1

Organizational Behavior

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Number and Name

Instructor’s Name

Due Date
 2

Organizational Behavior

A crucial and interestingly extensive topic in communication is organizational

communication. The definition of organizational communication is one aspect of its extensive

nature. For example, according to Torp (2015), organizational communication is defined as a

summarization of all an organization performs and speaks and all the individuals influenced by

the organization’s activities. However, Mumby (2012) offers a different point of view by

defining organizational communication as a process of coordinated and integrated systems of

meaning negotiated and developed through symbolic processes that emphasize achieving the

organization’s objectives. Specifically, when an organization is dealing with a crisis, its

continued success, as well as the rehabilitation of damaged public image, is highly dependent

on the effectiveness of its communication. Consequently, strategic communications is an

important aspect of managing crisis as it offers direction to the various stakeholders;

furthermore, good communication provides stability in the organization by establishing trust

and confidence in all stakeholders.

Consequently, organizational communication is important as it emphasizes external and

internal relationships that help encourage the exchange of information and messages to achieve

the organization’s goals and informs the management on the strength of communication in the

organization. There are various purposes that organizations undertake communication, through

various methods and channels and target various audiences such employees, customers,

business partners, and investors. As such, the contexts of organizational communication are

dynamic as organizations employ various communication channels to meet specific needs; thus,

there are sub-genres of communication. For instance, during a crisis, external communication

should follow the same communication channel that relayed the crisis; for example, in
 3

Domino’s Pizza; the crisis was discovered through social media, specifically through a

YouTube video. Accordingly, the crisis management plan was also implemented through a

targeted YouTube video with further explanations of the courses of action being taken relayed

through Twitter.

Subsequently, organizations often utilize other items to communicate that may not be

apparent to the ordinary person. For instance, as stated by Seitan (2017), employees are critical

to an organization and its reputation. Furthermore, they play an important role in managing the

organization's reputation, brand recognition, and company image. As a result, organizations

have shifted from the commercial promotion of products and services to promoting the

workforce as the organization’s most instrumental tactical edge. However, in Domino’s Pizza’s

case, the negative communication by their employees was the cause of their crisis. Whether the

employees’ actions were intentional or not, their actions communicated to Domino’s Pizza’s

consumers that there was a high possibility that customers were purchasing adulterated products

from the organization and a possibility that the business was not upholding the highest

standards of hygiene. As a result, the employees’ prank video severely damaged the brand name

and the public image of Domino’s Pizza.

Furthermore, strategic communication, defined as the use of communication by an

organization to accomplish its goals, is the process of communication that is in line with the

company’s strategic plan and focuses on the role of communication in assisting the achievement

of the organization’s objectives. Thus to achieve purposeful organizational communication,

strategic communication is critical in orienting organizational communication to understand

better the various methods to utilize to interact with their various audiences and promote and
 4

present themselves as responsible organizations. In the case of Domino’s Pizza, at the time of

the crisis, the organizations did not have a Twitter account.

As such, the first step in the organization's crisis management plan was the setting up of

an official Twitter account that enabled the organization to manage the anxieties of its

customers better. Additionally, the organization released a response YouTube video that

appeared following the prank video’s search terms. This strategy ensured that any customer

who searched for the prank video on YouTube would also get the company’s response video in

the search results. Consequently, this type of strategic communication made it possible for the

response video to spread as fast as the original video ensuring that their customers would know

that the organization is was aware of and was working on resolving the issue.

Evaluating the crisis response strategy by Domino’s Pizza, a few lessons are apparent

about communication strategies during a crisis. Noticeably, the organization made some

mistakes in the initial stages of managing the crisis. The organization’s response video was first

uploaded on the company website, where it was not viewed by as many people as were viewing

the prank video. Furthermore, although the organization immediately began to correct the

mistakes of their employees, the crisis management team made the mistake of initially taking

such action behind closed doors. As such, their customers did not know immediately whether

the organization was working on the problem, which only exacerbated their customers’ fears.

Consequently, the perceived silence inevitably led to more attacks and outcries that accused the

company of ignoring the situation. Thus, had the organization immediately made an official

public statement informing their customers that they were aware of the situation and were

developing appropriate strategies, it would have counteracted the unnecessary and additional

damage caused by their silence.

 5

However, Domino’s case also provides some positive lessons. For instance, an

organization must establish a loyal customer base before a crisis hits. Though the organization

did not have a social media presence before the release of the prank video, they were quickly

notified by their loyal customers of the situation. Thus, were it not for their loyal customers, the

company would have been notified about the crisis when it was already too late. Additionally,

the company had developed a social media strategy that had yet to be implemented. Thus the

organization was in a better position to deal with the situation as it only involved implementing

their social media crisis management plan. This fact highlights the need to integrate social

media into crisis communication strategies as early as possible. If Domino’s had to develop a

social media communications strategy from scratch when they first encountered the crisis, the

damage to the company’s reputation would have been worse as the strategy would not have

been developed and implemented properly thus would have been ineffective.

Accordingly, crisis management communication remains a critical aspect of

organizational communication. As such, organizational communication is a crucial tool in the

building, preservation, and survival of the organization as a presentable and distinctive entity;

as well as a critical element in the successful communication outside and in the organization as

through effective communication, the organization can externally and internally spread its

ideologies (Seitan, 2017). In the case of Domino’s Pizza, fast and effective internal

communication enabled the organization to quickly circulate the pictures of the perpetrators,

identify the store in which they worked and determine whether any contaminated food orders

had been delivered to their customers. The fast internal communication also facilitated effective

external communication as the crisis management team was able to quickly contact the relevant

authorities, that is, the independent store owner, the police, and the health department. Also, it
 6

enabled the organization to back up their claims to the stakeholders of taking immediate action

as they constantly updated their customers on the progress of the situation.

In conclusion, an organization's primary motivation is the achievement of critical and

strategically set objectives. Subsequently, as is seen In Domino’s Pizza case, public

communication is actively fluid and is mainly directed by ever-evolving digital technologies.

Ultimately, organizations require to adequately understand the impressions about and

experiences of the company of their consumers; thus, the company has to use various

communication strategies in influencing the behavior of the public (Hallahan et al., 2007). As a

result, strategic communication is an important instrument in comprehending organizational

communication. It provides vital information to the organization on the most appropriate and

effective strategies for improving customer experiences and perceptions and company image.

Furthermore, another critical conclusion from Domino’s case is that the only method to

lessen and combat the effects of a social media-generated crisis is to integrate social media into

crisis management communication strategies as well as establishing methods of monitoring

dialogue concerning your organization on social media. As such, brands that are effective at

crisis management are those that effectively leverage the same channels as the crisis and their

consumers to openly communicate the organization’s efforts of managing the crisis.

 7

References

Hallahan, K., Holtzhausen, D., Van Ruler, B., Verčič, D., & Sriramesh, K. (2007). Defining

strategic communication. International journal of strategic communication, 1(1), 3-35.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241730557_Defining_Strategic_Communicati

on

Mumby, D. (2012). Organizational communication: A critical approach. Sage Publications.

Seitan, R. (2017). Organizational discourses: A literature review. Acta Universitatis Danubius.

Communicatio, 11(2), 119-134. https://core.ac.uk/reader/229464040

Torp, S.M. (2015). The strategic turn in communication science: On the history and role of

strategy in communication science from ancient Greece until the present day. The

Routledge handbook of strategic communication. Routledge.