A sample of a high level of empowerment and an excellent resource to improve elements of the organizational climate and culture, the communications policy emerges as an important management reference in 21st century organizations.
The communications policy is a set of guidelines that must serve as a reference for the decisions and actions of the members of an organization regarding communication processes.
Like all corporate policy, the communications policy creates criteria and action frameworks to be applied at all hierarchical levels to become mandatory behavior guidelines that are not negotiable.
The communications policy establishes the guidelines from which the organization must relate to its stakeholders, from managers to workers, from workers to the managerial level and from the organization as a whole to customers and society in general.
According to Francisco Javier Garrido, communication policies “dictate the signals of what the company wants to communicate, how it wants to do it and through what channels”.
The policy has an axiological value greater than that simply the organization can fulfill its corporate objectives, it goes further and aims to establish respectful and comprehensive communicative acts in the face of the social needs of the people who make up the organization.
It must make explicit the principles from which the organization communicates as well as the concepts it considers essential for communicative interactions.
The communications policy establishes how the organization expects things to be done, but not from an operational point of view, such as a function manual, or the description of a task or a process, the policy has a higher perspective than It must allow beyond a description of activities to be developed, the parameters that the communication actions must take into account.
A communications policy unifies language as an essential directive method to help a group of people work together forming an organization to achieve common ends, that is, the communications policy seeks to generate a coherent action by allowing all collaborators to solve problems and make decisions that should otherwise be made by an overworked superior.
Why have a communications policy?
The policy involves the parameters that will serve as a reference for the establishment of communication strategies and plans as well as the creation of institutional media and training plans in communication skills and even communication structures.
The establishment of a communications policy also makes it possible to identify that this is an organization based on objectives, with high levels of empowerment, where work networks carry out their work within the same parameters of action.
An organization must have a communications policy to have a frame of reference against which to compare the actions of the organization's members and to be able to indicate what the organization approves and what it rejects.
Having a communications policy means that people related to the organization will find ethical support in it, which will also affect the trust that these people have towards the organization, its management and the products or services it makes.
Among others, the benefits that an organization finds by having a communications policy are “Organizational clarity” (Employees know what to expect from the organization) and correcting elements of climate, or culture itself, from the culture.
These policies seek to consolidate a communicative culture and behaviors that support corporate objectives, for this reason the communications policy must be formulated in such a way "that allows establishing the lines of action" essential references to guide the solutions that the communication requires. organization.
The communications policy also indicates what the organization will allow and will not allow at the communications level, it will indicate the acts that will lead to sanctions as well as the characteristics of the sanction and who should resolve or establish it.
The policy should also help to detect the implications that day-to-day decisions will have on the general guidelines of the company's actions.
Some communication policies in organizations are tacit, the leader expects certain supposed behaviors of his collaborators associated with basic principles of coexistence, however, generally reality exceeds these tacit principles and ends up generating difficulties for the organization, therefore it is necessary to make tangible the communication principles of the organization through a structured document and backed by compliance with the organization's directives.
How is a communications policy structured?
A communications policy generally has the following elements:
The purpose or purposes of the communications policy
Beginning.
Protocols.
Attributions
Scopes.
Penalty elements.
In "The Birth of the Chaordic Era" the author states that a purpose is a clear and simple statement of intent that identifies and groups the community around something worth following, that is, it defines what the organization believes should be the contribution of communications to the business strategy.
In the same document, the author refers to the definition of "principle" and points out that "it is an aspiration of the community regarding behavior, a statement devoid of ambiguity, a fundamental conviction about how the whole and all the parts try to go in pursuit of purpose. A principle is a precept "whose totality of structures, decisions, actions, and results will be judged"
"The sum of the purpose and the principles should constitute a coherent and cohesive body of convictions" which the organization believes are fundamental for the achievement of its strategic direction.
Principles associated with the communications policy:
Among others, the most frequent principles within a communications policy are:
Open communication
Treatment
Transparency
Participation.
Respect.
Veracity.
Diligence.
Collaboration.
Relations by public.
The policies also determine within their principles the fundamental elements that their members must take into account when interacting with specific audiences, among others the most common audiences or audiences linked to communication policies are:
Relations with the press.
With the workers.
With the community.
I treat with the clients
Dealing with suppliers
Crisis Policy.
The most visible part of the communications policy are the manuals or protocols generated by the organization for particular situations, among which the most common are the user service manual, the corporate identity manual and the crisis manual.
In conclusion of this first part, the communication policy approach should take into account the following guidelines:
Be clearly stated so that it can be applied easily.
It must have the commitment of management for its compliance.
It must generate a compliance provision by the members of the organization, it must offer benefits that make people willing to apply it
Provide the elements to be applied
How is a communications policy established?
According to Jesús García, "to build the communications policy it is necessary to make a prior evaluation that allows establishing the communications situation in the organization." Once this state has been visualized, it is necessary to compare it with what the organization requires. communications to achieve its corporate objectives and establish the corrective elements required by the communication culture of the organization from the approach of its policies.
These requirements must be analyzed from the perspective of various referents that will influence the communications policy.
Among them, the following must be taken into account: Legal Referents, (Mandatory standards that the entity must comply with), Corporate Referents (previous strategic determinations), ethical references, Social Referents (The culture in which the organization is immersed) and Strategic Referents (How the organization wants to be perceived o What do the organization's directives expect about the communicative interactions of its members)
How to put the communications policy into practice?
Above all, a communications policy requires Commitment and approval from senior management.
Once this has been achieved and for the policy to become concrete actions by the members of the organization, it is required that it be disseminated in an exemplary way and showing what the organization interprets in the application of these principles to the different communication scenarios and moments of truth.
The communications policy requires a plan to make it known and make it operational, that is to say, make it become concrete actions by the members of the organization. This implementation requires a schedule where actions, responsibilities and goals to be met are indicated in a brief way but with enough detail so that its staging is facilitated.
Finally, it should be noted that it is necessary to “keep the waves” that is, maintain the will to believe in an agreed set of values and have sufficient continuous diligence to put these values into action.
Finally, some of the obstacles that may arise in the implementation of a communications policy could be:
Lack of disclosure.
That there are no penalty systems
That any part of the organization is exonerated to comply with it.
Abusive leaders who believe that applying the policy will expose their abusive practices.
Solution. Train these leaders in communication and managerial skills so they can improve themselves.
Lack of clarity in corporate objectives and how those who make up the organization are expected to achieve them.
The communications policy fails when the company does not approve a security when it itself is not willing to comply.
The lack of a communications policy generally affects the organizational climate given that its non-existence generates dissatisfaction in workers who feel little taken into account, it also leads to situations of abuse that do not have a point of reference to be controlled can become part of the culture of the organization.
Garrido, Francisco. Management of communication in organizations. Ed. Ariel. 2004. pg. 94.
Ob Cit. Pg. 119.
García Jiménez, Jesús. Internal communication. Diaz de Santos. 1998. pg. 119.
