Assessment Task 3: Communication/education plan�
Develop a company-wide plan detailing the implementation of the change.�
Scenario or background information:�
The strategy you proposed in Assessment Task 2 has now been approved and has been given the green
light to proceed. Your task is to now develop a communication/education plan that will be written in a
report format designed to assist staff and key stakeholders of your chosen organisation. The intention is
to help staff and stakeholders understand what is going on and to guide them through the process you
have previously identified. It should help them see, feel and understand why this is necessary and will
need to demonstrate your concern for the people element in the change process. Note: there is no
specific word limit.
A Communication Plan for Blackberry Limited
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
Abstract
The communication plan in this project is for Blackberry, which is a Canadian
telecommunications and connectivity company, which once dominated the industry of electronic
and computer science. However, due to the fast-paced and increasing demand of the
technological industry, the company was not able to maintain its stability and is currently
experiencing negative sales profits and on the verge of bankruptcy. To aid the company in
regaining its stability in the business industry, a strategy of facilitating changes in several
business operation areas (training, recruitment, outsourcing, strategic partnerships and open
innovations) is proposed to the company. The primary goal of this communication plan is to
disseminate to employees coming from different departments all information concerning the
chances that the company will undertake. It seeks to distribute all information necessary to
prepare employees to deal successfully and cooperate with all the alteration in the operations and
policies of Blackberry. Discussed in this paper are the specific details of the communication plan
(who are the individuals responsible, who are the persons affected by the communication plan,
the process information distribution).
Keywords: Blackberry, communication plan,
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
A Communication Plan for Blackberry Limited
Introduction
Advancements in the field of technology and connectivity are one world’s greatest
scientific innovations. First-world countries and eminent technological corporations are now
racing against one another to produce the most innovative connectivity products to sell in the
market. Both micro and macro companies are continuously developing connectivity products that
would provide them access to the world market of electronic and computer science. One of the
brands that ultimately made its name in the technological industry is the Blackberry. Founded by
Mike Lazardis, Blackberry initially operated as Research in Motion (RIM). The company gained
popularity as the pioneer wireless data developer in America and the first company to create and
innovate connectivity products for Mobitex wireless packet-switched data communications
network outside Scandinavia. Continuous state-of-the-art technological developments made RIM
renowned in the industry of electronic and computer science in the late 1980’s.
Discussion
Modernization and fast-rising mobile and connectivity companies spring forth thousands
competition for Blackberry. Although the company has mastered the production of mobile
phones, smartphones, and other connectivity products, the company was not able to maintain its
sales performance and incurred a negative growth in sales, which resulted in the company’s
bankruptcy. In 2013, the shareholders decided to sell the company to about $4.7 billion
(“BlackBerry timeline: A look back at the tech company’s history,” 2013). Despite the
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
company’s attempt to revive its popularity in the technological industry, the company is still on
the verge of bankruptcy and is innovating and developing a variety of products in the hope of
regaining its popularity in the technological market.
After all the efforts that Blackberry exerted to maintain its position in the business
industry, Blackberry does not have any room to accommodate risks that would deteriorate the
company’s performance. This strategy requires the company to undertake a holistic change and
improvement regarding training, recruitment, outsourcing, and partnerships with other
businesses. Improvements in these areas guarantee a change in the performance of the company.
Increasing economic progress furnish large-scale companies with greater chances to prosper and
equip employees to improve product development and marketing; An opportunity that
Blackberry must grab and use to its advantage.
To provide to the company’s continuous sales decline, a strategy which suggests
facilitating changes and developments in four specific business areas. The strategy proposes to
create alterations and enrichments in training, recruitments, outsourcing and partnerships with
other companies.
Trainings. During training, outsourcings recruitments and partnerships, businesses and
employees both benefit from the aftermaths. Worldwide companies provide training for
employees to improve their work performance through developing their skills and abilities
(Bashir & Jehanzeb, 2013). Despite the cost and effort needed to train employees, the outcomes
are all directed to the company’s development. Training provides employees with additional
information and skills needed to perform their efficiently. Nassazi (2013) conducted a qualitative
research that determined the effects of training on the performance 120 respondents. The
research had 120 employees who are all working the largest communication companies in
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
Uganda. The results of the study showed that the amount and quality of training provided to
employees significantly affect the manner by which they execute their respective jobs. Thus,
furnishing the employees with training in various areas of specification (e.g. customer service,
performance development, work motivation) increase the capacity of the company to achieve
development in sales and growth.
Recruitment., Recruitment, and Selection of employees is an essential Human Resource
Management activity that significantly contributes to the organization or company (Evans,
Glover, Guerrier &Wilson, 2007). Recruiting competent and highly skilled employees require
experience and sufficient knowledge regarding employee selection and hiring qualified
employees are one of the secret strategies of a top-performing company. Primarily, the
recruitment process mostly affects the kind of employees that the company would be dealing
with and nurturing. Developing a hiring process that would hire more competent employees
guarantees the company with a set of the knowledgeable workforce which delivers satisfactory,
if not, excellent job performance. In a study conducted by (Abidin & Ismail (2010), he evaluated
the effects of worker competence on job performance. The research had a total of 1136
participants who are all employed in the Malaysian private sector. The results of the study
indicate that competence significantly affects the kind of work performance that an employee
delivers. Competent employees bring out the excellence of the company.
Outsourcing. Another factor in the proposed strategy is outsourcing. Outsourcing
requires a company to hire employees from outside the organization. Over the past few years,
Blackberry experienced difficulty to catch-up with the demands of increasing technological
innovation in the industry of telecommunications and connectivity. Outsourcing furnishes the
company with employees outside the company who are capable of bringing more insights,
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
innovative ideas, more skills needed to enhance the company’s products and performance and
additional workforce.
Strategic Partnerships. Though it is hard to accept, Blackberry must admit to the reality
that other renowned large-scale technological companies have already outstood the performance
and quality of the products created by Blackberry. Partnering with more stable and competent
companies would provide Blackberry with more opportunities to improve the company’s
performance and create innovative products to suit the high demands of the customers.
Open Innovations. Open innovations allow the company to open the search for new ideas
and creative product reinventions deviating the outdated product productions of the company and
allowing changes to transfer smoothly inward and outward. Innovations enable the company to
create products that cater the demands of the continuously advancing telecommunications and
connectivity industry.
To further increase the profit of the company, a cost-benefit analysis the strategy also
encourages the company to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to identify which investment provides
the company with the greatest benefit. The cost-benefit analysis proposes four (training,
recruitment, outsourcing, and partnerships) changes that the company must conduct to gain an
increase in annual sales and profit. A cost-benefit analysis is a process of comparing the costs
and the benefits of a particular project to determine its efficacy to the company sales and growth.
The CBA also presents a realistic preview of the amount of money that the company would be
spending to improve its performance and sales further. It allows the company to determine the
amount of impact that a proposed strategy to the company’s development.
To quickly and efficiently execute the facilitation of these changes, the company must
follow a communication plan that would furnish the company with rubrics for the proper
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
execution of the proposed changes. A communication method guarantees the company that all
employees are prepared and are knowledgeable about the impacts of the changes in the company.
Communication Plan
The communication plan seeks to disseminate all information with regards to the
proposed strategy for the company. A communication plan provides a framework that
summarizes the approach and the methodologies to be used for information distribution,
feedback, project distribution and stakeholder management (Charles Sturt University, 2011).
The communication plan aims to disseminate information regarding the factors (training,
recruitment, outsourcing and partnering with other companies) considered in the strategy
proposed for Blackberry. Although are the primary audience of the communication plan, it is of
high importance to provide due attention to the group of employees affected by the changes that
would be implemented by the company.
Communication Media Effectiveness
Circulation. The communication plan was designed to assure that employees from
different departments receive all essential information regarding the alterations in the company.
All department heads serve as coordinating bodies that receive and transfer information to all
employees coming from different departments. Furthermore, memorandums are utilized as tools
for disseminating information to all individuals in the company’s workforce.
Frequency. The communication plan aims to communicate the necessary information
regarding company changes through monthly memorandums and meetings (both annual and
monthly meeting).
Credibility. Since authorized personnel distributes all information, employees are
guaranteed to receive specific details of training (e.g. agenda, schedule, venue). Furthermore,
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
letters serve memorandum letters sent to all staff serve as direct and credible media of
communication.
Feedback. The communication pattern the strategy is designed to establish interaction
between the communicator and the message receiver. Since the communication will be done both
through letter and face-to-face interaction, all employees have the opportunity to provide
feedbacks and idea.
Communication Plan Table
Key Message Target
Audience
Communication
methods.
Who is responsible.
T
R
A
I
N
I
N
G
Equip all the employees
with necessary skills
essential for work
performance
improvement and product
enhancement.
Imbibe quality service in
the work habits of all
staff in the company
Employees to acquire
skills vital in gathering
new, creative and
innovative ideas for the
company
Human
Resource
Director
Employees
from
different
departments
Department
Heads
A. Issue training
memorandum to
department heads
B. Monthly meeting
regarding training
agenda
C. Company
announcements on
bulletin boards.
A. Human
Resource
Director or
Personnel
B. Department
Heads and
Human
Resource
Department
C. Human
Resource
Department
Assure that all employees
hired are competent and
have excellent work Human
A. Issue a
memorandum letter
to the Human
A. Human
Resource
Director
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
R
E
C
R
U
I
T
M
E
N
T
performance
Guarantee that all
employee has excellent
skills to offer to company
Improve its sales and
growth through ensuring
that all employees will
contribute competence
and excellence in all
fields of specification
Resource
Director
Human
Resource
Employees
Employees
from all
departments
Resource
Employees
B. Conduct monthly
meetings regarding
recruitment
policies.
C. Provide employees
with intensive
training regarding
recruitment
procedures
D. Monthly meetings
with staff from
different
departments
B. Human
Resource
Department
C. Human
Resource
Department
D. Human
Resource and
Department
Heads.
O
U
T
S
O
U
R
C
I
N
G
Generate more ideas for
innovations and new
product ideas
Hire employees who will
provide the company will
be fresh ideas on product
marketing and product
design
Hire employees who will
contribute new and
modern ideas that will
allow the company to
catch-up with the fast-
paced technological
industry
Human
Resource
Director
Human
Resource
Employees
Employees
from all
departments
A. Job vacancy posts
on the company’s
website
B. Media
advertisements in
social networking
sites and other
publicity websites
C. Outsourcing
notices in local
newspapers
D. Coordinating with
other business
managers
A. Human
Resource
Department
B. Human
Resource
Employees
C. Human
Resource
Director
D. Human
Resource
Director
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
P
A
R
T
N
E
R
S
H
I
P
S
Facilitate business,
consumer, and resource
expansion
Facilitate improvement of
innovative efforts and
technological
advancement
Senior
Managers
Stockholders
Company
President
A. Corporate meetings
with the
company’s
stockholders
B. Corporate meetings
with the employees
C. Corporate meetings
with other potential
partners
A. Company’s
CEO
B. Human
Resource
and
Department
Heads
C. Company’s
CEO
I
N
N
O
V
A
T
I
O
N
Enhance company’s
acceptance towards new
and innovative changes
meant to catch-up with the
demands of the industry.
Product
development
department
Product
development
employees
A. Communicate
the new goals of the
company through
meetings and
memorandums
B. Department
Director and
Human
Resource
Department
Monitoring
Monitoring must be conducted to prepare the company for the consequences of the
changes that it will facilitate in its core communication operations. A forecasting of possible
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
dilemmas and communication difficulties are formulated to furnish the company with solution
options if such circumstance occurs.
Scenario
Two months after the implementation of the communication plan, the company
discovered that some employees who are members of a union asked assistance from their
organizations to issue the company a complaint letter regarding staff cuts and changes. The
union representatives want to determine the number of employees who will be affected by the
changes and what specific alterations concerns the staff conditions. The company must provide a
letter that responds to the inquiries of the union representative to professionally deal with the
problem, (see figure 1, for the letter).
June 06, 2016
Mr. Adam Smith
USA Workers Union
Union Representative
To the Union Representative,
Blackberry Corporation is currently implementing changes in its core operations to
produce high-quality and innovative products to satisfy the needs of customers worldwide.
Furthermore, the company is also performing alterations on the policies and core activities of the
company to provide Blackberry employees with a stable and competent workplace. The changes
in the company are meant to improve all services that Blackberry Corporation offers to both
customers and staff. Changes take form in training, recruitments, outsourcing, strategic
partnerships and open innovation.
As of this writing, the estimates of the company revealed that impacts of the alterations in
the highly affects employees in the product development and production department. The staff
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
cuts are due to the changes in positions and job descriptions of employees from different
departments. As much as the company desires to retain all employees who offered services and
labor for Blackberry, the company is still exerting many efforts to regain its stability in the
industry and have a high need to conduct staff cuts and alterations on staff conditions.
Employees are mandated to attend training to enhance their skills and abilities. However, the
company must remove employees who do not exhibit any sign of improvement to improve the
service offered by the company. We understand that the sudden alteration in the staff conditions
significantly affects the welfare of our employees. However, rest assured that all changes in the
company are tailored to suit and cater the rights and privileges that Blackberry employees
deserve to have.
If you wish to provide suggestions concerning staff conditions and learn more about the
company’s new policies, please do send the company a response letter and Blackberry
corporation will gladly accommodate it.
Human Resource Director
Blackberry Corporation
United States
Results
Throughout the project, the company will undoubtedly encounter difficulties in
disseminating all the necessary details of the changes that will occur in the core operation of the
company. Communication failures are consistent in all project implementations, proper
information distribution does not eliminate communication failures, however, it diminishes the
occurrence of communication misunderstandings and information mismatch. It is important the
specific and accurate instructions are provided to the employees to lessen the impacts of
communication failure throughout the implementation of the changes in a company.
Since Blackberry is a large-scale company, it is not easy to transport information
accurately without any added or removed detail to all departments of the organization. In this
case, the cooperation and active participation of the department directors (heads) mainly
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
contribute to the success of the change plan. These are the individuals who serve as contributors
and distributors of all necessary information in relevance to the changes facilitated by the
company. Furthermore, it is unavoidable to experience complaints from employees, business
partner and customers and the best solution that the corporation could equip employees with is
knowledge. All employees must be given individual memorandums and must be mandated to
attend meetings dealing with all matters concerning the modifications in the company, to ensure
that all members organization receive an update about the status of the company.
Also, to lessen complaints and employee-related dilemmas, the company must practice
transparency in disseminating all information that concerns (positive and negative) the welfare of
the employees. The company has all the right to terminate, retain, and promote employees,
however, the employees, regardless of their work performance, also have all the right to
recognize the reasons for all actions that affect their employment in the company.
At the end of the day, there exists no finite set of possible dilemmas that a company
would encounter will implementing a change plan. The only viable way to ensure the success of
the program is to: First, before applying a change plan, identify first the amount of risks and
benefits that it will cost the company and the employees. Second, determine whether the impacts
of the changes in the company are reasonable and would pay off the efforts and investments that
the company will make. Third, prepare all the employees for the changes that company will
undertake. Lastly, ensure that the company facilitates clear and precise communication
throughout the implementation of the company modification plan.
Summary
This paper discusses a communication plan tailored to transfer information efficiently
throughout the implementation of a proposed change plan for Blackberry corporation. The
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
communication plan is designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and feedbacks between the
information distributors (Blackberry Corporation) and the receivers (Blackberry employees). The
communication plan focuses on the department heads and the Human Resource personnel as
primary transporters of all essential information regarding the details and the status of the change
plan proposed for Blackberry. This paper gives emphasis on coordination between department
heads and employees as key components in the success of the proposed communication plan.
References
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Malaysian private sector. Business and Economic Horizons, 29-35.
Bashir, N., & Jehanzeb, K. (2013). Training & development program and its benefits to
employee and organization. European Journal of Business and Management, 244-255.
COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR BLACKBERRY LIMITED
BlackBerry timeline: A look back at the company history. (2013). Global News.
Charles Sturt University. (2011). Research Office Implementation Communication Plan. Charles
Sturt University, 2-3.
Glover, J., Evans, C., Guerrier, Y., & Wilson, C. (2007). Effective recruitment strategies &
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