Managing Workplace Relationships: Communication Strategies for Organizational Changes

In this assignment we will discuss about managing workplace relationships and below are the summaries point:- JKL Industries is a company that offers minimal trucks and forklifts to the Australian market. The company has stopped offering rental services due to reduced market efficacy and plans to establish sales unit abroad. Lack of communication technology usage within the organization has led to internal and external communication breakdown. A communication consultant is needed to address the issue.

Running head: MANAGING WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS
Managing Workplace Relationships
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author notes:

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Part A
For the last twelve year, the JKL industries has offered minimal trucks and forklifts to the
Australian market. The company also has services through which they offer rental services to the
customers. Recently, the company has not been able to depend on the revenue that is earned by
the services of rental offering. The market efficacy of the same has reduced and it is for the same
reason that the company decided to stop such services. The company has landed a sales right of
the large and medium trucks. They have established such rights overseas. Through this motive,
the company aims to gain a competitive advantage on their market rivals. The company intends
to halt the rental services and close up the department of rental services. For this the company’s
management need to address the decision to the department.
Issues such as lack of communication is evident within the organization and the same
leads to breakdown of internal as well as non-internal or external communication. In addition to
that the company have been found not to be utilizing the benefits of technology that is required
in the modern time. As a result of this, the company’s ability to establish communication with
both the customers and its employees are hindered. Thus the grievance of the customers are not
addressed (Fitzgerald et al. 2014). The aims and visions of the managerial department are not
being properly communicated to the employees as the result of lacking employee engagement.
Since the company is in a situation where there is lack of communication and understanding of
the organizational needs and due to the disorientation with the goals and ethics of the company,
the need for hiring a communication consultant is evident. My role as a communication
consultant in this organization will involve refurbishing existing communication system along
with making efforts in establishing a redefined framework for communication. I would also have

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to work with the management of the organization to develop an effective grievance redressal
mechanism.
Following can be identified as the goals of the company:
 To establish sales unit abroad
 To stop the rental services offered by the company
 To introduce bigger trucks in order to gain competitive advantage over the competitors.
The company’s current vision will result in halting of functioning of the rental services
wing of the company. They plan to do so since the market condition do not show favourable
trends that favour the prosperity of the same. This situation could result in formation of
employee grievances (Gunawardana 2014). In the past the company has faced issues related to
the same. Grievance have been faced from employees in issues such as insufficient and
unfavourable working conditions. The company’s current aim of restructuring operations might
turn out to be being not properly received by the employees of the organization. This could
specially arise for the employees who work in the department of rentals.
The need for establishment of communication objectives become crucial if the company hopes to
tackle the issues that will arise out of the organizational changes. The objectives that are related
to communication are:
 To re-establish the channel of communication,
 To incorporate a mechanism of feedback formulation
 To spread brand awareness by taking advantage of social media.
It is said that a company who intend to redefine their communication channel are required to
restructure their organizational framework (Shih et al. 2013). There is proper functioning and

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smooth flow of information in an organization that is structure properly (Mazzei 2014). A well-
established network and frame work of communication implies that the member of the same
organization are productively aligned to the goals and vision of the management (Higham and
Hebets 2013). A system of sturdy feedback will enable the management to be aware of the
grievance situation that exists within the organization. This mechanism also helps the employees
of the organization to share their opinions regarding a decision and operation of the company and
their management. It is said that employees of organization around the world feel valued as
members of the organization when decisions are taken by giving them a chance to present their
opinion (Mencl and Lester 2014). The company should incorporate social media which would
perfectly correlate with the company’s aim to establish improved brand awareness. Through this
they would be able to engage the customers through social media communities and keep them
updated about the ongoing operation of the company.
Currently the company do not have unions involved in their operations. Employee
grievances are addressed more effectively with the help of unions (Hirsch 2017). The employee
can c0mmunicate their grievance through the unions and thus the manager can effectively look at
individual employee grievances. Issues detected in the initial steps of the grievance redressal
process will result in the problems being dealt with at the very source (Melchades 2013).
Establishment of such frameworks will help in improving the management employee
relationships.
Part B
Answer 1

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The situation that has transpired has alarmed the management and concerned parties. By
not making accommodations for member of the organization who are not Christians, The
Company’s policies have been supposedly violated. This has resulted from the violation of the
Company’s ethical code of conduct and its policy of antidiscrimination.
The company have had issues in the past following which they have modified the structure of the
company affairs and communication framework. The later has resulted in communication of the
grievances that have been caused by the violation. The restructured policies of the company
stresses importance on the well-being of the stakeholders of the company. The company aims to
establish themselves as patron in the global level. The company values and respects diversity and
aims to communicate their respect towards the same. Thus they have formulated policies that
help establish the above mentioned values and have set regulations in accordance to such. The
essence of healthy communication should not be undermined and the same is necessary for the
free flow of information within the organization. The anti-discrimination policies are best
understood by developing the need for understanding cultural diversity (Mooij 2018). It is
recognized by the management of the company that their organization is a one which is
characterized by a diverse work force and they also recognize that same is in the case of
Australia as a whole. Cohesiveness in an organization is determined by the degree of affiliation
that each people have with the other members within the organization. JKL Industries value the
rights of their employees and thus a rigid framework has been established that will help to cater
to the difference that are arising out of differences in culture of certain members within the
organization. To deal with the current issues the management has decided to come to
collaboration with the employees by solving the issue responsible for violation of the company
ethics through which they will be able to cater to the needs of all people within the company.

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Answer 2
Even after addressing the need of maintaining and abiding by the rules, regulations and
policies of the organization, it will be my sole responsibility to address the issue to the team who
are directly informed. The employees of the department could possibly resist to my efforts to
make them abide by the rules. Resistance is expected some people of the team. This would lead
to further violation of various other ethics. They could accept the implication although they
might do so insincerely which would result in outburst of further grievances. I am aware that I
would need to protrude myself an impartial decision maker in order to be seen as fair in the eyes
of the members involved. I would have to stress solely on the company values while
communicating the grievance that has risen as a result of the scenario. Additionally I would have
ensure that my body language is open and outgoing during the conversation with the team. To a
certain degree I would need to be assertive in my style of communication. I would do so in order
to stand against the scenario where possibility of contractions are greater than compared to no
contradictions. I encountered a similar issue in the past when the management of the company I
was working for was being partial and not taking any feedback form the employee. I had to
ensure that they got reiterated about the values and policies of the company after which the issue
was resolved.
Answer 3
In order to establish an effective organizational network, establishment of healthy
relationships with the suppliers is necessary. I van alter my plan by studying the market trends
and by identifying the nature of the suppliers before establishing a supply network. By doing the
same the company can aim to achieve competitive advantage in competition with the rivals.
Furthermore, establishing a social media presence helps in engaging with the customer

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community and for establishing relationships with the supplier. The same should be followed by
identifying common goals that the company has with their suppliers and same can be used to
gain an edge of the competitors.

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Part C
Action plan
Action/activity Timeframe Person/s
responsible
Description of
strategy/
tactic/rationale
for action
Resources, if
required
Rental Manager
meeting with the
HR
2- hours HR
Representative,
Manger from
rental service
department
The rental
manager has
become stressed
out as a result of
the scenario that
transpired and
thus I would
need to control
my facial
expressions and
reactions.
Office of the
HR business
partner / office
of the manger
from rental
services.
Point of
interaction with
the employee
who has the
grievance.
2 hours HR business
partner,
manager of the
rental services
department,
While dealing
with the
individual from
the team who has
put forward the
Office of the
HR business
partner, office
of the manager
from rentals

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the individual
of the team
who has the
grievance.
grievance, both
the manager of
the rental service
department and
the HR business
partner should
try to
communicate to
them about the
fact that opinions
of the employees
along with the
employees as a
whole are highly
valued by the
company. Along
with this the
individual should
also be assured
that they will
retain their job in
the organization
and will be
service
department and
the conference
room or
auditorium of
the union.

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compensated for
any loss.
The process of
addressing the
union as a
whole.
3 hours HR business
partner,
Members of
the union of
the concerned
department of
the
organization,
manager from
rentals
They should be
communicate all
the things that
were
communicated to
the individual in
the above step.
They should be
further requested
to consider their
efforts of
organizing a
strike.
Conference
room of union,
Auditorium of
union, Speaker
and
microphone.

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REFERENCES
De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
Fitzgerald, M., Kruschwitz, N., Bonnet, D. and Welch, M., 2014. Embracing digital technology:
A new strategic imperative. MIT sloan management review, 55(2), p.1.
Guidikova, I., 2014. Cultural diversity and cities–the intercultural integration approach.
Gunawardana, S.J., 2014. Reframing employee voice: A case study in Sri Lanka’s export
processing zones. Work, employment and society, 28(3), pp.452-468.
Higham, J.P. and Hebets, E.A., 2013. An introduction to multimodal communication. Behavioral
Ecology and Sociobiology, 67(9), pp.1381-1388.
Hirsch, B.T., 2017. What do unions do for economic performance?. In What Do Unions Do? (pp.
201-245). Routledge.
Mazzei, A., 2014. Internal communication for employee enablement: Strategies in American and
Italian companies. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(1), pp.82-95.
Melchades, V., 2013. The Role of Effective Grievance Management Procedures in Enhancing
the Work Performance(Doctoral dissertation, The Open University of Tanzania).
Mencl, J. and Lester, S.W., 2014. More alike than different: What generations value and how the
values affect employee workplace perceptions. Journal of Leadership & Organizational
Studies, 21(3), pp.257-272.

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Shih, P.J., Lee, C.H., Yeh, P.C. and Chen, K.C., 2013. Channel codes for reliability enhancement
in molecular communication. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 31(12),
pp.857-867.