Communications management

Communications management is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all the channels of communication within an organization, and between organizations; it also includes the organization and dissemination of new communication directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology. Aspects of communications management include developing corporate communication strategies, designing internal and external communications directives, and managing the flow of information, including online communication. New technology forces constant innovation on the part of communications managers.

As a manager, one must take a contingency approach to communicating with their employees and communicate on a personal level. It’s the manager’s responsibility to determine if their employee’s personality falls under the following: Reactors, Workaholics, Persisters, Dreamers, Rebels, or Promoters.^[1]

Communication management and project management

In project management, communication management must address the following questions^[2]:

• What information needs to flow in and out of the project?
• Who needs what information?
• When is the information needed?
• What is the format of the information?
• Who will be responsible for transmitting and providing the information?

The weekly reporting method

One simple and popular communications method is called the weekly reporting method: every employee composes an e-mail report, once a week, including information on their activities in the preceding week, their plans for the following week, and any other information deemed relevant to the larger group, bearing in mind length considerations. Reports are sent to managers, who summarize and report to their own managers, eventually leading to an overall summary led by the CEO, which is then sent to the board of directors. The CEO then sends the board's summary back down the ladder, where each manager can append an additional summary or note before referring it to their employees.

Eventually, each employee will receive a long e-mail, containing many or all of the above-mentioned summaries, from every level of management; reading the full result is rarely a requirement. Curious or ambitious employees are considered more likely to read the result; task-centered employees, however, are not.

References

1. ^ Pauley, Judith A., and Joseph F. Pauley. Communication: the Key to Effective Leadership. Milwaukee, Wis.: ASQ Quality, 2009. Print.
2. ^ Communication and Collaboration in Project Management - Introduction

See also

• Strategic Communication
• Communication planning
• Call accounting
• Communication management system
• Organizational Communication