MNG81001 Workforce Enhancement For Corporate Communication

Introduction

Communication is an art and a science at the same time, art due to the individuals delivering its purpose and science because we are constantly learning and achieving results through trial and error. Corporate communication is all about innovative and creative content to gain the attention of the media and audience to what the organization wants to state. The efficient workforce is the key to achieve the desired results, the dynamics of communication are evolving with each day the workforce has to be invested upon.  Corporate communication strategy consists of micro-sub strategies, which are essential to creating favorable gains for a corporation which can vary from trust building, loyal consumer, increasing investment or high profits. We focus our attention on corporations’ internal investment in its workforce to address the issues in corporate communication management and review previous literature to develop a conclusion. There are four important parts to this report; the first part is identity, the image and reputation of the corporation where the gap in identity and image is identified and its causes are discussed, CSR and its constant criticism by investors and the lack of expertise to handle it, Media relations is studied deep into history and the issues that are incurring due to the new media platforms and the evolution of corporate communication as a whole with the management of false news. Crisis communication is an art itself there have been many studies on how to handle crisis, management, model, plan but the nature of it is that it is always unique, and it is a learning process rather than a fit to all model or framework, addressing the general audience as compared to stakeholders is a major problem faced in crisis communication. These issues are followed by recommendations for the issue and future study and lastly concluding the report.

1. Identity, image, and reputation (Student Name and ID)

Selective information is presented by an individual in any interaction to regulate the perception of their personality; identity is created by an individual on what they wear? How they behave? And what words they choose to communicate. In an organizational level, it can be observed as self-presentation, the organizational interactions are considerably complex as compared to an individual. The individuality of an organization is the basis for differentiating it from other organizations. It can be stated as that corporate identity is the organization's appearance for its stakeholders (Marwick and Fill 1997).  The history of corporate identity is constructed from origins such as banners, flags and crests Olins (1989). Peter Behrens an architect employed by the German Company AEG worked for the design of shop, letterhead, and displays. This was the first known development for the foundation of corporate identity (Argenti & Forman 2002). In the modern era where the research on corporate identity has evolved, the concept of identity now comprises many elements like communication; design; culture; behaviour; structure and strategy it is a comprehensive term and is defined as the significant component for business strategy and its impact on stakeholders (Melewar & Karaosmanoglu 2006; Melewar, Sarstedt & Hallier 2012). The visual system for an organization is communicated through the logos where an organization attempts to communicate “Who are we?” Organizations spend a lot of money into this self-representation which will be the foundation of the differentiating factor from other organizations. Identities are not created in a short time these visual systems and the process and comparisons from other organizations over time to time create the corporate identity. 

Similar to identify the concept of the corporate image can also be traced back to the study of Gardner and Levy (1955) and Boulding’s (1956) who introduced the concept of the corporate image which is evolved from the word reflection. Boulding’s (1956) further suggested that individuals count on perceptions instead of reality. The image can be defined as a depiction of views, attitude, and impressions of an individual for an entity, which may be true, false, or imagined (Barich & Kotler 1991). The two significant characteristics of an image are functional and emotional, where functional is measured and emotional is based on the psychological factors (Kennedy 1977; Martineau 1958). Corporate image builds on the perception and behavior of the consumer (Boulding 1956; Barich & Kotler 1991; Cohen 1967) it shapes up the attitude towards the product of the company and creates a competitive advantage (Brown 1998). Corporate image influences an individual to buy the product, investing in the organization and work for it (Balmer 1995; Van Riel 1995). Furthermore one of the essential factors is that the image significantly impacts the trust in stakeholders (Gray 1986). Stakeholders themselves have different characteristics, experiences, knowledge, and beliefs which lead to the different perception of the image for an organization (Shee & Abratt 1989; Bernstein 1984; Brown 1998; Dowling 1988; Gray 1986; Spector 1961; Topalian 1984).

The relationship of identity and image is significant for an organization; the image is the individual perception whereas identity is in what way an organization desires to be perceived by an individual. This is where corporate identity management (CIM) is evolved, with its objective being to build a positive reputation of the organization for its stakeholders.  Every organization has an identity which might be planned or unplanned by the management which clearly suggests that identity can be controlled (Bernstein 1984). The organization can manage its identity which can be the foundation of the desired image for the public and can be converted into an asset. The prime focus of CIM is the control over the communication to its employee and how they represent the organization and communicate its identity to the stakeholders. CIM is a representation of three factors first of it is visual symbol identity (Carter, 1982, Melewar & Saunders 2002) being the tangible amongst the three factors it consists of symbols, logo, color, typography, visual aids, staff uniform, and other materials which is a reflection of the corporate philosophy and it creates a physical recognition (Carter, 1982). Communication is the second factor for CIM which itself is such a broad term all the marketing communications like an advertisement, slogans, the written, verbal, stated, the corporate communication like publications and reports all the décor should all have consistent message presented to its stakeholders (Van Riel & Balmer 1997). The last factor which concludes the CIM is a philosophy which consists of policy, actions, decision, culture, values, and mission, it brings uniqueness to the corporate identity (Shee & Abratt 1989)