BBA 2026 CSU Organizational Communication Paper
Instructions
For this assignment, you will create a communication strategy that fosters change and innovation in an organization. Explain the context in which it occurs and the options that are available. Develop a solution that will solve the organizational issue and meet the needs of the people involved.
Feel free to use the same organization you researched for the Unit VI and Unit VII Assignments. You are not limited to this organization, but it may be easier to complete the assignment since you have already researched it for Unit VI and/or Unit VII. You can use the same sources for all assignments, if applicable.
In the report, you will provide a potential audience analysis, create a purposeful message, and discuss a type of channel that you could use for feedback. Include answers to Neal’s (2010) communication questions, which are listed below:
- What am I trying to achieve?
- How will my audience react to what I am trying to achieve?
- Will my message be resisted?
- What do I know about my audience that will help me tailor my message? (p. 40)
Do not include the question/answers in a bullet or list format. Instead, integrate the responses in your paragraphs.
Use the standard five-paragraph format (introduction/body/conclusion). Include at least two academic sources. APA format should be used. The assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length. Content, organization, and grammar/mechanics will be evaluated.
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Title of Paper
Student Name
Columbia Southern University
Paper Format
• 1 inch margins
• Double spacing
• Suggested font-Times New Roman 12 pt.
• Paragraphs indented .5 inch (usually default Tab)
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Title of Paper
The first paragraph should introduce the organization and the issue you plan to address.
This should be brief, as you will go into more detail later in the paper. The thesis statement needs
to be the last sentence in the introduction.
Each paragraph should be at least three sentences in length. Each
paragraph should only include one topic.
Summary
The second paragraph should be a summary of the situation. Look at the following
example from Unit I, which summarizes the issue with the Volkswagen Corporation as a model:
Scientists from the University of West Virginia tested Volkswagen diesel vehicles and
found that the company was able to cheat on emissions tests with software that indicated the
vehicles’ emissions were far lower than they actually were. Over 11 million vehicles were
equipped with the “defeat devices” (Varandani, 2015). The use of devices designed to fool U.S.
regulators has resulted in a federal lawsuit against the company.
As reported by the National Public Radio (NPR) in “U.S. Files Lawsuit Against
Volkswagen Over Emissions Trickery,” the vehicles are actually putting up to 40 times more
pollution into the air than U.S. standards allow (as cited in Chappell, 2016). Over 600,000
vehicles produced by Volkswagen violate the U.S. Clean Air Act. Statements by Michael Horn,
the CEO of Volkswagen’s U.S. business concerns, and Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller
further damaged the reputation of organization. The scandal resulted in the resignation of many
top-level Volkswagen employees and a drop in the company’s stock price. Volkswagen faces
billions of dollars in potential fines and also the cost of retrofitting its vehicles with systems to
limit emissions.
Communication Strategy
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Begin this section of the essay by discussing the potential audience for your strategy.
Remember that you are creating a strategy that fosters change and innovation in the organization
based on what you have learned throughout the course. You need to explain how the strategy
addresses the needs of your audience. With the Volkswagen Corporation issue, for example, the
audience could be the senior executives in the company, the U.S. federal government, and/or
past/future U.S. consumers of the product. In the following paragraph, the scope of the audience
is limited to the customers who have purchased the vehicles in question, but it is only one
potential option.
It is likely that U.S. customers who purchased diesel vehicles with the emissions defeat
device will need to bring their vehicles into service centers for government-mandated system
changes. Normally, the U.S. federal government requires corporations to bring vehicles up to
regulation. It is probable that making changes to the software or components will bring
compromises in fuel economy, performance, and/or reliability.
Potential Audience
Backlash from this situation could negatively affect future sales. Some customers will be
inconvenienced by the recall while others will have doubts about the efficiency of future
products. In addition, consumers did not have the use of the environmentally friendly car they
thought they were purchasing, and resale values are apt to fall.
Audience Reaction
The Volkswagen Corporation needs to address these customer concerns. Setting up a
dedicated website to communicate with customers will be a good first step in mitigating the
criticism. The website will provide regular updates on Volkswagen’s progress in bringing the
diesel models into full compliance. Once the technical issues are resolved, the recall program can
be linked into the website. Current customers will be able to register online and schedule the
repairs required by the recall at dedicated Volkswagen service centers and dealerships. In
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addition, any independent testing of the new, compliant emissions systems will be made
available on the website for the general public to review.
Communication Strategy
Since the website is a global communications channel, it will help spread Volkswagen’s
message that the organization is changing its policies and making industry-leading innovations in
clean technology. Providing transparency to the compliance process through regular updates will
alleviate customer anxiety, and having a centralized location for customers to register for repair
will make the process more convenient. Finally, providing independently verified test results in a
public forum will reassure used car buyers that the vehicles are now clean burning diesels, which
will help improve resale value.
How the Strategy Addresses the Needs of the Audience
Conclusion
In many ways, the conclusion acts as the final word in the paper. A good conclusion is
the matching bookend to your introduction, and it is never a straight reiteration of everything that
you have just presented in the paper.
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References
Chappell, B. (2016, January 4). U.S. files lawsuit against Volkswagen over
The word “References”
should be centered at the
top of the page and is not
boldface.
emissions trickery. NPR. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2016/01/04/461927119/u-s-files-lawsuit-against-volkswagen-over-emissionstrickery
Varandani, S. (2015, December 17). Volkswagen emissions scandal: European parliament backs
inquiry into German automaker, probe could last a year. International Business Times.
http://www.ibtimes.com/volkswagen-emissions-scandal-european-parliament-backsinquiry-german-automaker-probe-2230060
This is an example of a reference list. All in-text citations must have a corresponding entry on the
reference list. It is formatted with a hanging indent and double-spacing.
Running head: MICROSOFT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Microsoft’s Communication Strategy
Kendra Bossard
Columbia Southern University
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MICROSOFT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
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Introduction
Communication in an organization is the means that employees communicate with the
company’s leadership ensuring the employees understand their role in ensuring the company’s
goals and helping them align with the company’s core values (Cornelissen, 2020). Effective
communication in a company is essential for the company’s growth through employee
productivity. Research shows that companies lose billions of dollars for poor communication
between the employees, the company’s leadership, and the company’s stakeholders. Effective
communication helps the leadership understand the needs of the stakeholders helping to shape
the company’s vision and goals. The company, in turn, has to use effective communication to
communicate the organization’s goals and ways the employees can ensure the goals are met
(Cornelissen, 2020). Effective communication is essential because it helps to eliminate errors in
the company’s operations, improve the functions of the organization, and helps to inform the
employees on important things concerning the company effectively (Ruck, 2019).
Summary of the Communication Strategy
Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter, and Kathleen Hogan discuss how innovative
communication processes have helped Microsoft resolve internal communication among
employees worldwide. The article highlights the strategies that Microsoft uses to ensure that all
the approximately one hundred and fifty thousand employees working for the organization across
the world. Due to the changing nature of the workplace, Microsoft uses social networking,
videos, regular live events, and pulse checks to ensure they communicate effectively between the
company’s leadership and the employees (Hougaard, Carter & Hogan. 2019). The company has
put these strategies to build a strong relationship between the employees and the organization.
MICROSOFT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
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Rasmus, Jacqueline, and Kathleen hold the position that Enterprise-level social
networking is an effective and interactive way that Microsoft uses to connect the company’s
CEO with the employees. Microsoft uses this strategy to give employees feedback on the issues
that the employees face during work. This gives the leadership insights on ways they can
improve employee’s life at work. The platform provides the employees with a platform to pose
questions and comments to the company’s CEO and get instant replies from senior leadership
(Hougaard, Carter & Hogan. 2019). This allows Microsoft leadership to engage with employees
within the CEO’s location and also with employees across the world.
Rasmus, Jacqueline, and Kathleen hold the position that Daily pulse checks help the
human resource department get insight into the employees’ perspective of the company’s culture
and the company. Daily pulse checks are surveys that employees fill anonymously about
questions regarding the organization and core questions that constantly change to get the
employee’s insights (Hougaard, Carter & Hogan. 2019). Rasmus, Jacqueline, and Kathleen hold
the position that monthly live events help the company’s leadership openly discuss the
organization’s goals and progress with the employees. The monthly live events are streamed live
to ensure employees from other locations can also participate in the meeting (Hougaard, Carter
& Hogan. 2019).
Rasmus, Jacqueline, and Kathleen hold the position that engaging Microsoft’s employees
through video series help to educate and educate and inform employees on different functions of
the company. Microsoft’s CEO aims at training the employees to have a vast reach of
information. The organization sends specific topic videos to specific employees depending on
the functions of an employee in the organization through email (Hougaard, Carter & Hogan.
2019).
MICROSOFT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
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Analysis of the Communication Strategy
Microsoft’s communication strategy helps to improve customer engagement which in turn
improves the company’s continuous improvement. Effective employee engagement ensures
employees know what is expected of them in fulfilling the company’s goals and ways to ensure
constant improvement of the company’s functions. Through the video series, Microsoft helps
increase employee productivity through constant training on how the employees can improve
their productivity. Readily available information through the video series helps to reduce the
number of hours that an employee spends searching for information required daily. This ensures
the employees provide goods and services that of high quality and satisfactory to the customers.
A potential problem that Microsoft may encounter during communication is differences in
communication styles among the organization’s leadership. Different people have different
communication styles; hence the different managers of the different departments may have
different communication styles making information be interpreted differently (Jenifer & Raman,
2015). To solve this problem, Microsoft needs to understand the different communication styles
among the employees and find ways that are effective for the organization to pass information
effectively to the different employees. Adjusting and adapting the different forms of
communication is essential to ensure all the employees understand what information is being
communicated (Jenifer & Raman, 2015).
Integration Techniques
The first step to integrating the Microsoft communication technique in another company
is to identify the organization’s key goals and check if the goals align with Microsoft’s
communication strategy (Ruck, 2019). Conducting an employee survey is essential to get
MICROSOFT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
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employee insight into whether Microsoft’s communication strategy can work well for the
company. The third step of integrating Microsoft’s communication strategy is getting insight
from stakeholders to see if the strategy would work for the organization (Ruck, 2019). Getting
stakeholder input ensures that their needs are met and the organization’s success is prioritized.
The last step is researching the effectiveness of Microsoft’s strategy and ways that the
organization can modify Microsoft’s strategy to suit the communication for the organization
(Ruck, 2019). This helps the organization to understand the strategy better and find ways to
ensure the strategy is efficient for the company.
Conclusion
Having an effective communication strategy is essential for a company because it ensures
a smooth flow of information in the company. A company needs to have an effective
communication strategy ensuring employee productivity fulfilling the company’s goals.
Microsoft uses social networking, videos, regular live events, and pulse checks to ensure
effective communication among Microsoft’s employees worldwide. This helps Microsoft
improve employee engagement, ensuring the company’s constant improvement and increasing
the employee’s productivity. A potential problem that Microsoft may face using their
communication strategy is the communication barrier due to the different communication styles
among the employees. A solution is to always adjust the communication method depending on
the employee. For a company to integrate Microsoft’s communication strategy, the company
should conduct extensive research on whether the strategy would also work for the company
before implementing the strategy. Microsoft’s communication strategy is effective for the
organization because it ensures the company’s growth through increased employee productivity.
MICROSOFT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
References
Cornelissen, J. (2020). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.
Hougaard, R., Carter, J., & Hogan, K. (2019, August 28). How Microsoft Builds a Sense of
Community Among 144,000 Employees. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2019/08/how-microsoft-builds-a-sense-of-community-among-144000-
employees
Jenifer, R. D., & Raman, G. P. (2015). Cross-cultural communication barriers in the
workplace. Internafional Journal of Management, 6(1), 348-351.
Ruck, K. (2019). Internal communication and the associations with organisational purpose,
culture and strategy. In Exploring Internal Communication (pp. 3-13). Routledge.
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