Communications TemplateOverall Issue to Be AddressedEmployee.docx

Communications Template
Overall Issue to Be Addressed
Employee Management
Contributing Factors to Issue
Communication Required to Address Issue
Audience for Communication
(Internal or External or Both)
Communication Objectives
A no-open communication policy. By this employees were not
allowed to communicate their problems with the management
and if they did they would suffer losing their jobs
Team meeting
Email
Internal: All people working in the company
-Create awareness of the existing situation
-Inform the workforce about the new or existing company
communication policy
-Provide procedure for company communication policy
Employee demotivation which resulted from the company
underperforming and poor leadership and management
Team meeting
Email
News letter
-Listen to staff complaints concerning work environment and
their suggestions on how to improve the situation
-Introduce employee incentives and career improvement
programs that should build a positive competition within the
company
-Creating employee policies that allow the suggestion of

innovative ideas that will receive inspiration and support
The employee’s letter that was sent to the media platform
Team meeting
-Discuss the impact of the letter on the company which involves
exposing its internal affairs to the outside world, therefore
demonstrating how it will affect its business affairs
Leadership and communication
CEO briefing
Internal: All management staff
-Discuss the employee’s letter that was sent to the media
-Discuss the issues that could have caused such behavior from
the workforce
-Talk about the work place atmosphere and how it is affecting
the employees
-discuss the areas that need to be adjusted to allow employees to
feel more included in the operations of the organization thus
giving them a sense of ownership
Discuss employee moral
-Caution management team about leadership styles used in the
company
-Talk about competition and how to improve innovation and
improve brand position in the market
Overall Issue to Be Addressed
The employee’s letter
Contributing Factors to Issue
Communication Required to Address Issue
Audience for Communication
Communication Objectives

Management approach that resulted in employee dissatisfaction
and choice to take the wrong channel of communication
CEO briefing
External
-Discuss the events of the employee’s letter so as to explain the
matter from the perspective of the management. This way, the
CEO will take his position on defending the beliefs of the
company in treating its workforce right, and the measures it will
take to ensure that all its workers are comfortable and are
provided with a good work environment that promotes career
development.
Poor skills and talent management
CEO briefing
Newsletter
External: All shareholders
-Discuss the management factors that have resulted in the
product fail
-Talk about ways to improve innovation and improve revenue
-Talk about how the company plans to improve its already
tainted image
-Discuss company goals and objectives on developing new
products that will beat competition
Company operations
CEO briefing
Podcast on internet
Lunchtime meeting
External: The media in order to reach the public
-Discuss the employee’s letter
-Talk about the misunderstandings that resulted from the
employees letter
-Clear the name of the company from its current bad reputation
-Make matters clear regarding the management’s view on the
matter and its performance
-Build public confidence on the standing of the company
Brand performance
Intranet article

Launch event
Newsletter
External and Internal: All company stakeholders as well as the
public
-Convince the public as well as the employees and other
stakeholders of its confidence in its future innovation market
and financial performances
-Talk about how the employees letter has helped improve things
thus making the company stronger
-Demonstrate its level of humility to the public to accept the
accusations on the employee’s letter and therefore taking
responsibility to make things right
-Announcing launch of a more competitive product guided by
the employee’s suggestion
CASE STUDY:
On Thursday, June 30, 2011, at 10:45 a.m., Research in Motion
(RIM) co-chief executive
officers (CEOs), Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis unexpectedly
found themselves facing serious
public scrutiny not from the competitors, market analysts or
consumers but from one of their
own senior executives. In an attempt to have their voice heard,
an anonymous senior-level RIM
employee addressed an open letter to both Balsillie and
Lazaridis, however, the letter was sent
to the online technology news provider Boy Genius Report
(BGR). Upon BGR verifying the

identity of the source RIM employee, the full contents of the
letter were featured in an online
BGR article, which quickly spread into mainstream media. The
details of the open letter had
provided various candid criticisms of RIM’s leadership, its
product development and its
employee culture. In addition, the employee offered personal
insights, outlined specific actions
necessary for RIM to improve and expressed the desire to see
the company regain its
dominant position as an industry leader.4 In a year during which
RIM already faced pressure
from a dwindling market share, failed product attempts and a
sinking stock price, co-CEOs
Balsillie and Lazaridis not only needed to figure out how to
respond to the claims of the letter
publicly, but more importantly to work out how to communicate
to RIM employees internally.
COMPANY HISTORY
Global mobile communications company RIM first began in
1984, when 23-year-old Lazaridis,
a dropout of the University of Waterloo, and Douglas Fregin, an
engineering student from the
University of Windsor formed RIM upon obtaining a contract
from General Motors of Canada to
perform industrial automation of General Motor’s operations.
The young company was able to
survive from one contract to another. Building on its success,
RIM had grown to employ over a
dozen employees with annual revenue in the millions by the late
1980s. In 1988, the company
explored its new market opportunities involving wireless

operations, which enabled RIM to
become “the first wireless data technology developer in North
America and the first company
outside Scandinavia to develop connectivity products for the
Mobitex wireless packet-
switched data communications networks. The technology was
widely used for business
communications, such as processing credit-card sales.”
In the 1990s, RIM continued to acquire with various
telecommunication companies to provide
research services on solutions to wireless systems. One contract
in particular involved “a
paging and cellular telephone company that required RIM to
investigate the potential of new
wireless digital network systems. This contract led to the
development and manufacturing of
modems, which in turn led to the further development of a
complete wireless e-mail system in
collaboration with the Swedish mobile phone company
Ericsson.” Through important research
contracts, RIM was able develop its own internal capabilities
and become more than just a
service provider by evolving its company business operations
into developing communication
products. The company reached a major breakthrough in 1992,
when RIM researchers
discovered a device to receive and send messages on a pager.
Equipped with new technology
of communication, Lazaridis was determined to develop the
innovative technology of sending
e-mail over wireless networks.
In 1992, Jim Balsillie joined RIM, reportedly investing

$250,000 of his own money into the
company by mortgaging his own home. The move had
empowered Balsillie overseeing the
company’s finances and business development tasks, while
allowing Lazaridis to return to the
area of his strengths in engineering and research. The
partnership eventually led to RIM’s first
product breakthrough in 1996, with the release of the
Interactive Pager. Seen as innovative, the
product signified one of the first of its kind to introduce
consumers to the novelty of sending
and receiving messages over a wireless network. Although the
device was short lived and
replaced by other products, many of the Interactive Pager’s
features helped to create a strong
foundation for the development of RIM’s future lines of
smartphone products. In order to
continue developing new products and expand business
operations, RIM listed itself as a
publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange in
1997, raising more than US$115
million in capital from investors. A year later the influx of
money proved to be well spent, as
RIM introduced the first BlackBerry handheld wireless
computing device to the public. By
1999, BlackBerry offered its users the ability to access basic e-
mail and two-way paging on a
six-line display using a small QWERTY keyboard. In addition,
its users could also browse
specially-formatted pages that offered news, stock market data,
weather and travel
information. Moreover, RIM entered into agreements with

companies such as BellSouth
Wireless and Rogers Cantel to secure wireless service.
RIM continued to expand business operations through additional
public offerings, raising
US$250 million in 1999, and another US$950 million in 2000.
The BlackBerry quickly grew in
acceptance and gained in popularity, receiving industry acclaim
in 2000, when the device was
named Best Telecom Product of the Year for its ability to send
and receive corporate email.
Meanwhile, it also won the PC World Class Award for Best
Wireless Communication Device, for
its small and lightweight design and constant access to email.
However, RIM had faced serious
conflicts over a group of Illinois-based inventors who filed a
lawsuit in a U.S. Federal Court,
accusing RIM of developing its wireless e-mail network by
infringing on patents held by an
American patent-company, NTP Inc. of Virginia. The lawsuit
would carry on for years. At times
RIM was threatened to discontinue BlackBerry service to its
American customers before RIM
and NTP finally announced a settlement in 2006, in which RIM
agreed to pay NTP US$612.5
million to settle all claims.
The company continued to develop the popular BlackBerry
device by releasing newer versions
with increased user capabilities. In 2002, RIM upgraded the
BlackBerry to include voice and
data transmission, while also allowing its users to access
multiple e-mail accounts.
Advancements continued in 2003, with the introduction of color

screens on Blackberry devices
for the first time. By 2006, BlackBerry devices included MP3
players, cameras and instant
messaging capabilities between BlackBerry users with the
release of BlackBerry Messenger.
The successful development of both software and hardware
features had driven an increase in
consumer demand for BlackBerry devices. These consumers
were often associated with the
nickname “CrackBerry”, as they often experienced obsessive
symptoms when constantly
accessing information, sending e-mail, messages, or simply
keeping their BlackBerry device
close by at all times. In addition, the term “BlackBerry thumb”
was also commonly used to
refer to the repetitive stress injury that could occur as an
individual’s thumbs were overused
from constant typing. In 2007, RIM hit a milestone, as the
number of BlackBerry subscribers
had officially passed the 10 million mark. Its consumer demand
had remained strong with RIM
reporting another 1.65 million subscribers in its third quarter of
2007 alone, and with the
company revenue doubling over the previous year to have
reached US$1.67 billion and still
continuing to grow.
In 2008, BlackBerry devices held an estimated 44.5 per cent of
the U.S. smartphone market,
where its market share had risen from 35.1 per cent since 2007,
RIM was in a dominant
position and yet it was not without any industry competition.
There had been major changes in
the smartphone market in 2007 due to the launch of the Apple
iPhone. Although the iPhone

had provided end-users with fun interactive features, which
were not available on a BlackBerry,
such as a touch screen, downloadable apps and a wide selection
of games, many businesses
and their employees remained loyal to BlackBerry devices for
their business functionality and
reliability. While the iPhone captured an estimated 19.2 per cent
of U.S. smartphone sales in
the first quarter of 2008, Apple, at that time, represented a
minor share of the market compared
to RIM. However, the numbers highlighted an increased demand
for new smartphone options
and capabilities of a smartphone. In an effort to capitalize on
the changing market demands,
RIM released the company’s first smartphone device, the
BlackBerry Torch, with touch-screen
capability in 2008. Having delivered a new operating system
and social networking integration,
the BlackBerry Storm served as a symbol of RIM’s move
outside its traditional BlackBerry
designs. However, many industry analysts and consumers
viewed the new BlackBerry Storm
as more of a catch-up device for RIM, rather than a leap
forward ahead of the competing Apple
iPhone. From their point of view, industry analysts considered
RIM’s inability to produce a
BlackBerry that could outperform the iPhone represented a
missed opportunity and shifting
momentum in the mobile communication world towards Apple.
RIM again felt the pressure of changes in the marketplace when

Apple released the iPad, a
touch-screen tablet-computing device in January 2010. With no
direct competition in the newly
created tablet market, Apple left many companies including
RIM scrambling to create products
or opt out of the market completely. After much consumer
waiting and anticipation, RIM
introduced the BlackBerry Playbook, a touch-screen tablet in
April 2011. This release date was
over a year after the launch of the original iPad and a month
after the release of the second
version iPad2 in March 2011. To make matters worse, the
BlackBerry Playbook failed to meet
the expectation of its consumers and industry professionals.
Although there had been a long
delay in releasing the BlackBerry Playbook, critics pointed out
that the device was rushed to
market, missing key features such as e-mail, contacts and
calendar applications. At the same
time heavy criticism also emerged. RIM was viewed to have not
sufficiently complemented
original elements to the user interface but had excessive
similarities to its competitors’
products. Other comments were overly direct, such as “Don't
buy it, the reasons? It’s not fully
baked.”
In retrospect, even though RIM had generated a net income of
US$2.4 billion for 2010 as a
whole (see Exhibit 1), its share of the U.S. smartphone market
declined from 38 per cent to 30
per cent (see Exhibit 2). Some research reports indicated that
RIM’s BlackBerry market outside
North America (see Exhibit 3) had primarily driven the sales of
the company. Intense

competition had mounted in the smartphone market. As a result,
RIM lost its market share to
the growing popularity of the Apple iPhone, in addition to new
smartphones using Google’s
Android operating system, including devices from HTC,
Motorola, Samsung and LG
Electronics. Disappointed with the BlackBerry’s dropped
market share, analysts and investors
no longer viewed RIM as the dominant force in the marketplace.
Consequently, in June 2011,
RIM’s stock price had devalued by more than 50 per cent earlier
in the year, from US$68 to less
than US$26 (see Exhibit 4). Despite the major transition, RIM
leadership held confidence that a
healthy financial position of nearly US$3 billion in cash, no
debt and new products in
development would revive the company to regain its leading
position in the smartphone market
(see Exhibit 5).
THE EMPLOYEE’S LETTER
On Thursday, June 30, 2011, at 10:45 a.m., an online
technology news provider, Boy Genius
Report (BGR), released an online article, featuring the contents
of an open letter from an
anonymous senior-level RIM employee to the company’s co-
CEOs, Balsillie and Lazaridis (see
Exhibit 6). In the opening statement of the letter the anonymous
employee justified the decision
to send the open letter via a third party news provider, stated:
Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest
the content of this letter

because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your
employee base. You
have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the
future, but
unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak
openly without having to
worry about the career-limiting effects.
With the featured BGR article appropriately titled, “Open letter
to BlackBerry bosses: Senior
RIM exec tells all as company crumbles around him”, Jonathan
S. Geller, the writer of the
article, disclosed to the readers that before the full contents of
the RIM employee’s letter was
released online, BGR had investigated and confirmed the actual
identity of the RIM employee.
The RIM employee structured the letter to identify a total of
eight problems for Balsillie and
Lazaridis to address: focus on the end-user experience, recruit
senior software leaders, cut
projects to their basics, invest in developers, improve product
marketing, employee
accountability, treat the press and customers with humility, and
engage and interact with
employees. In the closing sentences of the letter, the RIM
employee offered some personal
insights into the current state of the company and day-to-day
operations by making the

statement: “We should also address issues surrounding making
RIM an enjoyable workplace.
Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government
workplaces.”
After providing the full contents of the RIM employee’s letter,
the BGR article revealed that RIM
did not give an immediate response to a request for comment.
At the end of the online article,
it concluded that RIM employees were invited to share their
thoughts or feelings on the
company by sending BGR an email or posting on the comment
blog.
The coverage of the anonymous RIM employee’s open letter
quickly spread to other
mainstream media outlets with some headlines reading:
“Open letter from anonymous RIM official blasting company
surfaces online” – The
Financial Post.
“Leaked letter describes chaos at RIM” – Sun News.
“Drama in BlackBerryland: RIM Exec Reportedly Rips
Superiors” – TIME Techland.
THE DECISION
In addition to the year in which the company already faced
serious pressure from a dwindling
market share, failed product attempts and a sinking stock price,
co-CEOs Balsillie and

Lazaridis would need to devise an appropriate course of action
to respond publicly to the
claims of the letter from an anonymous RIM employee. More
importantly, the leadership would
need to provide communication internally to answer the ensuing
concerns and mounting
questions of RIM employees, in order to maintain the stability
within its organization during
what could be looked upon as a defining period in the company
history.

MILESTONE ONE:
Overview: In this assignment, you will enhance your skills and
knowledge of techniques in various communications to lead
change, develop and maintain relationships, and address sources
of conflict through effective communications tied to
organizational goals and core visions. Through the development
of a strategic communication case study, you will gain
comprehensive, hands-on experience in evaluating and
constructing communications that inform, persuade, and
influence intended audiences in order to achieve strategic goals.
Using the provided case study, you will identify issues that
must be addressed from an organizational perspective.
Additionally, you will make informed decisions regarding what
actions to take, paying particular attention to appropriateness of
communications and mediums, as well as evaluating
effectiveness.
For Milestone One, you will further define the problem you
identified in the case and begin to develop a plan to address the
problem using internal and external communications.
Furthermore, you will prioritize the first steps in the process of
addressing the problem and set goals for your communication.
To access the final project case study, “Research in Motion:
Sincerely, a RIM Employee (A),” refer to the Attached.
Prompt: Craft an introduction to the problem you identified in
the case that you intend to address in your strategic
communication case study. Specifically, the following critical
elements must be addressed:
I. Introduction

Establish context for your paper by summarizing the important
details of the case and outlining the specific problem(s) that you
will address.
In response to the presented issue, define clear and specific
communication goals. Who are your target audiences and what
do you want to accomplish with your communication?
Use the following rubric to help you address the critical
elements appropriately.
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your introduction should be 3 to 4
pages in length with double spacing, one-inch margins, 12-point
Times New Roman font, and adherence to the latest edition of
APA formatting.
MILESTONE TWO:
Overview: For Milestone Two, you will craft the internal
message that you will use to address the problem you identified
in the case study. To access the final project case study,
“Research in Motion: Sincerely, a RIM Employee (A),” refer to
the HBR coursepack link in your syllabus. In doing so, you will
specify the mediums you will use to deliver the message,
explain why these mediums are important, and outline the target
audience. Furthermore, you will explain how you factored in the
personal needs and development of employees when creating
messaging, including the considerations made to support
employees through the change process that will be implemented
to address the problem. Refer to the article Helping Employees
Embrace Change for assistance. Finally, identify potential
sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your internal
communication. Consider the message you are communicating
as well as the medium(s) used.

Prompt: Write a paper in which you discuss aspects of your
internal communication, as well as draft the actual internal
message that you will use to address the problem you identified
in the case study with your target audience. Note: Be sure to
include the actual internal message within the body of your
paper, to accompany part C. below.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
II. Internal Communication
Determine the medium(s) that you will use to deliver your
message and explain how you made this decision.
Define the target audience of your internal communication.
Include key factors and any cultural factors that you considered
about this audience.
Craft the message that you will communicate internally and
explain what change management principles you considered
when developing this message.
Explain how you considered the personal needs and
development of employees when creating messaging.
Explain what considerations are being made in order to offer
continuous support to employees through the change process.
Identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result
of your internal communication. Consider the message you are
communicating, as well as the medium(s) used.
Guidelines for Submission: Your internal communication should
be 4 to 5 pages in length with double spacing, one-inch margins,
12-point Times New Roman font, and adherence to the latest
edition of APA formatting.
MILESTONE THREE:
Overview: For Milestone Three, you will craft the external

message that will be used to address the problem you identified
in the case study. To access the final project case study,
“Research in Motion: Sincerely, a RIM Employee (A),” refer to
the HBR coursepack link in your syllabus. In doing so, you will
specify the mediums you will use to deliver the message,
explain why the mediums are important, and outline the target
audience. Furthermore, you will explain how the message
promotes the organization’s strategic goals. Finally, identify
potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your
external communication. Consider the message you are
communicating as well as the medium(s) used.
Prompt: Write a paper in which you discuss aspects of your
external communication, as well as craft the actual message that
you will use to address the problem you identified in the case
study with your target audience. Note: Be sure to include the
actual external message within the body of your paper, to
accompany part C. below.
III. External Communication
Define the target audience of your external communication.
Include key factors and any cultural factors about this audience
that you considered.
Craft the message that you will communicate externally and
defend how the message promotes the organization’s strategic
goals.
of your external communication. Consider the message you are
Use the following rubric to help you address the critical
elements appropriately.

Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your external communication
should be 4 to 5 pages in length with double spacing, one-inch
margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, and adherence to the
latest edition of APA formatting.
MILESTONE FOUR:
Overview
The final project for this course is the creation of a strategic
communication case study.
Effective communication skills are critical to success in almost
all managerial positions. Several challenges exist surrounding
the creation and implementation of effective communications
both internally (inside organizations between individuals and
groups) and externally (outside organizations with markets,
partners, and other third parties). Technology, change, and the
various needs of stakeholders are just a few of the concerns that
impact business communications. This course is designed to
help you communicate effectively in a variety of business
settings with both internal and external stakeholders. Effective
communication is a necessary tool for managing people and
organizations.
In this project, you will enhance your skills and knowledge of
techniques in various communications to lead change, develop
and maintain relationships, and address sources of conflict
through effective communications tied to organizational goals
and core visions. Through the development of a strategic
communication case study, you will gain comprehensive, hands-
on experience in evaluating and constructing communications
that inform, persuade, and influence intended audiences in order

to achieve strategic goals. Using the provided case study, you
will identify issues that must be addressed from an
organizational perspective. Additionally, you will make
informed decisions regarding what actions to take, paying
particular attention to appropriateness of communications and
mediums, as well as evaluating effectiveness. To access the
final project case study, “Research in Motion: Sincerely, a RIM
Employee (A),” refer to the MGT-550 Textbook/Case Study
Bundle mentioned in the syllabus.
The project is divided into three milestones, which will be
submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold
learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones
will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final
product will be submitted in Module Nine.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the
following course outcomes:
Differentiate appropriate communication strategies that address
a variety of audiences
Generate clear communication materials that promote strategic
goals
Develop communications using change management principles
for supporting employee development
Determine strategies to assess the reception of communication
for informing appropriate next steps
Analyze sources of conflict for determining appropriate
communication response techniques for internal and external
stakeholders
Prompt
Your strategic communication case study should answer the
following prompt: What messages should be communicated in
response to the presented issue, who are the target audiences of
the messages, and how will the messages be delivered?
Additionally, how will you evaluate the effectiveness of your

communication decisions in order to inform future decision
making?
I. Introduction
Establish context for your paper by summarizing the important
details of the case and outlining the specific problem(s) that you
will address.
In response to the presented issue, define clear and specific
communication goals. Who are your target audiences and what
do you want to accomplish with your communication?
II. Internal Communication
Define the target audience of your internal communication.
Craft the message that you will communicate internally and
explain what change management principles you considered
when developing this message.
Explain how you considered the personal needs and
development of employees when creating messaging.
Explain what considerations are being made in order to offer
continuous support to employees through the change process.
of your internal communication. Consider the message you are
communicating as well as the medium(s) used.
III. External Communication
Define the target audience of your external communication.

Craft the message that you will communicate externally and
defend how the message promotes the organization’s strategic
goals.
of your external communication. Consider the message you are
IV. Follow Up
Explain how your message and delivery decisions align with the
mission, vision, and goals of the organization.
Describe how you will monitor and measure how the
information was received and interpreted by your internal
audience.
Describe how you will monitor and measure how the
information was received and interpreted by your external
audience.
Explain how you will document the lessons learned from your
communication plan to inform future decision making. What
would you have done differently?
Final Submission: Strategic Communication Case Study
In Module Nine, you will submit your strategic communication
case study. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing
all of the critical elements of the final project. It should reflect
the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course.
This submission will be graded using the Final Project Rubric.
Guidelines for Submission: Your strategic communication case
study should be 12 to 15 pages in length, depending on the
complexity of the crafted communications and the robustness of
the research and analysis. Do not simply copy and paste from
previous milestones; edit and revise for cohesiveness. Use one-
inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font. Adhere to
the latest edition of APA formatting.

Communications TemplateOverall Issue to Be AddressedEmployee.docx

Communications TemplateOverall Issue to Be AddressedEmployee.docx

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