4-1 Case Studies
Communication Situation: Your manager asked that you research pinyin, a method of pronouncing Chinese words, for some brief facts to present at a luncheon discussion group. You have noted some basic information, but your information is not in logical order.
Task: Prepare a memo from you to your manager. Provide an informative subject line. Organize the memo in the direct pattern of organization: Open with the main idea, which is your response to the request for information. Your notes appear below. Explain your findings by grouping similar ideas into paragraphs. Close by offering additional assistance. Review, edit, and revise your notes to incorporate the six Cs of effective messages.
Signs and posters around China are frequently spelled in pinyin but without the tone marks. The population of China was introduced to pinyin in about the late 1950s for the purpose of standardizing how to pronounce Mandarin for all of China. The phonetic alphabet approximates Mandarin pronunciation with Western spellings and includes tone marks to signify at what pitch to say a word. The tone used in pronouncing a word is critical to the meaning of the word. Not pronouncing the word correctly can completely change the meaning of the word. A web site that will help with pronunciation is http://hua.umf.maine.edu/chinese/topics/pinyin/pinyin.html. Something else too is that major Western newspapers have adopted the pinyin spelling of Chinese names and words. Pinyin is based on the letters of the Roman alphabet in an effort to provide a phonetic alphabet for Chinese. Before the ’50s, the different and variety of dialects made it difficult to comprehend and understand the spoken language from one region to another region.
4-2 Case Studies
Communication Situation: Your manager wants to emphasize how misuse of e-mail and instant messaging can cause legal and ethical problems for your company. The manager has asked you to find an article that clearly demonstrates how e-mail or instant messaging played a role in legal proceedings, corporate scandals, etc.
Task: Find an article using print materials or search online using keywords such as e-mail or IM liability and e-mail or IM scandals. Key one or two paragraphs summarizing the main points of the article and cite the article source. Do not offer your opinion. Attach the article to your summary. Save your summary for Case Study 4-3.
4-3 Case Studies
Communication Situation: Use the information that you gathered for Case Study 4-2. Offer your opinion of the article.
Task: Based on your findings in Case Study 4-2 and on other articles you have read, address these issues: personal e-mail or IM use at work and employer monitoring. Express your opinion in one or two paragraphs.
4-4 Case Studies
Ethics in Action—Discussion Generator
Directions: Read this case. Use the space provided to write your responses to the “Questions for Thought and Discussion.” For assistance in resolving ethical problems, refer to the “Framework for Making Ethical Decisions” available online at http://www.thomsonedu.com/bcomm/brantley.
Case: Problems with Internet security, spam, and viruses have caused businesses to implement measures to protect hardware, software, and intellectual property. A few weeks ago your company, Big Shoes Incorporated, initiated an acceptable use policy (AUP) to reduce liability and to increase security. The policy prohibits employees from using company computers to check personal e-mail or to send any e-mail that is not directly related to the business. The AUP also requires employees to report immediately the receipt of any non-work-related e-mail or spam to the Information Technology (IT) Department. The company also is monitoring employee e-mail messages for these (and other) policy violations.
Before this new program was in place, you and other department employees often forwarded amusing messages, pictures, and interesting news articles to each other. The new policy, however, has drastically reduced those kinds of e-mail messages. In fact, you have completely adhered to the policy.
Dustin Lozano, a longtime coworker and friend in your department, has ignored the new policy. Last week he was still sending e-mail messages with titles such as “Joke of the Day,” “You Won’t Believe This!!!” and “Funny Pictures” to your business account. Most of the time you were able to spot and delete them quickly. In one case, though, one of the silly messages sat in your in-box overnight. Two days ago you went to see Dustin and asked him to stop sending nonwork messages, reminding him of the new policy. Your discussion does not seem to have done much good. When you arrived at work this morning, your first e-mail was a message from Dustin with a subject line that read “World’s Craziest Dogs.”
Questions for Thought and Discussion
1. What ethical issues or questions do you see in this case?
2. What are your options? What could you do to try to resolve the situation?
3. What should you do? Why?