The Forms of Communication Used by Fonterra Cooperative - Case Study Example

Communication within Organizations Name Tutor Course Code Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 5 The forms of communication used by Fonterra cooperative 6 Effects of feedback on the sufficient to ensure accuracy and completeness of communication 8 Informal communication used by Fonterra in this case 10 Conclusion 11 Works cited 13 Executive summary The nature of the management in an organization highly determines its operation and performance. The management assessment styles depend on the activities which taking place. The operations of some of the organizations may require strict supervision of the activities of the organization to ensure that the staff members perform to their best. Fonterra New Zealand is a dairy organization which is considered to be at the top of the list worldwide based on the performance. According to the information from the case study provided, the management of the organization plays great role in ensuring that the organization perform to the best. This is determined by the quantity of the sales that they make globally. It is considered to be making the most dairy supplies to around 140 countries across the world many of them being the most victorious like USA and Asia. This means that the products are not only of higher quantities but also of the best qualities. As a contributing factor to the success of the organization, the management considers communication as the major aspect to enhance their performance. This brings together all the parties involved that they work and reason together as group. The local farmers are the main shareholders of the organization and responsible for the provision of the raw materials required especially milk which is used to process other products for the consumption of the human beings. The other and the most important party are the consumers across the world who buys the products for their personal consumption. Effective communication has played a great role in informing the consumers of the existence the products and convincing them to purchase by showing their benefits. The shareholders as the owners of the organization are regularly informed of the progress of the organization so as to motivate them to contribute more or give ideas on the ways of improving the performance in case of a bad performance. As the owners of the organization they should be involved in the process of making decision on the operations. Good and effective communication system should be considered for assurance of delivery of the intended message to the targeted audiences. The communication in this organization is mostly two way to allow the feedback of the audiences. Both the formal and the informal forms of communication are considered; the formal is applied through formal context like the annual general meetings organized and the reports printed on the monthly magazines. The informal forms are applied through the flexible of informal medium like face to face or online communication like the internet. The websites are sited for the audiences to access the posted information and freely make comment regarding the organization. Introduction Management plays a great role in the determination of the performance of many of the organizations. Fonterra New Zealand is one of the best performing dairy organizations which exports over 20 million tones of products per year in the most victorious nations like USA and Asia. This makes it to be a famous across the world for the supply of the dairy products especially milk and other related products. The management of the organization has considered the factor of communication to enhance performance of the operations. Communication brings together all the parties involved in the operations of the organization. These involve the shareholders, the workers and the consumers of the products. The study below considers some of the aspects in relation to management assessment which the management body of the organization puts into consideration for the enhancement of the success of the organization. This is in reference to the commonly used forms of communication and the best form for improvement of the marketing of the products. The study considers the case study of Fonterra Cooperative which the biggest supplier of human products across the world. The management assessment is based on communication as the tool considered by the management in the enhancement of effective performance of the organization. It will consider the forms of communication considered by the management of the organization as well as the mediums for each form. Consideration of the methods of communication used is also essential; whether formal or informal because of the nature of the audiences and type of the messages conveyed and the feedbacks expected. The forms of communication used by Fonterra cooperative The organization considers a combination of oral, written and electronic forms of communication amongst the workers, shareholders and to their customers across the 140 countries involved in their marketing. This is with the aim of reaching as my audiences as possible and at the most convenient time as possible. The second CEO of the organization, Andrew Ferrier highly stresses on the necessity of communication while addressing Auckland University Business School. He said that he spends substantial amount of time talking to the shareholders on direct communication. Although of his executives complain that it is excessive and obsessive, the CEO ensures that he at least communicates to almost all the 12634 shareholders. This can be through regular field briefings mostly through the oral form of communication, through publication and distribution of the magazines mostly on the monthly bases to update them on the recent happenings or performance of the cooperative. The management can also communicate to the shareholders through the website which can be accessed by most of the farmers on daily basis, these includes the statistics or updated letters from the chairman of the board (Davidson et al, p. 493, pp 3). To capture the attention of most of the targeted customers, the management of the organization organizes some road shows to inform them of the existence of some of the products hence convince them to buy. This has a positive impact on the level of their marketing because more people are interested in buying the products. Although direct communication is the best in convincing the customers to opt for the products, sometimes the written and electronic forms are considered especially when the target audiences are people across wide geographical regions. The proceedings of the annual general meetings organized to update on the happenings or the activities of the organization are televised to reach as mass audiences as possible. All the shareholders are expected to get the reports of the annual general meeting as the owners and the main contributors of the raw materials used by the organization. The New Zealand’s Telecom has come in to improve high speed access to the internet since many of the people especially in the rural areas have difficulties to access the internet thus communicating with the management of Fonterra online becomes almost impossible. This Telecom is coming up with the ADSL modems and wireless and satellite technology to enable those in the rural areas to access the information posted by the Fonterra management. The organization has recently introduced Fencepost.com for the audiences to access the management tools used by the management of the organization and the other generic items of interest to the residents of the rural areas. These include the marketing of the products, news reports on the events of organization and others like weather. Effective communication has played a great role in the improvement of the performance and activities of the organization (Haines, V., Godley. J., & Hawe, P., p 1). Oral communication would be the best due to its effectiveness in getting the feedback of the audiences as well as an opportunity for elaboration of the points to ensure that the receivers decode the message as intended. The electronic is however seen to be better than the oral when considering the number of the audiences which are targeted. Fonterra targets the residents of as many 140 countries across the world many of them being the most populated like USA and Asia. This means that the medium of communication considered should be able to reach a mass audience and suitable for the application of various methods of communication like use of pictures and sounds for the understanding of people with varying knowledge. Effects of feedback on the sufficient to ensure accuracy and completeness of communication Listening to only feedback would not be enough for the assurance of accuracy and completeness of the communication process because it would not be possible for the receivers of the information to effectively decode the information encoded by the senders thus the likelihood of misunderstanding it. This means that it is important for both parties to discuss the information at hard. According to the communication theories, there are a total of eight communication elements which should be considered for assurance of an effective communication process. The source is an element which represent the origin of the information or from whom the information flows, the source of information in the case study is the management of the cooperative. The second element is encoding which entails the process of packaging the information for the audiences to easily access and understands it as intended by the sender. The management of the Fonterra cooperative encodes the information in newsletters, magazines, posters, word of mouth, in electronic media like radios, television and internet for the audiences to access. The message is the ideas or the information which is send to the audiences, the organization sends ideas on the operations and activities taking place in the organization so as to gauge its performance. Channel is another important element which means the medium through which the information is delivered and received; the management chooses the most suitable medium to use depending on their availability to the audiences. The element of decoding is also necessary to be put in consideration because it entails putting the message into its simplest form for the understanding of the audiences. This is based on the understanding or knowledge of the audiences. The communicators should also consider the feedback of the audiences; this helps them to gauge the understanding of their audiences. By considering the responses of the shareholders and the customers of the products of the organization the management will be able to know the actions to take so as improve their performance as per their expectation and those of the consumers (Davidson et al, p. 493, pp 3). The organization considers these elements of communication for the assurance of an effective process because of the understanding that a two-way communication gives an allowance for new and unique ideas either from the staff members or the shareholders thus their operations still remain innovative. The management is able to get the tips of improving the performance of the organization. The organization concentrates on completion of integrity and stresses on open and honest communication. The other commitment is to deliver uncompromised outcomes and their main emphasis is on the focus of the achievement of the customers by effectively communicating to them with the intention of discovering their interests so as to consider them in their operations. Although the organization considers the feedback of the audiences relying only on it may not be sufficient for the assurance of effective performance but should also do research on the ways of upgrading their operations. This may involve checking on the operations of the other related organizations to compare with theirs (Hayes, John & Bajzek, Diana, p 104). Informal communication used by Fonterra in this case Although the management concentrates mostly on the formal forms of communication like the use of monthly magazines and updated letters from the chairman of board to keep the shareholders informed on the recent happenings in the organization. The management also organizes general meetings which are meant to give briefings on the half yearly or annual report of the activities of the organization. These are done on very formal forums and proceedings thus the communication method considered is formal (Atkinson, Helen, p 1441). The informal communication is also essential especially with the intentions of deeply understanding the dislikes and likes of various individuals. This gives a room for the concern to speak themselves out without the fear of anything or with all the freedom. The online communication is considered for the informal form of communication. This is mostly done through online telephone and use of internet whose use is highly supported by the management of the organization because they make the services available to all the audiences including those in the most remote areas by providing the ADSL modems and other wireless and satellite technology for the enhancement of the broadband access to the farmers (Davidson et al, p. 493, pp 4). Through the use of these services, the farmers are able to access all the information about Fonterra suppliers. The organization has recently introduced Fencepost.com to provide the farmers with access to the farm based management tools which are web based as well as the other generic objects which are of interest to the suppliers at the rural areas. These add to the usage of the internet by the locals thus they access all the information concerning the organization and able to express their opinion on the operations. Therefore the organization gives their audiences some freedom of expression by allowing online communication especially through the internet as an informal form of communicating messages which are felt to be less necessary to the management although according to the leaders, all the information they receive from the shareholders are essential in the improvement of the operations (Auer, Matthew, p 365). The face to face mode of communication mentioned by the CEO to the shareholders along the streets gives a room for the communicators to create a rapport amongst themselves thus giving freedom for them to freely communicate anything to each other. The conversation is made too informal that the communicators feels like they have a normal talk but the topic is based on the performance and operations of the organization. The management is concentrating on improvement of the mediums of the informal communication by enlarging the accessibility of the internet. This is through the introduction of the wireless and satellite technology and ADSL modems in the local places where the residents do not access the internet. Conclusion Effective communication is the most essential tool for the assurance of better performance of the organization. The management of Fonterra organization has been keen on the issue of communication between all the parties involved, for example the shareholders, the workers and the consumers. The shareholders are the farmers who provide the organization with the raw materials like milk and the customers are the consumers who buy the products of the cooperative. The organization considers all forms of communication to convey their messages to the concern. These include oral, written and electronic all in efforts of reaching as many people as possible. The oral form is considered through meeting and face to face talks between the officials and the shareholders like when the CEO says that he spends a lot of time on highways talking to the shareholders. Written form is represented by the monthly magazines and posters that they stick in public places for the people to access the information. The electronic form is considered through many and differing mediums. These may include the television, radio and use of internet targeting mass audience. Two-way method of communication is the best considered whereby after the management convey their message they consider the feedback of the audiences for the determination of the action to take in the improvement of the performance of the organization. Works cited Davidson et al, Fonterra Dairies New Zealand: Management; Core Concepts and Applications, chap 14, 2009: p. 493 Haines, V., Godley. J., & Hawe, P., Understanding Interdisciplinary Collaborations as Social Networks: American Journal of Community Psychology. New York: Mar 2011. Vol. 47, Iss. 1-2; p. 1 Hayes, John & Bajzek, Diana, Written Communication: Understanding and Reducing the Knowledge Effect: Implications for Writers. Beverly Hills: Jan 2008. Vol. 25, Iss. 1; p. 104 Atkinson, Helen, Management Decision: Strategy implementation: a role for the balanced scorecard?. London: 2006. Vol. 44, Iss. 10; p. 1441 Auer, Matthew, Policy Sciences: Communication and competition in environmental studies . Amsterdam: Dec 2010. Vol. 43, Iss. 4; p. 365 Read More