human resource

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

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Assignment 2: Navigating a Crisis Due: Monday, 9 am (eastern), Week 7 (Weight: 20%)

Overview

As a leader, you will face multiple crises. While you will easily weather many bad situations, there may be some that will seriously threaten your company and your reputation. How you respond to crises, especially crises of trust, will determine your fate. You must use appropriate communication tools to emerge victorious. In your course materials, Jack identifies five principles for managing a crisis:

1. Assume the worst 2. There are no secrets 3. Your crisis management will not be portrayed favorably 4. Your organization will undergo changes 5. Your organization will come out of the crisis stronger

Additionally, Warren Buffett emphasizes four critical steps in managing a PR crisis:

1. Get it right 2. Get it fast 3. Get it out 4. Get it over

For this assignment, you will apply key concepts from your course materials to respond to a public relations crisis. NOTE: Before beginning work on this assignment, review your

materials from Weeks 5 and 6. Your responses in Part One: Memo Outline must include specific references to course materials addressing the principles and practices of

effective crisis management that you are deploying in your internal memo and include an explanation for why you are doing so.

In your Week 5 discussion question, you identified and addressed a public relations crisis that an organization faced. In this assignment, using that same crisis, you will turn your attention to crafting an internal communication in the form of a memo to be shared by email. You will write your memo from the perspective of a leader within that company. The memo will be addressed to your team members and will communicate information about the crisis and your response. Your assignment will be composed of two parts: (1) an outline of your key points and communication strategy and (2) the actual memo.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 505 – Assignment 2 (1244) Page 2 of 8

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 505 – Assignment 2 (1244) Page 3 of 8

Instructions Part One: Memo Outline Create an outline of your memo in which you summarize four communication objectives and your strategy to achieve each of those objectives. Think of this as your “game plan.” This outline should be no more than one page in length. You may use bullets and sentence fragments if you like. The outline's purpose is to help you organize your messaging and create a roadmap for the final version of the memo. Your outline should address the following:

1. The Nature of the Crisis a. What are the 2-3 most critical points that must be presented in the memo to accurately

summarize the nature of the crisis without going into non-essential details? b. Why are you focusing on these points?

2. The Factors That Led to the Crisis a. What key circumstances – decisions, mistakes, timelines, personnel, and/or departments

caused the crisis? b. Why are you focusing on these?

3. The Impact on Stakeholders (both Internal and External) a. What are the most important adverse outcomes you want to highlight in your memo? b. Why are you focusing on these? c. Are there any outcomes you do NOT want to include in the memo? Why?

4. The Plan to Resolve the Crisis a. What are the critical next steps to get through the crisis? b. Who will own these steps, and what are the timelines? c. What do you need from your team? d. Why are you focusing on these actions?

Part Two: Memo Create a 1- to 2- page internal memo to be sent to your team members via email based on your outline. Make sure you cover the following:

1. The nature of the crisis 2. The factors that led to the crisis 3. The impact on stakeholders 4. The plan, including how the company – and you – are responding to the situation, and the steps

your team members should take, including what, if anything, they need to do differently

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

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Professional Formatting Requirements: Your assignment should follow these formatting requirements:

• Your memo should be typed, double-spaced, with a blank line between paragraphs, using a professional font (size 10-12).

• Your memo should include headings and subheadings to identify main topics and subtopics with one-inch margins on all sides.

• Your submission should include a cover page containing the assignment's title, your professor’s name, the course title, and the date.

• Application of course material or other resources is needed. References and in-text citations must be included and provide appropriate information that enables the reader to locate the original source. Use the Writing Standards Guide in the Course Documents to guide you in formatting your citations.

• The length of 2 to 3 pages does not include your cover page or references page.

• Begin your 1- to 2- page internal memo with the following headings aligned to the left:

o TO: Fill in your team’s name (e.g., Sales Department, Accounting Team)

o FROM: Fill in your name

o DATE: Fill in the due date

o RE: Insert an appropriate subject line

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

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Assignment 2: Rubric

Weight: 25% Assignment 2: Navigating a Crisis

Criteria Honors High Pass Pass Low Pass Unsatisfactory

1. Outline Notes: Nature of the crisis and rationale for focusing on these key points in the memo Weight: 10%

Excellent selection of the most critical points of focus to summarize the nature of the crisis; provides a clear and compelling explanation of the rationale and strategy for highlighting these points in the memo.

Well-chosen selection of the most critical points of focus; clear and logical rationale for highlighting these points in the memo.

Good summary of the crisis with appropriate selection of key points of focus; may lack clear or logical rationale for highlighting these as the most critical points in the memo.

Partially summarizes the nature of the crisis; may highlight too many or too few critical points or does not provide a clear or logical rationale for highlighting these as the most critical points in the memo.

Does not or unsatisfactorily summarizes the nature of the crisis; does not highlight the 2-3 most critical points; does not include, or provides an unclear rationale for, highlighting these as the most critical points in the memo.

2. Outline Notes: Factors That led to the crisis and rationale for focusing on these in the memo Weight: 10%

Excellent focus on the key decisions, mistakes, timelines, personnel, and/or departments that caused the crisis; provides a clear and compelling explanation of the rationale and strategy for highlighting these in the memo.

Well-chosen focus on the key decisions, mistakes, timelines, personnel, and/or departments that caused the crisis; clear and logical rationale is presented for highlighting these in the memo.

Good summary of the key decisions, mistakes, timelines, personnel, and/or departments that caused the crisis; may lack clear or logical rationale for highlighting these as the most critical factors.

Partially summarizes the key decisions, mistakes, timelines, personnel, and/or departments that caused the crisis; may highlight too many or too few critical factors or does not provide a clear or logical rationale for highlighting these as the most critical factors.

Does not or unsatisfactorily summarizes the key decisions, mistakes, timelines, personnel, and/or departments that caused the crisis; does not include or provides an unclear rationale for highlighting these as the most critical factors.

3. Outline Notes: Impact on stakeholders and rationale for focusing on these key points in the memo Weight: 10%

Identifies the most significant impacts on stakeholders; provides a clear and compelling rationale for inclusion of these impacts and/or exclusion of other impacts in the memo.

Identifies the most significant impacts on stakeholders; rationale for the inclusion of these impacts and/or exclusion of other impacts in the memo is clearly explained.

Identifies significant impacts on stakeholders; however, the rationale for inclusion of these impacts and/or exclusion of other impacts in the memo is missing or unclear.

Identifies some impacts on stakeholders but may include impacts that are vague or inappropriate; may present an unclear rationale for the inclusion of these impacts and/or exclusion of other impacts in the memo.

Does not identify the most significant impacts on stakeholders or includes impacts that are unclear or inappropriate; does not include or provides an unclear rationale for the inclusion of these impacts and/or exclusion of other impacts in

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 505 – Assignment 2 (1244) Page 6 of 8

the memo

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 505 – Assignment 2 (1244) Page 7 of 8

Criteria Honors High Pass Pass Low Pass Unsatisfactory

4. Outline Notes: Plan to resolve the crisis and rationale for focusing on these actions Weight: 10%

Excellent focus on critical next steps, ownership, timelines, and team responsibilities for resolving the crisis; provides an exemplarily detailed and insightful rationale for including these actions in the memo.

Excellent focus on critical next steps, ownership, timelines, and team responsibilities for resolving the crisis; rationale for including these actions in the memo is logical and clear.

Good focus on critical next steps, ownership, timelines, and team responsibilities for resolving the crisis; rationale for focusing on these actions in the memo may be vague and/or logic is unclear.

Partially identifies next steps, ownership, timelines, and team responsibilities for resolving the crisis but does not clearly explain the rationale for focusing on these actions in the memo.

Does not or unsatisfactorily summarizes next steps, ownership and/or timelines; does not or unsatisfactorily summarizes team responsibilities and their connection to resolving the crisis; does not or unclearly explains the rationale for focusing on these actions in the memo.

5. Craft a crisis response memo to your team members Weight: 30%

Memo is clear and on-topic in its treatment of all topic areas from the outline; content and structure of the memo demonstrate outstanding execution of the communication objectives identified in the outline; key takeaways for the message’s recipients are clear, succinct, immediately actionable, and directly tied to supporting a resolution to the crisis; the memo addresses the crisis with candor while delivering a motivational call to action.

Memo is clear and on-topic in its treatment of all topic areas from the outline; content and structure of the memo demonstrate excellent execution of the communicat- ion objectives identified in the outline; key takeaways for the message’s recipients are clear and directly tied to supporting a resolution to the crisis.

Memo is clear and on-topic in its treatment of all topic areas from the outline; content and structure of the memo demonstrate good execution of the communication objectives identified in the outline; key takeaways for the message’s recipients are clear, but may benefit from additional detail on how they support a resolution to the crisis.

Memo is unclear or off- topic in its treatment of no more than one of the topic areas from the outline; content and structure of the memo demonstrate a basic execution of the communication objectives identified in the outline; key takeaways for the message’s recipients may be vague or unclear in how they support a resolution to the crisis.

Does not or unsatisfactorily crafts a crisis response memo; does not address 2 or more of the 4 topic areas from the outline; content and structure of the memo do not support the communication objectives identified in the outline; key takeaways for the message’s recipients are unclear.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Assignment 2

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Criteria Honors High Pass Pass Low Pass Unsatisfactory

6. Writing Style, Formatting, and Grammar Weight: 30%

Memo is exceptionally well written, succinct, and makes excellent use of appropriate business language; well formatted with no grammar or spelling errors; references are included in a manner that enables the reader to quickly identify sources.

Memo is very well written, succinct, and makes good use of appropriate business language; well formatted with minimal grammar and spelling errors; references are included in a manner that enables the reader to quickly identify sources.

Memo is satisfactorily written and makes good use of appropriate business language; free from significant formatting issues and grammar and spelling errors; references are included in a manner that enables the reader to quickly identify sources.

Memo is adequately written and uses mostly appropriate business language; may contain minor formatting irregularities and/or some grammar and spelling errors; references may not be included in a manner that enables the reader to quickly identify sources.

Memo is poorly written and/or does not use appropriate business language; improperly formatted and/or contains multiple grammar and/or spelling errors; references are not included in a manner that enables the reader to quickly identify sources.