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Complete the Communication Portfolio Assignment,  Compose a cohesive document that addresses the following: See attachment for instructions   No plagiarism APA citing 3 - 4 pages Assignment: Communication Portfolio – Bad News and Crisis Communication It has been a tough year for Anthony’s Orchard. There are multiple performance markers that contribute to how raises are determined, and you just learned that the planned annual raise of 2.5\% has been eliminated. Although you haven’t communicated to the team about the raise, the time to do so is now, and you know that a rumor had been circulating in the department about the planned raise being approved. Your team consists of the following individuals: Jan – a recently divorced mother of two Carl – a married man with no children William – a man nearing retirement age who is planning accordingly Brenda – a woman who is eligible for a raise for the first time Phillip – a man who is currently on a performance improvement plan, and is therefore not eligible for a raise To prepare for this Assignment: Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially: · French, S. L., & Holden, T. Q. (2012). Positive organizational behavior: “See attachment” · Gallo, A. (2015). How to deliver bad news to your employees. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2–6. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/03/how-to-deliver-bad-news-to-your-employees · Jansen, F., & Janssen, D. (2013). Effects of directness in bad-news“See attachment” · Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Sample corporate website: Anthony’s Orchard. Retrieved from https://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/MMSL/6115/02/anthonys_orchard_website/index.html · Manzoni, J. F. (2002). Managing people: A better way to deliver bad news. Harvard Business Review, 80(9), 2-3. Retrieved from Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2002/09/a-better-way-to-deliver-bad-news · Pratheeba, N. (2016). Essence of corporate communication “See attachment” Assignment Complete the Communication Portfolio Assignment,  Compose a cohesive document that addresses the following: · Determine an appropriate communication strategy for the team. Here are some ideas/considerations: · Group e-mail · Team huddle (or meeting) · Formal letter · Individual face-to-face meetings or phone calls · Address the following to help you find the most appropriate strategy: · Describe criteria for evaluating the delivery of the bad news message in terms of what is within your control. · Compare and contrast the different channels with regard to effective delivery of this news. · Summarize some of the principles of effective delivery. · What is the tone for the communication? · Once you have determined your communication strategy, use the following to develop a communication plan: · Compose an opening statement (3–4 sentences to frame the communication). · This statement is what you would use to start your communication in a one-on-one capacity, through e-mail, or at a group meeting. · If you choose to host a one-on-one, identify which employee is receiving the message. · Compose the body of your message using the most appropriate techniques for delivering bad news. · Conclude your communication plan and be sure to address any next steps or follow-up items. · No plagiarism · APA citing · 3 -4 pages Journal of Business Communication 50(4) 362 –382 © 2013 by the Association for Business Communication Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0021943613497053 jbc.sagepub.com Article Effects of Directness in Bad- News E-Mails and Voice Mails Frank Jansen1 and Daniel Janssen1,2 Abstract In this study, we explore the effects of channel choice (e-mail vs. voice mail) and message structure (direct vs. indirect) on the receiver’s perception of bad-news messages. We conducted an experiment in which bad-news e-mails and voice mails were presented to participants who evaluated their response to the messages via a questionnaire. The results indicate that e-mail is more comprehensible, while voice mail is more persuasive and effective for maintaining a personal customer relationship. Furthermore, messages with an indirect structure (explanation → bad news) are valued more highly than direct messages (bad news → explanations). We also found interaction effects of channel and structure, the most important being that the preference for the indirect structure is limited to e-mails. Keywords medium, channel, e-mail, voice mail, direct/indirect message structure, readers’ evaluations Introduction In the early summer of 2010, Apple’s iTunes store received a complaint from one of their customers, Eva. Eva’s daughter had downloaded a—supposedly—free applica- tion for Eva’s iPhone. However, a couple of days later, Eva found her credit card had been billed for €109.99. She decided to send an e-mail to iTunes’ customer service: 1Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands 2University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium Corresponding Author: Daniel Janssen, Communication Studies, UIL-OTS, Utrecht University, Domplein 29, 3512 JE Utrecht, Netherlands. Email: [email protected] 497053 JBC50410.1177/0021943613497053Journal of Business Communication[END SUBLIST][END SUBLIST][END SUBLIST]Jansen and Janssen research-article2013 Jansen and Janssen 363 My daughter has downloaded a free game on my iPhone (Fishies) and now my credit card will be charged for €109.99 euro. Now I see on my account that the same has happened with Blowfish (€89) which was supposed to be a free download as well. So what’s going on here? iTunes responded within 24 hours with the following e-mail: Hi Eva, My name is Sarah from Apple iTunes Support. I understand that your daughter purchased “Fishies” and you were charged €109.99 when it was supposed to be free. I am sorry for any frustrations this may have caused you, but I assure you I am more than happy to look into this further for you. I have reviewed your purchase history and confirmed the actual purchase of the app “Fishies” was free; however, it was the purchase of “Chest of 1950 Pearls” which cost €109.99. This is what is called an “in app” purchase. This means that your daughter made the purchase within the app (or within the game). Sometimes, in order to advance to the next level in these games, you need to make an app purchase, which in turn, costs money. ( . . . ) Seeing your iTunes Store purchase history and order numbers ( . . . ) I have refunded you in full for this purchase. You will see a credit of €109.99, plus any applicable taxes, in three to five business days. ( . . . ) I appreciate your understanding. ( . . . ) Take care, Sarah iTunes Store Customer Support This e-mail conversation is interesting for a number of reasons, two of which are the expansion of the e-mail channel1 and the rise of new conventions and subgenres (cf. Baron 2000). It also illustrates how business and business communication have devel- oped. People buy goods online from virtual stores, pay electronically with their credit card, complain by way of e-mails, receive electronic (and sometimes even automatic) e-mail responses, and—in this case—get their money credited back to their bank or credit card account. And all this takes place in just a matter of hours. This also applies to other interactive channels such as texting and Twitter, which use the written medium, and voice mail2 that uses the oral medium. Not too long ago, customers in a 364 Journal of Business Communication 50(4) situation like Eva’s had to write a complaint letter and would then have to wait to receive a letter back; this correspondence would have taken weeks. In many instances, e-mails have simply replaced letters. People apply for a job not by sending a letter of application or requesting a form, but by sending an e-mail or filling in a web form. The same people may get rejected not by a letter, but by an e-mail. The same goes for many other forms of business communication: new chan- nels replace old channels and old genres rematerialize within those new media. This is a gradual development that has been called “remediation” in media studies (see, e.g., Bolter & Grusin, 1999). E-mail may well be considered the most important new chan- nel just because of its volume. As early as 2007, the research firm IDC showed a dra- matic increase of e-mail volume worldwide, rising from 31 billion per day in 2003 to a whopping 97 billion per day in 2007. More recent data from 2008 shows that the number of e-mail users has risen to 1.3 billion, while the numbers of e-mails that were sent, reached an estimated 210 billion. The advantages of e-mail are numerous and often mentioned. E-mail is fast and cheap and readily available for almost everyone. Organizations and their customers can communicate all over the world at the speed of light virtually for free. Seen in this light the success of e-mail is understandable. Sarah’s e-mail shows how powerful this channel can be. But in a way Sarah’s task was not too difficult. She had to convey positive news to Eva and positive news does not put much constraint on media-choice. If you win the lottery, you do not care whether people inform you by e-mail, telephone, letter, or whatever other channel. This situation may be totally different in the case of bad-news communication (Timmerman & Harrison, 2005). Would Eva be as content with an e-mail if iTunes had not refunded her or would a more “personal” medium have been more effective in that situation? The question then is: What are the company’s other options? Of course a face-to-face meeting would be the best choice. All the empirical evidence shows that mediated channels is no match for face-to-face conversations (Baltes, Dickson, Sherman, Bauer, & LaGanke, 2002). But in a modern-day business world face-to-face meetings are not always feasible. That leaves two other possibili- ties, namely telephone and voice mail. In this study we compared e-mail to voice mail. We opted for voice mail because voice mail and e-mail are relatively new media. Furthermore, they share an important characteristic: voice mail and e-mail are noninteractive and asynchronous channels. Apart from this, they differ in one important dimension: e-mail is a written medium, voice mail a spoken medium. In the next section, we will argue why a spoken medium may be more effective for bad-news communication. In this study, we focus on one genre, namely bad-news messages, and on two chan- nels, namely e-mail and voice mail. Our main goal is to explore which of the two channels is more effective for delivering unwelcome news to customers. Furthermore, we are interested in the effects of structural directness on the recep- tion of bad news. Giving an explanation for the bad news in a conversation is more effective when implemented in a prophylactic way (before the bad news) than as a remedy (after the bad news). The same applies to written bad-news messages in Jansen and Janssen 365 e-mails. Earlier research has shown that readers prefer to read the explanation before the bad news (Jansen & Janssen, 2011). The question is, however, if listeners to bad- news messages in voice mails have the same preferences. In the next section, we will elaborate somewhat on the results of theoretical and empirical studies of channel choice and message structure in order to give the research questions and hypotheses in the next section a solid ground. In the Method section, we address the methodological issues for this study and explain how our experiments were conducted. In the Results section, we present the outcomes; this is followed by the Conclusion and Discussion section. Bad News, Directness, and Media Choice In this section, we will give account for our decision to focus on bad-news messages. After that, we will compare the two channels that we used in our experiments—e-mail and voice mail—in greater detail. Finally, we will explain why we added structural directness as a second independent variable. Bad News One of the major challenges in business writing is to communicate a clear message while keeping the client happy and preserving the image of the organization (Bovée & Thill, 2000; De Jong et al., 2002; Janssen, 2007). It goes without saying that commu- nicating good news, news that is favorable for the receiver, is a simpler task than com- municating bad news, news that conveys information with unfavorable consequences for the recipient, for example, denying an insurance claim or rejecting a job applicant. Good communication calls for a cooperative attitude from senders and receivers. However, in bad-news communication the interests of the speaker and the senders conflict which makes cooperation difficult and communication more complex. Also, the demand for clarity in the message may easily conflict with the need to preserve the organization’s image and the relationship between the organization and its customer. The proper balance between clarity and good relations is an important theme in (lin- guistic) pragmatics, especially in politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Furthermore, bad-news communication induces an interesting conflict of a more psychological nature. Timmerman and Harrison (2005) observe that managers often dodge tasks that entail conveying bad news to their subordinates (the so-called MUM effect). And if not, they are inclined to distance themselves from the news and the receivers by choosing a channel that masks their lack of involvement with the subor- dinates, a strategy that is also predicted by the hyperpersonal model (Walther, 1996). It is exactly for this reason that e-mail is often the medium of choice for bad-news communication: avoiding the receiver. Although Timmerman and Harrison suggest that managers should resist these all too human inclination, research tells us that many senders prefer e-mail for delivering bad news (cf. Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). What we do not know is how medium choice in bad-news communication affects the receivers. 366 Journal of Business Communication 50(4) Handling bad-news communication is something every communication specialist should master. For that reason, bad-news or crisis communication has become an essential part of most courses in business communication all over the world. From a research perspective, it is thus essential to study effective and less effective instances of bad-news communication and the strategies that are used in it (Jansen & Janssen, 2010). Channel Choice: E-Mail Versus Voice Mail In this paragraph, we will discuss the relevant differences between the channels e-mail and voice mail. This discussion will lead to two hypotheses: (a) e-mails are more com- prehensible and (b) voice mails are more personal. If we compare voice mail and e-mail, we see similarities and differences. E-mail and voice mail are both relatively new channels, made possible by the computer and its electronic infrastructure. The most fundamental difference between the two chan- nels is that they capitalize on different media: e-mail on the written medium and voice mail on the spoken medium, which entails that receiving means reading for e-mail and listening for voice mails. The spoken medium is time-bound and the written one space- bound (Crystal, 2001).3 Listeners are, in a way, hostages of the speaker. They have no other option than to submit themselves to speakers, and to process their words one after the other. The permanence of texts gives readers more freedom of choice: They may access the parts of the message in the order in which they appear in the text, or they may not. They may peek ahead, reread (difficult) parts of the text, and so on. By consequence, it is more difficult to understand a complex message in speech than in writing (see Chaiken & Eagly, 1983; Unnava, Burnkrant, & Erevelles, 1994). The field study by El Shinnawy and Markus (1997) corroborates these findings. El Shinnawy and Markus report that their participants prefer e-mail when the messages contain, for example, numerical data that are difficult to remember correctly. Therefore, we expect the e-mails in our experiment to be more comprehensible than the voice mails. The next difference between the two channels has to do with the possibility to transmit vocal cues. Spoken language conveys vocal cues; written language does not. Vocal cues are informative in their own right. They inform the reader about stable characteristics of the sender such as sex and age, and temporary ones such as his or her sincerity and emotional state (Scherer, 2003). It is highly probable that receivers appreciate this information because it helps them evaluate the interpersonal aspects of the message, especially in bad-news communication. Apart from the possible direct relevance of vocal cues, they are also indirectly rel- evant: The voice contributes to a feeling of copresence and it raises the risk of leakage of unwanted emotions. Written and oral media also differ to the extent that can convey a feeling of copres- ence. “Co-presence” and “social presence” are the terms for the receiver’s perception of the sender’s presence in the communicative situation (Keil & Johnson, 2002; Rice, 1993). When receivers hear the sender’s voice, they will experience him or her as more present and thus more involved in the interaction than when they read a text. Jansen and Janssen 367 There is not much empirical evidence for these claims, but research does show that e-mailers are more self-absorbed and less interested in or empathic with the receiver. For example, Watts Sussman and Sproull (1999) found less sugarcoating in bad news transmitted by e-mails than in face-to-face and telephone conversations (see also Sproull & Kiesler, 1986, and Kruger, Epley, Parker, & Ng, 2005). We may thus hypothesize that receivers appreciate a copresence affording channel (voice mail) more than a channel preventing it (e-mail). Vocal cues are not only a chance for senders to communicate more effectively; they form a potential risk as well. In the previous section, we mentioned Timmerman and Harrison (2005) who concluded that the most suitable channel for the receiver (in terms of “interactional justice”) should be the one that is most transparent in convey- ing potentially ambiguous information about the sender’s sincerity and involvement. Receivers will wonder: Is the sender of this bad-news message sincere for instance when he expresses his sympathy? When the listener senses those “emotional leaks” he or she will be sympathetic toward the sender and more inclined to accept the bad news. Finally, the production process of the message in the two channels differs. The production of even a short message presumes that the sender takes a series of steps: generate, formulate, and articulate the message (Levelt, 1989). For a literate person this process is easier in the written medium than in the oral medium. The permanency of writing enables him to divide the composition process in parts: making a draft first, rethink the text, and revise it when necessary. This process results in a polished pre- sentation where all production problems have become invisible in the final product. Producing an immaculate voice mail is more difficult than writing a flawless e-mail (Dingwall 1992). In spite of all the possible preparations (planning, making a draft on paper), during the final act of speaking much can go wrong with hesitations, pauses, restarts, grammatical errors, and so on as a result. On the other hand, in everyday conversation we are very tolerant toward errors and mistakes in oral communication. And the fact that receivers know how difficult it is to leave a decent voice mail may influence their perception. They may evaluate voice mail messages more positively than comparable e-mails. At the end of this paragraph we summarize the differences between e-mail and voice mail that may be relevant for the receiver in Table 1. Table 1. Differences Between E-Mail and Voice Mail. E-mail Voice mail Communication mode Writing/reading Speaking/listening Access Divers Only linear Vocal cues Absent Present Copresence Low High Emotional transparency Low High Message production Easy Difficult 368 Journal of Business Communication 50(4) Direct and Indirect Structure As mentioned earlier, we focus on “directness” as an element of structure in bad-news messages. A classic distinction in business communication textbooks on bad-news messages is that between direct and indirect structures (Bovée & Thill, 2000; Janssen, 2007; Jansen & Janssen, 2011). In the indirect approach, the writer buffers the news by presenting reasons or explanations before the bad news. In the direct approach, the writer presents the bad news first and the reason later. The direct structure may have a positive effect on the readers’ comprehension of the message. Britt and Larson (2003) experiments showed that complex sentences (consisting of an embedded clause with a claim and a causative clause introduced by the connector because), in which the claim was presented first were read faster than those in which the reason was presented first. Furthermore, they found that claim-first arguments were recalled more accurately and in the exact order in which they had been presented than reason-first arguments. Jansen and Janssen (2011) found the indirect structure to be more effective when it comes to persuasion and effects on image. They found no differences in comprehen- sion. Indirectness seems to make a direct appeal to the rationality of both the sender and the receiver by giving the reader the opportunity to closely follow the reasoning of the writer. Jansen and Janssen (2011) came to their findings by experimenting with letters and e-mails, written media. It is still unclear whether an experiment with an oral medium like voice mail would lead to the same results. Unnava et al. (1994) found an effect of presentation order in their experiments with oral (radio) and written adver- tisements, a primacy effect of the first argument in the radio condition. They explain this effect by stating that that the listeners process and remember the first argument and use it as a frame for the remainder of the arguments. In the written condition the readers did not have to capitalize on order because they could reread the text, skip parts, and so on. Although there are substantial differences between our experiment and Unnava et al.’s we expect that directness has more effect in voice mail than in the e-mail. Research Questions and Hypotheses Based on our review of relevant theories and research, the following research ques- tions and hypotheses can be formulated: Question 1: Which channel, e-mail or voice mail, do receivers of bad-news mes- sages prefer? Hypothesis 1: E-mail (messages) will be evaluated as more comprehensible than voice mail (messages). Hypothesis 2: Voice mail (messages) will be evaluated as more personal than e-mail (messages). Jansen and Janssen 369 Question 2: Which message structure do the receivers prefer: direct or indirect? Hypothesis 3: The direct structure (bad-news → explanation) will be evaluated as more comprehensible than the indirect structure (explanation → bad news). Hypothesis 4: The indirect structure will be evaluated as more persuasive and more personal. Question 3: Is the preference for a structure independent from the media? In other words, is there an interaction between structure and media? Hypothesis 5: The positive effect of the indirect structure will be more promi- nent in voice mail than in e-mail. Method Material We created seven topics for bad-news messages in a business context. The gravity of the bad news was in all cases intermediate, from a cancelled trip via an appliance that turns out to be a total loss to the announcement that a student having a part-time job as a waiter will be given a different task. For each topic we composed a primary message and a secondary message that functioned as a replication and manipulation check. For instance, we wrote a message about the high repair costs of cell phones and of a televi- sion set, and about a cancelled flight and a cancelled railway trip (see Table 2). All e-mail messages followed the same format. This format contained a salutation, a neutral introductory sentence, and either the bad news followed by three explana- tions or three explanations followed by the bad news. Then the messages ended with a neutral statement, a greeting, and the name of the sender. Table 2. Context of Bad-News Messages and the Specific Topics. Context of bad news Specific topics 1 Electronic gadget cannot be repaired Broken iPod Broken watch 2 Holiday trip is cancelled Flight Rail journey 3 Internal application is turned down For participation in an (expensive) company course For a higher position 4 A medical test failed and has to be redone IMR-scan Taking blood sample 5 The repair costs of an electronic appliance are much higher than first expected Broken telephone Broken television set 6 The application for an external job is turned down Manager Management trainee 7 A student who has a secondary job as junior waiter is degraded to the function of dishwasher In a pancake restaurant In a gourmet restaurant 370 Journal of Business Communication 50(4) Example of a Bad-News E-Mail This e-mail message regards/concerns your reservation of a business class ticket flight number CA 1773 for 15/2/2009 from Amsterdam to Toronto (Canada). Regrettably, we have to cancel this flight for the following reasons: the airport of Toronto is on strike that week. Besides, we expect extreme bad weather conditions in Toronto where the airport will be closed for all flights for four days. At the moment, we are also encountering some unforeseen technical problems with the airplane, which we are trying to solve as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconveniences and would like to propose an arrangement with you. You are requested to contact Can Airlines for further information, telephone number 020–340 74 24. With kind regards, Can Airlines Jan-Peter de Vries, Client Manager We presented the e-mails to our participants on a laptop computer, in a realistic e-mail-makeup. The mean length of the letters was 186 words (minimum 180, max- imum 191). As far as the voice mails are concerned, their structure was almost identical with the e-mails: Example of a Bad News Voice Mail Good day, this is Remon Spaas of Telfort Repair service speaking. We have received your mobile telephone and examined it on defects. The battery of your phone is broken. Furthermore the display has to be replaced because of water damage. Besides this, the entire interior works has to be cleaned. For these three reasons, the costs of repair of your mobile phone will amount to €315. If you accept this estimate, please let us know by contacting our client service. The phone number is 0900–9596. Greetings The only difference with the e-mail is the position of the sender’s self-identification. As was mentioned in the introduction, the position of this “internal” self-identification in e-mails is conventionally at the end of the message, namely in the signature. The conventional position for self-identification in voice mails, however, is at the Jansen and Janssen 371 beginning, directly after the address to the recipient “Hi/hello, It’s NAME of the X company” (Goutsos 2001, Lange 1999, Knoblach and Alvarez-Cáccamo 1992). For reasons of ecological validity, we decided to follow this convention, by inserting “This is [NAME] speaking” directly after the salutation. After the main body of the voice mail text, the closing move consisted of closing and goodbye formulas, and again, the name of the sender. Participants Of the 1,133 participants in this second experiment 533 (53\%) were men and 600 (47\%) were women. Given that fact that we used a 2 × 2 × 14 design (e-mail/voice mail, direct/indirect, 14 different messages) this implies that we had ±18 participants in every condition. The participants were between 15 and 77 years of age: M = 27.0 (SD = 12.5). Randomization checks revealed that participants were distributed equally in respect to their gender and age across all the conditions. Nearly all participants were students of secondary vocational education schools, or had graduated from these types of school. They had a Dutch cultural background and were all native speakers and flu- ent readers of Dutch. Nobody was paid for his or her contribution. As in the previous experiment, we asked many participants to volunteer for the experiments during a train ride as they commuted to work; others were recruited by our students in libraries, on campus, at work, or at home. Independent Variables The first independent variable was channel. We presented our participants with bad- news messages in an e-mail or voice mail format. The second independent variable was the presentation order of the company’s decision (the bad news for the customer) and the explanation for it. The explanation included three independent reasons. We had two main reasons for inserting an elaborate argumentation. By doing so, the structural differences between the two conditions were as large as would be accept- able in a realistic setting. Furthermore, we wanted our participants to process the entire fragment instead of peeking ahead or scanning the paragraphs until they found the decision. To present realistic argumentation, we did a pretest in which readers other than the participants in the experiment evaluated the plausibility of the explana- tion. The text in both conditions was identical, with one exception: in the decision- first condition, the phrase announcing the upcoming reasons was at the end of the sentence; whereas, the phrase referring back to the reasons in the explanation-first condition was at the beginning of the sentence, as in the following examples: Example of the Decision-First Condition The cost of repair of your mobile phone will amount to € 315 for three reasons. The battery of your phone is broken. Furthermore, the display has to be replaced because of water damage. Besides this, the entire interior work has to be cleaned. 372 Journal of Business Communication 50(4) Example of the Explanation-First Condition The battery of your phone is broken. Furthermore, the display has to be replaced because of water damage. Besides this, the entire interior work has to be cleaned. For these three reasons, the costs of repair of your mobile phone will amount to € 315. Dependent Variables The effects of the independent variables were measured with a questionnaire by which the participants could evaluate the messages (see the appendix). First, the participants gave a general assessment of the overall quality of the message in the form of a report mark (ranging from 1 to 10 as is the convention in the Netherlands) for the entire mes- sage. Then, they used the 7-point Likert-type scales and semantic differential scales (1-7) to evaluate the messages on • comprehension; e.g., “I understand the message completely” (Items 2, 14, 16, 17, and 19) • agreement; e.g., “I can imagine this kind of decision” (Items 3, 4, 10, and 12) • positive sender traits, e.g., “The sender impresses me as honest” (Items 11, 15, 22) • attitude of the sender toward receiver (Items 8, 18, 22) • image of the company, e.g., “My view of the organization is positive/negative” (Items 24, 25, 26) In the last part of the questionnaire, we included a proposition that we used as a manip- ulation check for bad news (Item 27) and an open question to test whether the partici- pant had comprehended the message (Item 28): “Three reasons for the decision are mentioned in the message. What was the second reason in your own wording?” The answers to this open question were coded as 0 for no answer or for reasons other than mentioned in the message, and 1 for one or more reasons mentioned in the text. This question was placed toward the end of the list to prevent it from causing the partici- pants to attach more value to the arguments. Demographic questions about the partici- pants’ gender and age together with two background questions about the estimated … Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 118 =================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 16:4 April 2016 D. Nagarathinam, Ph.D., V. Ramkumar, Ph.D. and R. Vani, M.A., M.Phil. (Eds.) New Perspectives in ELT =================================================================== Essence of Corporate Communication N. Pratheeba =================================================================== Abstract Corporate communication revolves around the written skills of the people involved in it. Unlike creative writing, it needs to be specific and accurate. It must be succinct and crisp because people do not have time to read round about circumlocutory writing in this age of information overload. In addition to flawless language, corporate communication ought to be polite and courteous without being blatant. This paper attempts to delineate the essential approaches, namely, the ‘you approach’ and the ‘we approach’ that will help the writer to reach the target audience in a seamless manner. Key words: communication, business, corporate, vision, retail communication, direct approach, “you approach”, “we approach”, Bad News Messages Introduction Corporate communication revolves around the written skills of the people involved in it. Unlike creative writing, it needs to be specific and accurate. It must be succinct and crisp because people do not have time to read round about circumlocutory writing in this age of information overload. In addition to flawless language, corporate communication ought to be polite and courteous without being blatant. This paper attempts to delineate the essential approaches, namely, the’ you approach’ and the ‘we approach’ that will help the writer to reach the target audience in a seamless manner. Definition of Corporate Communication The Financial Times defines Corporate Communication as a management function or department, like marketing, finance, or operations, dedicated to the dissemination of information http://www.languageinindia.com/ http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 119 to key constituencies, the execution of corporate strategy and the development of messages for a variety of purposes for inside and outside the organization. Knowledge Vision for Corporate Communications defines it in the following manner: Corporate Communication is how you keep up a business on message, with everybody speaking the same language. Communication is the life blood of all organizations. It is the medium through which companies large and small access the vital resources they need in order to vibrate (Cees et.al 2007). Further, the communicator must know when and what to communicate. This involves analysis, judgment, counseling and planning - in addition to and prior to communicating (Newsom, 2014). Types of Corporate Communication The Internet technology has altered corporate personae and the mode, channels and methods of corporate communication and feedback. It has minimized the power distance and ushered in a new type of relationship between corporations and their relevant publics. (Ihator, 2001) Corporate Communication can be internal or external, vertical or horizontal, company to client, client to company, company to service providers, service providers to company and so on. Internal communication is important for building a culture of transparency between management and employees, and it can engage employees in the organization’s priorities. (Mishra, 2014) It can be in the form of manuals, reports, proposals, memos, magazine articles, business letters, complaint letters, quotations, orders, and such. The essence of Corporate Communication is such that it is always formal in all respects. Understanding the target audience lends a helping hand to determine the tone and level of formality. It needs to focus on the recipients demands and interests rather than that of the sender. Though corporates need to talk a lot about their companys profile, products and available service, it has to be done in such a way that the needs of the target readers are fulfilled. The executive staff are also responsible for corporate communications, since for most businesses, the real message comes from the top rung of administrators. Effective Corporate Communication http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 120 Corporate communication is both the newest and perhaps the least understood. It is related to the other sub-disciplines like management communication, business communication, and organizational communication. (Paul, 1996) Corporate Communication can be termed good if it follows the seven Cs of communication, it has to be brief and precise. It has to be factual, unambiguous, accurate and relevant to both the companys and target audiences needs and requirements. Corporate Communication should be objective, detailed and well documented. In addition to the above mentioned factors, it needs to be homogeneous. Interpersonal Intelligence serves as an essential Factor for Effective Corporate Communication. In a nutshell, Effective Corporate Communication explains the benefits of the primary customers. It also helps to establish credibility among the various user segments and the company staff. Last but not the least, an effective corporate communication invokes curiosity about the company and products in the midst of prospective customers and motivates them into action. Rather, the purpose of corporate writers is to influence public opinion and attitudes, particularly among potential investors, in ways that create support for organizational practices or undermine opposition to them. (Conaway et al., 2010) The following approaches will help the writer to achieve his end or drive home his facts. It is equally applicable to all involved in corporate communications. Direct Approach or the YOU Approach Executives employ a variety of communication methods, including face-to-face communication, to communicate with employees. The executives’ chosen communication strategies aim to build trust and engagement with employees. (Mishra, 2014) Good News Messages and Direct requests that do not require any convincing can be classified under this approach. It can be used in the following situations, but not limited to documents regarding claims and complaints, appointments, orders, reservations, request for action and promotion and inquiries about goods, people or services. It can start with the main idea of request or any good news. Devices for easy reading like bulleted lists, numbered questions, brochures, catalogues, news bulletins, can be used then and there. And stylistic features that give more importance to http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 121 the usage of the Second Person You pronouns rather than First person Pronouns will lend a professional YOU attitude to the document under consideration. Prof. Hurley says, “A polite closure that ensures a clear action (what action you want the reader to take and when) and an easy action (enclosing reply envelopes, phone numbers, fax, e-mail IDs etc., will really work wonders.” Indirect Approach or We Approach Bad News Messages and Indirect requests that do not require any convincing can be classified under this approach. It can be used in the following situations, but not limited to documents regarding refusal of claims, credits and complaints, declining services and favour, cancellation of already placed orders etc., and inquiries about damaged goods, or unavailability of services. It can start with the buffer paragraph of appreciation, or any positive note. Devices for easy reading like needed details, answers to relevant questions pertaining to the document under consideration can be used then and there. And stylistic features that gives more importance to the usage of First Person I, WE pronouns rather than Second Person You pronouns will lend a professional WE attitude to the document under consideration. As mentioned earlier, a polite closure that ensures a clear action (what action you want the reader to take and when) and an easy action (enclosing reply envelopes, phone numbers, fax, e-mail IDs etc., are mandatory in this approach also. A judicious use of both the approaches mentioned above will definitely lend a professional look to the written document under creation. Examples Bus pass will not be issued unless you submit the No-Dues Form. As soon as the required documents are submitted by you, we will promptly deliver the Bus pass. Compulsory attendance effected a full auditorium. Auditorium was full since everyone attended the meeting. You have withheld the results of thirty students. http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 122 We have not yet received the results of thirty students. Your indifferent attitude has caused this problem. A little more care would have avoided this problem. The sentences in bold imply a impolite tone whereas the un-bolded sentences imply a more polite tone. Five Golden Rules to Make Your Writing Rock Most people know English when they hear it. It is everyday language, free from the long words, and technical terms, that plague the prose of scientists, engineers, economists, doctors, lawyers and writers in their specialized disciplines. (Newsom, 2014) The five golden rules given below will definitely help make your corporate writing rock: 1. Follow the KISS principle in writing. (Keep it Short and Simple.) 2. Be stringent with words by avoiding cluttering phrases and neoplasms (redundant phrases). Strunk and White advocated using scissors on the manuscript, cutting it to pieces and fitting the pieces together in a better order. 3. Prefer right ordering and proper emphasis. Follow the basic rule - adverb of manner is to be followed by adverb of place and time. 4. Express Negative ideas with words that carry a positive connotation instead of expressing it blatantly. How to express a negative idea (Bowen, 2006): Negative ideas expressed blatantly Negative ideas expressed politely The results were bad. The results were not very good. Their machinery is very old-fashioned. Their machinery is not very modern. The catalogue is very dull. The catalogue is not very interesting. http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 123 We got rather a cool reception. We did not get a very warm reception. We are dissatisfied with the service we have received so far. We are not very satisfied with the service we have received so far. We are unhappy with some of the terms of the agreement. We are not very happy with some of the terms of the agreement. We made very little impact on the society. We did not make much impact on the society. He takes no interest in what we do. He does not take much interest in what we do. There is no alternative. There are not many options available. There is nothing we can do about it. There is something we can do about it. 5. Be tactful by the optimum use of modal verbs and suitable modifiers. Statements perfectly consistent with what you know might be inconsistent with what you do not know. (Cess, et al., 2007) Usage of modals and modifiers comes as a handy tool in such a tricky situation. Strategic information packaging, gatekeeping, timing and controlled reactive communication become more difficult to manage in the information age. (Ihator, 2001) Being Tactful (Bowen, 2006) Blunt statements Tactful statements Your order is going to be late. Your order may be slightly delayed. We want you to reply at once. (would/grateful) We would be grateful for an immediate reply. You have made a mistake in the invoice. (there/seem) There seems to be a mistake in the invoice. You still owe us Rs.35,000 You still owe us Rs.35,000 http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 124 You have not given the discount you promised us. We do not seem to have received the discount. Our tuition fee will go up from January 2016. There may be a slight increase in tuition fee from January 2016. You have not enclosed the complete list as requested by us. You do not seem to have enclosed the complete list as requested by us. The delivery will be late due to some problems in the computer. You may experience difficulty in the delivery. You have withheld the result of 50 students. We have not yet received the result of 50 students. You must use the new sports complex. (whenever/need) You may use the new sports complex whenever you need. Conclusion Corporate Communication is an area that is very diversified in nature. Adopting the right mix of the We and You approach will certainly boost the image and brand the image of the company in the midst of prospective clients. ===================================================================== References 1. Conaway, Roger N.; Wardrope, William J. Do Their Words Really Matter? Thematic Analysis of U.S. and Latin American CEO Letters International Journal of Business Communication April 2010 vol. 47 no. 2 141-168 2. 2. Paul A. Argenti Corporate Communication as a Discipline: Toward a Definition Management Communication Quarterly August 1996 vol. 10 no. 1 73-97 3. 3. Karen Mishra,Lois Boynton, Aneil Mishra Driving Employee Engagement: The Expanded Role of Internal Communications International Journal of Business Communication April 2014 vol. 51 no. 2 183-202 4. Newsom, D. & Haynes, J. 2014, Public relations writing: Form and style, 10th edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, CA. http://www.languageinindia.com/ Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 16:4 April 2016 N. Pratheeba Essence of Corporate Communication 125 5. van Riel Cees, Cees B.M. Van Riel, Charles J. Fombrun. Essentials of Corporate Communication: Implementing Practices for Effective Reputation Management. Routledge, 2007 6. Bowen, T. Build your Business Grammar Cengage Learning, 2006 6. Communication style in the information age Augustine S. Ihator Corporate Communications: An International Journal 2001 6:4, 199-204 7. www.lovewonder.sg1006.myweb.hinet.net/.../Strunk&White 8. www.lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=corporate-communication 9. www.knowledgevision.com/...knowledge-vision/knowledgevision.../corp. 10. http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/eng209w/index.htm ============================================ N. Pratheeba Professor Department of English Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology Virudhunagar Tamilnadu India [email protected] http://www.languageinindia.com/ http://www.knowledgevision.com/...knowledge-vision/knowledgevision.../corp http://www.knowledgevision.com/...knowledge-vision/knowledgevision.../corp mailto:[email protected] Copyright of Language in India is the property of Language in India and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holders express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Business Communication Quarterly 75(2) 208 –220 © 2012 by the Association for Business Communication Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1080569912441823 http://bcq.sagepub.com 441823BCQ75210.1177/1080569912441823Comm unicating Negative Messages Business Communication Quarterly 1Radford University, USA 2University of Delaware, USA Corresponding Author: Sandra L. French, Radford University, PO Box 6932, Radford, VA 24142, USA Email: [email protected] Positive Organizational Behavior: A Buffer for Bad News Sandra L. French1 and Tracey Quigley Holden2 Abstract Most communication research on bad news messages focuses on crisis communication, where attention is often limited to image repair strategies. The authors argue that a key indicator of an organization’s effectiveness in communicating “bad news” messages is its organizational culture. Developing an organizational culture that values positive organizational behavior can transform the way that “bad news” messages are crafted and received in the workplace. In this article, the authors demonstrate how organizational leadership and practice from the positive organizational behavior perspective can assist with communicating “bad news” messages, particularly during organizational crises. Keywords bad news messages, crisis communication, positive psychology Introduction: The Art and Science of “Bad News” Messages Research on “bad news” emerges across the spectrum of communication. “Bad news” for business appears in many forms—the announcement of layoffs, poor financial outcomes, crises of internal or external origin, and natural disasters, among others. The particular type of “bad news” is not at issue here but rather the communication practices encompassing the delivery of bad news. In this article, we focus on what Communicating Negative Messages Communicating Negative Messages 209 positive psychology can teach business communication professionals about dissemi- nating bad news during an organizational crisis such as unforeseen downsizing, lay- offs, and acute organizational events. In 1999, Locker examined the extant literature on negative messages, including the prescriptive practices from 57 textbooks. She found that the conventional wisdom on negative messages was contained in six principles—in effect, the classic sandwich. The most frequently suggested sandwich approach constructs negative messages with a prefatory buffer, the bad news, an explanation, and a closing buffer, thus “sandwich- ing” the bad news between pieces of additional communication (Guffey & Loewy, 2011; Lehman & Dufrene, 2009). And yet, in Locker’s survey of research in several settings, she found that the sandwich approach was deemed “not useful in the work- place” (Locker, 1999, p. 9). Locker’s own research led her to conclude that only two pieces of the sandwich were valuable—the directives to “present the negative as posi- tively as possible, and offer an alternative or compromise if one is available” (p. 31). Responding to Locker’s assessment, Limaye (2001) agrees that the conventional wis- dom is flawed and directs attention to the opportunity costs and psychological attribu- tion processes of bad news as potential guides for rethinking bad news message construction. Limaye makes a compelling case for the value of explanation in a bad news message, claiming that the “price paid for nonprovision of explanation is low- ered employee morale, damage to employee satisfaction, and loss of management credibility” (p. 106). Although Limaye focuses on the explanation offered by the deliverer of the bad news and how tailoring that piece of the sandwich can positively influence the outcome, he stops short of a specific form or guideline for producing such a message. More recent work in the construction of negative messages validates Limaye’s approach of incorporating explanation and extends this into a preference for an indi- rect structure—offering the explanation first. Jansen and Janssen (2011) conducted a series of experiments testing direct and indirect message structures for comprehen- sion, compliance, and evaluation of the writer. They found that indirect messages were better at preserving the “face” of the recipient and allowed for the negative message to be accepted more readily. Jansen and Janssen suggest that this structure works because offering the explanation first allows the reader to gradually adapt to the sender’s think- ing, as “the decision becomes a part of their cognitive belief system even before they actually read it” (p. 60). The structure and design of bad news messages has evolved considerably, but we argue that there is more to the story. Bad news must be delivered or dealt with in many situations facing organizations. The suggestions of current research focus almost exclusively on the specifics of such delivery rather than the handling of bad news within the larger context of ongoing business operations. Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seeger (2007) point to the absolute certainty that bad news or crisis will confront a business and the need to develop, not only a contingency plan but also an overall approach to such situations. The conditions that precipitate the need to deliver bad news or address an organizational crisis can offer opportunities for renewal of an organization, if 210 Business Communication Quarterly 75(2) skillfully managed. The authors invoke the popularized (but incorrect) meaning of the Chinese symbols for crisis as “dangerous opportunity” to underscore this concept. However, Mair, Professor of Chinese Languages and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, offers an explanation of the characters on his website that better sup- ports the position being advanced. Mair writes in Mair, Mair, and Liqing (2009), While it is true that wēijī does indeed mean “crisis” and that the wēi syllable of wēijī does convey the notion of “danger,” the jī syllable of wēijī most definitely does not signify “opportunity.” The jī of wēijī, in fact, means something like “incipient moment; crucial point (when something begins or changes).” From the business perspective, that is indeed the essence of delivering or dealing with bad news. This translation makes Ulmer et al.’s (2007) position on bad news and crisis communication practices even more on point—they conclude that “effective commu- nication skills are essential to creating positive, renewing opportunities at these turn- ing points.” (p. 4) Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seeger ground their work in an approach to leadership and communication focused on positive values, virtues, and optimism (Seeger & Ulmer, 2001; Ulmer & Sellnow, 2002). Such a perspective is radically different from much of the conventional wisdom concerning the delivery of bad news and crisis communica- tion within business research and practice. What makes the difference is not just a shift from a structural approach focused on messaging to a more contextualized perspective emphasizing organizational leadership and culture. This focus on renewal and oppor- tunity comes from an entirely different way of thinking about business, leadership, and communication. We suggest that this shift is consistent with the tenets and insights of the Positive Psychology movement. The Positive Psychology Movement: Bad News Gets Reframed The positive psychology movement offers a new paradigm for studying organizations. Seligman, founder of the positive psychology movement, developed a manual of Character Strengths and Virtues (C. Peterson & Seligman, 2004) specifically as a “positive” counterpart to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The positive psychology movement investigates the “conditions, and pro- cesses that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions” (Gable & Haidt, 2005, p. 103). All positive psychology–related organi- zational research shifts in perspective from a “disease”-based, problem-solving model as the most suitable approach to improved organizational performance, to one in which positive resources are identified and investigated (Linley, Harrington, & Garcea 2010). The overarching philosophy of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) is a marriage of positive psychology and organizational studies. POS seeks to understand how to cultivate excellence in organizations by unlocking individuals’ Communicating Negative Messages 211 potential. Specifically, through an investigation of “positive deviance,” POS explores the ways in which individuals use and develop strengths leading to exceptional per- formance at both the individual and organizational levels (Linley et al., 2010). In investigating extraordinary performance, POS often focuses on the macro or institu- tional levels of analysis (Youssef & Luthans, 2007) rather than individual organiza- tional actors. A similar line of organizational research, positive organizational behavior (POB), is defined by Luthans (2003) as “the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, devel- oped, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace” (p. 179). POB focuses more on individuals, or micro levels of analysis. POB tends to emphasize four core capacities: self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resiliency (Donaldson & Ko, 2010; Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman, & Combs, 2006). “Houston, We Have a Problem . . .”: Positive Psychology and Organizational Crises As we stated previously, there are many types of “bad news” messages experienced in organizations, including layoffs, customer service problems, and negative perfor- mance reviews. Here, we focus on what positive psychology can teach business com- munication professionals about disseminating bad news during an acute organizational crisis. Acute organizational events, or organizational crises, are “specific, unexpected and non-routine events or series of events that create high levels of uncertainty and threaten or are perceived to threaten an organizations’ high priority goals” (Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 1998, p. 233). The bulk of crisis communication research focuses on problems and failures: what organizations have done badly, how crises have been poorly han- dled, and what mistakes management has made (Small, 1991; Ulmer & Sellnow, 2000). Crisis communication literature is largely based on its own version of a “dis- ease” model, expending most research resources explaining organizational deficits rather than organizational strengths. We contend that an investigation of organizational strengths, and what positive communication behaviors exist when communicating bad news during a crisis, should focus on an organization’s CEO. According to Seeger and Ulmer (2001), during times of crisis, the CEO is usually the designated spokesperson and “may also establish the moral tone for the crisis response” (p. 369). CEOs are often called up to establish the facts of the crisis, make important judgment calls, and communicate directly with the media (Modzelewski, 1990). Scholar and business consultant Gaines-Ross (2003) studies the relationship between CEOs, their personal reputations, and their companies’ success. Coining the term CEO capital, Gaines-Ross’s book of the same name cites a 1998 poll of the general public indi- cating that a CEO’s reputation accounted for 48\% of a company’s reputation. Gaines-Ross argues, “The CEO must come to terms with the idea of being the ultimate spokesperson for 212 Business Communication Quarterly 75(2) the organization, the embodiment of the brand, and the official storyteller who knits together the company’s past, present, and future” (p. 39). Park and Berger (2004) argue that CEOs are the public face of a company, particularly during organizational crises, and as such warrant particular attention as the subject of crisis research. However, following the “disease” model, most current research on CEO perfor- mance during times of crisis focuses on what not to do. For example, former Exxon CEO Lawrence Rawl is often excoriated for his handling of the Valdez oil spill, in particular for his failure to publicize his personal trip to the spill site (Modzelewski, 1990) and his attempt to avoid responsibility by blaming Captain Joseph Hazelwood (Small, 1991). More recently, BP executive Tony Hayward was rebuked by public relations professionals and the general public alike with regard to the 2010 oil spill of the U.S. Gulf Coast. When visiting Venice, Louisiana, to survey damage and issue an apology, in which he stated, “The first thing to say is I’m sorry,” he told reporters. “We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back” (“BP Chief to Gulf Residents,” 2010). Hayward’s gaffe reflects not only his own communicative inade- quacies but a broader problem for CEOs—the misperception of what constitutes effec- tive, positive communication. Research supports the prevalence of this problem—in 1998, Coopers and Lybrand conducted a survey of CEOs, middle managers, and non- managers. The survey found that while “82 percent of CEOs believe that they lead by positive personal example . . . fewer than 40\% of nonmanagement employees agree” (Steinberg, 1998, p. 70). Moreover, 95\% of the CEOs claimed to have an open-door policy for the communication of bad news upstream, but more than half of employees believed the bad news messenger was running a serious risk. Such a perspective does not facilitate a strong business climate—in fact, such communicative problems have resulted in huge business losses, even failures (Steinberg, 1998). More recently, leader communication has become an even more critical element of business practice. The current financial crisis has eroded employee confidence in senior leadership from 51\% in 2004 to less than 20\% in 2009 (Davis, 2010). What is a beleaguered CEO to do? Within the crisis communication literature, a handful of “exemplary” crisis responses from CEOs have been studied and applauded, including Tylenol’s James Burke and his handling of the cyanide tampering of 1982, which Fortune magazine described as “the gold standard in crisis control” (Yang & Levenson, 2007). Other models of effective crisis management include CEO of Malden Mills’ Aaron Feuerstein’s response to the 1995 factory fire (Seeger & Ulmer, 2001) and Milt Cole’s response to Cole Hardwoods’ 1998 fire (Seeger & Ulmer, 2001). Seeger and Ulmer applaud these CEOs for their “virtuous” responses to their respective organizational tragedies. These exemplary cases involve a leader, usually a CEO, responding quickly and ethically to an organizational crisis. In Locker’s 1999 article, she suggested that buffers should not continue to be used in bad news messages, particularly the closing buffer, explaining that a bad news message with a strongly positive end engendered negative feelings. By combining the insights gained from exemplary examples in crisis communication research with the Communicating Negative Messages 213 underpinnings of POB research, we can create a new model of offering bad news mes- sages that can assist business communication professionals in teaching students more options for delivering bad news. Working Toward a New Model There are a handful of studies that have explored the relationship between CEO per- formance and positive psychology. Starting with a broad perspective, Brockner and James (2008) investigate when executives view organizational crises as opportunities, stating “crises have the potential to be a catalyst for positive organizational change” (p. 95). Focusing on when executives transition from framing a crisis as a threat ver- sus an opportunity, Brockner and James argue that in a crisis, decision makers tend to tighten control and rely on traditional ways of thinking about problem solving in order to reduce the uncertainty that accompanies a crisis. Traditional ways of thinking include viewing a crisis as a threat and responding by restricting activities, for exam- ple, enacting cost-cutting measures. They propose that executives who are willing to engage in reflection and learning are more inclined to view organizational crises as opportunities to enact positive change. S. J. Peterson, Walumbwa, Byron, and Myrowitz (2009) investigate the relation- ship between CEO positive psychological traits and transformational leadership. The authors adopt a POB approach, exploring the concepts of hope, optimism, and resil- iency. Their research illustrates that CEOs rated as more hopeful, optimistic, and resil- ient are also rated (both in self-ratings and the ratings of their followers) as engaging in more transformational leadership behaviors. According to their research, the key constructs of hope, optimism, and resiliency are similar but distinguishable. Thus, we will examine these concepts in greater detail. Hope Synder et al. (1991) define hope as a two-pronged cognitive construct, built from the aspects of “pathways” and “agency.” Pathways reflect an individual’s self-perception of their capability to secure a plausible route to their personal goals. The second aspect, agency, relates to an individual’s motivation to proceed toward goal achieve- ment. Working in concert, these two components provide individuals with the means and motivation to achieve their personal goals. According to S. J. Peterson et al. (2009), “Those lower in hope lack the ability to conceive of strategies to meet goals and to overcome obstacles and the motivation to pursue the strategies that lead to goal achievement” (p. 350). It is theorized here that CEOs high in reservoirs of hope will find more creative strategies for dealing with crises. Optimism Optimism as a trait is the generalized expectation of an individual that good things will happen, despite potentially adverse circumstances (Carver & Scheier, 1999). 214 Business Communication Quarterly 75(2) Those possessing the trait of optimism tend to focus on the good. Optimism has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on work performance (Luthans et al., 2006; Seligman, 1998). Optimists differ in their interpretation of positive and negative events from those low in this psychological resource. It is theorized here that CEOs who possess the trait of optimism may instinctively navigate crises more effectively. Resiliency Defining resiliency as “the capacity to modify responses to changing situational demands, especially frustrating or stressful encounters,” Tugade and Fredrickson (2004, p. 322) argue that one’s ability to use positive emotions results in finding positive meaning in negative circumstances. As a result, resilient individuals tend to rebound more quickly from negative situations. It is theorized here that resilience can help CEOs move past the shock and narrow thinking that often accompany crisis situ- ations and more quickly engage in creative and positive crisis resolution. By looking in depth at a CEO response to crisis, positive psychology offers a new approach to crisis management rooted in the psychological capacities of the CEO. CEOs and Resilience The concept of resiliency is not unique to the positive psychology literature. In organi- zational science, resiliency can mean the maintenance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 1999) and the ability to recover from unexpected events (Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003). Resilience is a dynamic capacity of organizational adaptability that grows and develops over time (Wildavsky, 1988). Gittel, Cameron, Lim, and Rivas (2006) argue that positive relationships at work are a “prerequisite” to organizational resilience. In researching the airline industry following 9/11, these authors portray Southwest Airlines CEO Jim Parker as a model of strength and virtue as they withstood heavy short-term financial losses in order to avoid layoffs, arguing that they were “taking care of our people” (p. 317). Former CEO Herb Kelleher was quoted as follows: “Nothing kills your company’s culture like layoffs. Nobody has ever been furloughed [at Southwest], and that is unprecedented in the airline industry” (p. 318). Kelleher’s statement reinforces our argument that organiza- tional culture should be a key strategic factor in the design of bad news messages. Organizational Culture and the Case of Malden Mills For a prime example of the relationship between organizational culture, POB, and effective dissemination of bad news, we turn to the case of Malden Mills. Henry Feuerstein founded Malden Mills, a textile manufacturing facility, in 1906 under the name Malden Knitting, in Malden, Massachusetts. Originally, Malden produced knit- ted clothing items such as sweaters and bathing suits (“The Many Lives of Malden Mills,” n.d.). In 1956, the company, then led by Henry’s grandson Aaron, moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Communicating Negative Messages 215 Following a declaration of bankruptcy in 1981, the Feuerstein family called for Aaron’s removal from his position as Mill president. Aaron resisted and restructured the mill, creating Polartec and Polarfleece, an apparel fabric developed from recycled plastic (“About Polartec,” 2012). Clothing manufacturers, including L.L. Bean, Lands End, and Patagonia, purchased Polartec, a synthetic and extremely warm and light- weight material, in large quantities, to be used in winter clothing and accessories. By 1995, Polartec sales were approximately $200 million, and the Mill and its four divi- sions employed roughly 3,100 workers. Feuerstein’s operation was one of the few U.S. textile companies that did not move its operations overseas to secure less expen- sive labor. Then, in December 1995, just 2 weeks before the Christmas holiday, Malden Mills experienced a devastating fire that left three key buildings of its eight building com- plex, totaling more than 600,000 square feet, in ruins and resulted in injuries to 36 workers (Goldberg, 1997). What makes this fire, later deemed an “industrial accident” unique, is a combination of several factors. First, being one of only a handful of textile manufacturers who had not moved operations overseas, Malden Mills garnered deep loyalty from its employees. For example, although the mill workers were unionized, the mill had never experienced a strike. Its employees are some of the highest paid in the textile industry. Second, the tiny New England town of Lawrence, where the mill was located, was dependent on the mill for economic survival. Lawrence is rated the 23rd poorest community in the country (Mcgrory, 2001). The Feuerstein family was well established in the community and had a reputation for fairness and generosity. “The community loves him very much and it’s not hype and it’s not the upper class, it’s the people” said Julio Fernandez, a Malden Mills machine operator (Goldberg, 1997). Third, the mill was a privately held family company, not beholden to a group of stakeholders. All these factors together helped set the stage for Aaron Feuerstein’s extraordinarily positive and resilient response to the fire. Fire insurance payments for the mill were expected to be upwards of $300 million, and many feared the then 69-year-old CEO would either take the money and retire, or finally succumb to outside pressures and move the mill operation overseas. Instead, on learning of the fire and rushing to the mill, Feuerstein gathered his workers in a local high school gymnasium and said that the workers would all be kept on at full pay for the next 30 days (at a cost of more than $13 million) and that they would even receive a Christmas bonus. He also continued providing their health insurance for another 30 days (Freedland, 1996). In addition, he stated that the mill would definitely rebuild and seek to put all its employees back to work as soon as possible. In September of 1997, a mere 21 months after a fire rated the worst in Massachusetts in a century devastated the mill, Feuerstein dedicated a new $130 million factory and rehired almost all of his workers (Goldberg, 1997). Feuerstein’s actions were covered by both local and national media. He received 12 honorary degrees, and he estimates that he received as many as 10,000 letters of support, many with cash or checks for the workers (Butterfield, 1996). Feuerstein was hailed as a public icon of corporate responsibility; President Clinton sent his congratulations on the mill’s reopening. The 216 Business Communication Quarterly 75(2) fire at Malden Mills has been covered by the media, featured in a Harvard Business Review case study, and studied by public relations professionals. Although the story of Malden Mills is truly extraordinary, what insights into Feuerstein’s actions can posi- tive psychology provide? Our conclusion will explore how positive psychology pro- vides insights into Feuerstein’s actions and the positive reaction of his employees. Conclusion According to Dutton and Jackson (1987), the ability of decision makers to cognitively process complex organizational issues such as crises is directly affected by whether they frame the crisis as a threat or opportunity. Research conducted by Milliken (1990) demonstrates that framing issues as opportunities allows decision makers to feel more in control and less uncertain than when framing issues as threats. The time- sensitive and pressurized nature of organizational crises makes it difficult for execu- tives to see them as opportunities; however, we strongly believe that organizations can “buffer” bad news messages by cultivating a positive organizational culture prior to an acute organizational crisis. Organizations that focus on appreciating and cultivat- ing positive organizational traits such as hope, resiliency, and optimism prior to a crisis may be more successful in garnering employee support during and after the crisis. Following in the footsteps of Gittel et al. (2006), who argue that managers must maintain and enhance strong employee relationships (relational reserves) during a crisis to ensure commitment and productivity, we argue that CEOs who actively pro- mote a positive organizational culture, focusing on positive organizational traits and strong employee relationships, will build a reservoir of goodwill that can buffer bad news. Aaron Feuerstein’s building of a positive organizational culture at Malden Mills helped the company through financial crisis and resulted in deep and abiding employee loyalty, even in the face of layoffs. In our contemporary business climate, bad news and crisis events are almost de rigueur, and certainly any CEO or senior executive must expect to respond to such an occurrence. Davis (2010) writes that as the current financial crisis continues to affect businesses, “What’s needed now is a much higher level of leader presence: more intense, more transparent and more authentic than ever before” (p. 24). Davis also describes how this leadership presence is made manifest. She explains that “leader communication” in this form demands that leaders “show up, giving the straight story, providing context, talking it through, and keeping at it” (p. 24). This approach aligns strongly with Ulmer and Sellnow’s (2002) call for “optimistic discourse that emphasizes moving beyond the crisis, focusing on strong value positions, responsibility to stakeholders, and growth as a result of the crisis” (p. 362). All these authors have moved beyond the “sandwich” prescription for curing the bad news ailment and toward a more positive and engaged leadership com- munication practice as a core of a positive organizational culture. Perhaps then, as business communication professionals, we should be teaching our students more about POB and creating a positive organizational culture, one where employees and managers are resilient and optimistic, in order to more effectively communicate bad Communicating Negative Messages 217 news. Just how might we incorporate such thinking into our business communication classes? As business communication professionals, we believe we should be teaching our students more about POB and the processes involved in creating a positive organiza- tional …