MNG81001 - Sunshine 100: Management Communication Analysis Report

This report analyzes a management communication case study focusing on the negative impact of social media misuse on the reputation of Sunshine 100, a company specializing in responsible foods. The report identifies the dangers of unregulated social media use, including the potential for malicious attacks, communication disarray, and difficulty in controlling information spread. It highlights the challenges of information control and the risks of internal information leaks to external environments. The analysis emphasizes the importance of establishing a robust social media policy, including ethical standards and consequences for policy breaches. A communication strategy is proposed, targeting employees, to create understanding and ownership of the social media policy through formal communication channels, employee discussions, and evaluation methods. The report aims to provide a framework for effective social media management and communication within organizations.

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MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Name
Institution Affiliation
Date

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Management Communication
Social media tools could be detrimental and hazardous to a company’s reputation if not
handled cautiously. One of the negative effects of social media is that misuse is inevitable if it is
not properly regulated. Jane was doing well in undertaking the company’s campaign for a
feeding program through social media before tragedy stroke. The misuse of the social media
campaign came about as result of the fact that there were no gatekeepers for the company’s
social media account. In that case, a disgruntled employee could utilize the social media account
to undertake malicious attacks against the company (Ali et al. 2015). Given the high security and
gate keeping nature of the traditional communication channels, it is impossible to vent vengeance
through them. That is because, only authorized persons have the chance and the power to relay
information through the traditional channels (Baum et al., 2017). Social media tools could also
be dangerous to the company when handled carelessly in the sense that it will put the company’s
communication process in disarray. Sunshine 100 company has a clear structure and process of
communication.
However, the social media inception will cause havoc in the process of communication.
For instance, the traditional means of communication would require some procedures to be
followed before the publication of any work. The social media does not allow that given the
decentralized nature it possess. If there is a sensitive matter that needs a cautious and skillful
manner of communication, it will be possible to effectively relay it through the traditional means
of communication (Bell and Leabman, Energous 2017). However, with the social media tools,
the sensitive information may be posted or communicated insensitively to the public by an
irresponsible user. That will cause undue damages that are sometimes irreversible. Several media

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outlets were able to capture the information relayed on social media owing to the irresponsible
handling of information by Sunshine 100 employee. Another danger of social media tools is that
information control is difficult. Sunshine 100 company was not able to control the spread of the
information, let alone the person in charge, Jane. It was difficult to pull down the posted
information because the information spread very fast (Petronio 2016). That is unlike the
traditional means of communication where organizations had full control of the channels of
communication.
In many cases, some information is only meant for internal environment but not for the
external environment. Social media could leak the information that is meant for only the internal
environment, to the external environment. When the internal organizational communication is
relayed to the external environment the meaning of the information may be interpreted
differently in an incorrect manner (Kanki 2019). Social media bears the unofficial and the
official representation of Sunshine 100. The employee’s comment of social media caused a lot of
undue reaction from the external environment to the extent of catching the attention of other
media outlets. That is a clear example of an irresponsible comment from an employee. It is lethal
in the sense that the organization’s intentions for its mission or program may be distorted, like
the incident of purporting the company’s food stuff is merely junk. The distortion of the
information may have a huge negative impact on an organization because its image and
reputation may be interpreted in the wrong way (Noe et al 2017). An irresponsible social media
comment could destroy the reputation that a company has built for a long time, in a very short
moment. The recovery of reputation or image is normally an expensive and hard task. Therefore,
personal comments could cost an organization not only its reputation but also its resources.
Irresponsible social media comments could also lead to legal measures against an organization.

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For example, the careless opinion of Sunshine 100 employee could attract suing from other
stakeholders which is really damaging to the company.
Therefore, a company must have a social media policy that covers its reputation. An
effective and efficient social media policy needs to bear the ethical standards for the use of an
organization’s social media rules. Had Sunshine 100 developed a clear formulation of ethical
rules for the social media campaign, it would have reduced the chances of being on the receiving
end. Ethical standards serve as guiding principles for employees to use in handling the
organization’s sensitive information (Ziek and Anderson 2015). Also, a good policy must set out
the consequences and disciplinary actions that employees will be subjected to in the case of
breaching the set ethical standards.
Communications Strategy
Social media communication policy strategy for Sunshine 100 Company
Audience: The audiences for this policy include all the employees of Sunshine 100 company.
Strategy: The employees of Sunshine 100 are an active group with quick understanding to
company changes. Owing to the incident of a private Face book post that was made public, the
policies formulated will act as a guiding tool for employees to prevent such incidences.
● The employees at Sunshine 100 understand the communication of policies in a better
way, through formal means. Therefore, staff should be communicated through a formal
means. For one the following channels of communication will be used to relay the
policies to employees; Email- All employees will have a copy of the formulated social
media policy, Postas- Notifications will be posted on the notice boards of the company

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and formal talks- Specific policy trainers will be selected to educate the employees
directly through talks.
● The employee discussions on the social media talks will also involve holding debate
forums. That will be used to collect the feedback of employees concerning the policies
put forward. That will be for purposes of making further amendments and corrections. It
will also publicize the understanding of employees on the policies for better
comprehension.
● Evaluation of the communication strategy after being effected, will be conducted to help
to find the areas of contentions and also review its success. The evaluation process will
include carrying out surveys and interviews on employees. The survey will be voluntary
but the participants will stand a high chance of being promoted to become social media
policy oversight management.
Objective: The main objective of the communication strategy is to create an understanding of
the social media policy among the employees of the Sunshine 100 company. The main aim is to
get the employees to fully understand and own the policies for effective implementation. The
aim is not imposing the policies on the employees but to make them own them.
Projected Time Frame: The whole process of policy publicity should take a time frame of one
month.

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References
Ali, K., Nguyen, H.X., Vien, Q.T. and Shah, P., 2015, March. Disaster management
communication networks: Challenges and architecture design. In 2015 IEEE International
Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication Workshops (PerCom Workshops) (pp.
537-542). IEEE.
Baum, M., Dawes, P.J., Kinney, M., Raji, R., Swenson, D. and Wood, A., iControl Networks
Inc, 2017. Communication and automation in a premises management system. U.S. Patent
Application 15/630,900.
Bell, D. and Leabman, M.A., Energous Corp, 2017. Systems and methods for communication
with remote management systems. U.S. Patent 9,838,083.
Kanki, B.G., 2019. Communication and crew resource management. In Crew resource
management (pp. 103-137). Academic Press.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Pagnamenta, A., Bruno, R., Gemperli, A., Chiesa, A., Previsdomini, M., Corti, F., Merlani, P.,
Cottini, S., Llamas, M. and Rothen, H.U., 2016. Impact of a communication strategy on family
satisfaction in the intensive care unit. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, 60(6), pp.800-809.
Petronio, S., 2016. Communication privacy management. The international encyclopedia of
communication theory and philosophy, pp.1-9.

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Ziek, P. and Anderson, J.D., 2015. Communication, dialogue and project
management. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(4), pp.788-803.