case study on managerial communication

Managerial Communication: Case Analysis Coursework

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

‘A Cold Call, a Blog, and a $20 Million Lawsuit’

‘turning business principle into ethical behavior at total’, communication problems and objectives.

• Providing inaccurate and subjective feedback
• Lack of clear focus in official communication
• Misuse of informal communication networks
• Message decoding problems or interpretation problems

Possible solutions

• Providing accurate feedback: managers ought to transmit their thoughts, opinions and decisions in the most professional and objective manner possible since they are the mouthpiece of the organization, not mentioning the fact that anything they say is construed as the official position (MacCuan, 2008; Bentley, 2004).
• Use official communication channels: Emails and blog posts are increasingly replacing the traditional techniques of communication, but managers who engage in blogging must do it officially and authentically since the audience view such blogs as representing the official position of the organization (MacCuan, 2008).
• Validate information before putting it in the public gallery: Hearsays and subjective information are subject to misinterpretation and misrepresentation, which can prove costly in legal suits and loss of business. As such, it should be the function of the manager to validate sources of information before any decisions are made to put the information in the public domain (Bentley, 2004).

Selected Solution

The best solution for the case is for the management to provide accurate feedback, which must be positive and specific to curtail any chances of misinterpretations or spoiling the reputation of other organizations (Bentley, 2004). Through accurate feedback, Leslie Richard could have found better ways to deal with the issue she had with Vision Media instead of blowing everything out of proportion as a direct result of relying on subjective information and failing to validate the sources of information (MacCaun, 2008). It is prudent for Leslie to set up a communications department to deal with such issues.

Communication Skills reflected in the Case

• Ability to be concise and clear in communication: This is one communication skill that Leslie lacked in communicating about the affairs of Vision Media in her blog. According to Austin & Pinkleton (2006), managerial communication should be concise, clear, and to the point to enhance the uptake of the message by the audience while curtailing misinterpretations of facts.
• Capacity to convey thoughts and opinions in a focused manner: Information should always be focused and based on concrete evidence (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006). This was not the case with the CEO of OKO Box
• Taking full accountability for one’s messages: managers the world over must take full responsibility for the messages presented to the audience, and that is why it is absolutely necessary to remain objective (Bentley, 2004). According to the case, Leslie was taken to court by Vision Media due to the messages appearing on her blog. It is imperative to note that taking responsibility may sometimes become too costly for the organization as demonstrated by the case
• Preparing to listen: listening is an effective communication skill as it gives the manager an opportunity to learn and critically evaluate the other side of the story (Bentley, 2004). Leslie failed to listen to the objections of Vision Media regarding her blog posts, necessitating the company to file a legal suit against the CEO.

In applying the above stated communication skills to my own personal managerial capabilities, it is worth noting that I have learnt the value of communicating in a clear and concise manner, not to mention the fact that it always pays to convey one’s thoughts and opinions in a clear and focused manner. Listening to the various viewpoints and opinions presented by outside audiences not only makes me more focused, but also ensures that I remain as objective as possible when dealing with issues that are likely to influence others. In all my communication endeavors, I have always recognized the fact that I have to take full responsibility for my actions, and hence I am always careful to exercise restraint and validate my sources of information.

Analysis of Concepts

• Core Values: core values are the beliefs, perceptions, and objectives set by the organization, and which the management and employees constantly refer to move the organization’s agenda forward (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006). Leslie’s OKO Box appears to have valued honesty and integrity as core values, and the CEO should have paid closer attention to these two values in her communication with friends and partners regarding Vision Media
• Communication is invention: communication is in a constant state of invention, and as such, one’s intention in communicating may be interpreted differently by the audiences depending on societal demands (Bentley, 2004). Leslie should have followed official communication channels to avoid falling into this trap.
• Leadership Job: it is a well known fact that various values and roles are in constant competition and conflict (Bentley, 2004). It should have been the function of the CEO to objectively define the competing values between her company and Vision Media before deciding to go public about her accusations.
• Psychological and Physical barriers to communication: physical barriers include being located in different buildings, using poor or outdated equipment, and lack of technological absorption, while psychological barriers include people’s state of mind and personal problems (Barriers, 2009). Communication would have very much improved between OKO Box and Vision Media if Lesley did away with the fixated opinion that Vision Media was engaged in corrupt activities.
• Importance of feedback: Feedback not only makes communication consequential and meaningful, but it also makes the process to be continuous (Bell & Smith, 1999). There would have been no problem if Leslie, the CEO of OKO Box, cared to channel her feedback to Vision Media after getting the information that the latter could have been engaged in corrupt dealings.

Leslie Richard, the CEO of Oko Box, relied on misinterpretations and unauthenticated information to attack Vision Media on her blogs, leading to a legal suit that could have been devastating to Oko Box. The misconceptions had already made Vision Media to shoulder considerable losses in lost business (MacCaun, 2008). This case demonstrates the importance of using accurate feedback and remaining clear and focused in communication between two organizations. It also reveals how misuse of informal communication networks such as blog spots could turn disastrous to a company.

Communication problems

• Dealing with an audience from different geographical and cultural backgrounds
• Message overload
• Large audience to cover
• standardization of output indicators

Potential Solutions

• Aggregate audience according to culture and location. Studies have revealed that communication carried out in a small homogeneous group often succeed than when communication is done in large groups (Bentley, 2004)
• Develop unique standards for measuring output : To be effective in communication, standards for measuring the uptake of the code of conduct must be evaluated according to the makeup of employees
• Develop measures to curtail information overload. According to the case, the employees are so often bombarded by loads of information contained in the numerous codes of conducts developed over time. This needs to be streamlined to facilitate uptake (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006).

Total S.A. should engage in clustering employees according to different cultural orientations and geographical backgrounds if the organization has to make an impact in instilling a unified code of conduct in the minds of numerous employees located in nearly all parts of the world. This can be done by forming regional caucuses that will then be used to pass on the message or information to members within the regions rather than depending on a central unit to implement the code of conduct.

Communication Skills

• Reflecting on what other people have to say: This is important as it encourage effective blending of different perceptions, worldviews, and cultural backgrounds as is the case in Total S.A.
• Adapting to divergence of opinions: this is related to the above, and functions to harmonize working and communication relationship in a multicultural setup
• Sharing one’s feelings: It should be the function of managers to share in the feelings projected by the employees and attempt to offer solutions in areas where there may exist conflict of opinions (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006).

The three communication skills are fundamentally important especially when the management is trying to implement a new program or strategy in the organization as is revealed in this case. Personally, I have well developed reflective capabilities, and always listen to different opinions fronted by people before deciding my next course of action. I am also good at sharing experiences with others, knowing too well that this is one of the communication strategies that a manager can use to win conformity and respect from employees (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006).

• Core Values: The management withheld the core values of Total S.A. through developing strategies for effective uptake and internalization of the code of conduct among the employees. Here, it can be argued that the management did well to lay the groundwork for effective communication
• Communication is invention: Here, the management and the other groups involved in the implementation of the code of conduct for Total S.A. should have invented much more appealing ways to communicate the strategy to employees without seemingly alienating them. Inventive communication strategies should have been used to curtail resistance (Lanaud & Gateau, 2006).
• Leadership Job: There are those employees who felt that the code of conduct was infringing on their rights and freedom. It was the function of management to intervene and address the situation by assuring the employees that the code of conduct was for the benefit of the organization as well as their own. This was taken care of through the establishment of a complaint’s department
• Physical and psychological barriers of communication: The physical barriers were effectively taken care of through the use of technological advances such as the internet to reach employees. Psychological barriers such as the state of mind of the employees regarding the code of conduct should have been solved by engaging local representatives who are closer to employees (Barriers, 2009)
• Importance of feedback: Total S.A. recognized the importance of feedback by establishing the complaints department, where employees dissatisfied with the code of conduct could seek redress from the management.

The article is clear on how the code of ethics should be instilled in the thought systems and everyday activities of employees in an attempt to create an ethical culture that projects the company in a positive way to the mainstream society (Lanaud & Gateau, 2005). It is the function of the management to raise awareness about the code of ethics among employees and ensure the code is being applied correctly to attain the desired effect. It is strongly recommended that the management continue to reflect on what employees have to say concerning the code of conduct, not mentioning the fact that management have to be strong in adapting to different opinions and perceptions considering the fact that the code of conduct is being internalized in employees from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds.

Austin, E.W., & Pinkleton, B.E. (2006). Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication programs . New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers

Barriers to effective communication . (2009). Web.

Bell, A.H., & Smith, D.M. (1999). Management communication . Hoboken: Wiley

Bentley, J.P. (2004). Business Communication: An Overview. Pharmaceutical Representative. Web.

Lanaud, R., & Gateau, P. (2005). Turning business principle into ethical behavior at Total S.A. The Business Communicator 6(4): 10

MacCuan, J. (2008). A Cold call, a blog, and a $20 million lawsuit. Inc . 30(11): 27

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5 Internal Communication Case Studies and Best Practices To Follow

Alex Cleary

 on  May 13, 2024

in  Internal Communications

From employee engagement to workplace culture to change management, businesses often face similar challenges to each other even if those businesses are radically different. While the specifics of these challenges may differ, how other businesses solve these challenges can give you new insights into addressing your own.

We’re always interested in how our customers use ContactMonkey to solve their internal communications challenges, which is why we publish customer case studies. Learn how other businesses solve their communication challenges and get inspiration on ways you can improve your business by using an internal communications tool .

Get to know your team beyond clicks and opens

Decode employee patterns with real-time analytics., what is an internal communication case study.

An internal communication case study examines how a company addressed a specific problem facing their organization, or achieved a specific goal. Communication is crucial for every business, and communication challenges can manifest in all kinds of situations.

An effective internal communication case study will clearly outline the problem, solution, and result of the business’ efforts to reach their goal. An internal communication case study should also outline best practices that were developed in this process, and how those best practices serve the business going forward.

Why are internal communication case studies important?

A good internal communication case study should not only explain the circumstances around a specific business’ problems and solution. It should also help others develop new ways to approach their own internal communication challenges , and shed light on common communication pitfalls that face a majority of businesses.

Whenever you’re facing a particular communication problem at your workplace, we recommend searching out a relevant internal communication case study about businesses facing similar issues. Even though the particulars may be different, it’s always important to see how internal communications problems are solved .

Featured Resource: Internal Email Benchmark Report 2023

How do your internal email performance metrics compare to 20 key industries? 

5 Best Internal Communications Case Studies

We put together this list of our favourite ContactMonkey case studies that best demonstrate the many problems our internal communications software can be used to solve. If you want to learn more about any of these customers and see other case studies, check out our Customers page .

Easiest internal emails: drag, drop, and you’re done!

1. mettler toledo saves days on their internal communications with contactmonkey.

When Kate Kraley began as Mettler Toledo’s Marketing Communications Specialist, she wanted to use internal communications to increase engagement and improve communication with employees.

But Mettler Toledo —a global manufacturer of precision instruments for various industries—had a confusing and ineffective array of internal communications channels . Here’s how Kate took charge of internal communications at Mettler Toledo with ContactMonkey.

Kate came to an internal communications department tasked with reaching employees through a number of channels. Email was the main focus of their approach, but this encompassed many forms of communication based on email like employee newsletters, eNews, and quarterly email updates.

Kate wanted to improve the quality of their internal communications. She used a variety of tools to create their newsletters, including using Mailchimp and online HTML template builder. But because Mailchimp is not for internal communications , Kate and her team found themselves spending over 8 hours a week building their internal communications:

“We faced challenges with Mailchimp. Since we had to leave Outlook to use Mailchimp, we found it was double the work to maintain distribution lists in both Outlook and Mailchimp. The HTML builder in Mailchimp was also difficult to use as it didn’t work well with older versions of Outlook, compromising the layout.”

Kate also needed a way to determine whether Mettler Toledo employees were actually reading her internal communications. She used Mailchimp to track open rate, but wanted more in-depth measures of engagement. That’s when she switched to ContactMonkey.

Kate found ContactMonkey via the IABC Hub in 2018, and began testing it out. ContactMonkey’s all-in-one internal communications software removed the need to switch from tool to tool. Using our email template builder , Kate now builds visually stunning email newsletters and templates without having to navigate away from Outlook:

She also now has access to her own analytics dashboard . Kate analyzes numerous email metrics like open rate, click-through rate, read time, opens by device and location, and more to see which communications are driving the most engagement. With this new centralized approach, Kate knew she had found the right solution:

“Once I started using ContactMonkey, I realized I was able to save 4 hours of work a week, which translated to 25 days saved per year! ContactMonkey has helped us understand what employees are interested in!”

2. BASF Manages Their Remote Workforce with ContactMonkey

Mark Kaplan is the Global Communications Manager at BASF’s Agricultural Group —a department of the German chemical company BASF SE. Because BASF has offices and production sites around the world, Mark coordinates with other internal communicators across the company to drive employee engagement.

With the success of any business comes new challenges, and BASF isn’t any different. While Mark knew he had to keep others informed of the latest news from the BASF Agricultural Group, he was aware employees would be receiving news from other parts of the company as well.

With many different departments sending their own internal communications, Mark faced a difficult task: keeping employees engaged while being careful not to overwhelm them with countless emails and updates.

“We try to be very strategic with what we’re sending out because people are already getting a lot.”

Not only did Mark have to find a solution that made his email communications more engaging, but he also had to prove the value of whatever solution he chose to management. How could Mark show that he was increasing employee engagement while avoiding tuning out from oversaturation?

Mark began using ContactMonkey to create better internal communications for BASF employees. Using our drag-and-drop email template builder, he designs emails that maximized communication and minimized distractions, keeping information to just what his recipients needed to know.

Mark uses ContactMonkey’s email template library to save time on his email design process. He also uses the easy drag-and-drop format of the email template builder to add multimedia into his email communications to save space and increase their effectiveness:

Mark uses the email analytics provided by ContactMonkey to determine the best times to send internal emails . Not only does email analytics help Mark increase engagement on his employee emails, but he now has hard data he can show management to prove the value of his internal communications.

“ContactMonkey has been great in that I can download a report, attach it to an email, and send it to our top leadership and say, ‘Oh, wow. 88% of the organization opened this in the last 24 hours, I think we should do more of this.’ It’s that little extra credibility.”

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3. alnylam drives remote employee engagement using contactmonkey.

Employee engagement is crucial for ongoing productivity and growth, and Alnylam’s Brendon Pires wanted to leverage their internal communications to increase engagement.

Brendon is an internal communications specialist at Alnylam —the world’s leading RNAi therapeutics company—and is tasked with keeping their 2000+ employees engaged and informed. But Brendon’s existing internal communications process was leading to issues all over the place.

Like many companies, Alnylam shifted to remote work when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Brendon knew that employees would be relying on his emails to stay up-to-date on the latest company news and announcements, but their existing internal communications tool wasn’t up to the task:

• Scheduled emails were prevented from being sent out.
• Email design was a chore with a difficult-to-use email builder.
• Intranet traffic was down and Brendon’s emails weren’t driving traffic to it.
• Email tracking was limited as many internal emails were being flagged by their tracking software’s firewall.

“We were having consistent issues and it had been going on for like a couple of months. It was one issue after the other, between emails not sending because they were getting caught in our firewall, and then tracking not being consistent. So at the end of the day it was kind of like that’s really important, you know? Obviously if I can’t send that email that’s a problem. So that’s what really drove us to look at other solutions like ContactMonkey”

Brendon and Alnylam use Outlook for their employee emails, so he began looking for alternatives to his current software. That’s when Brendon found ContactMonkey.

Right away Brendon had a much easier time creating internal emails using our email template builder. He can create stellar internal emails and email templates that drive more engagement.

Brendon also uses ContactMonkey’s embedded star ratings to let Alnylam employees rate the emails they’re receiving. This helps Brendon and his team zero-in on their most engaging email content. He also uses our email analytics to measure engagement via open rate and click-through rate. He maximizes his results on these metrics by using ContactMonkey’s scheduled email sending:

Using ContactMonkey, Brendon was able to increase email engagement and drive traffic to Alnylam’s internal intranet . He now sends emails without worry of encountering sending errors that can hinder engagement—like Outlook not rendering HTML emails .

“ContactMonkey is really easy to use and allows me to create really nice content. There’s enough customization so we can do what we really want and have some creative freedom.”

4. Travel Counsellors Ltd. Stays Connected with Remote Employees Using ContactMonkey

In an economy deeply impacted by COVID-19, countless companies had to adapt to new challenges. As Community Manager at Travel Counsellors , Dave Purcell experienced firsthand the effects on morale and engagement his over 1,900 partners experienced as result of the quarantine and resulting societal changes.

Dave wanted to regularly check-in on Travel Counsellors franchisees’ wellbeing, and measure their engagement over time. But Dave’s current method of checking-in on an audience of over 1,900 was not up to the task.

Using their existing email software, Dave encountered all sorts of problems when trying to gauge wellness and drive email engagement. He and his team were unable to create personalized internal communications , as they were told it just wasn’t possible with their existing “solution”. They also experienced numerous tracking issues, as they were receiving tracking numbers that didn’t make any sense.

“The stats we had previously were unusable and that’s the easiest way I can put it. I was getting 200% open rates, which was just impossible.”

Realizing that email tracking and personalization were must-have features for him and his team, Dave sought a new email software that could deliver what he was looking for.

With the aim of sending personalized emails and tracking wellness in his organization, Dave was immediately impressed by ContactMonkey. “I stumbled across ContactMonkey, and everything just screamed: ‘This is the right platform for us’. It’s pretty fantastic.”

Dave uses ContactMonkey’s merge tags to create personalized subject lines and body copy based on the recipient:

He also began using emoji reactions on his weekly employee newsletters , using them as a pulse check survey for his audience.

“Mindset and wellbeing have always been a big part of what we do. It’s even more so now. Our franchisees craved that personal interaction. ‘Welcome to a Brand New Week’ checks in with them on a Monday, sees how they’re feeling with emoji reactions. And we do the same on a Friday.”

In addition to customization and surveys, Dave uses our email template builder’s custom employer branding options to save time on creating his email newsletters. All of this is driven by email analytics that help Dave and his team determine which content is generating the greatest engagement.

“Our commercial team is looking at what people are engaging with in terms of link clicks and what they’re not engaging with and changing our tactic depending on that. We also send an update from our CEO and we can now track this more accurately. We’re getting a 90% open rate within two days.”

5. Exemplis Boosts Internal Communications Engagement with ContactMonkey

When Corey Kachigan arrived at Exemplis as Engagement and Communications Lead, she knew she had her work cut out for her. Exemplis—the largest volume manufacturer of office seating in North America—was experiencing rapid growth but did not have any sort of internal communications strategy . Corey knew if she wanted to properly manage Exemplis’ ongoing growth, she’d need to make internal communications an indispensable part of the business.

Before Corey arrived, Exemplis’ existing internal communications consisted only of random announcements and update emails. They had no defined approach for sending internal communications, which lead to emails that can cause employees to tune out.

“Our receptionist would email: ‘Hey, whoever left their coffee mug in the sink, please clean it and take it back to your desk.’ And it’s like, okay, that just went to 200 people.”

Corey and her team knew they had to harness their email resources better, and wanted a way to measure what employees actually wanted to see.

“We need some metrics to gauge whether this is working or not. We’re rolling out all these things, but we can’t tell if employees are even clicking these emails. Our team is inundated with hundreds of emails a day. How do we know they are reading these and how do we know they find it valuable? We have no idea.”

They also wanted to use emails to align their ever-growing employee base with Exemplis’ core values and vision. Using Mailchimp—an external marketing email tool—resulted in more problems than solutions. Corey experienced issues with importing and tracking emails within Outlook. She realized that Mailchimp is not for internal communications , and set out to find a new solution to power her employee emails.

So Corey began searching for a new email software for internal communications. Creating a definite approach to internal communications was just one priority of hers; she also wanted to prove the value of internal communications to management using hard data.

What first stood out to Corey about ContactMonkey was the crisp layout and that it worked with Exemplis’ existing Outlook system. ContactMonkey uses your company’s existing email services, and this meant Corey would no longer encounter internal email problems caused by an external tool like Mailchimp.

Corey now uses email metrics and employee feedback to inform her internal communications approach. She features pulse surveys on her internal emails, and uses the results in combination with email metrics to pinpoint what Exemplis employees want to see.

With ContactMonkey’s email analytics, Corey can point to real engagement data to back up her internal communications objectives.

“The thing I love about ContactMonkey is that it allows us to communicate more consistently with our team, but also be able to have the data to back it up. When we used to send out newsletters, we didn’t really have a way to see who did or didn’t open it, who clicked what and they couldn’t interact with the communication besides reply to me, which was super cumbersome.”

Pulse surveys that actually engage employees

Turn emails into conversations., achieve your internal communications goals with contactmonkey.

Although internal communications is a common aspect of all businesses, everyone approaches it differently. Finding out the best email practices that work for your employees is a crucial step in the quest for increased engagement.

Read even one internal communication case study and you’ll see how ContactMonkey stands out among other internal communications tools. You can create, send, and track internal emails, and collect employee feedback and email metrics to develop innovative internal communication tactics . Whether you’re a seasoned internal communicator or new to the field, ContactMonkey can turn your internal communications into a powerful driver of productivity and growth at your organization.

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Always get your message across with contactmonkey..

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How Great Leaders Communicate

• Carmine Gallo

Four strategies to motivate and inspire your team.

Transformational leaders are exceptional communicators. In this piece, the author outlines four communication strategies to help motivate and inspire your team: 1) Use short words to talk about hard things. 2) Choose sticky metaphors to reinforce key concepts. 3) Humanize data to create value. 4). Make mission your mantra to align teams.

In the age of knowledge, ideas are the foundation of success in almost every field. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can’t persuade anyone else to follow your vision, your influence and impact will be greatly diminished. And that’s why communication is no longer considered a “soft skill” among the world’s top business leaders. Leaders who reach the top do not simply pay lip service to the importance of effective communication. Instead, they study the art in all its forms — writing, speaking, presenting — and constantly strive to improve on those skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Internal Communication Case Studies: The Terrible & The Terrific

It’s a question that often comes up: ‘How do other businesses do this?’. Whether you’re implementing a new sales structure or updating your software systems, it’s always helpful to consider how similar companies approached the issue. This is particularly relevant for internal communications , where there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each organisation has its own unique set of challenges and needs to tailor its internal communication strategy accordingly. Internal communication case studies can help you evaluate your approach, by exploring comparable situations and their outcomes.

In this blog, we’ve selected some of the best internal communication examples from the world of business. Not all were successful. In fact, some were complete disasters. But these failures, along with the success stories, are great examples of internal communication in action. When you’re looking for the answers to effective internal communication , nothing speaks more clearly than real-life examples.

We have grouped the following internal communication case study examples under the ‘seven golden rules’. These rules were proposed by Fitzpatrick in his ground-breaking  publication  Internal Communications: A Manual for Practitioners. These fundamental rules of internal communication best practices help us to categorise the relative successes and failures of these examples.

Rule 1: Activity means nothing without results

The starting point for every IC has to be: “What do we want people to do?” Being busy and generating a constant stream of campaigns, videos and newsletters is a waste of time if nothing changes as a result. When you’re looking at improving internal communications , always keep track of the outcome as well as the action. This is where the true significance lies.

Case Study 1 - Nationwide Building Society

Background: Nationwide Building Society ran an award-winning five-week BIG Conversation, gathering ideas from all its 18,000 employees in a company-wide collaboration. The aim was directed to reinvigorating Nationwide’s sense of purpose.

Approach: The activity included TalkBack events, online surveys and a huge listening exercise to give staff and members the chance to contribute to its future. By implementing a company-wide internal communications survey , Nationwide opened up a free-flowing conversation with its workforce.

Outcome: The result has been a refreshed strategy and a marketing campaign based on the new concept of ‘building society, nationwide’ – helping people improve the quality of their lives. This business communication case study demonstrates the power of actively listening and acting on employee’s suggestions. 

Verdict: Success

Rule 2: Value benefits the business

You will only be adding real value if your employee communication links directly to the business needs of your organisation and helps to achieve a defined strategy or a specific project. The benefits of good internal communication only become apparent when you define your desired outcomes and set actual targets.

Case Study 2 – XPO Transport and Logistics

Background: XPO wanted to leverage great ideas from its colleagues across its 104 UK sites to help its customers improve productivity and reduce costs. Its large, flexible and hard-to-reach workforce (from drivers for Asda to B&Q warehouse contractors) don’t usually have a company phone or laptop. Of all the case studies on communication in the workplace, this large-scale exercise is remarkable in its scope.

Approach: To spark engagement, Talkfreely developed the Ideas Matter App, which every employee was able to download to their personal phone. An internal communications app is the ideal way to connect with remote workers and hard-to-reach employees.

Outcome: Linked directly to business needs, the internal communications platform proved to be exceptional value. The generation of ideas has been significant; 1 in 4 of all ideas submitted are being put into practice. In addition, it showed a remarkable return on investment of 6.5:1 with £156,000 of savings in the first year alone.

Rule 3: In the thick of it

When you’re looking for new ideas, trying to work out what your employees are really thinking or wondering why a previous internal communications plan went wrong, don't sit pondering at your desk or researching online. Leave your office and start talking. Once you talk and listen to your employees, you will begin to understand what motivates them, what concerns them and how they feel about the company. Of all the internal communication ideas , this one is key if you want to keep track of engagement levels.

Case Study 3 – AOL

Background: AOL announced it was slashing its Patch local news network by a third. This was a large-scale change affecting many employees across the company and required careful handling in its communication.

Approach: CEO Tim Armstrong set up a conference call with 1,000 employees with the aim of boosting morale across the workforce. As Armstrong talked, Patch Creative Director Abel Lenz began taking pictures of him. He was immediately sacked, in front of the 1,000 staff on the conference call.

Outcome: Perhaps Armstrong did not know that Lenz’s job included photographing meetings with key leaders for the Patch intranet, for the benefit of remote workers. But he should have. If he had been in touch with his workforce, he would have been fully aware of the roles of individual employees. This employee communication case study gives a clear indication of the importance of understanding your employee’s job roles.

Verdict: Failure

Rule 4: Shut up and listen

Communicating with employees should be a two-way street. The megaphone approach is never going to work best because people only feel connected and motivated if they are part of a conversation. It’s vital to put internal communication channels in place that allow employees to comment on the messages coming down from the top. Listen to what they have to say … and learn.

Case Study 4 – PayPal

Background: The digital payment company needed to address an internal report that revealed not all their employees were not using the PayPal app. The President, David Marcus, wrote a company-wide memo to all staff regarding the problem.

Approach: David Marcus took a heavy-handed approach to the matter. He told his staff to use the product or quit: “If you are one of the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can’t remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go find something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere”.

A better policy would have been to find out why his employees weren’t using the payment app, whether they felt competitor products had better features and ask for their suggestions.

Outcome: The memo was leaked to the press. It generated widespread coverage across the media and left customers wondering what was wrong with an app that PayPal’s own staff wouldn't use. Internal communications best practice case studies demonstrate that opening a two-way channel for feedback will improve both internal and external communication .

Rule 5 – I did it their way

Understand the working methods of those you need to convince. If leaders seem bound up in stats and spreadsheets, give them what they want. Gather data to prove your ideas work, show them a process, outline a clear outcome and they’ll soon be on your side. Measuring internal communications will help to provide the rationale behind your ideas. Equally, if the types of internal communication you are using don’t seem to be connecting with your employees, don’t be afraid to try a different approach.

Case Study 5 – Seymour House

Background: Seymour House runs ten outstanding childcare nurseries and wanted to get staff across the group engaging better with each other to share great practice. They needed to identify the best methods of internal communication that would resonate with their unique team-based workforce.

Approach: Talkfreely innovated with an internal communications app called Community. Community replaces static web pages and posts with highly personalised, bite-sized chunks of information presented on boards displaying relevant cards. These communicate quick stories and are far better at connecting people across teams. 

Outcome: The Seymour House teams instantly connected with the Community app. Engagement levels took an immediate uplift as the communication and understanding between teams and individuals improved. This internal communications case study shows how crucial it is to connect with employees in a way that suits their style of interaction.

Rule 6: Make the most of managers

Your leadership team are crucial to the success of your strategy. However big or small your organisation, line managers and local leaders are your allies. They are essential to motivating employees and getting them on board: through discussion, allaying fears and leading by example. When you’re pulling together your internal communication definition , make sure leadership is one of the key points.

Case Study 6 – Yahoo

Background: The tech pioneer defined a need for remote workers return to the office environment. There was no longer a role for staff working from home and all employees needed to be office-based moving forward. The job of communicating this message was handed to the HR department.

Approach: Yahoo’s Head of HR sent out a motivational memo full of praise for the company’s “positive momentum”, “the buzz and energy in our offices”, “remarkable progress” and promising “the best is yet to come”. At the end of this message was the directive that all staff working from home must move back into the office or quit.

Outcome: A communication of this importance should have come from the head of the business. By trying to hide the order as a motivational HR message, it failed to provide a strategic business rationale. This is where the CEO needed to be a visible presence, sharing the reasoning behind this unpopular decision. Internal communication case study examples show time after time that leadership visibility is an essential element, especially when communicating change .

Rule 7: There is no silver bullet

We’d love to be able to reveal the secret to implementing that perfect internal communication strategy. Social media, the employee intranet , digital screens, email – they have all at some stage promised to revolutionise internal communications and make everything else redundant. But it hasn’t happened, which means the role of the internal communicator remains absolutely pivotal. Cut yourself slack in how you judge success, because every organisation has a different set of challenges and issues to overcome.

Case Study 7 – West Sussex County Council

Background: West Sussex Country Council has a workforce of over 6,000 staff spread across a wide geographic area in a variety of locations. In addition, around 25% of staff members have limited access to IT equipment and/or limited IT knowledge. The channels of internal communication in operation were outmoded and ineffective, leading to misinterpretation and inconsistencies.

Approach: Talkfreely developed a bespoke internal communications app designed to connect the disparate council workforce. Called ‘The Big Exchange’, the app allowed for real-time communication over a variety of digital platforms. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it allowed for flexibility in work patterns, increasing its appeal for all employees.

Outcome: By the end of the first quarter, a third of the employee base were actively using the app. In some sectors, 33% would be a pretty modest engagement score. For West Sussex Country Council however, it has connected with those hard-to-reach employees for the very first time. In addition, it proved that there is a real council workforce appetite to get involved. For example - there were 25,200 page views in the first month which means on average, each active user visited over 25 pages of content per month. Read the full case study .

“The TalkFreely app has helped improve, beyond recognition, the way we communicate with our 6000 strong workforce, many of whom are hard to reach. This has become even more evident over the last few weeks in our local response to the coronavirus crisis, helping us to get critical, time-sensitive information out to staff quickly and easily wherever they are across the county.” William Hackett, Communications & Engagement Lead, West Sussex County Council

Final thoughts

It’s clear, when looking at this selection of communication case studies, that not every internal communication is destined for success. And, if handled incorrectly, a poorly targeted message can actually do more harm than good. Internal communication mistakes are very costly, to both morale and the bottom line. However, if you take the time to plan carefully, the positive impact of a good internal communication exchange can be considerable. When assessing internal communications case studies, it’s also vital to consider the arena in which the company is operating before judging the relative success of the campaign. Ultimately, every organisation will need to take a different approach, tailored to suit their unique set of circumstances.

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7th Edition

Management Communication A Case Analysis Approach

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This new edition of Management Communication is a case-based textbook that introduces students to the strategic communication methods that are crucial to master in order for them to develop into effective and ethical managers at all levels of business. Effective communication skills are necessary for success in the business world, and James O’Rourke has written a highly readable book filled with anecdotes and examples to engage students in the learning process. This seventh edition includes both classic and new features. The strategic approach is integrated throughout the book, allowing students to understand how a communicated message affects the business as a whole. New case studies provide students with hands-on experience of scenarios they will encounter in the real world, looking at global companies such as Facebook and Nike. Further updates include new content on technology, corporate culture, and disinformation. An ethical thread is woven through the text, demonstrating how ethical decision making can be applied in all aspects of communication. Chapters on intercultural communication, nonverbal communication, and conflict management provide students with the skills to build relationships and influence stakeholders – key skills for any manager. This text will provide students with a well-rounded understanding of management communication and the support material ensures it serves as a complete resource for instructors.

Table of Contents

James S. O’Rourke is an American rhetorician and Professor of Management at the University of Notre Dame, USA. He was founder of the Fanning Center for Business Communication.

Critics' Reviews

“James S. O’Rourke’s Management Communication (7th edition) is a masterful, strategic excursion through business and management communication. Using some of the most significant business scenarios from industry, this book immerses students and practitioners into real world contexts to teach everything from intercultural communication and ethics to writing and speaking. Students are going to love it!” Heidi Schultz, PhD Clinical Professor, Management and Corporate Communication Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA “As they say, Jim O’Rourke ‘wrote the book’ on Management Communication. The 7th edition takes an impressive leap forward and hits all the marks. It addresses enduring questions about why communication matters so much in business, introduces foundational skills with nuance and depth, and includes pithy, up-to-date cases featuring name-brand companies that appeal to students.” Elizabeth A. Powell, PhD Julie Logan Sands Associate Professor of Business Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, USA “Managerial communication has become more complex and nuanced. Professor O’Rourke’s 7th edition of Management Communication: A Case Analysis Approach provides relevant, up-to-date content and cases that effectively equip business leaders to successfully navigate an ever-changing global environment.” Matt Abrahams Lecturer in Strategic Communication Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, USA “This is a book I would recommend to every business school professor. O’Rourke’s updated and revised 7th edition takes on the most challenging issues in management communication and addresses changes in technology, management practices, and the increasingly uncertain global business world in a thoughtful, considered way. His cases offer clear, effective, and innovative content on management communication practices targeted to the greatest needs of both students and managers.” Professor Tracey Holden Department of Communication, University of Delaware, USA “While there is no substitute for real-life experience, this book comes close. O’Rourke’s research and writing style open up the dynamic management communication challenges so typical for leaders in an unpredictable global market environment. These cases are well selected, and they offer understanding beyond theory, teaching future leaders how to think.” Vilma Luoma-aho Professor of Corporate Communication, Vice Dean of Education Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, Finland “Not many books are essential for success in Management Communication for instructors, researchers, or students. This one is. We can each immediately benefit from Prof. O’Rourke’s remarkable insight and experience. Building on the foundations of our discipline, he shows us how to anticipate and succeed in the challenges just ahead. Jim served as a beacon, helping to guide Wharton’s Communication Program. Now he returns in print to benefit faculty and students alike.” Lisa Warshaw Director, Wharton Communication Program (2000–2020), University of Pennsylvania, USA Founder, Peer Learning Venture

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Management Communication

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This textbook introduces students to the strategic communication methods that are crucial to master in order to develop into effective and ethical managers at all levels of business.

Effective communication skills are necessary for success in the business world, and O’Rourke has written a highly readable book filled with anecdotes and examples to engage students in the learning process. This edition includes several classic and new features:

•  The strategic approach is integrated throughout the book, allowing students to understand how a communicated message impacts the business as a whole.
•  Case studies throughout the book provide students with hands-on experience of scenarios they will encounter in the real world. The book includes at least three dozen fresh, classroom-tested cases.
•  An ethical thread is woven through the text, demonstrating how ethical decision making can be applied in all aspects of communication.
•  Separate chapters on technology (including social media), intercultural communication, nonverbal communication and conflict management provide students with the skills to building relationships and influencing stakeholders; key skills for any manager.

A companion website includes comprehensive support material to teach this class, making Management Communication a complete resource for students and instructors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter chapter 1 | 33  pages, management communication in transition, chapter case 1.1 | 11  pages, chapter case 1.2 | 4  pages, great west casualty company v. estate of g. witherspoon (a), chapter case 1.3 | 7  pages, domino’s “special” delivery, chapter chapter 2 | 30  pages, communication and strategy, chapter case 2.1 | 10  pages, chipotle mexican grill, inc., chapter case 2.2 | 9  pages, gilead sciences and sovaldi, chapter chapter 3 | 49  pages, communication ethics, chapter case 3.1 | 4  pages, excel industries, inc. (a), chapter case 3.2 | 14  pages, the national football league, chapter case 3.3 | 9  pages, target corporation, chapter case 3.4 | 7  pages, starbucks corporation, chapter chapter 4 | 25  pages, chapter case 4.1 | 2  pages, old dominion trust company, chapter case 4.2 | 3  pages, staples, inc., chapter chapter 5 | 41  pages, chapter case 5.1 | 9  pages, microsoft corporation, chapter case 5.2 | 10  pages, carnival cruise lines, chapter case 5.3 | 6  pages, cerner corporation, chapter chapter 6 | 33  pages, chapter case 6.1 | 3  pages, the united states olympic committee, chapter case 6.2 | 3  pages, an invitation to wellness at whirlpool corporation, chapter case 6.3 | 11  pages, theranos, inc., chapter chapter 7 | 47  pages, chapter case 7.1 | 9  pages, samsung electronics co., ltd., chapter case 7.2 | 6  pages, johnson & johnson’s strategy with motrin, chapter case 7.3 | 10  pages, facebook, inc., chapter chapter 8 | 35  pages, listening and feedback, chapter case 8.1 | 3  pages, earl’s family restaurants (a), earl’s family restaurants (b), earl’s family restaurants (c), chapter case 8.2 | 3  pages, the kroger company (a), chapter case 8.2 | 2  pages, the kroger company (b), the kroger company (c), chapter case 8.3 | 2  pages, three feedback exercises, chapter chapter 9 | 30  pages, nonverbal communication, chapter case 9.1 | 5  pages, l’oreal usa, chapter case 9.2 | 8  pages, maria sharapova, chapter chapter 10 | 24  pages, intercultural communication, chapter case 10.1 | 3  pages, oak brook medical systems, inc., chapter case 10.2 | 10  pages, barneys new york, chapter chapter 11 | 29  pages, managing conflict, chapter case 11.1 | 3  pages, hayward healthcare systems, inc., chapter case 11.2 | 6  pages, dixie industries, inc., chapter case 11.3 | 8  pages, chapter chapter 12 | 33  pages, business meetings that work, chapter case 12.1 | 9  pages, chapter case 12.2 | 10  pages, chapter chapter 13 | 44  pages, dealing with the news media, chapter case 13.1 | 10  pages, chapter case 13.2 | 10  pages, whole foods market, inc., chapter case 13.3 | 7  pages, mars, incorporated.

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Case Studies in Strategic Communication

An online, peer-reviewed, open access journal.

To cite this article Young, C. L., & Flowers, A. (2012). Fight viral with viral: A case study of Domino’s Pizza’s crisis communication strategies. Case Studies in Strategic Communication, 1 , article 6. Available online: http://cssc.uscannenberg.org/cases/v1/v1art6

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Fight Viral with Viral: A Case Study of Domino’s Pizza’s Crisis Communication Strategies

Cory L. Young Arhlene Flowers Ithaca College

Domino’s Pizza was embroiled in a viral crisis situation when two rogue employees posted videos of adulterated food on YouTube in April 2009. Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Communications, was part of the internal team that delivered the company’s crisis communication plan through Twitter and YouTube. What makes this story so compelling is the social media aspect of both the crisis itself and the strategy for managing the crisis. Using a case study approach, this paper assesses Domino’s decision to integrate the same medium that sparked the crisis into the strategies to manage the situation, and it questions the efficacy of best practices and principles of crisis management in the age of social media.

Keywords : Domino’s Pizza; crisis communication; social media; YouTube; Twitter; case study; public relations

Overview and Background

The way in which companies communicate with stakeholders during a crisis event is rapidly changing with the 24-hour access provided by the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Public relations practitioners and other communication executives are struggling to craft messages and maintain control of the flow of messages within this dynamic landscape. As Schiller (2007) explains, in “times of crisis, while corporate communication executives are preparing manicured statements, customers are [simultaneously] blogging, e-mailing and posting photos out of rage and desperation because the very people who should be listening to them aren’t” (p. 16). Bell (2010) asserts that stakeholders become “interpretive communities in organizational crisis contexts,” capable of cultivating an organization’s reputation through information they receive in cyberspace (p. 148). Social media allow stakeholders to control when, where, and how “reputational meanings are born and disseminated” as “an organization’s reputation is built on the stories formed by stakeholders and spread within networks” (Aula, 2011, p. 28, 30). Nowhere is this dynamic between organizations and their publics more apparent than on video sharing sites, such as YouTube, that encourage citizens and bloggers to be the co-producers of messages.

Burgess and Green (2009) explain that YouTube users engage with this medium “as if it is a space specifically designed for them and that should therefore serve their own particular interests” (p. vii). This can have enormous positive or negative impacts for organizations involved in crisis management, including but not limited to the inability of boundary spanners to monitor the vastness of this space; malicious users who might create a crisis; and the leveraging capabilities of this platform to enhance a brand during a crisis. Just as consumers can use this social medium to create a crisis for a company and interpret an organization’s reputation throughout, so too can an organization use this medium to manage a crisis and improve its reputation. Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s Pizza, would come to understand this dynamic as his brand suffered a devastating blow when two employees uploaded a vulgar video demonstrating their grotesque adulteration of food.

Bob Garfield (2010), a writer for Ad Age Blogs , recounts in an online article how this incident began. On Easter Sunday in April 2009, two Domino’s employees who were bored “working in a North Carolina store figured it would be just hilarious to post a video of themselves, defiling sandwich ingredients” (para. 2). The duo created five videos in total, one of which showed an individual sticking mozzarella cheese up his nose and then blowing the cheese on a sandwich, among other unsanitary and stomach-turning activities. An estimated 1 million people viewed these videos before they were pulled two days later.

During the first 24 hours, Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Corporate Communications, surveyed the situation and determined that the videos were not a hoax. He then began to communicate internally and externally with “relevant audiences at that time [including] our social media people, our head of security, senior management team,” according to Amy Jacques (2009) in an article published in The Public Relations Strategist (para. 4, 7). McIntyre collaborated with the consumer watchdog organization GoodAsYou.org , which first alerted Domino’s of the employee video, to identify the rogue employees as Kristy Hammond and Michael Setzer. By Tuesday, according to McIntyre, the company was responding to customers’ queries on Twitter about whether the company knew about the situation, what the company was doing, and why the company had not issued an official statement (Jacques, 2009). By Wednesday, Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s Pizza, recorded an apology that was then uploaded onto YouTube.

During this event, bloggers and journalists alike captured this crisis in articles and case studies, offering step-by-step timelines [1] (Jacques, 2009; Peeples & Vaughn, 2010) and criticisms of Domino’s responses (Beaubien, 2009; Esterline, 2009; Gregory, 2009; Vogt, 2009; Weiss, 2009; York, 2009). What follows in this case study is an analysis of Domino’s crisis communication strategies, using a blend of best practices for crisis management from the principles of public relations management crafted by Arthur W. Page and from an academic perspective as the framework for analysis. From a communication perspective, according to Jaques (2008), case studies “are generally a narrative of events which are critically examined in relation to recognized public relations theories and models in order to fully appreciate what happened and to consider alternative strategies and outcomes” (p. 194), and are written to provide practical value to managers and practitioners alike who are struggling to manage and control the flow of messages in the viral/digital landscape (Coombs, 2008; “How Social Media,” 2009; Oneupweb, 2007).

The Arthur W. Page Society is a professional organization for executives in the public relations and communication industries. Named after one of the first public relations executives to work for a Fortune 500 corporation (AT&T), this organization is charged with the goal of “embracing the highest professional standards; advancing the way communications is understood, practiced and taught; and providing a collegial and dynamic learning environment” (“Vision, Mission & Goals,” n.d., para. 2). According to the Society’s website, the following principles are designed to guide public relations practitioners’ actions and behaviors and exemplify Page’s philosophy of public relations management: (1) Tell the truth ; (2) Prove it with action ; (3) Listen to the customer ; (4) Manage for tomorrow ; (5) Conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it ; (6) Realize a company’s true character is expressed by its people ; and lastly, (7) Remain calm, patient and good-humored (“The Page Principles,” n.d.).

These principles are similar to the 10 best crisis communication practices Seeger (2006) generated, based on the work of communication scholars and expert practitioners:

• Process approaches and policy development ;
• Pre-event planning ;
• Partnership with the public ;
• Listen to the public’s concerns and understand the audience ;
• Honesty, candor, and openness ;
• Collaborate and coordinate with credible sources ;
• Meet the needs of the media and remain accessible ;
• Communicate with compassion, concern and empathy ;
• Accept uncertainty and ambiguity ; and
• Messages of self-efficacy .

Veil, Buehner, and Palenchar (2011) extend Seeger’s best practices, incorporating social media tools by making social media engagement a part of risk and crisis management policies and procedures; incorporating social media when scanning the environment; being a part of rumor management to determine appropriate channels; and using social media to communicate updates in an interpersonal manner (pp. 119-120).

Compiling and synthesizing these practices is not an easy task as “crises and disasters are relatively unique in nature, inherently dynamic, and unpredictable” (Bell, 2010, p. 151). These practices, according the Seeger (2006) “do not constitute a plan, but are the principles or processes that underlie an effective crisis communication plan and effective crisis response” (p. 242). Given the nature of crises, these practices will unfold and evolve differently within each situation.

Taking a situational approach to crisis communication, Coombs (2004) offers the Situational Crisis Communication Theory as an explanation for how organizations select a crisis response strategy. Essentially, a crisis triggers attributions of responsibility to the organization from stakeholders, along three dimensions: 1) whether the crisis has happened before or will likely happen again; 2) whether the event was controllable or uncontrollable by an individual or the organization; and 3) whether the crisis occurs within the organization or external to it. In this case, Domino’s as an organization was not directly responsible for this crisis, as the event occurred internally at the hands of employees, and this type of crisis had never happened before.

Based on stakeholder attributions, an organization will respond communicatively by cycling through a four step process: 1) observe events; 2) interpret information for accuracy and relevance; 3) choose a strategy among alternatives; and 4) implement the solution (Hale, Dulek, & Hale, 2005). Ideally, the strategy chosen will be aligned with the best practices and principles articulated above and will follow the four step process. Did Domino’s follow the best practices outlined by Seeger and the Page principles? What were the brand’s overall actions, decisions, and strategies for managing the crisis? In the case of Domino’s, it was not the consumers’ attributions of responsibility to Domino’s that triggered the strategy. Rather, what triggered Patrick Doyle’s decision to deliver a video apology on YouTube was the medium itself, which begs the questions, How did social media impact or influence the decision making process?, and What crisis communication lessons were learned in the process?

Strategies and Execution

This first Page principle—Tell the truth—begs a series of questions about whose truth needs to be told and about what in particular. In crisis situations, multiple truths or social constructions of the event(s) are vying for attention simultaneously: in general, customers, the company, its employees, and the media. In the case of Domino’s, particular watchdog organizations like GoodAsYou.org and Consumerist.com were also constructing versions of the event. The truth that Tim McIntyre, VP of Communications, wanted to convey was that this incident was “a rogue act of two individuals who thought they were being funny. That they do not represent this brand. That they do not represent the 100,000 people who work every day at Domino’s Pizza all over the world” (Flandez, 2009, para. 6). The truth that Patrick Doyle wanted to articulate was that “We didn’t do this. We’re sorry. And we want to earn your trust back” (Peeples & Vaughn, 2010, p. 3).

However, in wanting to be honest, open and candid (Seeger, 2006) about the situation, Domino’s needed to take responsibility. However, taking responsibility had the potential of exposing the organization to lawsuits and other legal vulnerabilities (Claeys & Cauberghe, 2012), including freedom of speech and copyright claims. In order to mitigate the consequences of being truthful and minimize the damage to the organization’s reputation, the company collaborated and coordinated with credible sources (the watch dog organizations and local authorities) and partnered with the public to observe and interpret the events , so as to not “act too hastily and alert more consumers to the situation it was attempting to contain” (York, 2009, para. 5), and to not “add fuel to the online fire” (Levick, 2009, para. 5). Unfortunately, a consequence of following the principles and best practices was that a 24 hour lag occurred. Because Domino’s hesitated, customers began tweeting about whether the company actually knew what was happening and questioning what it was going to do about the videos. Veil, Buehner, and Palenchar (2011) point to the fact that “The power to communicate remains with the communicating organization and their behaviors and narrative content, not in the technology” (p. 120).

A second challenge in telling the truth in the digital age hinges on additional questions (Roberts, 2010): Where in cyber and virtual spaces does an organization tell the truth and with what social medium or platform? York (2009) brought this to our attention in her online article, asking “why Domino’s has been lambasted for a lack of social media presence. After all . . . the brand is on MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and most visibly on Facebook with nearly 300,000 fans” (para. 18). There is a big difference, however,

between how emerging social media are used for marketing and how they work in a serious crisis situation . . . Companies that fail to integrate their marketing efforts with their online crisis response plans before a crisis hits are letting their antagonists have free reign. (Levick, 2009, para. 2-4)

The first message acknowledging the crisis was uploaded onto the corporate website on the day after the offending videos had been posted, but the message hardly yielded any hits. Domino’s did not reach its most popular audience through this social medium.

According to McIntyre, prior to this event ,

[the crisis team had a social media plan] already in place. We didn’t want to just jump in without a strategy. We wanted to do it right. So the irony for us was that we have a plan and we were going to implement it only a week later, so we ended up having to jump in [during] a crisis, which was the opposite of how we wanted to do it. (quoted in Jacques, 2009, para. 10)

However, after listening to the customers/publics’ tweets , the company was compelled to speed up the implementation of the social media plan. A decision was made to

[change] course and [respond] with a viral video . . . [that] featured all the elements of effective crisis communication. The company president apologized. He thanked the online community for bringing the issue to his attention. He separated the company from wrongdoers and announced their prosecution. And he outlined steps that Domino’s was taking to deal with the issue to make sure it never happens again (Levick, 2009, para. 6).

This strategy and decision to fight the crisis’ viral nature using YouTube was the tipping point that allowed the company “to cull user-generated content from social networking sites and use the platform for distributing information back to users” in order to prove itself with action and to communicate with passion, concern and empathy (Veil et al., 2011, p. 114). Levick (2009), in an online article for Bloomberg Businessweek , stipulated that “Domino’s not only demonstrated concern for its customers, but also an understanding of the critical importance of reaching out to a target audience on its own terms and in its own preferred space” (para. 7). This strategy and decision also suggests that Domino’s has the ability to manage the crisis for tomorrow : “This crisis happened online. It had to be dealt with online. By learning that lesson under fire Domino’s broke new ground and opened a new chapter in the ongoing evolution of crisis communications” (Levick, 2009, para. 7).

Evaluation & Discussion

Arthur W. Page advocated for public relations practitioners to tell the truth, a laudable goal to aspire to, but nonetheless one that is increasingly challenging in today’s digital era. Initially, Domino’s relied on its traditional technology (the Internet) to upload a video response on its corporate website to tell the public the truth about the situation. However, the number of people who viewed this video paled in comparison to the number of YouTube viewers who watched the employee prank videos—over one million within 24 hours. This realization accelerated and expedited the implementation of Domino’s social media plan that was still in development.

The crucial lesson to be learned about crisis communication comes in the form of extending and aligning the Situational Crisis Communication Theory with best practices for the integrating of social media (Veil et al, 2011). Coombs (2004) stipulated that a crisis triggers stakeholders’ attributions regarding the organization’s level of responsibility. These attributions, in turn, influence the strategy that an organization will use to lessen the damaging effects. In this case, however, it was not stakeholder attributions that dictated Domino’s strategy, but rather it was the social medium in which the crisis occurred that shaped the company’s decision to respond on YouTube as well as its overall strategy.

The only way to combat and lessen the impact of a social media generated crises like what Domino’s experienced is to integrate social media into crisis communication strategies and to create strategies for monitoring social media dialogue (Tinker, Fouse, & Currie, 2009). Schiller (2007) agrees that “Brands that get it right will be the ones that will use the same online tools as their customers” (p. 16). Further, Peeples and Vaughn (2010) concluded that Domino’s “effectively leveraged social media – the same channel used by the pranksters – to transparently communicate the company’s efforts to address the situation” (p. 1).The end result was that Domino’s emerged from this vulnerability criticized, yet knowledgeable about the reality of crisis communication in the age of social media.

The reality of crisis communication today is complex and contradictory. The speed at which consumers generate information about organizations is surpassing the speed by which public relations practitioners can monitor and verify the validity of such content, in order to respond before, during, and after a crisis incident. Because social media users can instantaneously create visual and textual dialogue with an organization, there is a corresponding expectation that organizations should respond just as quickly throughout all phases of a crisis incident. But taking the time to verify information and craft appropriate and effective responses is necessary to avoid legal issues and other complications. This dynamic has several implications for:

• How often organizations need to communicate with stakeholders: Regular updates across multiple social media should occur, using such platforms as HootSuite or Bottlenose to ensure consistency.
• How far and wide organizations need to span the boundaries of cyberspace and social media for potential crises and for potential stakeholder groups that can be impacted and affected: Johnson, Bazaa, and Chen (2011) conducted a study on boundary spanning, concluding that “organizations should focus on recruiting, attracting, and nurturing those online users with high levels of enduring involvement and social identity,” i.e., highly engaged social media users (p. 15).
• How organizations can manage their online reputations through search engine optimization (SEO).
• How new principles and best practices need to be developed to determine what messages or images from which stakeholder groups will tip towards a crisis.

As organizations grapple with these new directions, employees and consumers will need to learn how to accept uncertainty and ambiguity , and remain calm, patient and good humored.

Discussion Questions

• What impact does social media have on public relations practices, particularly crisis communications and reputation management? How significant is it for organizations today to monitor content on social media sites, including hash tags and other signs of internal and external dialogue?
• How should crisis communications preparedness plans address the proliferation of social media outlets?
• From the perspective of crisis communicators concerned with social media, what else could Domino’s have done or said to prove with action that its key messages are sincere? What other messages could Domino’s have delivered?
• What other types of traditional media and social media could Domino’s have used to reach its stakeholders?
• What other challenges do you think that PR practitioners, marketers, or corporate communicators could have in telling the truth in the digital age?
• How important is speed of response rate in a digital world, particularly when an organization is facing a crisis situation?
• Are there any other conclusions that you can draw from this incident?

Learning Activities

• According to its website, Media Curves “is the leader in public perception of topical issues.” This communications research company uses its patent pending technology to evaluate the “believability” of a particular video, such as the apology posted on YouTube by Domino Pizza’s President Patrick Doyle. To see how Media Curves’ technology captured people’s perceptions of Doyle’s apology video, watch Doyle’s apology video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFiXWboPD5A . Discuss the specific moments in the video that people found most believable and least believable and what public relations practitioners can learn from studies like this. Visit the Media Curves website to watch other assessments of video apologies.
• Using the framework presented in this article, apply the Arthur W. Page Society’s principles (“Vision, Mission & Goals,” n.d.), Seeger’s (2006) best practices, and Veil, Buehner, and Palenchar’s (2011) suggestions for integrating social media to United Airlines and its handling of Dave Carroll’s “United Breaks Guitar Video” or to Providence Renaissance and its handling of “Joey Quits” video . What lessons can be learned about social media and crisis communication from analyzing these organizations’ strategies?
• To see how Domino’s has dealt with this crisis, consider some background information about its Pizza Turnaround campaign . How does this compare with the best practices? How did tweets like #newpizza help?

[1] A visual timeline of the first four days is available on the Arthur W. Page’s website: http://www.awpagesociety.com/insights/winning-case-studies/2010/

Aula, P. (2011). Meshworked reputation: Publicists’ views on the reputational impacts of online communication. Public Relations Review, 37 , 28-36.

Beaubien, G. (2009, April 21). Domino’s YouTube flap: ‘A landmark event in crisis management.’ Public Relations Tactics . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.prsa.org/SearchResults/view/7978/105/Domino_s_YouTube_flap_a_landmark_event_in_crisis_m

Bell, L. M. (2010). Crisis communication: The praxis of response. The Review of Communication, 10 (2), 142-155.

Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2009). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture . Malden, MA: Polity Press.

Claeys, A., & Cauberghe, V. (2012). Crisis response and crisis timing strategies, two sides of the same coin. Public Relations Review, 38 , 83-88.

Coombs, W. T. (2004). Impact of past crises on current crisis communication: Insights from Situational Crisis Communication Theory. Journal of Business Communication, 41 (3), 265-289.

Coombs, W. T. (2008, April 2). Crisis communication and social media. Institute for Public Relations . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.instituteforpr.org/topics/crisis-communication-and-social-media/

Esterline, R. M. (2009, April 25). Case study: Domino’s YouTube video . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://crisiscomm.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/case-study-dominos

Flandez, R. (2009, April 20). Domino’s response offers lessons in crisis management. The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2009/04/20/dominos-response-offers-lessons-in-crisis-management

Garfield, B. (2010, January 11). Domino’s does itself a disservice by coming clean about its pizza: We like apologies and honesty, but there are limits. Just ask Ford. Ad Age Blogs . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://adage.com/article/ad-review/advertising-domino-s-a-disservice-ads/141393

Gregory, S. (2009, April 18). Domino’s YouTube crisis: Five ways to fight back. Time Magazine . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1892389,00.html

Hale, J. E., Dulek, R. E., & Hale, D. P. (2005). Crisis response communication challenges: Building theory from qualitative data. Journal of Business Communication, 42 (2), 112-134.

How social media are changing crisis communications—for better and worse. (2009, November 1). Security Director’s Report, 9 (11), 2-5.

Jacques, A. (2009, August 17). Domino’s delivers during crisis: The company’s step-by-step response after a vulgar video goes viral. The Public Relations Strategist . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/TheStrategist/Articles/view/8226/102/Domino_s_delivers_during_crisis_The_company_s_step

Jaques, T. (2008). A case study approach to issue and crisis management: Schadenfreude or an opportunity to learn? Journal of Communication Management, 12 (3), 192-203.

Johnson, P. R., Bazaa, U., & Chen, L. (2011, May). The new boundary spanners: Social media users, engagement, and public relations outcomes . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Boston, MA. Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.icavirtual.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/FULL-PAPER-SUBMISSION-TEMPLATE-EK1.pdf

Levick, R. S. (2009, April 21). Domino’s discovers social media. Bloomberg Businessweek . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.businessweek.com/print/managing/content/apr2009/ca20090421_555468.htm

Oneupweb. (2007). Principles of crisis management in a viral age: Integrating the tools and lessons of search 2.0 into a comprehensive crisis response [White paper]. Traverse City, MI: Oneupweb. Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://internetetopinion.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/crisis_management.pdf

The Page principles. (n.d.). Arthur W. Page Society . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.awpagesociety.com/about/the-page-principles/

Peeples, A. & Vaughn, C. (2010). Domino’s “special” delivery: Going viral through social media (Parts A & B). Arthur W. Page Society case study competition in corporate communications . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.awpagesociety.com/insights/winning-case-studies/2010

Roberts, J. (2010, March 18). Bringing your brand back from the brink. Marketing Week . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/bringing-your-brand-back-from-the-brink/3011206.article

Schiller, M. (2007, March 5). Crisis and the web: How to leverage the Internet when a brand takes a hit. Adweek, 48 (10), 16.

Seeger, M. W. (2006). Best practices in crisis communication: An expert panel process. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34 (3), 232-244.

Tinker, T., Fouse, D. (Eds.), & Currie, D. (Writer). (2009). Expert round table on social media and risk communication during times of crisis: Strategic challenges and opportunities [Report]. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association. Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/47910BED-3371-46B3-85C2-67EFB80D88F8/0/socialmedreport.pdf

Veil, S. R., Buehner, T., & Palenchar, M. J. (2011). A work-in-progress literature review: Incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 19 (2), 110-122.

Vision, mission & goals. (n.d.). Arthur W. Page Society . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.awpagesociety.com/about/vision-misson-goals/

Vogt, P. (2009, April 24). Brands under attack: Marketers can learn from Domino’s video disaster. Forbes . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/24/dominos-youtube-twitter-leadership-cmo-network-marketing.html

Weiss, T. (2009, April 22). Crisis management—Domino’s case study research. Trendsspotting Blog . Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.trendsspotting.com/blog/?p=1061

York, E. B. (2009, April 20). What Domino’s did right–and wrong–in squelching hubbub over YouTube video. Advertising Age [Online]. Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://adage.com/article/news/crisis-pr-assessing-domino-s-reaction-youtube-hubub/136086/

CORY L. YOUNG, Ph.D. , is an associate professor of communication management and design in the Department of Strategic Communication, Roy H. Park School of Communications, at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, where she teaches courses in corporate communication. Email: youngc[at]ithaca.edu.

ARHLENE FLOWERS is an associate professor of integrated marketing communications in the Department of Strategic Communication, Roy H. Park School of Communications, at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, where she teaches courses in public relations. Email: aflowers[at]ithaca.edu.

Acknowledgments

This manuscript was made possible in part by a James B. Pendleton grant from the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. A version of this paper was presented at the International Communication Association’s pre-conference hosted in Tokyo, Japan, June 2010. Additionally, the following graduate assistants need to be acknowledged for their research contributions: Rui Liu, Savitha Ranga, Nate (Zheli) Ren, and Danielle Clarke.

Editorial history Received November 4, 2011 Revised April 9, 2012 Accepted June 12, 2012 Published December 31, 2012 Handled by editor; no conflicts of interest

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A CASE STUDY OF WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION PROBLEM: STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION TO MAKE THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS MORE EFFECTIVE

Instituting effective organisational communication is imminent for organisations if they want to be relevant in the business world, going forward. Severally, breaches in communication ethics result in conflicts between top management and the labour force. This work examine such a case with a fictitious company name, in order to address the issue, by proffering a way forward using psychological theories and models.

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Example Of Case Study On Managerial Communication

Type of paper: Case Study

Topic: Government , Conflict , Organization , Management , Body Language , Communication , Workplace , Culture

Words: 1200

Published: 12/18/2019

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Introduction

Communication is very fundamental to human life owing to the fact that it helps people establish relationships, express themselves, interact with other people and the world, accomplish tasks as individuals and as a team and also helps people manage others and lead an organization. This paper seeks to explore Managerial communication in a business membership organization The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). It explores the different ways of managerial communication like: verbal and non verbal which includes: gestures, written, body language amongst others. Managerial communication is an essential function which enhances smooth communication between managers and also with employees and other relevant authorities like the board members. At CIPE the management is made of the Chief Executive, Chief operations Officer, Public Relations and communication manager, CIPE consulting Manager, Chief Operations Officer, Membership Development Manager, Finance Manager and Advocacy Manager.

Non-verbal Communication

It is essential to note that effective managerial communication helps in the success of an organization since it facilitates timely flow of the right information to the right people. There are two types of managerial communication: The first one is interpersonal communication which refers to communication between two or more people in the work place and second, is the organization communication which takes place at every level in the organization. Managerial communication like the overall communication can take two directions: horizontal communication which entails downward communication which refers to communication from the top management to the management. For instance, in CIPE t is the communication from the Chief Executive to the other managers and upward communication which is communication from middle level managers to the chief Executive. For instance, communication from the PR and communication manager to the Chief operations officer is downward communication.

Vertical communication on the other hand refers to communication between or amongst managers of the same level. For instance, the communication from the Finance manager to the Advocacy Manager is vertical communication. Managerial communication can either be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal communication has no evidence and managers must be very careful about what they talk to their team members. Non-verbal on the other end entails a lot of aspects like: Voice, a manager is expected to use a pleasant audible voice when passing statements; they should use good tonal range and should avoid shouting at all cost even when angry. Managers also should maintain a professional and decent personal appearance. They should be modest in their grooming in such a way that their appearance would not destruct attention.

Inter-cultural Managerial Communication

According to.Managers are expected to be very culture sensitive in their communication owing to the fact that the manager is expected to deal with multi-cultural people and therefore it is essential for them to have an understanding of culture sensitivity. At CIPE which is an international institution there are people from every continent and therefore, it is a basic requirement for all the managers to be very sensitive and demonstrate this through aspects like the greetings they use, dressing, gestures, food and gifts. At CIPE the formal English dressing is highly adopted and the institution has highly borrowed from American business mannerisms in all aspects. This is wrong owing to the fact that it is an organization with people from diversified cultures and embracing the American culture introduces disparity in the sense that the American culture is viewed superior.

Conflict Management

CIPE borrows strongly from John Dewey’s method as far as conflict resolution is concerned. Conflicts are inevitable and may have either positive or negative impact depending on how they are handled. CIPE has a number of conflicts either with employees who feel hurt by decisions by leadership. For instance, a month ago the Human resource Committee removed the service fee and a number of employees who have worked for the organization for more than ten years felt offended and sued the organization. Other possible conflicts are with the members when they feel unrepresented or the Government when CIPE is advocating against a policy the Government is in support. Others are manufacturers or businesses e.g. business engaging in counterfeit or illegal production. Therefore there is need for the managers to come up with a strategy to manage the conflicts.

Managerial Negotiation and Networking Skills

At CIPE the core business is advocacy and therefore it is very essential for the management to have excellent negotiation skill. Networking is also very essential since it’s through the networks that lobbying is made easier. For negotiation it is essential for one to learn how to flinch i.e. learning to react to a situation, research on the aspect you are negotiating on to get all facts to build your argument and take your time and be patient while negotiating. It is recommendable for managers to sharpen the networking skills by preparing when meeting a new group of people, listening more than talking to ensure they gather enough information.

Recommendations

It is essential for the management team at CIPE to go for training on non-verbal communication to increase their level of awareness on the importance and use of non-verbal communication. According to the wall street journal on the power of non-verbal communication unconscious signaling behavior is extremely essential in determining the functioning of an organization and therefore managers should be experts in understanding the non-verbal language of their staff. This would ensure they grasp the un-recorded information. For instance, a greatly un-satisfied employee may not talk about it but his or her non-verbal communication can depict their dissatisfaction. The managers should also take note of how they use their body language, gestures, tone, grooming and also space. For instance, CIPE being a multi-cultural organization would require the managers to be really sensitive in the use of their non-verbal communication.

It is also recommended that the managerial team employs John Dewey’s method of conflict management as outlined in; conflict should not always be viewed as negative but as eye openers. John Dewey actually views conflict as necessary to increase performance and understanding of issues and therefore, it is essential for the managers to embrace this view. In addition the managers besides meeting on their own should have frequent formal and informal meeting with the rest of the staff members to increase the rapport amongst the employees. This in-return enhances performance.

Hynes. (2010). Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications. NewYork: McGraw-Hill Education. Pentland, D. (12). The Wall Street Journal. The Power of Nonverbal Communication, 2008. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Verma, V. K. (1998). CONFLICT MANAGEMENT. Chicago: The Project Management Institute.

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1. WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?

1.4 Case Study: The Cost of Poor Communication

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions.  In fact, a recent estimate claims that the cost in the U.S. alone are close to $4 billion annually! [1] Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. The problem is that these costs aren’t usually included on the corporate balance sheet at the end of each year; if they are not properly or clearly defined, the problems remain unsolved.

You may have seen the Project Management Tree Cartoon before ( Figure 1.4.1 ); it has been used and adapted widely to illustrate the perils of poor communication during a project.

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse or a flood. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following “case studies” show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences. For example, consider the “ Comma Quirk ” in the Rogers Contract that cost $2 million. [3]   A small error in spelling a company name cost £8.8 million. [4]   Examine Edward Tufte’s discussion of the failed PowerPoint presentation that attempted to prevent the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. [5] The failure of project managers and engineers to communicate effectively resulted in the deadly Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. [6]   The case studies below offer a few more examples that might be less extreme, but much more common.

In small groups, examine each “case” and determine the following:

• Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
• Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
• Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
• Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. [7]

CASE 1: The promising chemist who buried his results

Bruce, a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and data from toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly safe and effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Bruce’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Bruce’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Bruce had since left the company, because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 2: The rejected current regulator proposal

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more affordably, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that the new Acme regulators be installed at all company plants.

She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind his new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed the potential cost savings over 3 years.

The proposals did not receive any response. Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

CASE 3: The instruction manual the scared customers away

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Sagatec Software, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Sagatec felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Sagatec asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Sagatec began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Sagatec eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Sagatec $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: One garbled memo – 26 baffled phone calls

Joanne supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, she issued this one-sentence memo to her staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Joanne’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: Big science — Little rhetoric

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, [8] itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: The co-op student who mixed up genres

Chris was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the Widget Manufacturing plant. As part of his co-op work experience, Chris shadowed his supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Chris’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Chris, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for his essay assignment as well.

He wrote the essay first, because he was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. He had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. He began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the Widget Manufacturing plant in New City. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Chris finished the essay and submitted it to his writing instructor. He then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to his co-op supervisor. He “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but his supervisor told him that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Chris was aghast! He had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . He missed the company softball game that Saturday so he could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of his supervisor.

• J. Bernoff, "Bad writing costs business billions," Daily Beast , Oct. 16, 2016 [Online]. Available:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions?ref=scroll ↵
• J. Reiter, "The 'Project Cartoon' root cause," Medium, 2 July 2019. Available: https://medium.com/@thx2001r/the-project-cartoon-root-cause-5e82e404ec8a ↵
• G. Robertson, “Comma quirk irks Rogers,” Globe and Mail , Aug. 6, 2006 [Online]. Available: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/comma-quirk-irks-rogers/article1101686/ ↵
• “The £8.8m typo: How one mistake killed a family business,” (28 Jan. 2015). The Guardian [online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2015/jan/28/typo-how-one-mistake-killed-a-family-business-taylor-and-sons ↵
• E. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint , 2001 [Online]. Available: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/pi/2016_2017/phil/tufte-powerpoint.pdf ↵
• C. McFadden, "Understanding the tragic Hyatt Regency walkway collapse," Interesting Engineering , July 4, 2017 [Online]: https://interestingengineering.com/understanding-hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse ↵
• T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing ↵
• C. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York, NY: Random House, 1995. ↵

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Why the Management: Practitioner Programme worked for me

Ministry of Defence policy advisor Nazia Lodhi says she learned from peers across government while on the Civil Service Management: Practitioner Programme.

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“Management can be taught,” says Nazia Lodhi, (pictured), a senior policy advisor for the Armed Forces Pensions Schemes at the Ministry of Defense (MoD).

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Case Studies in Translational Science: Identifying Best Practices to Accelerate the Translational Process

In early 2024, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Coordination, Communication, and Operations Support (CCOS) Center awarded Working Group (WG) status to the “Translational Science Case Group”. This group, officially known as, "Learning about the Science of Translation: Identifying Best Practices to Accelerate the Translational Process Through Case Studies" is co-led by Clara Pelfrey, Director of Evaluation at the Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC) of Northern Ohio, alongside Deborah DiazGranados, Evaluation Director for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research. This WG aims to explore best practices in accelerating the translational process by investigating case studies. The award from CCOS includes 30 CTSA hubs involved as members or contributors of translational success stories.

Translational Science (TS) works to translate research discoveries into real health improvements, a process that can take 18-20 years to develop new medical treatments. The National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) established the CTSA to enhance research infrastructure in the United States. Assessing the effectiveness of this investment in improving human health involves showcasing success stories through TS case studies. A case study is an intensive analysis involving the collection of data to allow an in-depth understanding of a specific process or situation. A retrospective translational science case study is uniquely suited to look back over the development of a successful health intervention to systematically assess the complex processes involved in effectively translating an idea or a discovery into better human health. As an evaluation method, case studies are a valuable type of storytelling using a rigorous method to help readers see the whole story.

We have been developing a process for and conducting case studies of successful research since 2017 to learn about the clinical and translational process – how it works when it is working well, as well as discovering the challenges and how those obstacles were overcome, leading to discoveries and improved health.

The Translational Science Case Studies WG has worked on several individual TS case studies over the last few years.  Several notable successes include:

• Publishing a rigorous protocol for conducting a TS case study in collaboration with NIH researchers in Science Policy & Planning and Evaluation, Performance, and Reporting. 1   
• Transforming the TS Case Study Protocol paper into a science podcast or "SciPod". 2
• Successfully lobbying the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science (JCTS) to create a new manuscript category: the “Translational Science Case Study”. 3   
• Creating a classification system for the TS case studies to enable future cross-case analysis.4   
• Numerous publications of successful TS case studies. 4-8    
• Collaborating with NIH scientists at the ACTS TS 2022 meeting on a presentation: “Advancing translational science: using case studies to identify, teach, and disseminate effective approaches”. 9

We are excited that this new WG has attracted a total of 30 CTSA hubs to this project.

The goal of this WG is to conduct a comparative case study (e.g., a meta-synthesis) of translational science case studies. This will involve developing new case studies through interviewing investigators and collaborators, as well as identifying existing case studies that are published online and conducting further interviews with investigators to discover the challenges, facilitators and societal impacts from their existing case studies. The goal of this collaboration is to generate new knowledge about the nature of the translational science process by investigating and comparing successful translational science cases that have led to positive impacts on human health. During this process, we will discover critical facilitators, challenges, methods of overcoming roadblocks, and human health impacts. Translational Science Case studies can illustrate the impact that CTSA hub services have had on individual researchers. Comparing case studies to each other in cross-case analyses has the potential to reveal valuable insights that we can use to develop a best practices model for multiple different stakeholders, including TS trainees, established investigators, healthcare stakeholders, research teams, institutions, CTSA hubs, funders, Congress and the public.

By fostering collaboration among CTSA hubs, the WG seeks to generate actionable insights that will advance the translational science field and promote effective approaches for improving human health outcomes.

• Dodson, S., Kukic, I., Scholl, L., Pelfrey, C., & Trochim, W. (2021). A protocol for retrospective translational science case studies of health interventions. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 5(1), E22. doi:10.1017/cts.2020.514
• Charting How Research Leads from Discoveries to Improved Health
• TS case study manuscript category at JCTS
• Qua, K. Swiatkowski SM, Gurkan UA, Pelfrey CM. A Retrospective Case Study of Successful Translational Research: Gazelle Hb Variant Point-of-Care Diagnostic Device for Sickle Cell Disease. JCTS, 2021.  doi:10.1017/cts.2021.871
• Brewer SK, Davis JM, Singh R, Welch LC. Establishing evidence-based pharmacologic treatments for neonatal abstinence syndrome: A retrospective case study. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. 2022;6(1):e96. doi:10.1017/cts.2022.431
• Samuels E, Champagne E, Gravelin M, Racklyeft J, Weatherwax K. Adapting an Expanded Access program to enable investigational treatments for COVID-19. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. 2022;6(1):e77. doi:10.1017/cts.2022.403
• Rojas C, Spector SA, Cale B, et al. A framework and road map for rapid start-up and completion of a COVID-19 vaccine trial: A single clinical trial site experience. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. 2022;6(1):e21. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2022.3
• Smith, M., Gigot, M., Harburn, A., Bednarz, L., Curtis, K., Mathew, J., & Farrar-Edwards, D. (2023). Insights into measuring health disparities using electronic health records from a statewide network of health systems: A case study. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 7(1), E54. doi:10.1017/cts.2022.521
• Jessica M. Faupel-Badger, PhD MPH; Amanda L. Vogel, PhD MPH; Clara M. Pelfrey, PhD; Deborah DiazGranados, PhD.  Advancing translational science: using case studies to identify, teach, and disseminate effective approaches. Translational Science 2022. Association for Clinical and Translational Science. Chicago, IL. Apr. 21, 2022. https://www.actscience.org/Translational-Science/Program/Thursday-April-21