Organizational Communication Report: Employee Persuasion Strategies

This report examines organizational communication within the context of Luxury Lodges of Australia, specifically addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyzes the issues faced by the company, including employee dissatisfaction and resistance to cost-cutting measures like reduced shuttle services and meal options. The report identifies key communication theories, such as expectancy violation theory, social exchange theory, and bargaining theory, to persuade employees to accept the changes. The discussion emphasizes the importance of effective communication in maintaining employee morale, commitment, and productivity during times of crisis. The report proposes negotiation strategies, such as highlighting existing employee benefits and emphasizing the long-term benefits of cost-saving measures to ensure the company's survival and continued employment for staff. The application of these theories aims to foster understanding and acceptance among employees, mitigating negative impacts on performance and organizational culture.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Discussion............................................................................................................................3
Issues presently faced by the company due to Corona Virus..........................................3
Communication theories that will be used for convincing the employees of the
organization.................................................................................................................................4
Concept of organizational communication..................................................................4
Significance of organizational communication...........................................................5
Identification of the probable areas of negotiation in the case....................................5
Identification of the suitable theory and application of the same................................7
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Organizational communication includes the communication process used within an
organization. It encompasses all communication forms that can help the organization in
connecting in a better way with their employees as well as other stakeholders of the company.
Therefore the organizational communication includes both formal and informal communication
channels for the flow of information within the organization (Bean and Rice 2019). There are
basically four main types of communication within an organization such as oral or written,
directional communication, internal or external communication and formal or informal
communication. Effective communication is necessary within the organization as it leads to
better relationship between the employees, the top management and the external stakeholders of
the company. The organizational climate and culture also define the type of communication used
within the organization (Buenviaje et al. 2016). Moreover organizational communication needs
to be both ways that is the top management should be able to create such an environment
wherein the employees should be allowed to communicate openly about any issues that is being
faced by them. The company selected for the purpose of this study is Luxury Lodges of
Australia. The main aim of the paper is to identify such communication theories that can help in
convincing the employees for accepting top management decision. The paper will therefore
discuss about the issues that organization is presently facing due to corona virus and the
communication theories that can be used for the purpose of persuading the employees within the
organization.

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Discussion
Issues presently faced by the company due to Corona Virus
Due to the sudden breakout of Corona virus globally, all businesses have been facing
serious issues due to lack of customers purchase intentions. And one of the major industry that is
bring affected badly by such spread out of diseases includes the hospitality industry that includes
all travel and tourism company and also resorts. Due to the sudden breakout of corona virus the
government of all the countries have decided to cancel all forms of transportation to prohibit
people’s entry and exit from a country as the Corona virus is a pandemic disease (Chhaya et al.
2017). Therefore the hospitality industry is suffering from millions of losses and their now their
only aim is to exist in the market. The organization that has been selected for this assignment is
going through some major tough time due to this spread-out of corona virus and the company has
decided to cut down all its additional expenses in order to at least earn some amount of normal
profit with which it can exist in the market. However the company decided to implement its
decision as soon as possible and as a result it failed to communicate its decision of cutting down
some major expenses to its employees. The company has decided to cut down its expenses by
curtailing the use of the company’s shuttle (Downing 2019). The company shuttle used to
operate every day from the resort to the nearest town which took almost half an hour. The
management has now decided to reduce the use of shuttle to only two times a week.
Moreover the company has decided to also cut down the mess expenditure into half
thereby reducing options of meal available in the staff dinner table. Although these decisions
have been disliked and resisted by the employees of the company the top management does not
have any intentions is changing its decision. Some of the major issues that the organization is
facing presently includes- a sense of dissatisfaction among the employees of the organisation,

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resistance from the employees of the organization and negative productivity and performance of
the employees of the organization (Driskill 2018). The employees may feel dissatisfied because
the organization had suddenly decided to stop its use of shuttle facilities and without
communicating about the same. Moreover the management of the organization adopted a top
down approach of decision making. The employees performance and productivity will be
affected negatively due to lack of commitment and motivation among the employees. The level
of employees motivation and commitment in an organization depends upon the communication
within the organization (Gan and Yusof 2019). When an organization adopts a participative
decision making style, the employees feel like they are an important part of the organization.
Communication theories that will be used for convincing the employees of the
organization
Concept of organizational communication
Communication within the organization is of great importance for managing all activities
within the organization. Whether an organization needs to update their employees about new
policies, or to prepare them for emergency situations, for ensuring organizational safety,
listening to peoples feedback within the organization. In order to become successful it is
necessary for organisations to have comprehensive strategies and policies for the purpose of
communicating with the employees, stakeholders, constituencies and the community at large.
Organizational communication therefore includes communication between two or more parties
within the business environment for the purpose of achieving some predetermined goals and
objectives (Jiang and Men 2017). Organizational communication includes all forms of
communication, that allows an organization to effectively communicate with it internal and
external stakeholders. Organizational communication includes both formal and informal

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communication within the organization. Formal communication includes the flow of information
within the formal organizational structure and informal communication includes the
communication between the employees that is outside the formal organizational structure.
Significance of organizational communication
The significance of effective organizational communication includes- building the morale
of the employees, satisfaction of employees and also employees engagement (Ihlen and Heath
2018). Through effective organizational communication, employees can understand their
employment terms and conditions in a better way and it also helps in driving their loyalty and
commitment. Through effective communication employees can openly discuss about the issues
that are being faced by them and therefore there is no need for unions (Fenner and Piotrowski
2018). Employees get a voice in the organization that makes use of effective communication
strategies and policies. Moreover effective communication can help in overcoming all
misunderstandings between the employees and the employers and reducing grievances (Jones
2019). With the help of effective communication in organization, employees efficiency of
operation can be improved while reducing the cost of operations. Moreover open communication
in an organization can also help employees in penting up their emotions through informal
communication and that can help in motivating them in their work.
Identification of the probable areas of negotiation in the case
In the given case scenario that the resort is facing due to the spread-out of corona virus,
the top management has decided to cut the additional cost in order to keep their business going.
Therefore the decisions taken by the top management for reducing the additional cost cannot be
reversed and at the same time it needs to be ensured that the employees are motivated such that
their performance does not get affected by the organizational decision. In this situation, it is

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necessary for the mangers to enter into negotiation with the employees in such a manner that
neither the top management has to change its decision nor the cost increases and the employees
also overcome the sense of dissatisfaction that has been created in them (Kassing and Matthews
2017). Therefore the manager will try to motivate the employees by trying to appraise the
facilities that they are being given already. The staff of the resort is provided a number of
facilities such as free snacks and meals, paid time off, health and insurance of the employees,
retirement benefits and various others. Therefore the manger will try to appraise these and try to
motivate the employees even with reduced number of shuttle services.
Moreover the managers can try to improve their motivation and satisfaction through
conducting various employees engagement activities. These engagement activities includes
different types of fun activities within the hotels such as campfire and going on team picnics, and
others. Moreover employees engagement activities can be carried out for overcoming the sense
of dissatisfaction caused among the employees due to the organisations decision to reduce shuttle
services. The managers should also try to discuss about the bigger picture of what the
organization has decided to reduce its shuttle services and that the ultimate aim of the company
is to exist in the market. If the company can save its cots then it will be the employees only who
will be able to get the benefits from the same (Manafzadeh et al. 2018). Then the second major
decision undertaken by the company includes- reducing the meal options of the employees.
For this, the mangers can explain that many of the dishes are not being eaten by all the
staff and therefore much of the food got wasted. Therefore the decision of the management to
reduce the food options will not only help in saving the additional cost of the company but it can
also help the company in ensuring that by saving the additional cost it is able to pay its salaries
of the employees properly even in such emergency situations. Moreover the workplace health

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and safety standards of the selected company are not affected by the corona virus outburst and
therefore the same helps in ensuring good health and safety facilities for the employees. This will
further ensure that the employees can work in their workplace without any sort of risk to their
health’s.
Identification of the suitable theory and application of the same
The three theories identified for the purpose of motivating the convincing the employees
into accepting the changed policies of the organization includes- Expectancy violation theory,
social exchange theory and Bargaining theory (Mumby and Kuhn 2018). The Expectancy
violation theory analyses the way an individual responds to unanticipated violations and changes
in their expectation and the social norms. This theory therefore believes that communication
included exchange of behaviours such that the behaviour of one person results in a violation of
the expectation of another. This theory is also based on the assumptions that the violations are
usually vague and negative (Murata et al. 2017). Therefore this theory can be used to explain the
employees of the Luxury Lodges of Australia that their perception of violation is actually vague
and there is no such violation of theirs expectation in reality. The employees may feel that the
top management decision to reduce the cost by reducing the usage of shuttle and more options
for meal is actually resulting in violation of their expectation. But with the help of this theory
they can be explained that there has not been any such violation in fact the decision of the top
management will be beneficial for them in the long term. Then the second theory is the social
exchange theory of communication that includes- the belief that social behaviour is the result of
the exchange process between two or more people. It basically emphasises the reward or the cost
of interaction between two or more people. Therefore for the purpose of overcoming the sense of
dissatisfaction among the employees, they can be convinced using the social exchange theory

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such that they can understand the rewards that they will be getting for accepting the new policies
of the company. The third theory of communication includes- the bargaining theory of
communication (Jackson 2019). The bargaining theory will be used for explaining the employees
how the cost cutting done for saving the cost from their meal options will ultimately help them in
earning a stable salary even in these emergency situation (Lindberg et al. 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion, it has been understood that effective organizational
communication is very important. And this is so because whenever an organization discusses
openly about its decisions with the employees before actually carrying that out, employees do
not resist the same as they understand the main reason behind the same. Therefore it is very
important to have open communication within the organization such that employees can
understand the reason behind a particular decision of the top management. And organizations
which successfully provide an environment of open communication, are able to carry out their
decision more easily than in organizations where such communication is not there. From the
paper, the issue that are presently being faced by the organization due to top managements
decisions of reducing additional expenses has been understood. Some of these issues includes a
sense of dissatisfaction among the employees due to sudden change in the organizational
facilities that were initially provided to them. Some of the other major issues that the
organization is facing presently includes- poor work life balance, lack of commitment in the
employees, resistance on part of the employees due to failure of management to communicate
effectively with the employees about their decision prior to actually implementing the same,
reduced productivity and performance of employees within the organization. Moreover from the

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paper, the communication theory that may be used within the organization for persuading the
employees have also been understood.

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