CRISIS COMMUNICATION . . .

Crises happen. Crisis communication is an essential component of organizational communication. Crisis communication is a component of crisis management; it is not the same as crisis management. Crisis communication is a very real problem for contemporary organizations. Not reacting well to a crisis can result in the generation of employee rumours, plummeting stock values, a lack of employee confidence, and a reduction in consumer trust. Crisis communication is fundamentally different from image management, because not all messages that are communicated during a crisis are related to building or restoring the company image. Also, crisis communication must involve communicating to internal as well as external receivers. Organizations that are exceptionally profitable and well managed can encounter sudden problems that may rock their enterprise. When crisis occur, organizations are compelled to communicate to various audiences. The quality of these communications is crucial for the success of the organization. Sloppy communication during crisis can plague an organization right out of existence. Effective communication can transform potential disasters into positive situations for a company. Effective crisis communication requires support from top management, comprehensive brainstorming regarding potential crisis, identification of internal and external stakeholders, designated spoke persons and a commitment to implement the plan. Crisis communicators are advised to quickly respond to crisis situations, be committed to using the plan that already established, be accessible, avoid silence and ‘no comments’, be truthful and be scrupulously honest when communicating with your internal and external stakeholders. Last but not least, crisis communication is an important element of effective organizational communication.

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND THE ORGANIZATION . . .

The effects of cultural diversity on organizations are significant. This topic shows that intercultural communication in terms of why it is important for organizational success and how persons who need to communicate interculturally can do so efficiently. The world is becoming smaller. Organizational men and women, sooner or later, will need to be adept at communicating interculturally. Intercultural communication can define as communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event. Essentially, intercultural communication is a more complex form of interpersonal communication because there are more variables that can serve as impediments. Intercultural communication contexts have additional communication noises. Among these noises are perceptual and world view disparities, disparate language systems, disparate nonverbal systems, and ethnocentrism. Cultural factors will likely create additional obstacles for the communicators. Because of the frequency of intercultural interactions in organization, organizational men and women are occasionally, if not regularly, faced with communication challenges related to cultural differences. Overcoming these barriers requires a willingness to become knowledgeable about others, respect for differences, familiarity with other language systems, nonverbal behaviours, and customs, awareness that cultures are not monolithic entities, and adopting an egalitarian frame and abandoning ethnocentric perspectives.

COMMUNICATION CLIMATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

In my view, this topic examines the relationships between climate, culture and organizational communication. Climate and culture are powerful forces affecting organizational communication. At the same time, daily routine communication behaviour affects what emerges as the organizational culture and climate. The climate of the organization is more crucial than are communication skills or techniques in creating an effective organization. The organization’s culture can determine, or at least affect, the nature of the climate. Redding identifies five characteristics of an ideal supportive climate which are ‘SCOPE’ -Supportiveness, Credibility, confidence and trust, Openness, Participatory decision making, and Emphasis on high performance goals. Organizational culture is an elusive concept. The culture of an organization is concerned with the belief and value system of that organization. Schein has identified several mechanisms that affect how culture is embedded in organizations which are formal statements of organizational philosophy, responses to crises, organizational structure, and focus of attention, storytelling and legends, design of physical spaces, deliberate coaching and modelling by leaders, also promotion and salary increment criteria. It is far easier to prescribe the ingredients for a supportive climate than it is to create the climate. Similarly, it is easy to identify desirable cultural traits of an organization and far more difficult to embed those traits in an organization. Assimilation theory explains how individuals within organizations are socialized and the role of communication in that socialization process. Credibility, leadership, and the extent of a human resource orientation, are important planks in the floorboard of an organization’s culture.