Chapter 14: Managing Communication

Management Team Decision

SAMSUNG ON FIRE

As the communications director for a Canadian charter airline, you have been very busy lately. You are responsible for internal organizational communications to all employee groups. The batteries in Samsungs Note 7 smartphones have been exploding or catching fire. It seems the lithium batteries are the cause of this frightening situation as these batteries may overheat or short-circuit. The batteries may be defective or not packaged properly, causing these problems.

To complicate matters, airlines are now faced with how to handle this problem with passenger flights. Transport Canada and the Federal Aviation Authority have issued a travel advisory requesting that passengers do not check these phones into their checked luggage or use them during flights. Yet, this is not an official mandate from the travel authorities.

Further on your mind is the recent Southwest Airlines flight in which a Samsung smartphone did catch fire before a flight departed. Concerning is that this phone was powered off and had been repaired for this defect. As you head into a senior management meeting, you are weighing options about how to best manage this critical situation for your airline.

Questions

1. Outline how you will communicate this situation to the airline employees? Specify which communication method you would use.

2. Which channel of communication would be most effective to communicate this problem to your employees?