Data Solutions Business Memo: Internal Communication Assignment

Question

Task description: In this task, you will write a memo in response to the case study provided below. The memo must be logically structured, free of grammatical errors, professionally styled; in addition, follow the writing conventions for memos as discussed in the lecture and supporting material.

Case study: You are the CEO of Data Solutions, which is a medium sized company that sells data management software. The company is based in Brisbane and has offices in both Melbourne and Sydney. You have become aware that although the external marketing and promotions communications are effective there is a problem with the internal communication. There are three primary general problems:

Answer

Objectives and background:

1. Specific purpose: This internal communication assignment focuses on key specific purpose behind the development of this memo is to understand the various issues or problems taking place within the internal communication of the organisation.
2. General purpose: The success of our organization firmly depends upon both its internal as well as external factors. Many a times there are effective external promotions and marketing but still the organisation is not working well. The key reason behind the organisational ineffectiveness is the issues in the internal communication.
3. Context: There are various problems that exist within the internal communication of Data Solutions. The problems are due to an inefficient communication process among the various organisational channels and within the organisation members. The weak internal communication results in occurrence of several issues which are need to be resolved. This internal communication assignment will help in underlining the various problems and their respective solutions.

Problems

1. Problem one: Employees do not understand why decisions are being made
   The first and the major problem in the internal communication of the organisation is that the decisions which are made at the organisational executive level are not clearly and timely communicated to the employees (Yeomans, & FitzPatrick, 2017).It indicates that there is no proper chain of command and flow of communication in the company which leads to authoritative management where the employees or the ground level members of the organisation are not included in the decision making process (Men, 2014). Ultimately the issue result in that the employees do not even understand on what basis the decisions are taken and thus do not participate effectively. Therefore, it also causes resistance in change. The resistance in change management leads to restrictive organisational growth, dissatisfied employees and increased turnover rate (Adamu, Mohamad & Rahman, 2016).
2. Problem two: Employees do not feel comfortable seeking work-related feedback from their supervisors
   The second major problem in the internal communication of the organisation is that the place of working of the employees and the supervisors are different which means they do not work in the same office and though there is ineffective communication between the supervisors and the employee. Due to this problem, several other issues started taking place in the internal communication of the company (Yeomans, & FitzPatrick, 2017). The first major issue associated with this problem is that whenever the employees need any kind of assistance from their seniors, they are not available and though seeking feedback or support from the supervisors becomes a difficult and uncomfortable task. When the employees do not get adequate feedback as well as support then there issues are not resolved which ultimately negatively impact their performances (Adamu, Mohamad & Rahman, 2016). Thus, it is problematic both for the efficiency of the employees and the organisation.
3. Employees do not found mailing as an effective communication channel
   The third major problem identified on the internal communication assignment of the organisation is that the emails which are sent used to be unprofessional. In the internal communication, emails play a vital and significant role as most of the communication takes place via mails only (Men, 2014). But here, the emails which are sent tend to be unprofessional which results in breakdown of the communication process. With the help of the mails, the employees can share their issues and can also ask for feedback, there can also be passed adequate information through emails (Adamu, Mohamad & Rahman, 2016). But sending unprofessional emails results in that the employees as well as the supervisors and executives do not take use of email in a constructive manner and though there are issues in the internal communication of the organisation (Men, 2015).

Action steps to solve the problems
a. Problem one: Employees do not understand why decisions are being made

Solution: To resolve the problem, following are some key recommendations need to be followed by all the organisational members:

• It is recommended that whenever a decision is made or finalized, before its final implementation, it must be conveyed in an open forum. So that, the decision is communicated to all the employees (Yeomans & FitzPatrick, 2017).
• It is also recommended that there must also perform an open forum discussion where the opinions and viewpoints of the employees are also provided adequate consideration.
• There must also be provided notice for the same to pass on the decisions at all the organisational levels and there can be resolved the issue of dissatisfaction of the employees and ineffective communication (Karanges, 2014).
• To check that whether the information is passed at all the level or not, there must be developed an online portal where a conformation could be received in the form of digital signature (Sisko Maarit Lipiäinen, Ensio Karjaluoto & Nevalainen, 2014).

b. Problem two: Employees do not feel comfortable seeking work-related feedback from their supervisors
Solution: To resolve the problem, following are some key recommendations need to be followed by all the organisational members:

• It is recommended that there must be adequate changes in the seating arrangements. There must be team based sitting where the employees and the supervisors of a particular team sit together in a cluster format. This will help in resolving the distant issues (Yeomans, & FitzPatrick, 2017).
• A regular meeting should be conducted every week where all the issues can be discussed and the employees can seek work-related feedbacks from their supervisors.
• There must be initiated the communication through pings where the employees in case of urgent assistance can ping their supervisors on chat and can ask for their support and feedback. And even the supervisors can also call the employees for any work in just seconds (CIOBOT?, 2016).

c. Employees do not found mailing as an effective communication channel
Solution: To resolve the problem, following are some key recommendations need to be followed by all the organisational members:

• There must be strict compliance and check over the mails which are passed on. A regular check over the mails can help abstained the flow of unprofessional mails.
• In any case, of any unprofessional mail is still found, then there must be severe penalty for the same. So that an example can be set for others and such process can be restricted to carry on further (Men, 2015).
• A technical control must be there for restricting the use of absurd or unprofessional language and words in the mails. Such mails should automatically transfer to trash (Sisko Maarit Lipiäinen, Ensio Karjaluoto & Nevalainen, 2014).
• The official mails of all the members must be regularly checked so that any kind disguised activity can be traced.

Conclusion
Various internal communication issues have been identified on this internal communication assignment. They exist in the organisation are slowing the organisational growth and development. It is also resulting in a broken chain of command and restrictive flow of communication. Thus, it is required that all the organisational members must follow the various recommendations provided above so the information can be passed adequately, employees can feel engaged and a proper flow of communication could be developed. By following all the recommended solutions for the problems, there could be attained effective internal communication within the organisation.

References
Adamu, A. A., Mohamad, B., & Rahman, N. A. A. (2016). Antecedents of Internal Crisis Communication: A Conceptual Framework. The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences EpSBS, eISSN, 2357-1330.

CIOBOT?, G. (2016). Internal Communication Marketing Role Within Organization. organization, 8(2), 59-62.

Karanges, E. R. (2014). Optimising employee engagement with internal communication: a social exchange perspective(Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology).

Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 264-284.

Men, L. R. (2015). The internal communication role of the chief executive officer: Communication channels, style, and effectiveness. Public Relations Review, 41(4), 461-471.

Sisko Maarit Lipiäinen, H., Ensio Karjaluoto, H., & Nevalainen, M. (2014). Digital channels in the internal communication of a multinational corporation. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(3), 275-286.

Yeomans, L., & FitzPatrick, L. (2017). Internal communication.