Alexander Chabanyuk

Any form of exchanging information between people or groups of people is referred to as communication. For any cooperate to achieve effective organizational change, internal communication is very important. Research indicates that employees in lower levels are usually ignored while making organization’s decisions. It was also found out that the employees become alienated especially when the decision is aimed at initiating a change in the organization. As a way of fostering employee productivity, effective internal communication is therefore very important.This does not downplay the vital role of external communication in an organization but both must be balanced. The up and down or horizontal internal communication- as in the case of Vodafone- helps the employees in understanding what they are expected of them and taking the necessary steps in ensuring their work is completed on time. (http://www. thetimes100. co. uk/downloads/vodafone/vodafone_12_full. pdf ) Internal communic ation can also be verbal or written. The vital role of internal communication involves explaining organization’s values, culture as well as visions to employees for them to make informed decisions.It will also strengthen employee relationship and enhance their sense of belonging. For example; ‘eVelopers internal communication system was developed and implemented to ensure that all employees are informed about all corporate policies, strategies, decisions, updates, news, changes, etc. and properly apply them, increasing the efficacy of company performance. ’ http://www. evelopers. com/qm5 This paper examines cooperate meetings as one of the internal communication processes in an organization. Participant selectionCooperate meetings have proofed to be very successful especially where the organization succeeds to invite the right participants. This can be done by conducting extensive consultations with the employees from different departments in an organization. Thi s will however depend on the reason as to why the meeting should be held. After making a decision about whom to invite, it is very important for them to be briefed on the purpose of the meeting. They should also be informed on where, when, the expected participants and where to make further enquiries if they needed to do so.It was found out that the conditions or the environment surrounding the meeting’s venue highly determines whether the meeting will be a success or not. The venue should be comfortable enough to win the concentration of the participants. When setting the date and time care should be taken to ensure that every participant is comfortable. Religious, gender and cultural diversity among the employees should be considered, failure to which the participants may pay little or no attention to the proceedings of the meeting.True representation of the organization in the meeting should be demonstrated by including employees or their representatives from all departmen ts. (http://www. managementhelp. org/misc/mtgmgmnt. htm ; Quirke B, 2000, pp. 25-61) Agenda development The meetings agenda should be made known to all expected participants. Research indicates that no effective meetings agenda can be developed without adequate consultations among all the concerned parties. The key participants should help in identifying feasible outcomes and what ought to be done to ensure the identified target outcomes are reached.It is very important for every meeting to have an overall outcome. For instance, increasing sales, improving quality of products or service, conflict resolution, management and transformation, and introducing change among others. The agenda should clearly indicate how the participants should be kept busy especially those who arrive earlier than stated. It is very important to ensure that all topics are listed together with their respective action or expected output. Opening meetings Punctuality is always very important in any meeting.Mee tings should therefore start on the scheduled time. Acknowledging the presence of participants who dedicate their time to attend the meeting encourages them and enhances the sense of meaning in whatever goes on in the meeting. It is also very important to review the meeting’s agenda in order to consider any possibility of making any amendments. Meeting participation and evaluation Every one should be given an opportunity to participate actively. This can be done through use of questions, opinions, votes, demonstrations and individual presentations.Discursions should revolve around the agenda items. The meetings should be made as lively as possible to help the participants to open up and give their views without fear or favor. The appropriate momentum should be maintained. Participants should be asked to evaluate the progress of the meeting from time to time in order to ensure the correct pace is maintained. An effective meeting must be successfully concluded. Participant conf identiality must be guaranteed. Soon after conclusion, the overall evaluation must be done.This will help in setting a date for another meeting if need be and decide on its agendas. Proceedings of the meetings should be recorded and every participant should get a copy at the end of the meeting. Further development Even though cooperate meetings have been held by many organizations over the past, there is still need to improve them in order to reap their full benefits. It is very unfortunate that the physically challenged have been neglected during cooperates meetings.The deaf and the dump should not be ignored. Sign language should be introduced in order to enable such people with special needs to follow what the other participants are doing. Departmental meetings should be held before the actual meetings in order to bring the employees from a particular department together. This will save time and ensure that a true reflection of the status of the organization is portrayed. Meeting s involving many participants should be held in a room with adequate facilities but not in the open air.Some organizations address their employees in open-air meetings and their intention is not met due to disruptions from external factors. Audiovisual gadgets should be introduced to enable people to participate even from their offices. This will ensure that incase some senior officers are not able to attend -simply because they are out for other cooperate duties –they can participate in the meeting and provide appropriate responses when asked to. Since meetings are expensive, such a decision will reduce the number of meetings held especially when an urgent problem solution is required.This can be made possible by the use intranet. (Klein A, 2004, pp. 59) Depending on the purpose of the meeting, thorough consultations should be carried out from every department to ensure all underlying issues are tabled before the meeting. It is also good to invite at least one representative from those departments that are thought to be less concerned because an issue affecting a particular department affects the organization at large and needs cooperation in seeking for a long-lasting solution.It is expected that, in the future, cooperate meetings may take another dimensions and be transformed into be Parliamentary Procedures, which will involve the use of parliamentary laws. (http://www. jimslaughter. com/corporate. htm ) These parliamentary laws can be defined as; â€Å"the best method yet devised to enable assemblies of any size, with due regard for every member’s opinion, to arrive at the general will on the maximum number of questions of varying complexity in a minimum amount of time and under all kinds of internal climate ranging from total harmony to hardened or impassioned division of opinion.† http://www. jimslaughter. com/corporate. htm Conclusion Internal communication must however include all the other forms of internal communication processe s in order to ensure smooth running of the organization. These processes may be used interchangeably in order to ensure that information reaches the intended person at the correct time to enable proper action to be taken. References Slaughter, J. (1998). Better, More Legal Corporate Meetings. [Retrieved] 24th July, 2008, [From] http://www. jimslaughter. com/corporate. htm McNamara, C.(1997). Basic Guide to Conducting Effective Meetings. [Retrieved] 23rd July, 2008, [From] http://www. managementhelp. org/misc/mtgmgmnt. htm Communications. [Retrieved] 23rd July, 2008, [From] http://www. thetimes100. co. uk/downloads/vodafone/vodafone_12_full. pdf Evelopers, Quality manual: Internal Communication. [Retrieved] 24th July, 2008, [From] http://www. evelopers. com/qm5 Klein A, 2004, Adoption von electronic meeting systems, DUV Accessed from Amazon. com Quirke B, 2000, Making the connections, Gower Publishing, Ltd