareholders, employees and customers)

• Defining what has to be communicated to each stakeholders group (here mission and core values)

• Identifying suitable communications methods and events

• Allocating resources

• Developing a communications event schedule

• Monitoring the effectiveness of the communications events