Introduction to Strategic Communications midterm

morals

personal values; internal, personal evaluation of right/wrong (judge ourselves by personal sense of morality)

ethics

social application of personal moral values; standard of moral conduct in relations to others; conformity of actions (judge others according to social code of ethics)

developing personal ethics

people (parents), culture (environment raised in city/rural), philosophy (theology), law (professional codes of ethics), religion

Aristotle "Golden Mean"

avoid extremes seek middle gored moderation best

Deontological "Duty-based"

act according to universal moral duties; Kant's "categorical imperative", moral rules \= universally applies, absolutist; no exceptions

Teleological "Consequence-based"

produce the best consequences, minimize harm; egoist (self-interest) vs. utilitarian (greatest good for greatest number of people)

role of ethics in business

- affects profits
- affects organization's reputation
- affects employee/leader stress and employee well-being
- affects ability to hire
- helps avoid lawsuits and government regulation
- promotes trust by consumers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders

ethical issue

an identifiable problem, situation, or opportunity that requires a person to choose from among several actions that may be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical; conflict of interest, fairness and honesty, communication, privacy

conflict of interest

person must choose wether to advance his or her own personal interests or those of others

fairness and honesty

heart of business ethics and relate to the general values of decision makers

communication (ethical issue)

truthfulness about product safety and quality are important

privacy

??? the right of people not to reveal information about themselves

consumer bill of rights

- right to safety
- right to be informed
- right to choose
- right to be heard

right to safety

a business must not knowingly sell anything that could injury or harm; defective products

right to be informed

consumer's right to review full info about a product--ingredients, risks

right to choose

variety of products and services at competitive prices; fair prices

right to be heard

by government and companies about product concerns and interests

pyramid of social responsibility

- voluntary responsibilities
- ethical responsibilities
- legal responsibilities
- economic responsibilities

voluntary responsibilities

being a "good corporate citizen"; contributing to the community and quality of life

ethical responsibilities

being ethical; doing what is right, just, and fair, avoiding harm

legal responsibilities

obeying the law (society's codification of right and wrong); playing by the rules of the game

economic responsibilities

being profitable

roles and functions

- marketing
- advertising
- public relations
- community relations
- internal communications
- employee training
- event management
- digital media

commonalitites

alignment with organization's strategic goals, creating a positive image, writing-creativity, importance of research and analysis, vision and leadership

marketing

identities customer's desires/needs, research, product, design, customer support hotline

advertising

create brand awareness, design promotional messages, determine media channels, assess campaign effectiveness

public relations

manage organization's image/reputation to public, press releases, responds to crisis situations

community relations

enables with local community, philanthropy, good corporate citizen

internal communications

keep employees formed about company goals, newsletters, intranets

event management

-internal: company events, United Way Drive
-external: product promotion

employee training

determine employee training needs, design & develop programs, print & web-based

digital media

- internal: company intranet, executive presentations
- external: website, use of social media to promote company

strategic communication

goal-oriented communication, purposeful, boundary-spanning in organizations

communication

process of creating share meaning; inform, educate, persuade, bias for action

intrapersonal communication

self-talk, communicating with self

interpersonal communication

interaction with other people

human communication

- small group communication
- public communication
- mass communication
- computer-mediated communication

small group communication

communication among a small number of people who share a common purpose or goal, who feel connected to each other, and who coordinate their behavior

public communication

communication directed at an audience that is larger than a small group

mass communication

the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences

computer-mediated communication

the exchange of messages carried through an intervening system of digital electronic storage and transmitted between two or more people

philanthropy

??? charity; a desire or effort to promote goodness, charitable donation to public causes

corporate social responsibility (CSR)

??? the notion that corporations are expected to go above and beyond following the law and making a profit

benefits communication

??? personal benefits, professional benefits, and social benefits

Shannon-Weaver Linear Model Transmission

info source (message) transmitter (signal) channel (noise) receiver (received signal message) destination

Transactional Model

- coding: sender

source

sender of the message, objects that encode message data and transmit the information, via a channel, to one or more receivers

receiver

person who gets the message and tries to understand what the sender actually wants to convey and then respond accordingly

encoding

sender consciously attaches meanings to symbols from feelings and ideas, creating the message

decoding

receiver interprets and creates an understanding of the message

channel

the medium, mean, manner, or method through which a message is sent to its receiver

message

information conveyed by words, and/or other signs and symbols

noise

affects sender's meager, may prevent message from reaching receiver accurately

feedback

the receiver's response to a message that gives communicator an idea of how the message is being received and whether it needs to be modified

context/environment/fields of experience

circumstance, environments, life experiences (values, attitudes), that communication is taking place

physical/external noise

factors outside the receiver (static on phone, noisy room, pop up ads)

physiological noise

biological impairments (unable to hear high-pitched sounds; eyesight)

psychological/cognitive noise

internal framing (accuracy of schemas) (preconceived ideas, biases, close-minded)

semantic noise

sender and receiver have different meaning systems (dialect differences, jargon, "medicalese")

research

asking questions and finding answers, a systematic attempt to discover something, used to describe explain or predict, use scientific and systematic methods to uncover patterns in the lives of people

inquiry

pursuit of knowledge

little "r" vs. big "R"

informal vs. formal inquiry

informal inquiry

ask friends, online reviews, observation

formal inquiry

systematic survey, focus groups, taste test

Rowland's framework for inquiry

context, research question (area of interest), methods, findings (are of interest), implications, all contained by beliefs, assumptions, values

qualitative research

research that relies on what is seen in field or naturalistic settings more than on statistical data; interview, focus groups, populations, experimental

quantitative research

research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form; surveys, experiments, descriptive

generalizability

from sample to population; quantitative research

transferability

from one situation to a similar one; qualitative research

empirical

based on observation or experience

paradigm

something we know is true

objectivist/rationalist

reality is independent of the observer, isolate variables

subjectivist/naturalist

observer cannot be separated from reality, explore holistically

types of research

experiments, correlation, meta-analysis, descriptive, evaluation, action research

population

(in quantitative research), means all people who share the characteristics considered important in a study

sample

a subset/part of the population, represent the population

evaluation

gauging the extent to which the marketing objectives have been achieved during the specified time period; the making of a judgment about the amount, number, or value of something, assessment

proprietary research

research conducted by a company that is not shared with the public

peer reviewed/refereed research

research that meets rigorous review

characteristics of good research

requires evidence (data), systematic, minimize bias (objective), must be part of public record, generalizable/transferable

requires evidence (data)

empirical: observation, measurement

systematic

study is repeatable/replicable, trust measurements; claims can be tested

minimize bias (objective)

avoids introducing error; triangulation

must be part of public record

so others can repeat, challenge, find errors, correct

generalizable/transferable

extend to new situations; requires multiple studies

strategy

long terms goals, innovative idea, plan of action

key purpose of strategy

- clarity about organizational goals
- buy-in for change efforts
- consistency of messaging
- need for innovation
- public demand for transparency

situation analysis

analyze past events, current conditions, future trends

SWOT analysis

strengths, weaknesses, (internal); opportunities, threats (external)

force field analysis

??? a technique for determining which forces drive a proposed change and which forces restrain it

strategic positioning

performing different activities from those of rivals, or the same activities in a different way; attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive about a company

vision

?? what you want to accomplish, desired future position of company

mission

?? approach towards vision

levels of planning within an organization

???

planned strategy

the strategy the managers intend to implement

emergent strategy

unplanned responses to unforeseen circumstance

corporate level

CEO, Board of Directors, Corporate staff; the level in an organization where top management directs overall strategy for the entire organization

SBU (strategic business unit)

divisional managers and staff; a subgroup of a single business or collection of related businesses within the larger organization

functional levels

functional managers

little "s"

develop a plan to improve internal operations of the function