Information Technology Assignment: Email Instant MessagingPolicy and Justification

Question

Task: This is a multi-part assessment with two components. Students must complete both and may submit them in EASTS.

Policy Email & Justification
Imagine you have a leadership role in an organisation and your team members are not using instant messaging effectively or appropriately. You are to write a 400-word email to all members of an organisation, department or team. This email should inform its recipients of the proper use of instant messaging for any professional communications related to their work activities. Your audience should be able to not only adopt your policy, but also understand some of the reasoning for its existence. Your email needs to achieve the following goals;

1. Educate the recipients on any important do/don’t behaviour when using instant messaging for professional communications.
2. Mitigate backlash or uncertainty and maximise willing compliance with the policy.
This policy should be within the context of the organisation and environment in which it should apply. Students should ALSO write a 600-word academic explanation and justification of their email. This is an essay/report written to the markers explaining your reasons for how you have crafted your email in two specific categories;
1. How and why you have chosen the specific IM policy and to clearly show why this is appropriate for the context of the team and the organisation, demonstrating a practical understanding of professional use of IM.
2. How and why you have crafted the message of the email to do its job, showing your use and understanding of effective professional email writing techniques.
This justification will therefore need to include some explanatory context of the organisation or team for which it is intended to help the marker understand the context you have chosen. It may also refer to course content when explaining the techniques you have applied. Formatting for this justification is relaxed due to the short word count – you may use bullet format if you wish.

Answer

Policy Email
Subject: New Work Policy- Instant messaging
To the members of the organization,
Date: ________
The administration has established a new way of communication, i.e., ‘Instant Messaging’. The instant messaging application will enable strong access, instant communication with peers, easy and fast, boost morale and employee engagement as well as assist to stay connected with the entire organization in real-time. While using instant messaging, think it as a medium to communicate with business partners and peers as it can increase the sense of collaboration. However, do not use it to communicate sensitive or confidential information. IM is better for communicating meeting times or project status. On the other hand, eliminate social contacts such as family and friends and prepare contact lists for the business. Personal messaging using IM is strictly prohibited. Also, be aware that the messages can be saved by the parties during the conversation. Hence, use your words wisely and follow strict business ethics. These steps can assist you to yield the benefits associated with Instant Messaging.

During uncertainties or backlash, staff must report to a higher authority by complying with the policy effectively. The willingness of each member is expected to the policy. The use of lengthy emails and other professional applications must be limited and the potential of instant messaging has to be comprehended. The compliance options for Instant Messaging has to be followed strictly by the members. The compliance messaging policy indicates a complete ban on any kind of unmonitored message. In addition, messaging applications including WeChat, Facebook. WhatsApp or Instagram will be banned inthe workplace. Moreover, our clients are also using this policy for communication; hence, the instant messaging application has to be considered strictly by every member of the organization.This, in turn, can increase awareness of security problems of other messaging applications as well as enhance greater professionalism among the members resulting in collaboration and teamwork.

Complete ban of other messaging application is certainly difficult but with your support, this policy can lead us to success and growth. As the environment of our organization is comfortable and friendly, implementation of the Instant Messaging policy can enhance workplace motivation and productivity for each member. As a vital policy of our rules and regulations, it is expected that every member complies with it. The purpose behind the policy is to enhance the professional attitude of employees as well as improve the competency of our organization.

Thanking You.
Regards ______________

Justification
The specific Instant Messaging policy have been selected to ensure that the level of communication among the staffs are transparent and clear. In addition, through such policy, the ease to communicate with team members at different location is significant. As stated by Hamburg (2019), instant messaging application is similar to the social media apps experience that significantly reduces the need of training. Based on such context, it can be stated that the time and effort required for training is minimal with this policy that can contribute towards higher adoption rate. The speed of communication and instant feedback is enhanced through this policy which can assist to enhance productivity of team members. Hence, the viability and adoption success rate are higher with Instant Messaging policy within the organization.

For practical understanding, suppose, a new project has been provided to a team of 10 people. It indicates that the rate of communication has to be higher in order to deliver quality output as well as complete the task within the deadline. In this case, the use of email and other social media applications is critically lengthy and time consuming that increases stress, frustration, and fear among the members. As put forwarded byRajendran et al. (2019), Instant Messaging not only increases productivity and assists people to communicate at ease but also decreases confusion and improves collaboration among team members. Hence, it can be said that the adoption of this policy in our organization is highly significant as it delivers all the needed output for the smooth functioning of business, reduces the decision time and better communication platform. In addition, as the professional and personal contacts will be separated, the sense of workplace decorum and establishment will be higher among the team members.

In order to craft the message of the email, I have developed in-depth understanding about email writing techniques by going through several online websites, articles and relevant books. In addition, Quintanilla & Wahl (2018) highlighted that email is a significant medium for professionals that delivers immediate action required for any task. Hence, the use of email will be significant to do its job that is to communicate the need of Instant Messaging policy in our organization. At first, I narrowed the benefits of IM policy and highlighted the need of the policy in the organization. Secondly, the email will be forwarded to each member of the organization for its successful implementation. Thirdly, the do’s and don’ts of the policy have been also highlighted in the email for clarity and transparency. This is how, I have crafted the message of this email to do its job.

The reason behind crafting the email in such a way is to make the staffs feel comfortable and easy to understand about the positive influence of IM policy in our organization. As stated by Ulmer (2018), the most essential element of email is brevity and clarity which is significant in the professional area. Based on such context, the use of the email technique to convey about the policy has been significant that can assist to increaseawareness and seriousness about its implementation. Other than that, professional email technique has assisted me to write effective messages that developed proper communication with clear directions. Email is a formal communication method that requires a high standard of conciseness and language of the message, Sahniet al. (2018). Based on such context, I have used appropriate language and the needed conciseness for the message in order to maintain professionalism as well as to communicate the message precisely.

References
Hamburg, I. (2019). Implementation of a digital workplace strategy to drive behavior change and improve competencies. In Strategy and Behaviors in the Digital Economy. IntechOpen.
Quintanilla, K. M., & Wahl, S. T. (2018). Business and professional communication: keys for workplace excellence. Sage Publications.
Ulmer, J. B. (2018). Composing techniques: Choreographing a postqualitative writing practice. Qualitative Inquiry, 24(9), 728-736.
Sahni, N. S., Wheeler, S. C., &Chintagunta, P. (2018). Personalization in email marketing: The role of noninformative advertising content. Marketing Science, 37(2), 236-258.
Rajendran, J. A., Baharin, H., & Kamal, F. M. (2019, November). Understanding Instant Messaging in the Workplace. In International Visual Informatics Conference (pp. 640-652). Springer, Cham.