In recent years one city council has been the object of considerable change. Moreover, following the changes that have occurred, there has been a feeling that what has been left behind results in a disgruntled set of employees whose anger and resentment needs to be assuaged. On being appointed to their posts as executive directors of the city council, the new senior management was faced with their first priority, and that was to find ways of reducing the then currently high level of council tax burden. Staffing levels were an obvious target for savings and became the focus of immediate attention.

A thorough analysis of the situation indicated that there appeared to be far too many levels of management - especially at the middle management level. In some cases, the number of levels of management between the chief executive and the ground-floor workers was as many as eight. The executive directors therefore decided to embark on a voluntary redundancy scheme, which had the intention of encouraging middle managers to take early retirement and/or generous redundancy payments on the understanding that they would not be replaced.

While these initiatives were in train the city council decided to commission a study to identify the quality of the communication processes with employees. The senior management of the organisation had felt that there was room for improvement both in terms of communication and management style, but was unsure as to what this should involve. The actions it had taken were a response to these feelings.

Question
1. Draw up a research proposal for the city council that will specifically address the question of identifying the quality of the communication processes with employees.