COMMUNICATIONS ENHANCEMENT - A PROCESS DIVIDEND FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND THE HRM DEPARTMENT

This article reports on a study of 133 Irish organizations implementin g Quality Initiatives (QIs), focusing particularly art the impact of t hese initiatives on internal communications processes and the role pla yed by the human resource (HR) function in these changes. Results indi cate the overall success of the QIs in enhancing internal communicatio ns processes, but highlight two issues: the absence of HR function inv olvement in the deliverance of these communications enhancements and t he perception by most respondents that, while the stated tangible QI o bjectives have been achieved, there is still some distance to be trave lled to fulfill employee expectations on the mol-e intangible communic ations-based needs. The implications of these findings are discussed i n terms of the changing face of the HR function and the long-term succ ess of QIs.