Effective Internal Communication 2nd Edition PR in Practice

Effective Internal Communication 2nd Edition PR in Practice

Contents
About the author  ix
About the editor  x
Preface by Professor Anne Gregory  xi
Acknowledgements  xiii
Introduction  1
PART 1  SETTING THE SCENE
1.  What is internal communication?  9
 The history  10
 Technology added  13
 Where it sits in the organization  14
2.  What does it take to be an internal communicator?  17
 Where to now for the internal communicator?  18
 How others see it  22
3.  Your audience – who are they?  25
 Front-line staff  25
 Supervisors/line managers  26
 Senior management/middle management  27
 Board/director  27
iv
 Voluntary sector – trustees, volunteers, members  28
 At one remove  28
 Creatives and specialists  29
 Diversity  30
 Segmentation – the way ahead  30
4.  Theories into practice   32
 The four cultures of the organization  33
 Process this way or give us a sign  37  Golden Oldie revisited   38
 Semiotics – reading the signs  40
 Focus on the mass or the individual  41
 The individual revisited  42
 Shall we dance? The cooperative model  44
 Computer-mediated communication and the implications  45
5.  Managing internal communication in-house  48
 The business case  48
 Who does it  49
 How internal communication rewarded  54
 So, human resources or public relations?  54
 Centralized or decentralized  55
6.  Outsourcing the internal communications function  58
 The business case  58
 What consultancies can offer  60
 Reasons to be cautious  61
 Getting the best from your consultancy  62
7.  How the legal framework fits in  65
 General communication minefields  66
 In the workplace itself  70
8.  The channels, vehicles and activities  79
 What is the message?  79
 Face to face – one to one  80
 Face to face – en masse  81
 Print  83
 Broadcast and audio-visual  84
 Internet driven  86
 Corporate glue – games, etc  87
 Events  88
 Environment  89
 Corporate social responsibility  89
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 9.  Who uses which media for what  93
 The manager’s perspective  93
 Top down – but what about the workers?  94
 Ensuring someone is listening  96
 Unblocking the blockages  96
 Media or symbol?  98
 The invisible web  99
10.  The receiving end  101
 Staff perceptions  101
 Is there anybody there?  102
 Involvement the key  103
 Last on the bandwagon?  103
 Give them what they need to do the job  104
 The in-house language  105
 Upwards communication  106
 Conclusions to be drawn  106
11.  Communicating with special groups  109  Tapping into cultural diversity   110
 The differently abled  112
 Age, gender and sexual orientation  113
 Working from home or out on the road  114
 The unpaid heroes  116
 Micro-organizations  117
 Conclusions  118
12.  The globally dispersed workforce  119
 The consultancy approach  123
 Things to think about – pan-EMEA and beyond  124
PART 2  GETTING IT RIGHT – PRACTICAL APPLICATION
13.  How to do it – setting about communication  129
 What your people want to hear  131
14.  We can all talk can’t we? Face to face  136
 Listening in on easy conversation  136
 How others do it  138
 Overcoming presentation sickness  140
15.  Leading from the middle  142
 Accentuate the positive  145
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 Moving it on  147
 So what makes the middle special?  148
16.  The creative aspects – writing, editing and designing it
 yourself  150
 Capturing the spark  151
 Sparking ideas together  151
 Sexing up the mission statement  153
 Think visually  153
 Back to the written word  154
 Managing the editorial panel  156
 It’s the overall look that counts  157
 What to put in  158
 The annual report  158
17.  Publishing the printed word – the logistical aspects  160  Using the professional typesetter and printer   161
 Deploying colour and typeface  162
 Pagination and other weighty issues  163
18.  Broadcast – do it yourself or call in the experts?  167
 Celebrities – home grown or real?  168
 Working with the professionals  170
19.  Managing change  172
 Networks  174
 Integrated communication  174
20.  Communicating in a crisis  182
 So what goes wrong?  185
 On the day itself  186
21.  Signposting the ether  190
 E-mail – getting it right  191
 E-mail – getting it wrong  192
 Texting – both pro and con  194
 Winding up the intranet  195
 Writing online  197
 Getting the content right online  198
 Intranet of record  200
22.  They go it alone – online  202
 Working with social media  206
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 How widespread is social media?  207
 What can social media add?  209
23.  How to measure success  212
 Benchmarking  214
 Surveys  214
 Audits  219
 Other ways in  220
 Taking the measure of new media  220
 Looking back and onwards  221
24.  How to make it happen – gone shopping!  223
 Starting from scratch  224
 Where to look  225
 Preparing the brief  226
 Interviewing likely contenders  227
 So what next?  228
 Working with suppliers  229
25.  Internal communications – the future  231
 Implications for the internal communicator  236
Appendix 1. Internal communications knowledge and skills  239
Appendix 2. Communications in the public sector – a snapshot  250
Appendix 3. Setting up an internal communications function –
 things to consider  253
Appendix 4. Useful addresses  257
References  259
Further reading  263
Index  266