Language and organizaitonal communications

One of the features of language that the book suggests to consider in analysis of organizational communication is narrative or story telling. I have recognized this in the organizational announcements that we send out to the supply chain management organization. They make a story out of the announcement. There is always an introduction, a climax, and close. The “voice” of the executive narrates the announcement. I think this is done to create a “relationship” with the audience that is being spoken to. It is interesting that you can recognize these “unintentional” language patterns in the communications when you just think about it. It is very easy to overlook these simply nuances of language.

Researching Communicaiton Effectiveness

Every year the communications team that I work with does a communication effectiveness study of the whole Supply Chain Organization (the function that I work in within the larger company). We carry this out not only to understand if the messages we are sending are being received and understood but also how the organization communicates best. Are they more receptive to email newsletter, face to face interaction, video, shared web spaces? We try to understand it from to sides, from what we are currently doing to communicate and how we can better communicate in the future. This study consists of focus groups first where 4 -5 groups of 10 meet with the researched and they have a more open discussion. From this focus group and input from others in the team we create a survey that is sent out to all of the members of Supply Chain. It is a accompanied by an email from the SVP requesting participation. We take the results very seriously. We have a meeting once they have all been analyzed and discuss what when wrong with past communications and how we can change our practices so that we do not see the same problem the next year. I have found it incredibly enlightening to study the communications that we send and also how the organization is communicating. It is so valuable to get that insight and understanding.