Case 1:

1. In order to build the new communication environment at Ericsson, we can primarily concentrate
on the following 4 goals:
 Share the purpose and core values with the whole organization.
 Improve manager’s interpersonal communication skills.  this would help managers in
communicating better messages in better ways.
 Contain non-important exchange of information shared through grapevine
communication.  Instead of focusing on rumors, gossip and other non-beneficial
messages, the employees’ communication must be become goal oriented.
 Reduce noise.  it is important to reduce noise in organizational communication since it
interferes with the understanding and/or the transmission of the message in the
communication process.

2. How each goal will contribute to towards establishing the new environment:
 “Share the purpose and core values with the whole organization”: this first goal would
aid in improving the communication environment tremendously, since it helps
managers and employees remember and understand the main purpose of the
organization, why it exists, and what their communications should be based on.
 “Improve manager’s interpersonal communication skills”: in order to communicate
better, it is important to work on managers’ skills, especially that they are the ones in
direct contact with the employees.
 “Contain non-important exchange of information shared through grapevine
communication”: when unnecessary flow of information is contained, the wasted time
on messages concerning anything other than formal organizational messages would be
decreased, and the productivity of employees would increase.
 “Reduce noise”: noise will come in the way of transmitting or understanding the
messages that managers need to send by the employees. Identifying and reducing noise
in the organizational communication process would decrease the efficiency of the
communication.

3. First step in each goal:

 “Share the purpose and core values with the whole organization”: this would be done
through effective downward communication (which refers to the flow of information
through the structured chain of command from top managers to the lower level
managers and employees). It Includes organizational discipline, certain efficiencies,
explanation of goals and ease of delegation.
 “Improve manager’s interpersonal communication skills”: the first step in achieving
this goal would be organizing seminars and trainings to improve the managers
skills in order for them to know how better to communicate with people from all
managerial levels.
  “Contain non-important exchange of information shared through grapevine
communication”: the first step is to teach employees the disadvantages of gossip,
small talks and rumors. And their negative effect on productivity and the ability to
attain the organizational goals.
 “Reduce noise”: the first step to reduce noise in the organization would be
evidently to search for and identify sources of noise that affects the effective
communication processes among the firm.

4. In order to effectively implement these goals and attain the new communication environment at
Ericsson, it would take about a year in my opinion. As a matter of fact, in order to improve the
managers’ interpersonal communication skills, it would take about 6 to 8 months of monthly
trainings and seminars for them to embed these skillsets into their everyday management style.
Moreover, it would take about 8 to 12 months in order for all managers and employees to
understand the disadvantages of uncontrolled grapevine communications and contain them as
much as possible. Identifying and reducing noise would take about 6 months, but managers
should always be updated on the sources of noise interfering in the organizational
communication processes in order to stay aware of any new kinds of noise. Finally, the shared
purpose and core values of the organization should be an ongoing process that will continue
even after having established the new communication environment at Ericsson: employees
need to always be reminded of them in order to work effectively based on them.