Post on 25-Jan-2023
MBA IN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATION
MCP 304 practical application in Public
relations
Name Student ID#Mohamad Tarek AlBitar110035067
Oyuntugs Luvsansambuu 110036795
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Practical Application in PR Page 1
Title : Corporate communication application on the North Port (klang)
Due Date : wed 15 Jan 2014
Contents............................................................1MBA IN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATION.................1
1.Introduction:….............................................41.1.Objective and scope of the study:…….....................4
1.2.Executive Summary of the Study……........................52.The Body of the study:…....................................6
2.1.The company profile:…...................................62.2.LITRATURE REVIEW:…......................................8
2.3.Applying Corporate Communication on the (Klang) Northport:….. 11
2.3.1.The Role of the Strategic Advisor/ Copywriter Executive:…… 11
2.3.2.The Required skills of the position of (SCA):……....112.3.3.The Specific Areas which Strategic Advisor Advices the CEO Around:…… 12
2.3.4.The Technology affecting the profession:.............17
References:.................................................18
Practical Application in PR Page 3
1.Introduction:
1.1. Objective and scope of the study:
The objective of this study is to show what is corporate
communication and how corporate communication is been
done on real business environment, thus it will high
light some theories about the corporate communication,
however more concentration will be held in the practical
part that will be explored from the record of the
interview with an on the field person who is the
communication strategic advisor of the Klang North Port.
Additionally this study aims to have critical analysis of
the theoretical issue and how the theory is being
implemented in the previously mentioned organization, and
therefore will have a live model to deal with and apply
all the (class), theories on the real ground.
The scope of this study is deep because it does not only
explore the theories of communication, but also it go
through all the parts and pieces of the real world
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communication career to have a further understanding
about the following:
How the real corporate communication is been done?
Who are the responsible people about the
communication?
What are their actual roles, and;
How they implement these roles specifically to get
their objectives done, within the broad objectives
of the organization which could be summarized in the
VMG, (vision, Mission, and Goals).
1.2. Executive Summary of the Study:
This study is prepared by an MBA Public Relations and
communication, students of Limkokwing University of
Creative Technology (LUCT) for the purpose of summarizing
and reporting the corporate communication.
The report inside this research will show both literature
reviews for the theoretical part, as well as will high
light the most important issues discussed in the
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interview with MR Ravindran Raman Kutty, the
communication strategic advisor for the CEO of Klang
Northport in the date of Friday the 10th of January 2014.
Therefore the research will include highlighting the
theoretical part of communication that the students took
in the class, and then try to apply theory into practice
within the details that have been given and recorded
within the interview.
The first upcoming chapter of this study will be the
corporate profile in a summary, to understand what the
studied business is, in order to know what the needed
communication requirements are.
The second chapter will be the theoretical aspects of the
corporate communication, and what are the fads and
theories of the corporate communication with highlighting
the significant role that the corporate communication
plays in generating the publicity of the organization and
how it shapes its public image.
The third chapter of the study will be the summarizing of
the interview with giving the required details, in
addition this report will show why the corporate levels
have to communicate, when they have to communicate, how
they should communicate, and the most important to whom
they should direct their communication toward.
The third chapter as well will give a background of how
the corporate using the new technologies such as social
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media web sites to facilitate and organize the
communication issues.
Finally the conclusion will include some academic
recommendation that the team of students who wrote this
study are suggesting to have a possible more flexible,
effective, and efficient communication process, and
methods through the daily working routine.
2.The Body of the study:
2.1. The company profile:
According to Bursa Malaysia, Northport is owned and
operated by Northport (Malaysia) Bhd and comprises
dedicated multipurpose port facilities and services.
The Northport entity was a merger of two companies;
Kelang Container Terminal (KCT) and Kelang Port
Management (KPM). Its operations also cover South Port,
which was renamed South point for conventional cargo
handling, and acquired Northport Distripark Sdn Bhd
(NDSB) as part of its logistics division.
According to North port official website the company's;
Vision is "to become the main gateway and leading
regional hub for maritime trade by 2020".
Mission: is "to achieve highest standards of safety
and quality in cargo handling by providing state-of-
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the-art infrastructure and systems for total
customer satisfaction".
While their core values according to them are the:
"Customer Focus, Teamwork, Expertise,
Resourcefulness, Result Oriented, Communication, and
Integrity".
The CEO's MR. Abi Sofian Abdul Hamid massage is another
announcement that this report should highlight to know
how corporate communication is going within the North
Port:
"It has been a year since I was entrusted to helm and lead TEAMNORTHPORT.
It has indeed been a challenging twelve months in spite of me having spent
the previous 19 years in the port environment. With all the support from
many people including the Board of Directors of both NMB and NCB Holdings
Bhd, the customers and other stakeholders and more importantly members
of TEAMNORTHPORT, the last twelve months was just like yesterday. During
this period we have moved along some parts of the roads less travelled, if not
totally unchartered territories. There have been long hours spent to
understand the Vision, Mission and our own functions and roles.
There have been pain with sweat to understand our own worth and values to
the organization as well as to ourselves by coming up with our own sets of
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as we move to the next level of excellence in
the high performance work environment. In all these, lie the biggest key to
our success that is being given the best opportunity to contribute towards our
own destiny.
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We now understand how critical it is to live to the highest standard of service
delivery in giving Total Customer Satisfaction to our customers and business
partners. An unhappy customer is the beginning of the end for our future. We
have no option, really. In the face of choppy waters it is either we manage our
sails or allow ourselves to drift away. When we profess that Change Begins
With me, we are in fact telling ourselves to think and act differently in a better
way. It is either we pull our socks and soldier on to change or be ignorant of
the changing surrounding and be changed instead. Any soldier worth his or
her sweat will never accept falling by the way side. In this regard, we all
should wear our logo with honor and valor. In short the time has now come
for us to execute our agreed strategies and action plans. We need to grow our
business to get more revenues. We need to be more productive, efficient and
urgent to optimize our resources and reduce costs. We need to take genuine
ownership of all our work processes to reduce wastages, leakages and more
importantly to ensure we work safely. We need to enhance our governance as
corporate citizens to build a more disciplined and respectable
TEAMNORTHPORT. We ought to give due respect to our fellow members of
TEAMNORTHPORT to remove cross functional barriers. In short we need to
rejuvenate ourselves with our core values of being resourceful, practicing our
expertise, focusing on our customers, working together as a team all the time
and effectively communicating with each other with full integrity to get the
desired results. A good member of TEAMNORTHPORT is also a good citizen of
our beloved nation, Malaysia. Insya Allah with these qualities we may yet
again sail through even a perfect storm.
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Let us come together to realize our Vision and Mission. For the trust and
support in the last twelve months and in the coming months I would like to
convey my utmost appreciation and heartfelt thanks to each and every one
member of TEAMNORTHPORT and all stakeholders. To our customers and
business partners, I would like to thank for the continued support and
readiness to be on board our challenging journey. Rest assured we will create
and have our due excitement for a better tomorrow in not too distant future".
2.2. LITRATURE REVIEW:
Organizations use corporate communication to carry
identity, perform branding and to save and develop
reputation. Therefore strategic corporate communication
is used to minimize the stakeholder uncertainty as much
as possible, and to develop the relationships with the
stakeholders at all levels. Throughout the expansion of
healthy relationships where there is a mutual ground
and, confidence, mutuality and partnership, participant
organizations are better placed to achieve their aims,
whether they are normative (such as social contracts,
environmental duties, public acceptance) or
contributory (such as income, sales, return on
investment (ROI), and high efficient and effective
performance).
Where there are middle-of-the-road or negative
relationships, or a gap between personality and image,
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corporate communication has to put more efforts in
order to thin the break. For example, organizations
(X), used corporate communication to help change the
way employees involve with the organization following a
period important strategic ambiguity.
Exploring the opportunity of any topic can often be
started by investigating the definitions provided by
scholars who have studied the topic as a
specialization.
Several definitions exist and highlighted here, across
the period 1987 to 2007. Even though there are
numerous texts in which corporate communication makes a
considerable contribution, the focus is often on
reputation and brand building activities.
In these situations corporate communication is not
distinct. The following definitions have been
recognized in corporate communication texts. These are
not the whole books and definitions on this subject but
they are the most considered to be representative of
many of the important authors and academics in this
area.
“Corporate communication is the total communication activity generated
by a company to achieve its planned objectives” (Jackson, 1987).
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“the aggregate of sources, messages and media by which the corporation
conveys its uniqueness or brand to its various audiences” Gray (1995:
254)
Corporate communication is an instrument of management by means of
which all consciously used forms of internal and external communication
are harmonized as effectively and efficiently as possible, so as to create a
favourable basis for relationships with groups upon which the company is
dependent (Riel van, 1995: 26).
“Corporate communication is the set of activities involved in managing
and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at
creating favourable starting points with stakeholders on which the
company depends. Corporate communication consists of the
dissemination of information by a variety of specialists and generalists in
an organization, with the common goal of enhancing the organization’s
ability to retain its license to operate” (Riel van and Fombrun,
2007: 25).
In the two books in which van Riel proposals his
definitions, pressure is given to the significance of
using the particular method of communication, a
position introduced by Jackson (1987). This, it is
argued, emphasizes the integrative role of
communication rather than suggest a propagation of
approaches (p25). This stance echoed by Cornelissen
(2008).
“Corporate communication is a management function that offers a
framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external
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communication with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining
favorable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the
organization is dependent” (Cornelissen, 2008:5).
Cornelissen admits the complication related with
corporate communication and he also stresses the
significance of longsighted corporate communication as
an integrative role.
Corporate communication is not the same as public
relations and other particular communication
activities, such as branding, media relations and
internal communications. Cornelissen regards corporate
communication as a means of overpass over these
professional activities in order to “harness the
strategic interests of the organisation at large”
(2008: 6).
This view is not common with Lowensberg (2006: 253). He
reflects the term corporate communications means the
same as organizational public relations, and prefers
the latter as the word corporate can be
misrepresentative and suggests an applicability to
profit only ‘corporations’.
Apart from an increasing word amount as definitions
emerge, an examination reveals a gradual change in
orientation. From what is essentially an inward
perspective proposed by Jackson in 1987, Cornelissen’s
view twenty years later, stresses the significance of
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the reputation with which the organization is observed
by stakeholders.
The organization itself is observed to be the self-
serving focus for Jackson’s perspective of corporate
communication. For Cornelissen, the organization
conducts corporate communication in order to build
reputation and keep it safe, while the desire to remain
subservient to the wishes of the vital stakeholders.
2.3. Applying Corporate Communication on the (Klang) Northport:
First of all reader have to understand that all the
provided information is exclusive and not mentioned in
the website of the organization and it is a resulting of
group interview recording for two important staff in the
corporate office whom are; (the Strategic communication
adviser MR. Ravindran Raman Kutty, and the Copywriter
Executive MRS. Nur Sheila Shaari Balakrishna, therefore
the references should be for those two people in addition
to their responsibility of the mentioned information.
2.3.1. The Role of the Strategic Advisor/ Copywriter Executive:
The position tasks is shortly to advise the CEO about
how and in which direction the strategic communication
should lead the company, and try to improve the positions
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of the North Port in the ranking among the international
competitor ports. Therefore one of the job specifications
is to ensure that the wanted message delivered to the
right audience and to wait for the feed-back to ensure
that the communication actions are doing its correct
purposes, additionally to manage all the coming in and
going out flows of communication in a harmonized manner,
in other words to make sure that publics on a different
levels get the right signal and the right massage, and
eliminate all possible and potential misleading
communication that could be generated accidently.
While the copywriter executive job is to take care of all
the publications of the organizations, such as posters,
news, website, press release, reports, and Social Media
publications, in another words she is responsible about
every single written word that comes out from the
organization as a form of communication toward publics.
2.3.2. The Required skills of the position of (SCA):
The advisor stated that any communication Practitioner
have to hold two basic skills;
o The writing skills: and he stated that he have to
write always and about any topic not only business
related to stay in the game and keep himself updated
with all new fads and topics, in order to
communicate well in the future.
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o The speaking skills: which according to the advisor
is critical and could be used in Media relations,
presentation, employee speaks, corporate meetings
and other methods of communication, thus he advised
all the prospective practitioner to train themselves
well on both the writing and speaking skills.
o Other attitudes such as being extrovert, smiling,
social, and be always updated on what is going on,
and read on many topics to know how to deal with
divers mentalities.
2.3.3. The Specific Areas which Strategic Advisor Advices the CEO Around:
A. The Media Relations:
Which means to ensure that all the types of media
(print, TV, Radio, Social Media, and electronic
publishers), are fed with favorable and wanted
messages about the port, (and by the right favorable
message we mean the message that serve and go along
with the VMG Vision, Mission, and Goals, of the
port).
Reader should note that as mentioned in the
interview Media Relation, requires the Role of the
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Copywriter Executive position as well as the
position of the advisor, because it will help to
prepare the content that Media will publish later,
thus the Media relations need as well a Person to
monitor the local, regional, and also the global
media to stay updated with the world news, and knows
what is going on.
Additionally sometimes media monitoring could be
outsourced to a privet specialized agency, to save
costs, and efforts.
After monitoring the media the Advisor will make a
summary including all the news that have interest
with the industry, and gives the summarized report
to the CEO.
B. Crises Communications:
Reader should understand that in such business like
the port there are many possibilities of having
serious crises such as: natural crises, terrorist
attacks through container, smuggling some materials
that could bring national risks and others work
accidents. Then since the Corporate office cannot
control these kinds of events, but still they can
try to control the news generated from such an eventPractical Application in PR Page 17
and contain the crises to save their organizational
reputation.
So in such a scenario you should try to isolate the
event zone and try to not ignore but instead manage
the different media reporters who come to the event
zone, and tell them the story that you want (in
another word manage their assumptions and
understanding).
Answering the question asked by one of the
interviewer is it your responsibility to Face the
Media in a scenario of crises, or your job is ony to
advise the CEO, are you the spoke person of the
organization?
The advisor stated: "we in North Port created the
standard operating procedure (SOP), which clearly
stated that the CEO must be the figure of the brand,
and he should be the spoke person of the company,
however in case of he is not there in the time of
the crisis the strategic advisor role become as a
spoke person",
C. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):
It is according to the Advisor about how the
organization is contributing to the well-being back
into the society that they are operating in.
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Therefore in North Port he stated " we are trying to
make sure that our neighbors are happy", meaning
customers, and every entity that is using logistics,
in another word the people whom every day deal with
the organization.
And how they make them happy by ensuring that the
environment they have to face is well-taken care of,
such as; (roads, trees, water, and the containers
area, and the overall environment to be clean).
D. Stakeholders Management:
By this they mean ensuring to deliver the right
massage, to the right party, in a right manner, and
using the right tool.
The strategic advisor has to communicate almost
every day of the year with these stakeholders, and
this communication is done via (emails, Facebook,
twitter, mobile calls, letters, SMS, blogs,
mediums), and to deliver each the massage that carry
their interest inside, or in a different expression,
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the message that encode a matter of their concern,
each stakeholder by his/her position.
Then one responsibility of the advisor is to ensure
that the message (seen, heard, read, or even felt
right) as it was planned before it sent.
Thus as a communication facilitator the strategic
advisor classified the stakeholders into two
classifications as the following:
o Primary stakeholders: This includes the people
who directly contribute to the profits of the
organization, meaning (local customers,
international customers, employees, board of
directors, the owners of the company, the
contractors, the government of Malaysia, and
the Media).
o While the secondary stakeholder: are the
people and entities which indirectly affect
the profits, and return on investment (ROI),
of the organization. Meaning (societies,
universities, scholars, Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGO's), Community based
organizations (CBO's), suppliers.
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E. Employee Communication and Relations:
The advisor stated that the failure or success of
any particular business is relaying actually on
people, and by saying people he meant the employees
within the company, he stated that employee are key
success factor not only for the north port but also
for any other business or brand.
In this job the department has to make sure that the
employee understands clearly the goals of
organization and his/her behavior as an individual
is affecting the overall performance of the
organization. Additionally employees have to follow
some codes of conduct and behavior, with showing
productivity and this could be done better when
combined with the proper communication the advisor
stated.
The main goal of this job is to motivate employees
to increase their efficiency and effectiveness,
which resulted in improvement in performance not
only individually based but also on the base of the
overall performance of the organization.
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Additionally to motivating employees they also
needed to be inspired and encourage being more
creative and this could create a competitive
advantage for the organization, and this is making
it stands in the global competitiveness.
The advisor stated that due to the large number of
employees the CEO is using the Social Media to
communicate to them, and as scholars we see this
approach as an efficient (Mass Communication), due
to the saving of effort, money and time.
Another important statement made by the advisor that
the nature of the CEO of the north port which is
consciousness and caring for his employees is
positively affecting the general environment of the
workplace and the by the nature result, the overall
performance, and the participative leadership style
that he is following is considered to be
contributing positively to the overall strategic
planning of the organization.
An intercepting with the human resources department,
the advisor stated that in a such hard time for the
Malaysian economy as a part of the global economies
Practical Application in PR Page 22
dominant, North Port gave (3.5-5%) bounce to the
employee, communicating to them that the corporate
level are really concerning for you and thankful for
your efforts.
The advisor stated that his job includes advising
the Human Capital department, and he gave the
information that the organization is doing a
training program for one year period called (change
begins with me), and as an analyzer we have to state
that such a self-improvement activity is important
to communicate with employees the overall message of
that is to say to the employees: "when we grow as an
organization, will lead you to grow together as
employees", and this to reduce the turnover rate.
F. The Branding:
Because North Port is public listed company, they
have to fulfill certain requirements, there for
every brand should have a persona without a persona;
the brand could be useless, or weak. And by persona
we mean personality like each and every well-known
person, and in Northport they are working around
their CEO personality. The advisor answered some of the interviewers
question said:
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We are not that popular, but however we are planning
to make our-self more known; this means they are
trying to increase their publicity, and this by
efficiency the advisor stated, because efficiency is
very critical in creating your publicity as a well-
known port, another issue to increase the publicity
is the productivity. Without forgetting the reputation of the
administration in creating your own publicity,
quality, safety, health, and another components to
create the publicity.
He stated that branding and quality are basically
the same thing, thus you cannot brand useless
product or service.
2.3.4. The Technology affecting the profession:
Answering to one of the interviewer questions how did the
technology in general , or more specifically the social
media affect your roles as a communication advisor and
facilitator?
The advisor answered we are in the times of speed and the
Social media is saving our efforts and time to do
communication;
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o Facebook: we are currently communicating to our
employees Via the North Port page which allow us to
do mass communication (arrangements, bounce
announcements, policies announcements, and others)
to those large number of audience (three shifts
employees), that our CEO's concern the most.
o Twitter: we basically are talking to our customers
and say how successfully we are performing, and how
many moves we made), basically all the good and
pleasant news.
References:
Cornelissen, J. (2008) Corporate communication: theory and
practice, 2e, London: Sage
Gray, E. (1995) Corporate Image as a strategic concept.
In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference of the
Association of Management, Vancouver, 250-7
Jackson, P. (1987) Corporate communication for Managers,
London: Pitman
Practical Application in PR Page 25
Lowensberg, D. (2006) Corporate image, reputation and
identity, in Exploring Public Relations, Tench and Yeomans (Eds)
p250-264, Harlow: Financial Times: Prentice Hall
North Port announcements on Bursa Malaysia could be found
at:
http://announcements.bursamalaysia.com/EDMS/subweb.nsf/al
l/0832938437F998E748256AD50029B047/$File/NCB-Cover-
Content-Definitions-LetterToShareholders.pdf Data
accessed (Jan 2014).
North Port official website could be found at:
http://www.northport.com.my/npv2/mission&vision.html Data
accessed (Jan 2014).
Personal interview Copywriter Executive MRS. Nur Sheila Shaari Balakrishna, 06031698888, sheila@Northport.com.my.
Personal interview with MR Ravindran Raman Kutty, the communication strategic advisor for the CEO, 06031698888,Ravi@Northport.com.my.
Riel van, C. B. M. and Fombrun, C. J. (2007) Essentials of
Corporate communication, London: Routledge
Riel van, C.B.M. (1995) Principles of Corporate
communication, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall
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