Communicating the vision

Communication and Vision Institute This paper entails some applications of narratives in organizational development. It briefly aims to look at the power of using narratives in communication compared to other forms Organizations without efficient communication cannot be in a position to get change because the managers and the employees will not be in consensus for a certain action. For example, employees need to be told at times the appropriateness and desirability of their work so that they can do it to their maximum potential experience.
This paper also entails how putting efforts to achieve a certain vision is important. For a university to achieve its vision and strategies, every person in the university should be participative in a way. This paper helps to show the effectiveness of achieving the vision.

1. Use of Narratives in Communicating Change in an Organization
Communication plays a major role in different organizations, in that it is essential for any developmental change to occur. Organizational communication helps to improve employees’ interpretation of organizational activity, which improves their support and commitment to the activity and hence legitimacy for the organizational activity increases. Organizations either engaged in merger and acquisition or not can use narratives as a tool to gain legitimacy from their employees. This is because narrative form of communication is thought to be more influential than other forms of communication.
Use of narratives gives the ability to order and organize a collection of events in sequence. Since there is direct communication in the organization, both the leaders and the employees will be able to shape, organize and structure events so that they support each other, in a way that clarifies how each event contributes individually and as part of the whole organization. Narratives also help to clear the uncertainty of merges in organizations.
Many successful organizations use narratives as their way of communication, which is why they experience tremendous change. For instance, managers sharing stories about some of their secrets to success with their employees can help create a friendly environment within the organization and the employees will not feel under pressure to work in that organization. Sharing experiences through narratives is a powerful way to consolidate and exchange knowledge. Narratives help in kick starting new ideas, socializing new members, mending relationships, sharing wisdom and building or renewing trust among the people working in a certain organization. Some examples of narratives include storytelling, modeling, simulations, organizational song or prayer, speech.
2. Inculcating Actions to Achieve a Vision
The vision of making UMD a research university with the design Carnegie Doctoral Research University needs more effort from the different people involved. The vision should be achieved despite the many challenges they are facing like; lack of finances to run the university, high budget cut off from the state and also being in the midst of merger and acquisition meltdown. The academic core of the university should be protected always to make sure that the vision is achieved. It seems that the university has high expectations. However, it appears that these fine ideas are rarely being met with committed activity. For any enterprise to be successful, it should be prepared to act, beginning with sponsorship and commitment of leaders that will set course on a genuine perspective of an academic model.
The fact that the old staff is being laid off while new administration is hired affects the achievement of the vision. This is because the new team does not understand the vision as their predecessors, and it can take some time before they understand the vision, hence lagging behind its performance.
To reconcile all these problems, cooperation among the key players to achieving the vision should be encouraged; this can be achieved by using narratives as a way of communication, so that every person can feel appreciated. The state should also be involved in order to provide financial support to the university. Students should be encouraged to study hard so that they can empower the university academically. A committee should be created whose work will be to follow up until the vision is achieved.
References
Mitrof, . I. , Kilmann, . R. ,(1975) ‘ Stories managers tell: A New Toll for Organizational Problem Solving’, London: Management Review Publishers.