External Communication Assignment | Online Assignment

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: III. External Communication A. Determine the medium(s) that you will use to deliver your message and explain how you made this decision. B. Define the target audience of your external communication. Include key factors and any cultural factors about this audience that you considered. C. Craft the message that you will communicate externally and defend how the message promotes the organization’s strategic goals. D. Identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your external communication. Consider the message you are communicating, as well as the medium(s) used. Use the following rubric to help you address the critical elements appropriately

Paige Pohopin

MGT 550: Communications

Southern New Hampshire University

Introduction

Research in Motion is the company that introduced the Blackberry cellphone in the late 90’s. This company began highly successful as there was not much competition to keep them gaining popularity in the technology world. The company continued to grow and evolve this Blackberry to be one of the most essential devices used in the business world. “In 2007, RIM hit a milestone, as the number of BlackBerry subscribers had officially passed the 10 million mark. Its consumer demand had remained strong with RIM reporting another 1.65 million subscribers in its third quarter of 2007 alone, and with the company revenue doubling over the previous year to have reached US$1.67 billion and still continuing to grow.” (Managing Through Communication)

It wasn’t until 2008 that RIM began to lose their edge and customers began viewing their products. They had released Blackberry’s first smartphone called the, “Blackberry Torch.” Consumers viewed this as them simply as trying to “catch up” to what Apple had already done with the iPhone. RIM started scrambling to try and keep up with Apple and maintain a competitive advantage. However, they were finding themselves quite unsuccessful. Intense competition had mounted in the smartphone market. As a result, RIM lost its market share to the growing popularity of the Apple iPhone, in addition to new smartphones using Google’s Android operating system, including devices from HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG Electronics. Disappointed with the BlackBerry’s dropped market share, analysts and investors no longer viewed RIM as the dominant force in the marketplace.” (Managing Through Communication)

Once RIM clearly began to struggle with the advancements of the technology world; the company started to face many problems internally that circled around communication issues. Boy Genius Report had released an article that was written by a current employee, addressed to the two CEOs of the company. This employee had expressed not only their own feelings, but much of what the rest of the company was also experiencing.

Communication Issues

While RIM was a very successful company for around 10 years, they had lacked a great amount of communication and employee engagement. A couple specific issues that RIM faced were a lack of employee accountability and engage and interact with employees. “We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time. We urge you to make bold decisions about our organizational structure, about our culture and most importantly our products. (Managing Through Communication) Employees are beginning to lose faith in their company and the upper management. This in turn, could lead to many employees walking away from their jobs and going elsewhere.

Communication Goals

Employee accountability is something that has to be high up on a responsibility chart for all employees. The goal is to have every employee held accountable for their ideas and contributions to the team. RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles… Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out. (Managing Through Communication) The employees that put forth the most effort should be awarded with a bonus or a promotion. All employees must partake in a monthly goal challenge that can be set up by the department heads and evaluated at the end of each month. There is also an idea to bring “Employee of the Month” into play. The employees that are going to help the company continue to grow in the high demanding world of technology will be rewarded for their efforts.

The goal of engaging and interacting with your employees is coming up with new ideas that the company as a whole can work towards to still be a leader in the industry. If only two people are trying to compete with Apple, who has an entire team coming up with ideas, then you are only setting your company up for failure. “[People said] it could never work because it didn’t have a physical keyboard. With each of our products there’s that kind of story. Over the long haul, you just have to have faith that the strategy itself leads to [financial results] and not get distracted and focus on them. Because focusing on them doesn’t really do anything. It probably makes the results worse because you take your eye off what really matters.” (Safian R, 2018) Apple doesn’t focus on the money. They focus on what matters; products and people. Apple has mastered coming up with what the people are asking for and delivering it to them in a timely matter. Not only are they coming up with new smart phones each year that are enhanced like ever before, they are introducing things like air pods that people are able to use with their smartphones. Reaching out to the outside world (external audience) for ideas that could help boost RIM’s products, is a way to help speed and develop advancements. If you’re trying to impress the people, what better way to do so than asking them what exactly they want?

Resources

Managing Through Communication [VitalSource Bookshelf version].  Retrieved from vbk://9781307429398

Safian, R. (2018, July 30). Why Apple Is The World’s Most Innovative Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/40525409/why-apple-is-the-worlds-most-innovative-company

IntroductionCreating and keeping relationships of trust with one’s audience is at the heart of the professional and academic activitiesof public relations. How are these strategic activities planned in social media (SM) in order to gain such trust, and continue toearn it over the long term? We might first question whether these activities are planned as a part of a global communicationplan, or whether they emerge from daily practices. Is the planning deliberate, or emergent (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985)?Is it prescribed, or creative (De Certeau, 1990)? Does presence in SM require using elements of both trends at once? To whatcommunication logics must public relations professionals adapt their practices in SM? What strategies should be adopted?These questions are addressed through the SM appropriation approach, emerging from the sociology of uses and studiedin the field of corporate communication. This epistemological position allows this phenomenon to be studied from the pointof view of the user or, in this case, public relations professionals. What interests us is to understand the strategic processand whether it is planned (or not), or a bit of both, of SM managers in their daily SM appropriation practices to reach theircommunication objectives. What are these objectives: to inform, entertain, or inspire confidence? What strategic approachshould be developed to gain this confidence? How should ideally symmetrical and two-way conversations be brought about(Grunig & Hunt, 1984): by developing “building mode” strategies established from a planned process, or by employing“dwelling mode” strategies which emerge from daily practices?∗Corresponding author.E-mail address: Francine.charest@com.ulaval.ca (F. Charest).1Université du Québec à Montréal, Québec, Canada.2Information and Communication Department, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2016.03.008
0363-8111/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study discusses the digital practices of public relations professionals through a descriptive qualitative approach. Todo this, we used semi-structured interview techniques with 12 SM strategists active in North American organizations. Theyallowed us to analyse the SM appropriation practices by professionals through their planning and to observe how theseeffective practices could be compared to those prescribed in the scientific literature.2. Theoretical issues and markersConceptualizing a “theory of practices” has always been a project dear to the father of the appropriation approach, DeCerteau (1990). Although he was never able to fully realize it, he at least laid the foundations. Other researchers havecontinued their work in this vein. Chia and Holt (2006) also emphasize the difficulty of studying daily professional practices,as well as the importance that they play in any communication strategy. As early as 1985, Mintzberg and Walters tackled thequestion and showed the nuances between deliberate strategies integrated in the strategic corporate plans of organizationsand emergent strategies created reactively on the ground, without having been previously formulated in the planning phase.Despite the undeniable relevance of this work in management, research conducted by Chia and Holt (2006) emphasize thefact that Mintzberg’s work does not explore, or does not elaborate on how a series of repeated and coherent actions canemerge from what one might call a “strategy.”This is what Chia and Rasche (2011) attempt to demonstrate by making analogue links with De Certeau’s approach.According to them, a strategy can emerge from unintentional actions. To do this, they emphasize how, through a reconcep-tualization of the concepts of agency and action, it becomes more realistic to consider that a series of non-deliberate actionscan still be strategic, despite the fact that they are integrated in posteriori to the overall strategic planning. To do this, theycall upon two key concepts, building mode and dwelling mode, which they define as follows:De Certeau is making a vital distinction between two different outlooks and their associated modes of engagementand knowing that we label here the “building” and “dwelling” worldviews. In building mode [. . .], actor has first a needto “construct mental representations and models of the world prior to anay practical engagement with it” (Ingold, 2000;178 cited in Chia & Rasche, 2011; 38). In a dwelling mode, decisions and actions emanate from being in situ and occursponte sua. Here, the efficacy of action does not depend upon some pre-thought plan of action but results from internalizedpredispositions that facilitate continuous timely and ongoing adjustment and adaptation to local circumstances (2011: 39).Thus, building mode is characterized by actors guided by predefined goals, which results in joint efforts to achievethem. On the other side of the spectrum, there is the dwelling mode perspective, which is characterized by actions aimedat overcoming immediate obstacles. According to research conducted along the Strategy and Practice angle, researcherscontinue to subscribe to the building mode strategic model, which is dominant in organizations. As for De Certeau, he ratheremphasizes the necessity of incorporating not just a single planning model, but rather both thought patterns in uses, thuspromoting a more comprehensive understanding and view of the strategies (Chia & Rasche, 2011).This overall strategic vision, necessary for any planning, reflects in part the concept of “organizational ambidexterity”developed by Bodwell and Chermack (2010) which they define as follows: “ambidexterity refers to how an organization ‘wearsthe hat’ of the job it does today while at the same time “wearing the hat” of the job it will do tomorrow” (2010: 196). In other words,organizations must leverage their existing skills daily, while continuing to explore new possibilities. By basing themselveson their current strengths, they will be able to “see” new opportunities, thus stimulating organizational change. This will,in turn, enable them to anticipate threats and reduce the risks of these changes. To support this plan from an ambidextrousvision, the authors propose the scenario planning method. It requires three key skills: detection (sensing), appropriation(seizing), and reconfiguration (reconfiguring). This way of predicting, appropriating, and reconfiguring daily actions couldthus allow enterprises to integrate new professional planning practices which will facilitate adaptation to organizationalchanges.Once the planning of the organization’s practices has been completed, it must be integrated to an overall vision. Whit-tington (quoted in Jarzabkowski, Balogun, & Seild, 2007) probed the “manufacturing” of strategies by taking into accountthree elements: praxis, practices, and practitioners. According to him, the “manufacturing” of a strategy is found at theconfluence of these three concepts, which are intrinsically interconnected. These notions inspired Jarzabkowski et al. (2007)who asked the following questions. Who is the dominant strategist or practitioner? What does the strategist do, and at whatorganizational level are the key analyzed practices present? And finally, on what theoretical basis are these practices based?These are the themes of this exploratory study from the epistemological standpoint of users, namely SM managers. Here arefirst some theoretical markers.3. Strategic planning in 3 levelsFrom Maslow’s Pyramid, which integrates the needs for trust, attachment, and collaboration of an individual, Ertzcheid,Faverial, and Guéguen (2010) propose a strategic planning model applicable to SM. It consists of 3 hierarchical levels:(1) Developing the organization’s trust capital by working on its identity and reputation through transparency and activelistening; (2) Developing a sense of attachment and transparency in order to bring out ambassadors for the organization,who will become vectors to diffuse the organization’s ideas; (3) Aggregating a community around a common project basedon the nature and the objectives of the organization, for example, associating the organization with a social

However, the authors nonetheless nuance their remarks with regards to attaining the three levels: they can only beadopted by organizations in SM under certain conditions. First, they emphasize that organizations depend on their SMobjectives: for example, do they want to inform, entertain, or inspire (Burch, Wilson, & Parker, 2013)? They emphasize thatreaching these strategic levels also depends on the nature or scope of activities of the organization, as well as the level ofengagement of its community (for example, do they interact on platforms, do they feel close to the products or services,etc.). Finally, the authors remind us that organizations must also take into account the human and financial resources attheir disposal. This may make it difficult, or even unnecessary, for some organizations to reach all three levels if they do nothave teams dedicated to SM, adequate monitoring tools, a dynamic community, or a realistic budget.In all cases, it is imperative for any strategic planning of organizational activities in SM to create and maintain trust-ing relationships with its audience, which is the primary mission of public relations professionals (Grunig & Hunt, 1984;Maisonneuve, 2010). And in SM, one of the ways of establishing these relationships is to manage the “conversations market”(Balagué & Fayon, 2012). However, above all, community managers must be credible in order to create these relationshipsin an authentic and transparent manner (Charest & Bouffard, 2015; Ott & Theunissen, 2014; Charest, Lavigne, & Moumouni,2015). To carry out these relational activities, professionals draw up some prior realistic, precise, and measurable objectivesin accordance with their target audience as well as their information and communication needs (Frick, 2013). Who arethese professionals, who develop these plans and manage relations in SM? “Public relations lead most of these activities, buthuman resources are a close collaborator”, confirmed Neill and Moody (2015: 109). Once the objectives and target audienceshave been well defined, the managers then tackle the planning of strategies, including those for monitoring and for content.3.1. Monitoring strategiesSince the advent of SM in the mid-2000s, a large literature has been arguing for the benefits of paying attention to theparticulars of an organization: its brand, products, and services offered. Doing such a monitoring helps build relationshipsand react quickly to positive or negative comments, whose impact could have important effects on the reputation of theorganization, especially in crisis situations (Bloch, 2012; Charest & Doucet, 2014; Libaert , 2010). Although it is easier tomanage information on internal organization platforms, approaching other communities to interact with different inter-net users is also recommended (Boussicaud & Dupin, 2013; King, 2012). Given its many benefits, elaborating monitoringstrategies by listening is inevitable (Balagué & Fayon, 2012).Importantly, a listening strategy differs from the “push” strategy which has been favoured by companies for severalyears. In this sense, it allows for interaction with different audiences to elicit first the “conversations market” (Balagué &Fayon, 2012) to then start a process that emphasizes the sale of products or services. The listening strategy is thus partof an interactive communication logic arousing the commitment of internet users, that is to say, a logic that promotesinteractions between community members and organizations. The cycle of the conceptual model developed by Peterson(2006) is designated according to the 4 “I”s and includes the following 4 indicators: involvement, interaction, intimacy(or affinity) and influence. It is the sequencing of these 4 actions that represents the full internet user engagement cycleon platforms, and that organizations must try to develop in order to spark conversations with their audiences. Petersonexplains the 4 “I”s as follows: involvement leads to better interactions; this promotes intimacy between an organizationand its audiences, that is to say, the affinity between them. It is in this way that, ultimately, the organization will be able toattempt to influence its community in a favourable manner towards a product or service.In order to develop an effective listening strategy in SM, Fayon and Alloing (2012) propose several steps: establishingthe objectives that will guide the monitoring (for example, the image desired by the company), the message to be dissemi-nated, the targets, and the time given to conduct the monitoring and geographic scope; defining the keywords for researchand follow-up by implementing alerts using Google Alerts, Gigalert, or Social Mention; clearly identifying platforms andquantitative and qualitative sources of influence; putting these sources under surveillance by putting in place RSS feeds. Theauthors stress that it is in the analysis stage that the organization will see the extent of its visibility in SM, as well as whatthe opinions about it are. They also note that these steps form a cycle that must be repeated once the presence strategy isestablished.Thus, the listening strategy, which should be a new culture to be acquired by organizations in order to arouse the“conversations market,¨assumes that new technologies, and particularly the Internet, make it possible to invent new waysof sharing knowledge faster. It is therefore important to listen to the conversations that take place on social platforms andanalyse them in order to stay abreast of public opinion and, through this, to recruit collaborators, or even create partnershipswith influencers.It is also important to include the monitoring of influencers in this strategy. Who is speaking? What are they saying?What is their profile? Given the importance of influencers and opinion leaders on the Web, they deserve attention beforeaddressing content strategies.3.2. Influencers in social mediaAccording to Heiderich and Maroun (2014) an influencer or leader in SM is someone who participates in the contentand conversations on various platforms by providing added value to a connection, service or product in which he/sheclaims to have knowledge. The authors stress that such influencers gain influence in a network by responding to a need for

information and communication in an interested community. From the work conducted by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1995/[Katzand Lazarsfeld, 2008]2008), we already know that leaders enjoy socio-economic conditions that are higher than average,that they travel a lot, and that they exert influence on the decision-making process of their network. However, in the workconducted by Heiderich and Maroun (2014), it is rather the fact that leaders bring added value and have an expertise thatthey want to share with their network that ensures that they have influence. This broadens the notion of influencers whenit is adapted to SM. Still, it is necessary for content to be relevant and recognized by the community.Once the monitoring strategies have been elaborated and influencers identified, organizations can then proceed to developcontent strategies.3.3. Content strategiesLike the development of a good monitoring strategy, it is imperative to first identify the objectives and targets in orderto develop relevant content strategies. For example, the organization must transform marketing objectives into contentobjectives, and identify the type of community desired. Organizations must also favour certain platforms likely to meet, notonly the objectives and targets of the organization, must also the interests and information and communication needs oftheir audiences.To develop a relevant content strategy and optimize online presence, Wilson (cited in Frick, 2013) proposes three keyfactors, which he calls the 3 ‘C’s: created content, curated, content, and commissioned content. This means that the organi-zation must first itself create content; that it can then add comments to content created by other sources; and finally, thatthe organization can offer content developed in collaboration with influences, which give added value to this same content.According to the author, maintaining a balance between the 3 “C”s is important; all while keeping in mind the resources andobjectives of the organization. To do this, he suggests creating a content matrix in order to organize and plan the content.This matrix determines what content to share, how often, and in what format.In order to establish relevant content strategies, Ertzcheid et al. (2010) also recommend observing the habits of potentialusers. Essentially, this amounts to asking questions about them before implementing a strategy. Are they willing to committo the level of involvement desired by the organization? What is the critical mass of targeted internet users given theorganization’s value proposition? And in this age of information overload, what added value will Internet users gain fromthe information disseminated by the organization? All of these questions must be considered in advance by the organizationto develop content strategies likely to adequately meet the information and communication needs of their target audiences.Finally, as communication researchers interested in the study and analysis of the professional practices of SM managers,and given our avowed interest in collaborating for the development of a “theory of practices,” it is necessary to observeand describe the daily professional practices of SM managers by looking at the ways in which they appropriate these newcommunication tools. How do they plan their professional activities overall, and what part of their daily activities leaveroom for the emergence of new uses? If so, are any of these uses considered and reintegrated in their strategic monitoringand content planning in SM? What strategic planning level do they target? Furthermore, by drawing upon theories andconcepts identified in the literature coming from the sociology of practices, we are interested in comparing these theoreticalconcepts to the actual practices of professionals. Here then is the empirical approach which we have adopted to carry outthis research project.4. Results34.1. The evolution of practicesWhen comparing the use of SM made by organizations when they began their involvement with the one that is madetoday, we can see a certain refinement of the practice. Indeed, some organizations initially launched themselves in SM ina rather experimental manner: “Before 2010, there was no written strategy [. . .] We started to open accounts everywhere,without having a strategy” (participant #8), “There was a pretty summary plan for SM integration. It was at a minimum”(participant #5). For others, however, it was events in the news that awakened a sense of urgency in some organizations toengage in a more formal manner. For example, a professional union was quick to join its audience in SM immediately afterthe publication of a piece of legislation which directly affected its members.Conversely, some organizations reported having entered SM in a more planned way. For a government organizationpreparing its launch in SM, it was necessary to have a prior strategy developed for each audience and platform (participant#7). She took the time to study what other organizations were doing in the same field internationally in SM. In fact, thispractice was also used by a professional union and by an organization in the field of public transport. Recommendations weremade for each of the platforms, taking the shape of a comparative audit. However, we can see that, even if the organizationsdemonstrate a level of ease with the use of Facebook and Twitter, the use of specialized platforms still requires

Overview: For Milestone Three, you will craft the external message that will be used to address the problem you identified in the case study. To access the final project case study, “Research in Motion: Sincerely, a RIM Employee (A),” refer to the HBR coursepack link in your syllabus. In doing so, you will specify the mediums you will use to deliver the message, explain why the mediums are important, and outline the target audience. Furthermore, you will explain how the message promotes the organization’s strategic goals. Finally, identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your external communication. Consider the message you are communicating as well as the medium(s) used.
Prompt: Write a paper in which you discuss aspects of your external communication, as well as craft the actual message that you will use to address the problem you identified in the case study with your target audience. Note: Be sure to include the actual external message within the body of your paper, to accompany part C. below.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
III. External Communication
A. Determine the medium(s) that you will use to deliver your message and explain how you made this decision.
B. Define the target audience of your external communication. Include key factors and any cultural factors about this audience that you considered.
C. Craft the message that you will communicate externally and defend how the message promotes the organization’s strategic goals.
D. Identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your external communication. Consider the message you are communicating, as well as the medium(s) used.
Use the following rubric to help you address the critical elements appropriately.
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your external communication should be 4 to 5 pages in length with double spacing, one-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, and adherence to the latest edition of APA formatting.
Critical Elements
Proficient (100%)
Needs Improvement (75%)
Not Evident (0%)
Value
External Communication: Medium(s)
Determines the medium(s) that will be used to deliver message and explains how this decision was made, supported by text or other scholarly sources
Determines the medium(s) that will be used to deliver message but does not explain how this decision was made or explanation is cursory, illogical, or not supported by text or other scholarly sources
Does not determine the medium(s) that will be used to deliver message
2External Communication: Audience
Defines the target audience of external communication, including key factors and any cultural factors that were considered, supported by text or other scholarly sources
Defines the target audience of external communication but definition is vague or key factors and cultural factors are missing or not supported by text or other scholarly sources
Does not define the target audience of external communication
22.5
External Communication: Message
Crafts external communication message and defends how message promotes organization’s strategic goals, supported by text or other scholarly sources
Crafts external communication message and defends how message promotes organization’s strategic goals but defense lacks cogent connections to the message or strategic goal promotion is illogical or not supported by text or other scholarly sources
Does not craft external communication message
22.5
External Communication: Conflict
Identifies potential sources of conflict as a result of the communication, supported by text or other scholarly sources
Identifies potential sources of conflict as a result of the communication but response is illogical or does not consider the messaging and the mediums used or is not supported by text or other scholarly sources
Does not identify potential sources of conflict as a result of the communication
22.5
Articulation of Response
Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas
10
Total
1002.5