Executive Summary
Frazer’s Department Store’s Executive Vice President, Anne Fiske, had recently attended a conference where the key note speaker gave a presentation about communication. Inspired by the key note speaker, Fiske returned to Frazer’s Department Store interested in seeing how communications within their own business was being handled. Ms. Fiske wanted to know all of the communication channels that were currently being used to communicate between the various levels and departments of the organization. A direct report to Ms. Fiske was Vice President of Human Resource employee Sterling Stone. Ms. Fiske discussed her interest in finding out this information with Mr. Stone and he decided that this would be a perfect project for the recently recruited young woman by the name of Gloria Prentiss. Gloria Prentiss had been hired as the human resource employment supervisor. Mr. Stone felt that by researching and compiling this information, Ms. Prentiss would gather some good training and experience and therefore he assigned the task to her. Ms. Prentiss met with both Ms. Fiske and Mr. Stone to further discuss the details of the project and she was sent on her way to collect the information.
Facts
Five days later, Ms. Prentiss presented the completed report to Mr. Stone and asked for the opportunity to discuss the details with him after he had a chance to review it. Ms. Prentiss had presented detailed report outlining the various communication channels that were in use at the department store. The highlighted methods were; A) Written Communications – Employee Newsletter, Door Hand Outs, Paycheck Inserts, Bulletin Boards, Intrastore Messages and Correspondence B) Meetings – Departmental Meetings, Store Meetings C) Counseling – Six month interviews, Attitude Survey D) Informal Communications – Manager / Employee Relationship, Grapevine
Problems
While the report was thorough and fairly well written, nearly the entire report was written from a “negative” perspective. It appeared that Ms. Prentiss found it very difficult to include any positive aspect of the communication channels currently in place at the department store. In almost every instance highlighted in A through D above, Ms. Prentiss expounded on the all of the negative faults of these communications rather than just reporting on the communication channels currently being used at the company. Affected Parties
The affected parties primarily include Ms. Fiske, Mr. Stone and Ms. Prentiss; however, since several of the employees were interviewed throughout the store, I feel that the problem affected nearly all members of the organization. Since the survey that was conducted was seemingly only looking for the complaints about the communication methods, I feel that the negativity could have been passed along through the company. People who may have been feeling okay with their jobs and positions may be agitated when presented with such a negative spin on what they never perceived to have been a problem previously.
Solutions
Implement Employee Suggestion Box (E-mail, Box etc.)
Train Management on Communicating Effectively
Provide Guidelines for Communication – Frequency / Method
Corrective Action for Ms. Prentiss