METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

THE HOUSE MAGAZINE

  1. Printed monthly
  2. Usually ‘glossy’ magazine type
  3. Contains articles on a variety of subjects
  4. Report staff changes
  5. Report achievements of individuals
  6. Explain new developments, sales promotions results of productivity drives etc.
  7. Attempts to give the broader aims of the company
  8. Its expensive to produce and usually sold for a nominal fee.
  9. The information is always dated.

THE COMPANY BULLETIN

  1. Will appear weekly
  2. Produced on a duplication
  3. Issue free of charge
  4. Less general and more up-to-date than the house magazine

THE STAFF NOTICE BOARD

  1. Should contain up-to-the minute information
  2. Cheap to maintain
  3. Are divided into sectional e.g. Sport, Union matters
  4. Not everybody reads them
  5. Some people read only the bits they are interested in
  6. A cluttered notice board is a counter-productive method of communicating

THE PERSONAL MEMO

  1. Will guarantee that information will be received by most members of staff
  2. It is fairly costly, particularly in time taken in production and distribution
  3. in a large company
  4. It has a human element and helps people to feel more personally involved
  5. Can include a questionnaire to provide feed back

THE DISPLAY BOARD

  1. Kind of notice board but is restricted to particular issues
  2. Considerable detail can be given
  3. Coupled with a suggestion box into which ideas or questionnaires can be placed
  4. it can be an attractive way of communicating
  5. Not everyone will read the details
  6. Where questionnaires on suggestion boxes are used there must be an allocation
  7. of staff to deal with the returned forms and to summarise the results.

THE TELEPHONE AND INTERCOM

  1. Least satisfactory form of communication
  2. Message can be garbled or distorted
  3. There are no written records
  4. The ‘grape vine’ is found in every organisation

HOW COMMUNICATION USUALLY WORKS

  1. By relevant message form board room to departmental managers
  2. Managers discuss with supervisors
  3. Supervisors may put notice on Notice Board
  4. Staff reaction welcomed through suggestion box and questionnaires
  5. At sometime Union Branch officials call a meeting for discussion

CAUSES OF BREAKDOWNS IN THE SYSTEM

  1. People fail to receive information for one of the main reasons
  2. It was not delivered (the wrong address put on envelope). Someone forgot to empty out-tray. A notice was put on notice board but those who were
  3. meant to read it didn’t look at it.
  4. Nobody sent the information in the first place (somebody thought it wasn’t important and forgot it)
  5. It was delivered but it couldn’t be understood, (handwriting illegible, carbon copy worn, the transmitter used words the receiver could not understand the Spelling and punctuation undecipherable, transmitters speech slurred.