Length: Approximately 1500 words (6-7 double-spaced pages)

Use APA style for title and reference pages

Cited Information:  Hynes, G.E. (2015) Managerial communication: Strategies and applications (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-1483358550

1.    Explain how communication technology has advanced in the United States in the past five years and how these changes have affected the management process. Include how these changes impact older works and workers from different cultural backgrounds. Then predict how you think communication technology may change in the next five years and the impact it could potentially have.

2.    Read Case 3-3 of the textbook and complete the Project requirement.

Case 3–3

The Potential for Technology

Bill Emory is the operations vice president of a banking firm in California that has forty-eight branch operations. These operations vary from drive-in facilities with ten employees to larger facilities employing as many as 150 people. Employee turnover has always been a major problem in these branches, and no employment strategy has been effective in reducing this problem. The high turnover has made employee training a special problem.

The human resources department is responsible for employee training, but HR charges branch operations for the expenses incurred. The recent expansion in training due to ever-changing services offered by the bank has become extremely costly. Emory has decided it is time to attempt to reduce these costs by implementing some new training strategies. He believes that many of the new communication technologies could be used to save training expenses. In particular, savings could be realized for the branches that are more than 400 miles from the corporate office. (In the past, the training representatives would travel to the branch site, stay overnight, present a one- or two-day training session, and then return. Emory would like to reduce these travel and lodging expenses.) Emory has casually asked the HR manager, Joan Tyson, to investigate communication technology possibilities in training, but no action has been taken; consequently, Emory has decided to write a persuasive letter to Tyson encouraging Tyson’s staff to investigate this subject.

Project

Write a memo to the HR manager, Joan Tyson, which could be used for this purpose. Include one or two specific technologies that might be appropriate, their advantages, and the communication impact that could be expected. Special attention should be given to training for the tellers. For instance, the procedures for recording the various transactions and customer communications should be part of the training.

3.    Read the Back to School (Case 6-1) of the textbook and answer the questions.

Case 6-1

Back to School

Because you are known to be a good writer, the director of human resources has asked you to put together a seminar on written communication for employees in your company who need help. The seminar would cover basic principles of written communication, letters, memos, and formal business reports. Managers have complained to the HR director that their employees do not write well. They produce as evidence sloppily proofread e-mails. The employees, on the other hand, are grumbling that having to attend a writing seminar would be like going back to high school, where a fussy old English teacher berates them over minor punctuation concerns.

Questions

1.    How would you determine who should attend the seminar?

2.    How would you market it so that participants of the seminar would attend willingly rather than through coercion?

3.    How would you organize the seminar? What materials would you use?

4.    What topics would you address in the seminar?

4.    Complete Sections 1, 2, and 5 (A, B, and E for hard-copy textbooks) in the Exercises for Small Groups at the end of Chapter 6.  Also explain which exercise you found most difficult and which you found least difficult, and why.

Exercises for Small Groups

1.    Rewrite the following sentences to eliminate confusing, long words.

1.    Bill received excessive remuneration for his promulgated work according to his professional colleagues.

2.    What form of personal conveyance shall we solicit between the airport and the hotel?

3.    The best operative unit for this interaction is the computer-assisted storage system.

4.    Extel, the computer company, has an inordinate influence on your purchasing agent.

5.    The company terminated their contract with the city as a consequence of their ineffectual payment procedures.

6.    The audience was demonstrating engrossment with the audio-visually mediated presentation.

7.    We received approbation from the executive committee.

8.    This antiquated procedure could be liquidated with a new word processing system.

9.    Last year’s profits were exorbitant in that division.

10. Our assets cannot be utilized to the maximum due to the unavailability of trained human resources.

2.    Rewrite the following sentences using concrete words.

1.    We received a lot of responses to our survey.

2.    The personnel department has expanded in the last several years.

3.    Profits are up throughout the industry.

4.    If we don’t receive the order pretty soon, we will have to cancel it.

5.    Please send your reply as soon as possible.

6.    We would like to receive as many bids as possible.

7.    We need the shipment by sometime next month.

8.    Extel is a large company.

9.    Is it possible to meet next week?

10. We are expecting a rapid rate of inflation.

5.    Change the negative tone and use more courteous words in the following sentences.

1.    We cannot deliver all one hundred units by Friday, March 6.

2.    We don’t provide second mortgages.

3.    We are sorry that your total deposit on the trip cannot be refunded.

4.    No. An extension will not be permitted.

5.    We do not feel that you qualify for the excessive request that you made.

6.    You are not qualified for this position.

7.    The competition provided a much more favorable bid, and they have a reputation for fine service.

8.    Sorry, but the product you requested is no longer available.

Typical work-team tasks include researching a problem, identifying and recommending solutions, writing a report, and giving a presentation. This Team Project assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to practice these tasks and develop your skills. You will be assigned to a self-directed work team based on your interests. Project topics will be brainstormed on-line. Create a project management outline to help plan and structure your teamâs work. The basic headings of a Project Management Plan are Who (will do) What (tasks) by When (due date).

Project Written Report Your team will research your assigned topic by conducting informational interviews with relevant personnel, reading printed materials and searching data on the Internet. Your team will write a âproblem statementâ describing the âcurrentâ situation, a âgoal statementâ describing the âfutureâ improved situation, and recommendations for how to solve the problem or achieve improvement. Based on your topic, your team may also develop an action plan, plus a list of resources (organizations, websites, etc.) that can be used to help implement the action plan. In your report, include the names, titles, and organization/company of anyone interviewed.

You want to be sure to collaborate in writing this report. Do not merely assign sections and paste together students’ work. Even though individual students will write sections of the report, every team member must review the entire report and offer suggestions for improvement.

Additional documentation to be submitted with the written report:

• Meeting agendas, attendance & minutes/notes (may be handwritten)
• Completed Project Management form showing team members assigned tasks (may be handwritten); include the tasks for creating the presentation slides.