9/9 Lecture Notes Communications and Ethics The Medium is the Message Particularly in employee dismissals Organizational Behavior, Bridging Science and Practice - Talya Baer and Berrin Erdogan Fatworld Terminating the employment of someone is a difficult conversation regardless of how big the company is how good a communicator you are, or what the reason for departure is some companies think that they found an easy way out of this probleme: Why not send a quick carefully crafted message to soon to be exemployees or how about a mass conference call? Alter to their home address explaining what is happening and why? Examples of electronic parations abound, in 2014 in Chicago, Snart's Sandwich Shop sent a message to 20 employees three days before Christmas, telling them that the store would be doned indefinitely for remodeling ending the message with ownership appreciates your service and wishes you well in your new endeavors. 2005 Radioshack made the news by eliminating the positions of 400 employees and letting them know by email. And as it often happens with electronic communication sometimes mistakes are made, resulting in accidental dismissal Aviva investors, one of the world's largest insurers, sent a generic termination message intended for one employee to all of the company's 1300 employees. Email is often cricired for being impersonal, but how about a conference calach a news service organization assigned all its employees to one of two conference rooms. Then, all employees who dialed into one of the rooms teaching hundreds in numbers were told that their positions were being eliminated Companies trying other such methods included Hugo Boss, where news of the Cleveland plant dosing was delivered via FedEx packages sent to employee homes it before Christmas. Of course, letting employees go is always hard but being sensitive while doing so is an important part of business 1. Do you think these types of frings hurt a companies brand? 2. What are some conditions, if any, that could justifying someone via text message or an email? 3. Do you think tiring someone som personally via email or text is thical Why? if nothical, why? What is the rationale for conducting man tayots through electronic communication or other impersonal methods? Do you see any advantages to the employee to the company 5. Does your decision differ for mass layotts versus an individual firing for poor performance or other just cause? Answer all the above questions in a one page typed paper. Submit via email before next Wednesday class 122/20 Lecture Notes 9/16 30 > % ) $ 4 & 7 ( 9 3 5 6 8 0 dele W E R T Y U 0 } 1 [ S D F G I J L ? ? CV B N M * I nd command option