Critique, Analysis, Alternatives

Research
l Client
® information about organisation's personnel
® in-house survey conducted

l Problem
® changes in organisation
® centralisation of branch office functions
® employees frustrated by old policies, bureacracy, procedures

l Audience
® upper level administration and below
® nonmanagement

Objectives
l Impact
® informational:
§ To increase employee knowledge of significant organisational policies, activities and developments
® attitudinal:
§ To enhance favourable employee attitudes toward organisation
® behavioural:
§ To increase productivity and employee satisfaction
§ To recieve more employee feedback from organisational communication

l Output
® To prepare and distribute employee communications
® To schedule interpersonal or small group communication between management and employees

Programming
l Theme and Messages:
® What's In The Way is too negative
® seems to imply that management is only concerned about productivity/efficiency and not employees' welfare/satisfaction
® Lunch with... is slightly better but the objective is not clear
® theme should focus on employee welfare & happiness

l Actions/Special Events:
® source credibility
§ depends on past PR strategy for employee relations
§ management must be seen as trustworthy
§ RPA tries to ensure greater crediblity by being transparent about meetings and findings
® opinion leaders and group influence
§ RPA held meetings with employee representatives who act as OL
§ important to persuade OL so that they will in turn persuade other employees
® two-way communication and audience participation
§ there should be adequate channels to encourage feedback from audience
§ past PR practices would affect how accurately feedback reflects reality
® selective exposure
§ people will accept and seek out information that support their beliefs
§ must make sure that messages support employees' beliefs
® salient information
§ messages must be relevant to employees
§ must show how information directly affects each individual employee

l Controlled media:
® website
® suggestion box
® corporate video
§ to make employees more aware of corporate vision, see big picture
§ to help them understand the need for change and adapt to it better
® bulletin board
§ to encourage discussion and sharing of views

Evaluation
l model of PR practised by organisation impt
® two way symmetry would ensure reliable feedback
® two way assymmetry or others would yield guarded comments