21st Century Communication Trends

One of our assignments during the semester was to construct a presentation regarding a 21st century organizational trend. Stephen P. Borgatti has identified five key organizational trends that will be driving factors for businesses in the 21st century. 21st century is the century of information. The workplace and trends of communications are changing constantly and more quickly as technology is increasing. We can also view the 21st century as the communication century. An effective communication is very crucial to convey information. In this way, both quality and speed of communication are essential. For business, it is very easy to convey any messages to a particular person or an organization quickly. That is because of the fast development of new technologies such as the internet, E-mail, online chatting, blog and mobile phones.

Stephen P. Borgatti’s five trends are Globalization, Diversity, Flexibility, Flatness, and Networking.
Globalization: - In order for businesses to succeed companies will have to position them for global competition. Globalization in the business environment is the movement beyond domestic and national markets to other markets around the globe. This causes an increase in the interconnectedness of different markets. Globalization has increased not only international trade, but also cultural exchange. As seen personally, the most important industry affected due to globalization is software industry. The competition and the development of industry itself are increasing very rapidly. This has been due to improvements in communications and the services available globally.

Diversity: - Diversity means that companies nowadays have a more heterogeneous workforce, that they need to cope with different styles of clothing, interaction, presentations and the media. I think it is a good thing that companies diversify themselves, as this can lead to different thinking and different experiences within the company.

Flexibility: - Flexibility means that the organization is flexible regarding processes, people, rules, procedures, autonomy etc. Flexibility is needed to stay competitive, to adapt to new situations, and to compete with other organizations. Organizations must be flexible in today's market to adapt to changing situations.

Flat: - A flat organization is one that has fewer management levels. Employees are empowered to make decisions and there are fewer differences in responsibilities across organizational levels. This trend has been a result of the increase of information technology use, globalization, and the need to cut costs. Flat organizations enable discussions, decision making of employees and increasing motivation among employees. I think a flat organization can be more flexible and more competitive than an organization with more hierarchical levels, as communication is necessary to adapt to new situations.

Networks: This is a necessary trend because it provides better information technology, better communication and transportation technology, flexibility and faceless communication.
Networked organizations encourage communications across all levels of the company. They encourage communication regardless of the chain of command. They utilize cross- unit teams and focus on decentralization.

V/S.

I have seen so many changes in the information technology and communications, which helps organizations to utilize the time most effectively in the 21st Century.

CHAPTER 8: Investor Relations

Investor Relations (IR) is a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation. Investor Relation is very important part of corporate communications, because in the absence of investor relation department in the company, all the IR management is handled through either Corporate communications department or Public relations department.

Investor Relations Strategy:

The Company's investor relations are not just pertaining to individual investors, but individual investors are the only the part of investors, rather institutional investors are more important.

Not only the investors are importnt but the company has to maintain good relation with intermediaries like Analysts, Media and Rating Agencies.





Objective of Investor Relations:

• Explain the company’s vision, strategy and potential to investors

General Electric has introduced the way to maintain relations with all the investors by explaining the focus, vision and strategies of the company.

• Ensure that expectations of the company’s stock price are appropriate for the earnings, prospects, the industry outlook, and the economy

The CEO of the company is explaining the results of quarter results.

• The stock price should not fluctuate very much
  
  
  

Communication Thoery

Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction. Communication is a process whereby information is encoded and imparted by a sender to a receiver via a channel/medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, by using writing. Communication is the production and exchange of information and meaning by use of signs and symbols. It involves encoding and sending messages, receiving and decoding them, and synthesizing information and meaning. Communication permeates all levels of human experience and it is central to understanding human behavior and to nearly all public health efforts aimed at fostering health behavior change among individuals, populations, organizations, communities, and societies. 

Communication theories are given by model of so many theorists. The Shannon-Weaver model measures the efficiency and flexibility of a communication system. It is sometimes referred to as the S-M-C-R model (Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver).

• Sender (or Encoder): An information source; a person or device that originates a message.
  
• Receiver (or Decoder): The audience for a message.
  
• Message: The actual information or signal sent from a sender to a receiver.
  
• Medium (or Channel): The method used to transmit a message (e.g., print, speech, telephone, smoke signals, etc.).
  
• Noise: Technical or semantic obstacles; that is, anything that interferes with the clear transmission of a message (e.g., low visibility, poor ink quality, static electricity).
  
• Interpretation: All operations that a receiver performs in order to decode and understand a message.
  
• Feedback: Information about a message that a receiver sends back to the sender; the receiver's reaction or response to the sender.
  

These are several viewpoints to examine communication and communication theories:     

• Mechanistic: This view considers communication to be a perfect transaction of a message from the sender to the receiver.
•  Psychological: This view considers communication as the act of sending a message to a receiver, and the feelings and thoughts of the receiver upon interpreting the message.
  
• Social Constructionist: This view considers communication to be the product of the interacting, sharing and creating meaning.
  
• Systemic: This view considers communication to be the new messages created via “through-put”, or what happens as the message is being interpreted and re-interpreted as it travels through people.
  
• Critical: This view considers communication as a source of power and oppression of individuals and social groups.
  

   Communication is extremely important in today's world. A person lives in a society, as being social animal; it is necessity for the person to communicate. No one can live without communication. Communication theories are used by each and every person in the regular life. The theories slightly differ from model to model and time to time, but the basic idea of communication is to deliver a message from one person to another either verbally or non-verbally. 

References:

http://collaboratory.nunet.net/dsimpson/comtheory.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/communication-theory-1?cat=technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_theory#Communication_Theory_Framework

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication

http://www.southalabama.edu/htdocs/oll/chikatla/iddtheorywb/communication/from%20Suhana/diagramaticrepresentation.gif

http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/vkrishnaswam/communication%201%20copy.jpg