The aim of the paper is to diagnose and analyze a communication mishap or communication-culture problem in your organization (current or past). Students will analyze a personal example/experience of a communication mishap or communication culture that displays the presence of at least 2 of the following “non-courageous” communication strategies: control (vs. collaboration), top-down communication (vs. upward), secrecy (vs. transparency), and impersonal communication (vs. engaging). See the following information for details on each section of the paper that is required:
Assignment (*The followiing headings are required. You are free to add additional subheadings if you wish):
- Incident/Culture and Outcome
Describe the culture/problem. Provide a thorough analysis of the unproductive communication demonstrated as well as the outcome(s)/result(s). New supervisor came into our school district and started telling us how bad we were and how we needed to change. She forced new policies without checking with anyone, implemented horrible new math curriculum with no text books without making sure it would work for our population, went after people to try to get them fired, constantly berated our staff and teachers. She bad mouthed our school to the higher ups and to the school board. Any time someone had a new idea or proposed a solution to a problem, such as teachers with alternative schedules, she insisted on taking a hard line. She would not receive any input from other supervisors or from teachers. Several teachers with approved alternate schedules who worked hard and also go appropriate coverage when off were forced to work full schedule with no respect for their personal issues for needing alternate schedules. Principals were berated for their horrible staff, people were sent to classrooms to spy on staff and reported back false information regarding staff not teaching curriculum. She monitored the online math curriculum and berated the principals for not making their teachers use the online math curriculum that was difficult to use and had no supplemental support and no text books so students could work on homework out of a book when they didn’t have internet at home. She changed the transportation and school attendance locations so students from opposing gangs had to cross paths. When law enforcement and staff told her this would cause serious fights, She told teachers they needed to provide more engaging lessons so their gangsters would want to come to class and not fight. Please rewrite this highlighted section, it is all my original words but needs to be APA style and higher vocab. - Examining Absence of Courageous Communication Factors:
Critically evaluate the evidence of controlling, top-down, secretive and/or impersonal communication strategies displayed. Students should reference the course texts and additional scholarly literature (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to the course texts in this section). For example:
a. If control is present, perhaps diagnose the types of control displayed and the impact you observed.
b. If top-down is present, perhaps diagnose the obstacles to upward communication that exist(ed) or why leadership overly relies on this method.
c. If secrecy is present, perhaps diagnose the existing organizational pressures that may have contributed to the lack-of transparency and why secrecy may have become a norm.
d. If impersonal communication is present, perhaps diagnose what specific forces in the organization discourage(d) personal engagement and/or communicate(d) a lack of care for its employees. - Examining Leadership Factors:
What leadership qualities were notably absent from the incident and precisely how would the presence of certain leadership qualities have enhanced the communication methods/culture? Students are welcome to draw on their knowledge gained from the Literature Review assignment (though writing in this critical assignment should be original and not self-plagiarized). Please provide proper APA citations from a minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to the course texts in this section. - Ethical & Biblical Considerations:
Evaluate and discuss any ethical considerations and/or repercussions of the incident/culture. How does your personal faith and values inform your analysis of the incident and outcome as well as the changes you believe are necessary for improvement? - Courageous Communication Alternative Outcome:
Drawing on your knowledge of leadership qualities and strategies for courageous communication, construct a comprehensive summary of what would have been a more preferable communication effort and outcome in this situation to achieve courageous communication. In other words, upon reflection, what should have happened in this scenario? For example:
a. What would have needed to change for collaboration to have been enhanced?
b. What mechanisms would have needed to be in place in order for upward communication to have been available and/or utilized?
c. Explain some specific changes that would need to occur in order to encourage transparency.
d. What specific actions would the organization need to take to ensure genuine care and engagement are nurtured?
Students should reference the course texts and additional scholarly literature (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to the course texts in this section) - Reflection on Prevention of Mishap/Culture:
Lastly, reflect on what would have been some possible ways to have prevented this mishap in the first place. For example, are there better organizational practices that would have prevented this? Are there voices that should have been heard more clearly to steer communication and decisions in a different way? Could the implementation of specific leadership skills have helped this situation? Depending on your reflections, please formulate a communication plan for if/how you would express your discontent about the mishaps/culture, with whom you would communicate to, and practically how you would share your recommendations for organizational communication improvements. These corrections might be specific to the incident or they may be more broadly related to culture/norms. Students may reference the course texts and additional scholarly literature as needed.
WRITING REQUIREMENTS & APA
- Scholarly source requirement: A minimum of 8 sources in this assignment in addition to text books. Harris, T. E. & Nelson, M. D. (2018). Applied organizational communication. Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138497184
Lyon, A. (2016). Case studies in courageous organizational communication: Research and practice for effective workplaces. Peter Lang, Inc. ISBN: 978-1433131233
- Proper Academic Writing Mechanics: Submission should be in essay form, strictly adhering to academic writing requirements and proper mechanics (structure, organization/sequence, spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax etc.)
- APA Format requirements: Proper APA format and citation is required, includes the proper use of headings. Thorough and accurate management, citing and referencing of sources used is also critically important. Be sure that your research relies only on academically appropriate, scholarly sources.
- Requirement: Use the provided headings for each section of this assignment.
