کاربرد مجموعه ی متوازن معیارها برای تمرکز بر صلاحیت دراز مدت در ارتباطات داخلی

To advance our knowledge on measurement efforts in internal communication, this paper presented the findings from two research projects related to how we can measure the effectiveness of organizations’ internal communication initiatives and their contributions to organizations’ business performance. Integrated findings from in-depth interviews and a content analysis suggested that although limited financial metrics have been applied to the evaluation process, traditional measurement approaches such as feedback survey, focus group, and qualitative analysis have been widely used. Measurement efforts in employee communication have been largely focusing on employee participation, engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. The paper was concluded with suggested implications for corporate communication measurement challenges.

The measurement of internal communication at the financial level attracts increasing attention as the organization moves toward excellence and efficiency. As a crucial feature to the success of organizational sustainable development and financial performance, communication effectiveness has been a promising topic in the fields of organizational behaviors, business management, and communication consulting in recent years (Rust et al., 2004a and Rust et al., 2004b). Organizations and institutional communication professions have been continuing exploring effective measurement metrics for their communication initiatives, focusing on how communication practices can be effectively linked to improved financial performance at the organizational level (Broom and Dozier, 1983, Dozier and Ehling, 1992, Meng and Berger, in press and Watson, 2012). Such research seems especially important today as the industry is becoming highly competitive and turbulent and is constantly changing. When the conditions in the industry itself move from being simple to complex, from stable to dynamic, it is crucial for communication professionals to accurately respond to changing situations, in a way that both organizations and clients perceive communication efforts that better fit their needs (Schultz, 2002 and Taylor, 2010). Organizations with greater reliance on effective communications will be able to achieve better return on their efforts and improve their performance (e.g., Hurley and Hult, 1998, Narayanan et al., 2004, Powell, 1995 and Rust et al., 2004b). Although continuous research efforts on the phenomenon of effective measurement in corporate communications in the new century have led to a generic agreement that communication effectiveness has been one of the leading indicators of organization's business performance, it is still very challenging for communication professionals to establish and solidify a set of metrics as the main evidence of profits and revenue from communication initiatives. As a consequence, it may reduce the value of communication as a sustainable source of competitive advantage for organizations. Therefore, to better understand how senior communication executives and their teams measure their internal communications efforts, the researchers analyzed and reported key research findings from two studies relevant to the measurement of internal communication effectiveness. The first study was designed as a preliminary step in investigating this subject by conducting in-depth interviews with 13 Gold Quill award recipients. All interviewed award recipients are currently senior communication executives in diverse organizations. Interview results revealed senior communication executives’ experiences and insights about measurement challenges in their communication practices, specifically within the scope of employee/member communication. The second study analyzed the program statements of 75 Gold Quill award winning cases in the category of employee/member communication from 2004 to 2008. The results reflected major, as well as diverse approaches communication teams have used to measure how their communication strategies create value for current activities and future performance. The results from the two projects were synthesized to identify and generalize themes and trends in measuring corporate communications.

Generally, the content analysis reflected a similar pattern appeared in in-depth interviews, which is the almost universal belief among the institutional communication teams, that choosing effective measurement approaches is crucial for corporate communicators to remain optimist in a troubled global economy and a climate of uncertainty from the client perspective. Specifically, the coded results yielded five major findings with regard to measurement activities in award-winning internal communication cases. The following section presents the results from the content analysis. 3.1. Finding #1: communication effectiveness is an organization and group achievement. Thus, setting appropriate objectives at different stages facilitates effective collaborative accomplishment and measurement in project contexts The analysis of the award winning entries revealed that communication effectiveness is achieved primarily at the group level or the organizational level. Although employees or members at different levels were the intended audiences in most cases, most communication programs indicated that organizations have focused communication effectiveness more on increased group integrity and identification, instead of individual achievement or recognition. At the same time, almost all award-winning entries were characterized by setting different objectives at different stages of the communication programs. For instance, the measurement of effectiveness may proceed by assessing increased participation, increased awareness or understanding of messages or programs, increased workforce productivity, improved job performance, and high degree of employee/member engagement. To set up appropriate goals and objectives as communication programs moving forward is a critical proposition to ensure the correct selection of measurement approaches. 3.2. Finding #2: although financial measures on diverse subjects always lead the way to evaluate the desired business outcomes at the short-term level, nonfinancial measures have also been used to provide a balanced view and long-term competitive capabilities At the financial level, desired communication outcomes were evaluated at two levels: level one focused more on tactical feedback and control of short-term operations if communication programs implemented; and level two called for a “balanced” set of measures by incorporating financial and nonfinancial measures to have an aggregate performance assessment of the organization from a long-term perspective. Specifically, at the short-term level, a mixed set of financial measures was used by different organizations depending on different sets of business unit objectives of the communication program. More than 10 aspects of the financial performance have been identified from the award-winning cases, including: • Increased employee productivity (30 mentions, or 40.0%); • Increased customer growth and retention (25 mentions, or 33.3%); • The improved speed of processing customer requests or claims (15 mentions, 20.0%); • The sustainability of the revenue growth compared to previous quarters (14 mentions, or 18.7%); • The amount of fund raised and average contribution per employee achieved (14 mentions, or 18.7%); • Increased interdepartmental teamwork, which results in a high degree of reduction in the error rate in certain work area (10 mentions, or 13.3%); • The steady growth of stock value (8 mentions, 10.6%); • Increased payroll deduction and average donation (8 mentions, or 10.6%); • Reduced cost in general, which far outweighs the communication budget, further proving the program extremely cost-effective (5 mentions, or 6.7%); and • Increased quarter business results after launching the employee communication programs (4 mentions, 5.3%). At the long-term level, most award-winning programs mentioned the creation of a new synthesis system, the Balanced Scorecard, as a more powerful way to build long-range competitive capabilities not only for the internal public but also for the organization (67 mentions, or 89.3%). As a new approach, the balanced scorecard complements traditional financial measures of past and short-term business performance with nonfinancial measures derived from an organization's vision and strategy (Kaplan and Norton, 1996 and Kaplan and Norton, 2006). A typical internal measure of such vision- and strategy-related objective appeared in the cases would be increased innovation, learning, satisfaction and confidence growth. Communication executives use such measures to demonstrate how their communication programs or strategies create value for current and future employees/members and how the organization needs to enhance internal capabilities and investment in people to improve future performance. As a major reflection of the balanced scorecard synthesis, some award-winning cases have developed creative approaches to evaluate nonfinancial indicators such as channel platform effectiveness (27 times, or 36.0%), message effectiveness (15 times, or 20.0%), and risk reduction (9 times, or 12.0%). For example, to assess channel effectiveness, communication teams have developed new channels or delivery platforms (e.g., through social media and Intranet sites) to provide a more efficient, timely and consistent way to send information to a geographically dispersed audience or audiences at different levels of a hierarchical structure. Consequently, channel efficiency encourages employees submitting their comments on relevant communication initiatives via e-mails or Intranet sites. In addition, other than ensuring consistent information, quite a few communication programs have focused more on building employees’ confidence in organization leadership (25 times, or 33.3%). Maintaining high morale in achieving current business goals while focusing on employee self-actualization has been an important way to assess message effectiveness. According to the coding results, there are several nonfinancial, reflective measures have been used by different programs: • The validation of the importance of the communication program and its readership by collecting responses from target audiences and potential advertisers (56 mentions, or 74.7%); • Self-report of an increased sense of camaraderie and pride (47 mentions, or 62.7%); • Letters from target audiences expressing their appreciation and opinions about the communication programs (37 mentions, or 49.3%); • Phone calls from target audiences validating their engagement and commitment (21 mentions, or 28.0%); • Scheduled public presentations (17 mentions, or 22.7%)