To: | Mr. Derek and Peter Taylor | Re: | Information Solutions Task Force Analysis |
Memo

Pre-Analysis and Recommendation After a pre analysis of the current situation within Information Solutions, we made a decision by doing in-depth analysis and assessing the critical factors in order to circumvent a potential crisis and, therefore ensure business sustainability. These factors that are plaguing your company include crisis such as lack of communication, time, and employee retention. We believe that using a combination of the dynamic/equalitarian/structuring communication strategy will serve multiple purposes in key factors that we have listed. You will have to bring the two groups (Support and Solutions Division) of the Information Solutions Company together to become one core unit. The dynamic strategy will allow you to challenge the support and solutions division to work together, and put all of their differences that they have with one another to the side for the better of the company. It also helps because; Information Solution is such a fast moving environment. The equalitarian strategy allows an effective two-way form of information and decision-making, it helps by also strengthening the team as a collective group and builds understanding about certain issues within the company. Finally, the structuring strategy will allow you to clarify certain things that the employees may not understand, help you put them on a set schedule to finish tasks, and will help gain order within the company. Those are a couple of reasons why we believe the dynamic/equalitarian/structuring is the best strategy and action plan for you to use and implement in order to improve your company’s issues and problems within the support and solutions division. Situational Issues and Analysis Following situation factors were taken into consideration in effort to recommend the most appropriate communication strategy. My colleagues and I have identified several key issues that will need to be considered and resolved (See attachment) to ensure sustainability within your company. We believe that the chosen strategy is perfect in this situation because, they all support each issue individually or work well together. Lack of Communication One of the biggest factors within Information Solutions is lack of communication. Especially with the internal tension between the Support and Solutions division. The Solutions Division feels like the Support side can never be depended on and the Support Division feels like the Solutions side doesn’t communicate with them when thou create special orders. Also, employees hearing things through the grapevines are never a good thing, because of a lot of things can be misconstrued or information moving from one person to another can change tremendously. Your employees need to be the first informed about changes within the company. Their confidence and relationship with you as Co-CEOs of Information Solutions is very crucial for your credibility and to have a long-lasting business. The Support Division feels very unappreciated and undervalued, because of the way you guys somewhat overlook them at times, and do not communicate with them as much as ever other division. Even the managing directors and regional managers feel that there is a lack of communication between them as well. For example, after the email that you all sent out stating, “We may need to relocate some of our Support Services group to assist with implementation”, everything was up in the air. The managers couldn’t answer any of the employee’s questions because they didn’t have the answers. Communication with managers is a must for a great company because they are with the employees a lot more than you are and should be a splitting image of you all when you’re not around. Withdrawal would always be a delimitation in this situation. We believe that it would be inappropriate to avoid this issue, because without communication your company will only go downhill and the employees want to feel respected, wanted, and valued. Your employees shouldn’t feel like you all want to run from different situations, avoiding them, or are too busy to talk and deal with them. If we were to choose this approach it would show your employees a characteristic side of you that isn’t true. The strategy that we chose will help you look good in the eyes of the employees. The equalitarian communication strategy will help with this key issue because it offers a two-way flow of information and decision-making, it also helps by strengthening the team as a collective group and builds understanding. It will allow both of you to have constructive conversations with the employees (Managers and associates). This strategy can also help with understanding of things that were heard through the grapevine and not from the CEOs. As Co-CEOs of the company, you should always want employees to hear everything in the proper manner or from the proper supervisors and not other employees. The equalitarian approach will allow you to clarify company standards, delegate tasks to managers, and will allow disagreements to be discussed and assessed. This is where the structuring communication strategy will best come into affect. The structuring strategy will help since the Support division is seeking clarification about a plethora of things dealing with the company and its joint ventures. If a manager/supervisor gives them information over another employee, they will not have a lot to question. But, if they do it will be easy for those questions to be answered. Time Time is another key issue that we considered and feel that your company should take into great consideration. Starting with the overwhelmed workload for the Supports Division and then, moving on to your unavailability and lack of attention to employees. The Supports Division will need a wider window to finish work because of everything they have to handle and how much they are out of the office. Then, for you all as Co-CEOs, you must show more interest for the company and its employees’. Your managers insist on have face-face meeting, for some reason you ignore their recommendations and continue to send emails that are being misunderstood. Just as I stated in the “Lack of communication” issue, you never want to seem too busy for your employees. We recommend that one of you continuously work with the Supports Division and the other with Solution, then meet together and communicate about everything that is going on. It will be better for your company in the long run because, every group is receiving the attention that they need and all of their questions will always be answered. The controlling strategy would be yet another delimitation for this situation within Information Solutions. The biggest reason why this communication strategy wouldn’t work is because you need unskilled subordinates for this to work. Information Solutions has plenty of skilled and intelligent subordinates but they all just aren’t on the same page the way a company should. This goes back to the lack of communication that we stated above as a key issue; they are one in the same. Neither of you should want to come off as ones who are attempting to constrain or direct actions or thoughts of your employees. The structuring communication strategy will help with this time issue by setting routine tasks on how to handle everyday jobs. Also, by putting the employees on a set schedule to finish tasks will help gain order within the company and will help the Solutions Division know what and what not to expect from the Supports Division. The structuring strategy will have them on the same schedule plan, it will also help to keep the high-profile clients in the loop and not have them angry or disappointed with our services. This strategy will also show your employees a professional approach; it will make it easier to alleviate tension between the divisions, and will also allow face-face interaction, which is much needed. Employee Retention Finally, employee retention is also a issue that has to be considered, because if your employees continue to be undervalued and underappreciated they could possible look to venture out to look for work elsewhere. The two key issues before this would be huge reasons for employees to leave a company and look for jobs elsewhere. You have to make sure that they are being appointed to in the correct manner and are also in the loop when it comes to certain things about the company. Because right now the entire Support Division is in distraught after the email about a couple of them having to possibly relocate. If this would have been presented in in a different way or at least went into details about the possible relocation the employees and managers would not be so lost. You have to clarify to them what is actually going on. Another thing is that you must get the two divisions to work together. Every time the Solutions Division has a special project, before giving out a date they should communicate with the Support Division to see what they have on their plate and when they can have the project done. This will drop down confusion within the two division about each other and will make sure you do not have unhappy customers in the end. The dynamic strategy will work with this issue because, it will allow you to challenge the support and solutions division to work together, and put all of their differences that they have with one another to the side for the better of the company. It also helps because; Information Solution is such a fast moving environment. This strategy will work perfectly with the structuring strategy because it will make a quick resolution for Information Solutions, it is a form of timely communication, can stimulate action in a fast-moving environment, and allows time to clarify company standards and procedures.

Implementation In order to effectively implement the dynamic/equalitarian/structuring communication strategy approach, you should first set up a face-face meeting with the managers to clarify and discuss the implementation email and how they should handle the employees’ questions. This step will support the equalitarian communication strategy, because it involves a two-way flow of information with you all communicating with your managers on how to handle the situation. It will also strengthen understanding on questions that the managers have for the both of you. Following the face-face meeting you should send out a company-wide email to set a group meeting with the Support and Solutions Division to conduct an agenda-based meeting to address company standards, the joint venture, possibly relocation, and the establishment of a new business culture by discussing current problems and issues. This step supports the structuring communication strategy by you all influencing the employees by citing standards that apply to the job and clearing the air on the situation that are being heard through the grapevine. It also allows you to see how the employees feel about everything and how you can help them feel better and more secure about the situation. After that a plan of action should be created to alleviate problem, issues, encourage teamwork, and synergy. This dynamic communication strategy supports this step by challenging employees, being action-oriented, also by being brief and to the point. Because, you will be challenging the two divisions to work together and put their issues all on the table and work through them as a team. Finally, there should be monthly conducted group meetings to make sure everything is still going well with the company and these same issues aren’t arising again. It also shows your employees that they are important because you are taking time out of your busy schedule every month to overlook the company. This shows that both of you are taking a step forward and want to see them succeed for the better of the company. One CEO visit the Support Division, the other the Solutions, and both of you come back and meet with the manager together. Conclusion We believe that by following the dynamic/equalitarian/structuring communication strategy and action plan above, you will be able to help with the lack of communication, time, and employee retention issues within Information Solutions. Thus, improving teamwork and creating a better atmosphere in the workplace, which will lead to a success of the strategic plan for the company as a whole. We here at Consulting greatly appreciate you calling on us for our expertise in this situation; if there is anything else you need from us or have any problems we’re always here for you and Information Solutions.