Intercultural communication teamwork and leadership/Assessment

Level 5 / 1st year University course assessment

Summary:	Dealing with conflict in the workplace using communication
	3 hours

Learning outcome: Describe the impact of intrapersonal and interpersonal communication on workplace relations, outline guidelines for negative communication situations and apply strategies to communicate successfully in different intercultural contexts.

(If you are completing this course for formal credit, you must complete and submit this assessment.)

Part A: Internal conflict communications (80%)

For the purpose of this assignment, you will play the role of a manager at a company where there has been a conflict based on cultural practices or an issue related to badly handled diversity, and you have decided to deal with the situation with a formal internal email. The goal of this internal communication is to quash the conflict, deal with it head on, and lay out a way forward.

You can imagine or relate a conflict you've experienced in the workplace, or choose to address one from the following:

1. An employee has started to grumble about a Muslim colleague who is taking time out of his day for two (and three during winter) prayers. The employee feels his Muslim coworker isn't doing enough work and has tried to turn others against him. In reality, the prayers, which take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete, don't take any more time out of the day than smoke breaks. Additionally, the Muslim colleague comes early every day to ensure that the 15 to 30 minutes he spends praying is more than made up for. But the perception around the office is that it's unfair.
2. Bob and Mary are co-supervising a team. They have the same education, experience and expertise. The team they lead is made up of five junior employees, all men. Bob has been demeaning Mary and her work in front of the whole team, asking her to get them coffee; suggesting that her work is very good, for a woman; and making "jokes" about how it is that she got promoted. This attitude has now spilled over to the junior employees who seem to have forgotten that Mary is, in fact, their supervisor. Bob is going to be disciplined by HR and will be reassigned to another project, but Mary has to continue leading the five junior employees.

No matter which conflict you choose, the following must be included in your formal email to deal with the situation:

1. Use of the appropriate techniques from the course material: Think about what you have learned during the course and how you can apply it to the email.
2. Good organization: the email has to explain what the issue is, how it is based on assumptions or bad behavior, what is being done to correct it, and how the company will move forward.

Your text should be between 800 and 1000 words and be formatted like a formal business email.

Part B: Delivery negative news challenge (25%)

The purpose of this assessment is to provide evidence of the ability to craft external communications to deal with negative press for an organization.

This assessment is based on "Start-Negative News Message Challenge". If you completed the challenge during the online course, you are free to adapt and improve your original answer for submission keeping in mind the tweaks mentioned below. For the purposes of the assessment, you are required to complete the press release and not the mentioned reflective blog post.

Your press release should be about 600 words maximum.

Instructions

1. Complete the Start-Negative News Message Challenge:
   • Start-Negative News Message Challenge
   • Tasks-Negative News Message Challenge
   • Outputs-Negative News Message Challenge, with special attention to the following:
     1. Instead of just emailing the store to complain, the customer in the scenario has complained on social media which was picked up by local media. Because of this you must now write a press release, not a letter to the client.
     2. Present your company's side of the story in a way that manages the situation.
     3. Ensure you press release draws on these the emergency communications basics.
     4. You should also look at examples and guidance on press releases from around the web. To get you started What to Say and How to Say It and How to Write a Crisis Communication Press Release are both good sources.

Submission: Attach your submission to an email with the subject line CCOM 103 Assessment Submission and addressed to Be Filled In To Be Filled