University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
Comm 335- Organizational Communication
Caitlyn Belson, Kirstynne Hock, Kallie Snowtala, Charlotte Tenebrini Steckart
Executive Summary
In this case we were asked to develop a communication plan for the new president of a grocery store. To help us determine the best solution for her we took a deep dive into her Myers Briggs personality type and her managerial style. We used different tools like KISS charts and SWOT analysis to help us determine the communication plan we developed for her. In this paper we take you through how we developed our communication plan and the communication plan for the new President.
Case Introduction
Proposed Case
For our case, we are communication specialists in a grocery store organization (we chose Kroger), and the newly appointed president whom we named, Carol, has asked us to help her out. The grocery store organization has 18 departments and 350 employees. Carol called us into her office on the second day, greeted us warmly, and asked us to help her “kick around a few ideas”. When we walk in her office we notice that there is a picture of T.S. Eliot on her desk along with a disarray of papers and files. She told us that she wants to be known as the “communication president” and she wants us to devise a “talking proclamation- kind of like the Ten Commandments, my Magna Carta”. This will be used for the employees to show them demonstrated commitment to effective communication. She did bring a couple ideas to us when she told us. She would like that everyone is free to discuss anything with her or anyone else and she wants to foster an open climate. She would like to draft a statement of her communication principles like “effective communication is the basis for an effective organization”. She then proceeded to tell us “no, I like this better: I believe effective communication is the basis for an effective organization”. She gave us a list of her principles and told us we can get back to her with a specific proposal.
Her Principles
My door is always open
Communication should always be frank
Keep all employees apprised of relevant information
Address everyone by his or her first name
Make sure you thoroughly understand someone before criticizing his/her ideas
Always listen first, talk second
Even if you think you understand someone, check to make sure
Be sensitive to others
Be open to new ideas
Case Analysis
For our case analysis we started out by looking over what we were given and breaking it down into smaller details. A new grocery store president wants to help her employees. We have to devise a plan for the “communication president” in order to showcase her commitment and effective way of communication. We decided to name our president Carol in order to talk about her more easily. Carol thinks highly of T.S Eliot as he is one of her inspirations. She told us she wanted her communication plan to be something set in stone, like the 10 commandments. Carol also wants us to use Magna Carta as an influence in her communication strategy as well. Because of these clues we concluded that Carol is an ESTJ when it comes to her Myers Briggs test. We concluded this because she is open and friendly, factual, logical and wants structure with her communication plan. This was useful information for us later on because it helped us break down what type of manager she is. We realized later on that she did not fit into one leadership style though, parts of her were Circuit, and parts of her were Arrow. Our challenge was to come up with a plan that brought out the strengths of both styles while also pushing her in the direction of a Dance type of leader.
SWOT Analysis of President
In the SWOT ANALYSIS of the New President Carol it was determined that her strengths are self aware, friendly and educated. These are her strengths because she is self aware that she needs the help and is asking for it. Carol wants to achieve her communication plan and she knows that she needs help so she is seeking help. Carol may be educated on her job and knows what she is doing but she knows that she needs the help to achieve her goal and the way to achieve the goal is asking for help and educating herself on how to make it happen. Lastly, she is a friendly person who wants to make the job for others a good place to work. She wants people to come to her when they need help. Being friendly is a strength, it can also be a weakness. When being friendly she will need to set boundaries so they won't be crossed. In a workplace you can be friendly but not too friendly where people can walk all over you and abuse your power. This is why it can also be a weakness. Another weakness that Carol has is she is set in her way. Being set in her way can affect her communication plan because some of her employees might use that against her and try to fight her open door policy saying that she is not willing to change. If people are not on board with your plan it can have a bump in the plan and it can have conflict in your workplace. It might also stop her from changing things that could help her because she is set in her ways. With strengths and weaknesses there are always opportunities.
Carol's opportunities are that she is open to change and delegation to want to change her way and try new things to get her open door policy. Lastly, there will always be threats in plans. Carol's threats are that she needs to be educated in what she is doing to help to make the plan in motion. If there is no communication between her and the rest of the employees there is not going to be a good work environment and the open door policy won't be enforced. This can lead to a broken chain of communication which will lead the employees from not thinking of the management and will not be effective leaders and wont take them seriously.
KISS
When going over the case the KISS chart was helpful to understand carol more. Going over some of the importance of her plan was put in a KISS chart. What we know about President Carol is she is new to the position, oversees everyone, gives feedback to the employees and wants to create a new communication plan. What can be infrared is that she has lots of responsibility. Which can include scheduling and having hard decisions. With this there can be high expectations and wanting to be liked and to make a change. So what to do is create weekly meetings, office hours and have positive and negative feedback. This can include verbal and written feedback to help those who can take verbal feedback and those who would take written feedback over verbal. What not to do is be inconsistent, negative or positive feedback only. Having both positive and negative can help. The positive helps to show people they matter and the negative can help people improve on things. Having only written or verbal feedback. Having both of these can help because some people can take verbal feedback while others can only take written feedback.
T.S Elliot had a big impact on the plan as well. What we know about T.S Elliot is that he was a poet, abuela lack, quadrilingual, family man, compassionate and his Myers Briggs is INTP. What we can infer is that T.S Eliot is well spoken and has a lack of motivation and a lack of communication when it comes to other humans. He has an ability to communicate with more individuals through his poetry. His family is important and he is caring and involved. So what is that he communicates through writing and speech better than face to face. He seeks an instance to better communication and he knows to separate work from family. What not to do is try not to communicate with others and not to block himself off from others.
The Ten Commandments are a big part of Carol's communication plan and what she wants. What to know about the Ten Commandments is that they are Religious and there are 10 of them. The Ten Commandments are guidelines that Christians are expected to follow. They are trustworthy and are written down in stone. What can be inferred about The Ten Commandments are that religious people follow and believe them. If people don't follow them they go to hell. What to do is find something people believe in and follow them. What not to do with The Ten Commandments is have them written in stone. There can be rules and stuff but having them change once in a while is okay to change things up but to have them written in stone means there is no room for change. Having ideas not rules because a lot of people don’t like to follow rules but having an idea is most likely to have people do.
Magna Carta just like the Ten Commandments is important to the plan. What is known about the magna carta is that it is a British peace treaty that is a direct descendant from the 5th amendment. This is written to protect the rights and property. What to infer about the Magna Carta is that it has been around a longtime and it helps to shape many ideals. The Magna Carta protects the rights of the citizens. So what can the Magna Carta do is something that will last a long time and protect the employees. What not to do is take away the rights and protection in the workplace. If the rights of the employee are taken away it will affect the work environment and the employees won't want to work for them.
What is known about Kroger is that it's been around awhile. Kroger values equity and inclusion in the workforce. It has over 500,000 associates nationally and is invested in there associates. What to infer about Kroger is that they are successful and encourage diversity. Kroger educates their employees. This can be through training in their company. So Kroger is to invest in the employees' success. This can show that you care about them and want what's best for them. Encouraging more diversity is good to show that you care for all kinds of employees. What not to do is ignore the employees benefits and diversity. If you ignore this its going to show that you don’t care for them and they are not going to want to work for you or put their all into their work.
So What we can infer with the chats is that they help to understand the president's mindset. This is a good thing to know to help put a plan that not only will work but the president can get on board with. It also can help to figure out Carol Myers Brigs because it shows what traits can go with the different Myers briggs. Lastly, it helped to figure out what type of manager she will be. The Ten Commandments and Magna Carta would show that she would be an arrow because she wants something set in stone. Kroger and T.S Elliot show that she is a circuit because she shows that she has rules but she is committed to her employees and wants what's best for her employees.
Recommendations and Solutions
Communication Plan
For the communication plan we came up with the main focus being to have an open door of communication between all levels of the company. This includes the president, the management, the heads of the departments, and the employees. The goal with this is to have employees realize that they can talk to all chains of command and be comfortable talking to them, but also that there is still a sense of hierarchy in the company. That way the employees know that the president of the company is still the main boss.
Strategy and Tactics
The first strategy that we would like to use is to get the president out on the floor, get her out of the office. She can do this by offering to help in different departments and just casually walking around checking in on the staff. One example we have for the president is to work in the front of the store, helping check customers out. We believe that this can help build a relationship between her and the managers and other employees. Her being willing to work out on the floor with the employees shows them that she doesn't view herself as better than them. This will also help make her more approachable as the new president. When they see her more often she doesn't become someone that they don't know. Being seen out on the floor will help create more of that open door open department policy she wants.
Strategy two we developed is she needs to be open to continuous improvement. If she wants her employees to be open to improvements she needs to be open to it as well, and essentially set the bar for her managers and employees. The tactics we developed for her to use is to set up monthly meetings with the department managers. For the meetings she will send out an email prior to the meeting with date, time and brief agenda. In the meeting she will have the agenda displayed and will follow that agenda but we would like for her to keep it conversational and have an open dialogue. The agenda will help appeal to the Js and the open dialogue will help appeal to the Ps. There will be time for the President to give her continuous improvement and there will be time for the managers to give theirs as well, there will be a verbal and written format for the continuous improvement. This also ties into one of her principles that she would like employees to be open to new ideas. When you are sharing continuous improvement new ideas may be shared and everyone needs to be open to trying those new things. The other principal we are tying into this is keeping employees apprised on relevant information. In the meetings it is a good way to update managers on what new things are coming and what could be changing.
The final strategy that we chose was for our new president to be aware of different communication styles. For this strategy we would like her to fully understand the different personality types. We will share examples of how she can interact with each of the different types. When she understands the different communication styles it will help her get more quality responses and feedback from her employees. Communication will be easier for both sides of the conversation, when you can anticipate where the conversation is going you will find it will be easier to understand and communicate. Understanding who she can be more upfront and “wild” with and who she needs to be more calm and tame with will help create the most effective communication. Here we are also tying in some of her principles of always listen first, talk second. This is important for effective communication and understating that some extraverts may not alway fully listen or thoroughly think through responses. The other principal we are tying in is the one of being sensitive to others. Understanding their personality type and how to communicate with them is being sensitive to what they need.
SWOT Analysis of communication plan
The strengths of the communication plan we developed is that it has a chain of command but also creates harmony. We want people in the store to understand that she is still the president but that she is open with the employees. The weakness of our communication plan is that we are; too friendly and cross boundaries. The president could become too friendly with the employees and they could become too friendly with her as well. If this happens then there is no line of authority. This may cause employees to cross boundaries with the president creating unprofessionalism. There needs to be a boundary set. The opportunities our communication plan brings is that it allows for team bonding and a strong, safe work environment. Having employees be more open and encouraged to talk to each other and their bosses is going to create more of a bond between employees. This also allows for there to be a strong safe environment when you know and trust the people you work with. Lastly, the threats of the communication plan. Employees could overshare with the president and could become too comfortable there could also be some pushback from the employees. Some employees may over share information with the president causing awkward or uncomfortable situations for the president and employee involved. The employees may become overall too comfortable, if they become too comfortable with the president it may lead to poor quality of work or employees not doing their job because they feel the president will not do anything.
The Plan
We would like to set this plan in motion as soon as we can. The first step of our plan is to email the President asking to set up a meeting to share our newly developed plan with her. The plan will be shared via powerpoint and with handouts for visual references. The communication plan will also be emailed to her along with a recap of the meeting. The second step of the plan is to educate her further on the plan along with the managers as well. Once everyone is educated we can move on to step three; setting the plan in motion. We will start step three by having the president send out an email to everyone in the store and meeting with them two to three departments at a time. In this meeting she will give herself a formal intro=oduction and explain her new communication plan going forward. Our final step is to check in with the president in about three months to see how the plan is going and where we need to make adjustments to our strategies and tactics for continuous improvement.
Rejected Solutions
While thinking of solutions to come up with, there were solutions that had potential but did not go with the plan so well so they were thrown out. The first solution that was rejected was Collaborate with managers and pick an employee of the month for each department. Employes of the month is a good idea however it does not go with trying to keep and open communication. It would take too much time to get employee of the month for each department and would take getting to know the employees first and wanting them to feel listened to. The second solution that was rejected was Assume that the employees understand what you are communicating to them. While Carol wants to have an open environment and communication it is not good to have Carol just assume that the employees know she wants that. It is a good idea to communicate that you can’t assume that your employees are going to agree with Carol or assume they know what she wants. Carol is going to need to find ways to get her message out there and ask questions to get to know who understands her and who needs more information to understand her form of communication. The last solution that was rejected was Send out only a video of the new president introducing herself. Carol wants her employees to use her open door policy and using a video to introduce the new president does the opposite of an open door policy. Using the video as an introduction shows that the president can possibly be too lazy to introduce herself. It can make the employees think that she really doesn't want the open door policy because using a video is an easy way out. It can also mean that most employees might not want to sit and watch the video to get to know the president. Where the face to face meeting shows that the president is willing to get to know people and it can help the president know who her employees are. This can also help Carol to see who is more shy and who is willing to connect with others. This can help Carol to understand how to approach her employees while also showing that she really does have the open door policy she wants in her communication plan.
Lessons Learned
Throughout this case analysis we took away as a group some very valuable lessons. Our first lesson was how to use Myers Briggs to figure out how to work with different communication styles. Myers Briggs is a tool that we don’t always have to use but in this case it was highly beneficial for gaining an understanding of how Carol works with others, and how we worked as a group. The second is that the client's preferred solution may not be the best solution for the issue. This was a breakthrough for us when figuring out how tie in the clients needs but also present them with the best communication plan possible. Lastly, we learned how tiny details end up being important to the big picture. Without all of the clues we learned in our case we would not have been able to provide Carol with the best plan.
References
References
DeYoung (PhD, K. (2018, October 23). 10 Things You Should Know about the Ten Commandments. Retrieved from https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-ten-commandments/
History.com Editors. (2009, December 17). Magna Carta. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/magna-carta
Magna Carta. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/magna-carta
Pick 'n Save jobs in Kroger. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://kroger.eightfold.ai/careers?query=Pick 'n Save&pid=11407034&domain=kroger.com
Raga, S. (2020, September 26). 12 Surprising Facts About T.S. Eliot. Retrieved from https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/86011/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-ts-eliot
Ten Commandments. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ten-Commandments
w3bSit3m@n@g3r. (2022, February 15). Pick 'n Save Application, Jobs & Careers Online. Retrieved from https://www.job-applications.com/pick-n-save-grocery-application/
Appendix
100 Facts
Thomas Stearns Eliot OM
He was a poet
He is considered one of the 20th centuries major poets
He is a central figure in English language Modernist
He was a essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor
He was Born September 26, 1888
He died January 4, 1965 Age 76
He won Nobel prize in 1948 October 4
His notable works were “ash wednesday” “Burnt Norton” “East Coker” Little Digging”
He Attended Smith Academy, St Louis and Milton Academy, Massachusetts
He earned a bachelor’s degree in three years and contributed several poems to the Harvard Advocate. From 1910–11, he studied at the Sorbonne, then returned to Harvard to pursue a doctorate in philosophy.
He Exercised a strong Influence on Anglo-American culture from the 1920s until late in the century
His experiments in diction, style and versification English poetry and in a series of critical essay he shattered old orthodoxies and erected new ones
He had a nervous breakdown and diagnosed his condition as aboulie-lack of will while recovering he wrote “The waste land”
Here is a quote by T.S Elliot “ Humankind cannot bear very much reality”
His Straight-laced demeanor was a shame
He tried to suppress reprints and biographies
He didn’t just write poetry. He also wrote in a number of other genres
He loved “Duck Soup”
He memorialized near Geoffrey Chaucer
He spoke Latin, Geek, German, and French
His second wife and widow edited the waste land. His last work
He tried to join the U.S. Navy but was rejected for physical reasons.
He has five siblings
He supported himself by working as a teacher, banker and editor only writing poetry in his spare time
Cats is part of his work and is the longest running show on broadway.
Three hours per day was his writing limit per day
Writing in french help him to get over his writer's block
He might of been the first person to write the word bullshit
He set of stink bombs with his nephews.
There is a new president of the store
18 departments and 350 employees in the communication organization
President of store like T.S. Elliot
Wants to be known to the employees as the “communication president”
Wants to have a “talking proclamation– similar to the Ten Commandments”
Magna Carta is a British peace treaty
Written by a group of 13th century barons
Written to protect their rights and property against a tyrannical king
Magna Carta failed to resolve the conflict between King John and his barons
Reissued many times after King John's death
King John signed the Magna Carta on June 15, 1215
There are 2 principles from the Magna Carta that still resonate today
Magna Carta served to inspire and justify action in liberty’s defense
Colonists believed they were entitled to the same rights as Englishmen
The 5th amendment to the constitution is a direct descendent of Magna Carta;s guarantee of proceedings according to the “law of the land”
First version of Magna Carta was issued at Runnymede
Runnymede was a field lying next to Thames in Berkshire
First document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law
Magna Carta translates to Great Charter
Was reissued many times– 1216, 1217, 1225
Rebels (barons) were led by Robert FitzWalter
A civil war broke out within 3 months of the first failure
Written in latin
Has 63 clauses
The Petition of Right and the Habeas Corpus Act refer to clause 39 of the Magna Carta
They emphasis equity and inclusion on their website
They have over 500,000 associates nationally
Headquarters are in Cincinnati Ohio
“annual sales totaled $132.5 billion for fiscal year 2020.”
Barney Kroger first opened his doors but the business
“We strive to provide timely and relevant training to help ensure associates at all levels are prepared to deliver a full, fresh, and friendly experience in their current role as well as prepare for future opportunities.”
“For the third year in a row, Kroger was named a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality and achieved a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index by the Hu - man Rights Campaign”
She is in charge of tracking shipments and receiving them
She oversees everyone in the store
The positions involves giving people feedback and managing sales
She is in charge of scheduling workers
She is in charge of tracking employee hours
She is a supervisor
She manages training for new employees
She is in charge of making sure all customers are satisfied with their experience shopping
She has to have previous experience in management to hold this job
She makes between 55,000 to 60,000 a year
She gets paid time off
She has a 401k
She has healthcare options
There is paid training
Employees get food discounts
She has a lot of control over the store in the sense that the higher company trusts her to take care of things
“37 of Kroger’s 50 major markets are located among the nation’s top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) ranked by population.”
Religious views and background
Views themselves as above others
The 10 commandments are engraved in stone- she wants rules “set in stone”
The 10 commandments became more important in the 13th century BCE
The 10 commandments establish rules of worship and forbid actions
The 10 commandments are also called the Decalogue
The 10 commandments set people apart from the world (wants her business to be different than others with communication)
The 10 commandments prove freedom
The 10 commandments show us who God is, they show us what matters to him. (will show employees what she wants from them and what she will do)
The 10 Commandments are seen as trustworthy
Most important instruction is based on the 10 commandments ( Set up important foundation for the store to follow)
Looks to improve organization
“Talking proclamation” proclamations are used in government and religious
Proclamation- an official announcement made in public
Strong personality
Warm and friendly
Disorganized
Krogers values- Honesty, Integrity, respect, diversity,safety and inclusion
Kroger works to feed the human spirit
One of the worlds largest retailers
Want to create a continuous learning environment that helps associates feel supported and can grow
Want to develop talent
Develop leaders
Kroger invests in their associates
The change as the world and business changes around them
Agendas
9/20/22
Meeting time- 3:00pm
Attendance- Caitlyn, Charlotte, Kallie, Kirstynne
Finish group rules
Always have an agenda
Be Respectful towards each other
Make sure to attend all classes and group meetings (unless sick or emergency) if you are unable to make it to either notify group members.
Ask for help when needed
Set checkpoints up until presentation day and meet them
Be open minded to new ideas
Have fun
Come up with a schedule for meetings
Go over facts we found prior to first meeting
Talk about our next meeting
Watch Dr. So What videos on charts and case studies
Start developing KISS chart
End
9/28/22
Meeting time - 3:00pm
Attendance- Caitlyn, Charlotte, Kallie, Kirstynne
Finish group rules
Always have an agenda
Be Respectful towards each other
Make sure to attend all classes and group meetings (unless sick or emergency) if you are unable to make it to either notify group members.
Ask for help when needed
Set checkpoints up until presentation day and meet them
Be open minded to new ideas
Have fun
Come up with a schedule for meetings
Go over facts we found prior to first meeting
Talk about our next meeting
Watch Dr. So What videos on charts and case studies
Start developing KISS chart
End
10/4/22
Meeting time- 3:00pm
Attendance - Caitlyn, Charlotte, Kallie, Kirstynne
Catch up from the past week
Kiss Charts
Ten Commandments
Magna Carta
Kroger
SWOT Chart
Myers- Briggs
INTP- T.S. Elliot
Next Meeting
Caitlyn
Case analysis
Kirstynne
Fix powerpoint
Charlotte
Background Information
Summary of the 100 facts
Kallie
Fix powerpoint
End
10/12/22
Meeting time- 2:00pm
Attendance- Caitlyn, Kallie, Kirstynne
Catch up
Determine Manager Approach
Determine Myers-Briggs
Communication Plan
Recommendations
Assignments
Kallie
Recommendations
friendly/stern
Charlotte
Redo background info
Summary of CASE not 100 facts
Kirstynne
Organize presentation
Strategies/tactics
Caitlyn
Rejected solutions
End
Funtastic Four 10/19/22
Meeting time- 3:00pm
Attendance- Caitlyn, Charlotte, Kallie, Kirstynne
Catch up
Go over assignments from last week
Communication Plan
Strategies
Tactics
Implication plan
Powerpoint touch ups
Next meeting
10/24/22
Meeting time- 2:00pm on FaceTime
Attendance - Caitlyn, Charlotte, Kallie, Kirstynne
Catch up
Last Minute Touches to PowerPoint
Divvy up Slides
Questions?
Presentation TOMORROW!!!
Dress business professional
Be on time- we are the first to present
Have notecards if needed
Group Rules
Always have an agenda
Be Respectful towards each other
Make sure to attend all classes and group meetings (unless sick or emergency) if you are unable to make it to either notify group members.
Ask for help when needed
Set checkpoints up until presentation day and meet them
Be open minded to new ideas
Have fun
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