Transforming line managers into ethical communicators

April 3rd, 2019

It’s a dreary Tuesday morning in February when an email pings into every employees’ inbox. The sender is the CEO and a jolt of anticipation runs through the otherwise subdued office. There’s silence while everyone reads about the uncertain economical climate, plummeting profits and the need for structural changes. As she signs off, the CEO mentions that more information will become available over the next few weeks via line managers.

One by one, heads turn towards said line managers, eyebrows raised, expressions quizzical. In return line managers feel a hard knot of dread forming in their stomachs.

Then come the questions: Is my job at risk? What will my redundancy package be? Why didn’t you tell us? How long have you known? Why won’t you tell us anything?

I’m painting quite the picture. But for line managers it can be a very real scenario, one that raises ethical questions about the best way to communicate with their teams, and often they have very little in the way of the answers.

We know line managers are critical to internal communication. Yet the recent Gatehouse State of the Sector report found there is still a long way to go in helping this group of people become effective communicators.

But when we talk about equipping line managers with the skills and resources they need to communicate effectively, we rarely go as far as discussing ethics. However, line managers have as much of a responsibility to communicate in an ethical way as we do.

Read the full blog on Alive with Ideas’ website to find out some common ethical communication scenarios that line managers might find themselves in and how we can help them. 

 

Categories: ethicsInternal communicationLine manager

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“Helen’s passion for her profession shines through very clearly and she manages to combine her deep knowledge of internal communications with a mix of pragmatism and fresh thinking. She is a delight to work with and has a high level of integrity.”

Richard Fitzmaurice, TMF Group