Introduction
Organizational communication refers to the sub-field from the sector of communication studies. The organizational communication aspect analyzes and gives critique to the central role played by communication in the context of the organizational operations. The aspect of organizational communication began in the early 1960s with the implementation of its effectiveness in the business operation. The organizational communication occurred for the first time in the academic department with professor having great interest in business writing and speaking. The perspective works with theories and empirical approaches to come up with a distinct explanation of the functionality of an organization. The aspect of organizational psychology works with various assumptions in order to come up with definite explanations.
Communication is a basic requirement for people to organize themselves into groups, and accomplish anything as a group. Harold Lasswell provided the most basic way of describing what communications does (Windahl & McQuail, 1993): it answers questions on who, what, which channel, to whom, and with what effect. This basic channel, which has been the foundation formula for many other communication models, has also given structure to any discussion about communication.
Organizational communication follows no different formula, nor process for communication throughout the organization. If anything, any organizational communication is just the basic communication process taken on different levels and direction, by the, and within an organization.
It looks at employees as human beings who act with a rational perspective with different methodologies for making decisions (McPhee, 2006). The employees may act either in a rational or irrational manner in order to enhance their communication within the organizational setting. Theories used to explain the organizational communication work with empirical and logical to explain the behaviors of the different entities found in the organization. A good organization ensures effective communication as a basis of its functionality in order to eradicate negative outcome from the operations. Organizations work with various departments that have unique operations to meet the organizational objectives. Communication in any organization should have effective work so as to enhance efficiency in the organization. Communication within the organizational setting works in the form of networks. Communication needs direction and flows so as to cover all the employees, departments and managers in the organizations. Communication networks influence ways through which individuals use to complete their assigned tasks. Communication networks may involve instructions offered by the manager and the satisfaction derived from managers. Effective communication signifies an importance in the performance of the managers and the employees in an organization. Some of the major functions of management that involve organizational communication include planning, controlling and leading various groups in an organization. It also focuses the managers to have their jobs and responsibilities performed in the right manner.
There are key distinctions to organizational communication, and these are (Baker, N.d): levels, formal vs. Informal, direction, and internal vs. external focus. The level of communication simply talks whether the communication is interpersonal, group, organizational, inter-organization, or mass level. Communication may also be differentiated either its formal or informal aspect, because the kind of channel and manner of coding and decoding vary depending on whether the communication is formal or informal. Direction of communication may be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. All these forms of communication happen all at the same time in an organization. The focus of the communication, on the other hand, is dependent on whether the communication is internal or external.
Planning and communication work a long one another. One needs the other in order to create a state of effective operations. Communication entails message to move from the manager who implements the information from the communication when it comes to planning. Communication entails the manager having all the information concerning their operations and responsibilities in order to have their long-term and short-term goals. Communication in an organization also helps the manager monitor and keep in check the role played by the various employees in an organization. The paper takes a keen consideration of the key communication issues in Nike and also explains the literature review and culture of the process in the company. It makes a conclusion with recommendations through the analysis of Nike’s communication process. Nevertheless, the paper tries to provide an answer to the question; what is the relationship between the communication process and Nike?Background information about Nike Nike deals with design, manufacturing, development and sales of equipment, accessories, and footwear. The company has its location in the United States of America and its headquarters in Oregon. The company forms one of the largest suppliers and manufacturers of apparel and shoes used by sportsmen in the world. The company works with revenue of more than US$24.1 billion on an annual basis. The brand has an estimated value of approximately $19 billion. The company came into origin in the year 1964 to make sports accessories. The founders included Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The name originated from the Greek goddess of victory. The various products and brands of the company include Air Jordan, Nike Blazers, Air Force 1 and Air Max.
The company possesses the operations of a number of stores with the brand name across different parts in the world. It also sponsors major teams in the world. Nike started by producing track running shoes. Currently, the company manufactures shoes, shorts, jerseys, cleats and other products (Sage, 2008). The products cover games like hockey, baseball, tennis and football. The company has produced shoes like Nike Air Max, Nike SB, and Air Jordan. The company employs more than 30,000 individuals in the world. The organization has set its operations in all the six continents in the world with major operations linking to its headquarters in Oregon.Organizational structure at Nike Nike has its major operations linked to its headquarters. The organizational structure found at Nike works from the level of a country. The company works with suppliers, distributors from the country level in order to avoid using a huge amount of resources. Each and every country designs its products and equipment relative to the regions found within their functionalities. The major activities carried out by a country revolve around sourcing, supply chain and the methodologies of how to transport the products from the market. The company also works with retailers that lack affiliation to Nike. Through the development of a good relationship with countries, the company comes up with an understanding of the market. The phenomenon enables them to develop a good communication structure that entails listening and providing the market with its desires.Organizational communication found at Nike
Most managers at Nike have devotion towards communication in their respective organizations. Most of them spend more than six hours on a single day communicating with various groups in the organization. The communication involves superiors, colleagues, customers/suppliers and superiors. The managers apply both oral and written communication in the form of letters, reports, and memos in order to make effective communication. Communication has its importance in the operation of an organization.
It promotes the level of motivation among employees on any given task. It also influences the decision-making process in the organization. Communication tells the managers the level of attitudes their workers possess on a daily basis (Richard, 1976). Most of the employees and managers use the communication approaches in the process of socialization. Nike works through building a communication strategy with the several stakeholders found around their functionality. The company operates with a methodology of feedback coming from both the product creation process and the product delivery. In the organization, communication functions in both a horizontal and hierarchical manner. Communication at Nike operates to enhance the image of the company in the market, and also it facilitates operations in the manufacture, marketing and sales of the products.Communication culture at Nike
Nike as the top apparel brand has to communicate on all levels all the time. In fact, if there is one thing that they do best, it is to communicate what they need, what they want, what they are doing, and what they have to serve you. They communicate what they need to their suppliers and partners.
In order to come up with a new design for their shoes, Nike has to do external communication with possible partners and designers (Carr, 2013). Communication is constant because there is a high level of innovation that is done by Nike. In order to for this to be executed well, the company keeps the communications lines with their partners open. Here, they value the transactional model for communication wherein it is highlighted that the experiences a person had will determine what kind of reaction he has to the message another person is delivering to him.
Needless to say, feedback is very important in such a setup. The constant feedback from both sides allows the people in the company and their partners to be efficient in their work.
Nike has a culture of associating its products with the sports it focuses on for its products to make sales. The company advertises the sportswear with champions like Michael Jordan, Ronaldo and the Likes of Mohammed Ali. The company works to satisfy the need of each athlete in the world through quality and innovation in the line of its products. The company also remembers the legacy of its founders through the creation of flexible products that have a relation to boosting their profits on an annual basis. The company has held different marketing strategies in the market for a long period.
The advertisements revolve around the sports that relate to its products. The company has done the Throwdown TV commercial that focuses on the self-expression of the athlete and their performance. The advertisement looks at the challenging phenomenon that Nike wants to create its brand and products. Nike form of advertisement and marketing focuses on competitiveness and achievement too (Tom, 2013). The various advertisements made by the company involve dangerous stunts that have an impressive outcome to the customers in the market. The products also have a culture of independence to anyone who wants to associate his/her status with the products.Digital marketing: social media platform (Facebook, Twitter)
Treem and Leonardi (2012) state that social media are of important consequence to organizational communication processes because they afford behaviors that were difficult or impossible to achieve in combination prior to the introduction of this technology. In their study, they have uncovered that social media has given organizations visibility, persistence, and association (Treem & Leonardi, 2012). Facebook, Twitter, and Interest can, no doubt, contribute to the bottom line of a company. The only challenge is how to link business objectives, social media strategies, and the bottom line (Solis, 2012).
The company has a long term of coming up with marketing strategies that would propel it to become the leading sportswear and apparel firm. The marketing strategies would influence the operations of the company towards reaching the target market. The company started its initiatives in 1999 through its website known as Nike.com. Through the launch of NikeiD in 2005, the company gave its clients a chance to design their shoes online according to their preferences. Through the platform, the company has enabled the clients to obtain their designed shoes.
Another major move of Nike was to use technology in a big way. Technology is behind all the innovations that Nike has accomplished with its products. However, they have not kept technology used only for innovating on their products. They have also used technology in order to keep the communication lines with their customers open. With the internet, gadget manufacturers, and software programmers going full throttle, the flow of communication has become so fast as well. Where feedback from clients used to take longer, now it takes place at almost instantaneous. No more need for the humans to carry stacks of paper from results of surveys in order to gain insight on what the customers said.
Now, Nike makes use of mobile apps to communicate and get feedback from its customers (Sanusi, Lazarev, Jorgense, Latsanych, & Badtiev, 2014). This technology has not just allowed almost instantaneous feedback to and from Nike and its customers, it has also allowed Nike to cut down on advertising expenses.
The faster flow of communications is also handled by Nike more seriously. Nike makes use of social media to communicate and execute promotions for events and new products (Sanusi, Lazarev, Jorgense, Latsanych, & Badtiev, 2014). Smith (2014) asserts that Nike has won the World Cup in social media, because the company does not just use social media, but has won the social media. By this, Smith (2014) meant to say that Nike has shifted its attention and resources from traditional media to social media. Nike has taken the time to connect directly to its target market and is now able to listen more, and engage more with its target market directly.
The company managed to expand its marketing portfolio through social media in 2006 through the launch of Facebook pages, Nike+, and Twitter among other sites. The Nike+ enables the customers to share information concerning their running records and health statistics with other users (Hague, 2006). The Nike Digital Sport develops equipment and technologies that monitor their tracks and performance so as to obtain the customer data. The company has developed separate functional Facebook pages according to the product categories they have developed over time. The pages include information concerning the products for the American Market and other markets in the world. The Facebook pages have updates on a daily basis through videos and image. The corporate page receives its updates on a weekly basis. The social media page receives many comments from individuals like Ronaldo and Iniesta concerning their products. The Twitter page belonging to Nike has more than eight hundred thousand followers. The followers respond to marketing messages with more than one thousand tweets on a single day.
Nike’s Facebook page covers all their sub brands, and is then filtered down by country (Walker, 2014). This filtering is done in order to segregate the different markets of Nike according to their geographical location. By doing this, Nike is able to promote the games of their endorsers in specific areas. There are regular posts by each category, with products, latest models, celebrity-inspired campaigns, etc. With the pages allowing comments to be written by those who like the page, Nike is able to hear the comments of their market and audience directly. What is good about this is that Nike is also able to respond back to questions, as Facebook is designed to provide this interaction.
Conclusion: Lessons learnt and recommendations Nike has a full-time team that works on its products. Therefore, communication in the company has great importance. It also enables the company to come up with analysis of its various products in the market and the brand’s operation. The company has a good communication system with various employees in its operations. It works with an approach of the division of labor among its employees. The operations of the company work in regions and countries. The regions have a coordinator/manager that ensures the success of the brand. The managers work as separate entity with their independence relative to the nature of their market. The company also has provided a platform for individuals to come up with their franchise. The franchise operates in stores and subsidiary companies for Nike. Therefore, the communication found in Nike has an effective and a centralized system of operation. The company should look at the changing market. They should develop products that would develop a relationship with the customers. The customers should feel that they fit into the goal of the company through the purchase of the products. The company should also develop a standardized method through which they would deal with their customers and employees. Nike has a huge platform through which they would make profits in terms of their sales.
As a company, they should look into creating quality clothes that fit the market in Africa and Asia. The company should come up with cheap and quality products for people from the lower class. Most of the products from Nike have an expensive cost, and they only focus on the people from the upper class. The products have high quality that serves the needs of the rich only. Therefore, the company has a unique market segment and customer portfolio from the people who occupy the upper class. Nevertheless, other companies like Puma and Fubu have campaigns that focus on boosting their sales in the market they hold in the world. Nike should also launch physical campaigns rather than the traditional physical campaigns. They should make the customers feel that they own the Nike products at all costs. Whenever the customers need the products, Nike should have an automatic and a faster delivery system that responds to their needs. Physical campaigns show that the company cares for the clients since they move into their neighborhoods and establish a friendly gesture that would raise their interests.
Nike has an excellent collection of quality products that would not prevent anyone from purchasing them. The company should understand that people would have motivation to buy the products if they see them in their neighborhood. The campaigns should have the nature of the outdoor activities. The market has changed with time and people have the high concentration of the fashion industry. Nike should check the changing nature of the market and the trending fashion in different parts of the world. The platform would give them a good strategy to engage their innovation into the fashion industry. The company should not only produce sportswear but also deal with fashion equipment. The fashion industry makes the huge amount of money through sales and shows. Nike would make high profits when they enter the market and give fashion lovers the best clothes and shoes to serve their needs. Nevertheless, Nike should launch a corporate social responsibility platform through which to help different unprivileged communities improve their status of living. The company should build schools, hospitals, bridges, institutions in order to support poor communities. Corporate social responsibility makes people have a positive perception of the nature of their work and work. Through CSR, companies develop a connection with the societies to improve their business.
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