Homework Question

MGT-550-Q2261 Managing Through Communication 

Patricia Vela

Introduction to the problem

In this case, co-executive officers at Research in Motion find themselves facing public scrutiny because of a letter written by one of the high-level employees in the organization. The contents of the letter quickly spread to the mainstream media. Balsillie and his colleague Lazaridis in this case are being criticized because of the organization's leadership. In the letter, the employee also criticizes the organization's product development and its culture (Seijts & Bigus, 2012). In the letter also, the employee offers personal insights and expresses their desire to see the company rise again to its dominant position as the industry leader by suggesting specific actions that will improve the organization. These criticisms come at a bad time for the organization because, in the same year, the company has faced pressure from a gradually diminishing market share and failed attempts at manufacturing new products. The company has also suffered sinking stock prices in the same year (Seijts & Bigus, 2012).

Specific Problems in the Case

Response to the claims- The main problem that the organization, in this case, needs to address is to find a way that is effective enough to respond to these claims publicly. This will reduce the damage that the contents of the anonymous letter could bring to the organization (Seijts & Bigus, 2012).

Organizational leadership- Another problem that needs to be addressed in this case is organizational leadership. The co-CEOs in this case need to come up with a way to ensure that the organizational leadership is satisfactory enough to all the employees in the organization (Seijts & Bigus, 2012).

Organizational culture- The organization's culture is also another problem that needs to be addressed. The organization needs to ensure that the employee culture is inclusive enough so that employees feel that their needs are being considered. The organization needs to work on ways to communicate effectively with employees internally (Seijts & Bigus, 2012).

Product development- The co-CEOs in this case also must address this problem by ensuring that all employees are involved in product development and that the right guidelines are followed in product development (Seijts & Bigus, 2012).

Communication Goals

To respond to the issues presented in this case, the specific communication goals will be:

Sharing the purpose

One of the main communication goals in this case will be to share the purpose of the organization. This will communicate why the organization does the things it does, and the importance of the decisions made by the organization. Sharing the purpose will make employees care about what is being done in the organization and be willing to take part in it. Sharing the purpose will help employees in this case to understand the organization's product development (Zerfass et al, 2018).

Giving the bigger picture

Another important communication goal in this case will be to help employees get the bigger picture of things in the organization. Most of the time, conflicts arise because employees fail to see and understand the bigger picture. Sharing the organizational trends and insights with employees will help them understand what is happening in the organization so that they can offer their feedback. In this case, this communication goal will help the problem of product development and to some extent the problem of employee culture (Zerfass et al, 2018).

Remaining present

This communication goal aims at proving to employees that the organization's vision is real. The organization needs to communicate with employees on the investment that it has made. The organization should consider choosing employee representatives to communicate the message to others because employees tend to react better when their colleagues show confidence in the message from seniors. This communication goal will help solve the problem of leadership in this case as employees will feel included in the organization (Zerfass et al, 2018).

Investing in employees

Investing in employees is also an important communication goal in this case. This goal aims at allocating the necessary resources to help employees to understand the ongoing activities in the organization. Ensuring that employees understand the activities that are ongoing in the organization is very important in determining the way they respond to those activities. Investing in employees will ensure that they understand the product development in the organization but will also enhance the employee culture. This will help solve issues with leadership in the organization (Zerfass & Viertmann, 2017).

Diversifying delivery

This communication goal is very important in enhancing communication delivery in the organization. The organization needs to come up with ways to send messages that will increase the level of engagement of communication in the organization. Instead of using emails and official memos, the organization can consider encouraging the use of blogs. This will improve the relationship between leaders and employees in the organization as communication will be freer (Zerfass & Viertmann, 2017). This communication goal will solve the problems of leadership and employee culture that have been presented in the case and to some extent, the problem of product development in Research in Motion Company.

Target Audiences

The target audiences, in this case, are the public, senior-level executives, and employees in the organization.

Senior-level executives

These are the employees that hold senior positions in the organization. They include managers and the various department heads in the organization. This target audience in this case is important because the criticism claims were raised by one of the senior-level executives in the organization. In my communication with this audience, I aim to help them understand why the organization does things as it does so that any misunderstandings can be addressed. I also aim to use this group to communicate the activities and vision of the organization to the employees so that they can be cooperative.

Employees

These are the people employed to carry out the various tasks in the organization. With this target audience, I aim to help them understand the leadership and employee culture in the organization. I also aim to help them understand the product development process in the organization. This will ensure that they share the vision of the organization and work towards achieving it.

The public

The public, in this case, is the users and potential users of the organization's products. For this target audience, I aim to make clear the steps that the organization has taken to address the criticism raised. This will help to safeguard the organization's reputation.

References