Importance of Managerial
Communication In Achieving
Sustainability & Environmental Goals
In this VUCA world — Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, organizations are grappling with challenges to engage with their stakeholders while managing their role as a key player in the global value chain. Organizations are increasingly identifying that they should acknowledge the risks associated with their business to people, planet and prosperity and are actively addressing these risks to positively impact sustainable development. Growing demand for information from stakeholders led to organizations issuing separate sustainability reports. While businesses have come a long way in engaging with their external stakeholders, they are now realizing the potential of employee engagement in achieving sustainability and environmental objectives. The thrust on managerial communication is increasing as it is identified that each employee can make a positive or negative contribution to organizations’ sustainable development goals through its activities and stakeholder relationships. Currently, there is limited research focussed on employees’ view on sustainability.
Internal communication is a prime driver to mobilize better-informed managers and employees in organizations’ efforts to achieve sustainable development goals and derives a broad framework of an internal communication strategy to be adopted. Currently direct and well-defined communication message from senior leaders is identified as the preferred communication mode by employees to take up the sustainability goals of the organization, however, in the long run, we envisage that a mixed communications strategy with extensive feedback mechanism through weekly open meetings and informal communication with managers will lead to higher employee engagement, increase in individual employee contributes to the success of organization’s goals and better engagement with external stakeholders as employees themselves become the spokesperson of organization’s sustainability efforts and activities.
Through tools of communication strategies, a trend was enforced by corporates where bridging gap is important between-
➔ Said — Done!
➔ Said is not yet heard
➔ Heard is not yet understood
➔ Understood is not yet approved
➔ And approved is not yet done
Concepts, technologies and skills related to the environment need to be communicated to company owners, functional leaders via developing a 10-step communication strategy following a cycle of analysis, planning, production and reflection:
a) Stage 1 Assessment
1. Situation- and problem analysis
2. Audience and Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) — Analysis
3. Communication objectives
b) Stage 2 Planning
4. Communication strategy formulation
5. Involvement of strategic groups
6. Media selection and mix
c) Stage 3 Production
7. Message design
8. Media pre-testing and production
d) Stage 4 Action & Reflection
9. Media use
10. Process documentation and Monitoring and Evaluation impact assessment
Having employees from top executives to assembly line workers personally engaged in day to day sustainable practice of the organization by involving them as advocates and invested individuals will help an organization in achieving its sustainable goals in the long run as well.
There is a gap in employee involvement both during sustainability goal and strategy formulation and subsequent implementation process. Feedback mechanism also needs to be improved. We recommend that managers involve the employees during sustainable objective design stage through brainstorming and team meetings. Employees will fully orient towards sustainability if it requires that they put some efforts in order to achieve them. Managers must thus indulge in open and direct form of internal communication such as line manager briefings (push method), intranet video-conferencing (pull method) and debate, community channels such as online forums, collective activity such as group CSR and other face-to-face events such as brainstorming, meetings, etc. Managers must include their team members from start and continuously thereafter while indulging in frequent feedbacks and one on-one informal communication to encourage and guide the employee to achieve sustainability goals. This will not only incentivize employees, an open communication tactic will drive innovation and a pro-active approach by the employees. This is expected to boost employee satisfaction and also lead to increased profitability for the organization.
Lastly, integration of communication in each step of sustainability ideation, development, and implementation in an organization should be undertaken and communication message and objectives must be clearly specified to employees. Communication plays an important role in assigning tasks, employee mobilization and motivation by the managers within an organization. We recommend that it is crucial that managers discuss sustainability issues formally and informally with employees. We further recommend that organizations should employ continuous communication with their internal stakeholders which will, in turn, drive continuous relationships with external stakeholders such as customers, vendors, governments, investors, local communities, etc. This will maximize
utilization of potential of employees as internal as well as external communicators to spread positive word of mouth which proves to be a win-win situation for both employees and organizations.
