Communication Planning under Normal and Crisis Conditions of Provincial Electricity Authority Region 1 (Northeastern Region), Udon Thani Province

Abstract

This research aims to study the communication planning of Provincial Electricity Authority Region 1 (Northeastern Region), Udon Thani Province under normal and crisis conditions, especially during the spread of COVID-19. The research was conducted by using a qualitative methodology and in-depth interviews with the persons who were responsible for the communication field in Provincial Electricity Authority Region 1 (Northeastern Region), Udon Thani Province were divided into 3 groups of senior management, middle-leveled management and operation-leveled employees as well as collecting relevant documents during the crisis conditions between March - May 2020 and studying communication planning of the year 2020 during normal conditions. The results of the study indicated that the organizational communication planning in the normal conditions were started with an analysis of policies or orders of the director of the Provincial Electricity Authority at the monthly executive meetings in order to apply the conclusions obtained in further communication planning. At any rate, the communication problems found were the lack of main directions of public relations. This is because those involved in corporate communication planning were lack in knowledge and competence in the aforementioned areas. Then, the communication problems were brought to define goals and objectives in order to increase the level of awareness of stakeholders about the direction of key projects in different fields to improve the efficiency of communicating information to reach the target group both inside and outside the organization comprehensively. The target groups of communication were divided into main stakeholder (employees and customers/electricity users) and other stakeholders (the Ministry of Interior and government agencies/communities). Communication strategies and tactics were developing communication skills of personnel and news strategies as well as developing relationship with mass media, agencies and communities.The messages or statements used in communication consisted of messages for organizational communication with the framework of dissemination determined by the head office. And the messages used to communicate only in Provincial Electricity Authority Region 1 (Northeastern Region), Udon Thani Province will determine a framework for dissemination as appropriate. The final steps were an evaluation of communication including 1. Reporting the results of activities 2. Distributing questionnaires within the organization 3. Joining the Line group of employees and applying the knowledge obtained from trainings 4. Receiving less complaints and more numbers of Facebook followers. In addition, it was found that the communication planning in crisis conditions were divided into 3 phases: 1) The pre-crisis phase: The period when the government launched the campaign ‘Work From Home’ for the public in order to prepare a response plan in time. Moreover, the Spokesperson was predetermined with a communication plan in the crisis conditions. There are 2 groups of target groups that were required to communicate, namely the target group inside the organization (employees of the organization) and the target groups outside organization (electricity users). 2) The crisis phase: There were communications within the organization through making understanding with employees inside and outside the organization through media interviews. 3) The post-crisis period: Long-term problem solving planning.