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Executive Overview
Executives can communicate about anything, but they cannot communicate about everything. Consequently, either explicitly or implicitly, they make communicative choices, which, in turn, become the organization's communication strategy. These choices are all the more important in times of great organizational uncertainty wrought by increased global competition, quicker cycle times, and the ever-changing marketplace. What are the communication strategies available to executives? How should they be made? Which ones increase organizational effectiveness? These are the core questions discussed in this article. We conclude with a case study demonstrating the benefits of systematically developing a communication strategy to address organizational uncertainty.
Talk is not cheap. After all, executives spend a great deal of time conducting meetings, giving speeches, responding to e-mail, and drafting reports. Executives usually have less time than money. No executive would cavalierly spend financial capital, nor carelessly fritter away communications resources. Yet many do. Why? Perhaps they do not realize the value of a comprehensive communication strategy. Executives face an array of pressing issues, including how to retain quality employees,1 combat organizational cynicism,2 and create a dynamic, evolving workplace.3 A proper communication strategy provides more than another tool to address issues of this sort; it creates the right environment. Organizations like FedEx, which can create passion in the workplace through consistent and energizing messages, tend to experience less employee turnover.4 A communication strategy can provide a hedge against employee cynicism by ensuring that dissenting opinions about decisions, practices, or policies are appropriately channeled. A well-developed communication strategy also cultivates the kind of environment more accepting of change and innovation.5 3M, for example, sows the seeds of innovation by routinely recording and telling stories about breakthrough products, processes, and ideas.6
Technologies like the Internet should also encourage executives to reconsider traditional topdown communication strategies. Employees can quickly and easily get information from sources both inside and outside the organization. These communication tools can profoundly affect workers` thoughts, motivations, and actions. Executives cannot hope to control information the way they once did. Therefore, they need new strategies that can adjust to these dynamics.
What Is a Communication Strategy?
The word strategy has more frequently been coupled with the word business than with communication. A long and intellectually stimulating history regarding business strategy has...