Why managers should make effective communication a priority

This article discusses the importance of effective communication in management and how it facilitates the smooth running of an organization. It also highlights the crisis of communication in organizations and the development of communication strategies to protect the reputation of the organization in a crisis. The article provides insights into different crisis clusters and communication strategies that protect the organization's reputation. It also emphasizes the significance of written communication and how it provides permanent records for future reference. The article concludes by discussing the impact of social media on organizational reputation and the importance of identifying communication crisis types and looking for crisis response strategies.

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Why managers should make effective communication a priority
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Introduction
Communication is a process for the transmission and understanding of information
between two or more parties (Keyton 2017 p. 501). The organizational aspects of communication
have increasingly become a strategic issue which is important, which emphasizes the importance
of effectively adjusting communication for the target group of choice. In communication,
information flows through channels which are different, and between a receiver and sender,
including conforming of a message and disturbance elements. Information receivers and senders
usually create a picture labeled profile, with the sender including the stakeholder who is sharing
the information. Non-verbal messages are also included in the communication, including
pictures, symbols, and logos. In the process of communication in organizations, few barriers
exist, which are mostly referred to as “noise” (Salem 2008 p. 336). These include an overload of
the information, distortion in perspective, languages, cultures, filtering, and differences in
perceptions. The paper seeks to establish the crisis of communication in organizations and the
development of communication strategies to protect the reputation of the organization in a crisis.
Crisis Communication and the Importance of Communication in an Organization
Three different crisis clusters which exist as presented in the Situational Crisis
Communication Theory (SCCT) include the intentional cluster, the accidental cluster, and the
victim cluster. The organization is not attributed to the crisis caused in the victim cluster but
rather viewed as a victim. Additionally, the organization is linked to the cause of the crisis in the
accidental cluster, although stakeholders view it as unintentional. Moreover, in the intentional
cluster, the organization is directly linked to the crisis cause which is considered deliberate.

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Communication is a major function in the management of businesses and involves the
process of transmitting plans, opinions, thoughts, ideas, and information within the different
organizational parts. Effective communication facilitates the smooth running of an organization
and is required for various aspects and in various levels of the organization. Without effective
communication, employees would send and receive misleading information which might affect
the services and products offered by an organization. Poor services and products will lead to the
dissatisfaction of customers which will consequently lead to reduced revenue for the company
(Altınöz 2009 p. 220).
Managers cannot get the work done by employees unless there is effective
communication of what is to be done. Many problems in management and conflicts between
employees and managers arise due to poor communication. In addition, communication is vital
for the motivation of employees, which can significantly improve their performance and morale
in carrying out their duties in the organizations. Faulty and inappropriate communication among
employees or between subordinates and their managers is a major contributor to low morale and
conflicts in the workplace. Effective communication also helps in the maintenance of a good
organizational relation hence fostering increased production at a low cost through the
encouragement of suggestions and ideas from employees and their implementation (Holten &
Rosenkranz 2008 p. 29).
In addition, communication assists workers in the effective submission of suggestions,
grievances, comments, and work reports. Organizations should have speedy and effective
communication procedures and policy so as to avoid distortion of facts, confusion, and
misunderstandings, hence establishing harmony among departments and concerned people.

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Written communication should be concise, purposeful and clear with correct words, in order to
avoid confusion and misinterpretation of the intended message. Communication which is written
provides permanent records for reference in future and offers the employees opportunities of
including their suggestions and comments in writing. Furthermore, communication can assist
companies in implementing an easy product launch. Through email subscriptions, organizations
can store customer data, hence it would be easy to introduce new services and items (Blaschke,
Schoeneborn & Seidl 2012 p. 880). An organization drafts a single email about a new product or
service, and the email will be delivered to all subscribed consumers instantly.
Furthermore, business communication assists in product and service surveys which are
critical for organizations to understand the needs of their customers and understanding the areas
which need to be improved. Social networks can also be used by businesses as platforms for
conducting surveys which assist the company in getting quick responses and saving the company
time and money (Huang, Baptista & Newell 2015 p. 52). Moreover, businesses can socially
interact with customers through the creation of business pages for communication with their
followers. Improved effectiveness of communication including video conferencing enables
managers and employees to have a meeting while on different geographical locations. Moreover,
digital networks have improved the effectiveness and efficiency of communication through
printers and phones which allow for the real-time exchange of files through the use of broadband
transmissions and satellites.

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Communication strategies to protect the reputation of the organization in a crisis
The reputation of an organization is widely recognized as the most valued resource.
However, communication crisis or unpredictable events can damage the reputation of the
organization and therefore measures should be put aside for controlling and maintaining an
organizational profile. According to Coombs (2013 p.262) evaluation of communication crisis
history, type and prior relationship reputation assist the organization in predicting the
reputational threat level and the way in which organization publics’ attributes crisis
responsibility and perceived the crisis. Furthermore, the Development of communication
strategies in responding to a crisis can limit and repair the damaged reputation of an organization
although this consumes time and resources. The communication strategies that protect the
organization reputation include; denial response crisis strategies involving attacking the user and
scapegoat. Diminish response crisis strategy involving excuse and justification, rebuild response
crisis strategies involving compensation and apology and bolstering response crisis strategy
involving ingratiation corrective action, reminder and victimization.
The denial communication strategy is used by the organization in the attempt of rejecting
the connection between an event suitable for rumors and the organization. The strategy
challenges the crisis as management argues about the rumors being false and there is no crisis
caused by the organization. Further research by Sheldon and Sallot (2008 p.28) has shown that
denial crisis strategy helps in the establishment of crisis frame and if the crisis is, rumor and
organization not directly involved it dispelled and both media and stakeholders accept there is no
crisis and therefore no reputational harm can be done. In response to the denial strategies, the

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organization usually attacks the accuser and crisis manager confronts the people claiming the
organization is not compliant.
Diminishing crisis strategy minimizes the apparent damage triggered by the crisis as it
claims the situation is not that bad as being publicized. However, the strategy has a drawback of
online media and news media arguing in contrary to the organizational statement leading to
emergency and spread of information that can spoil the reputation of the organization (Utz,
Schultz, and Glocka 2013 p .40). In this situation, crisis manager can develop excuse strategy in
an attempt to minimize organizational responsibility by claiming the organization was unable to
control the occurrence of events that triggered a crisis and deny the intent of doing harm.
Furthermore, diminishing crisis strategies protects the reputation of the organization by
brainwashing the public or groups involved in spoiling the organization reputation and
convincing them about what organization have done to control the situation. Furthermore,
diminishing crisis strategy should be used when there are minimal attributions of crisis
responsibilities, which are coupled with negative prior relationship reputation, and history of
similar cases (Claeys, Cauberghe and Vyncke 2010 p. 256).
The Rebuild crisis strategy protects the organization reputation by offering the material or
symbolic help to the victims. In most cases, the strategy is used for reputations that possess
serious threats to the organization. For example, the occurrence of intentional crisis that is
believed to have unfavorable performance history (Coombs 2010 p.111). In the cases of
intentional crisis, the organization tries to rebuild its name by using full apologies and
compensation strategies, which are appropriate for this situation. The compensations offer gifts
or money to the victims while in apology crisis manager asks shareholders for forgiveness and

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indicate that the organization takes full the responsibility for the crisis. Therefore, managers
should prioritize effective communication since once information has widely spread its heard to
convince people despite the implementation of these strategies.
Conclusion
The Report has acknowledged that Reputation threats occur due to the communication
crisis situations. The emergency of forums, wikis, blogs and social media websites like
Facebook, Twitter, have significantly led to the increase in potential reputation threats that are
faced by organizations as unfiltered information flow becomes dimensionally uncontrollable in
the social world. Factors that influence organizational reputation include openness to customer
attacks like in the social media a single comment or post can have a significant impact on
organizational reputation. Jacob (2012 p.259) has shown that prevention of organizational
reputation from threats is through identification of communication crisis types and looking for
crisis response strategies. The relationship between crisis response strategies and crisis
responsibilities determines how the reputation of the organization is influenced by different
factors. The strategies identified are grouped in a cluster to provide the organization with
alternatives to handling crisis. Furthermore, it is important to use the necessary strategies but not
over accommodating strategies as this can worsen the situation.

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