The Civil War and the Second Battle of Fort Fisher

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher occurred during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Armies Commanders: Union Major General Alfred TerryRear Admiral David D. Porter9,600 men60 ships Confederates General Braxton BraggMajor General William WhitingMajor General Robert HokeColonel William Lamb1,900 men The second Union attack on Fort Fisher took place from January 13 to January 15, 1865. Background By late 1864, Wilmington, NC became the last major seaport open to Confederate blockade runners. Located on the Cape Fear River, the citys seaward approaches were guarded by Fort Fisher, which was situated at the tip of Federal Point. Modeled on Sevastopols Malakoff Tower, the fort was largely constructed of earth and sand which provided greater protection than brick or stone fortifications. A formidable bastion, Fort Fisher mounted a total of 47 guns with 22 in the seaward batteries and 25 facing the land approaches. Initially a collection of small batteries, Fort Fisher was transformed into fortress following the arrival of Colonel William Lamb in July 1862. Aware of Wilmingtons importance, Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant dispatched a force to capture Fort Fisher in December 1864. Led by Major General Benjamin Butler, this expedition met with failure later that month. Still eager to close Wilmington to Confederate shipping, Grant sent a second expedition south in early January under the leadership of Major General Alfred Terry. The Plans Leading a provisional corps of troops from the Army of the James, Terry coordinated his assault with a massive naval force led by Rear Admiral David D. Porter. Comprised of over 60 ships, it was one of the largest Union fleets assembled during the war. Aware that another Union force was moving against Fort Fisher, Major General William Whiting, commander of the District of Cape Fear, requested reinforcements from his department commander, General Braxton Bragg. While initially reluctant to reduce his forces at Wilmington, Bragg did send some men raising the forts garrison to 1,900. To further aid the situation, the division of Major General Robert Hoke was shifted to block a Union advance up the peninsula towards Wilmington. Arriving off Fort Fisher, Terry began landing his troops between the fort and Hokes position on January 13. Completing the landing unmolested, Terry spent the 14th reconnoitering the forts outer defenses. Deciding that it could be taken by storm, he began planning his attack for the next day. On January 15, Porters ships opened fire on the fort and in a prolonged bombardment succeeded in silencing all but two of its guns. The Assault Begins During this time, Hoke succeeded in slipping around 400 men around Terrys troops to reinforce the garrison. As the bombardment wound down, a naval force of 2,000 sailors and marines attacked the forts seaward wall near a feature known as the Pulpit. Led by Lieutenant Commander Kidder Breese, this attack was repulsed with heavy casualties. While a failure, Breeses assault drew Confederate defenders away from the forts river gate where Brigadier General Adelbert Ames division was preparing to advance. Sending his first brigade forward, Ames men cut through the abatis and palisades. Overrunning the outer works, they succeeded in taking the first traverse. Advancing with his second brigade under Colonel Galusha Pennypacker, Ames was able to breach the river gate and enter the fort. Ordering them to fortify a position within the forts interior, Ames men fought their way along the north wall. Aware that the defenses had been breached Whiting and Lamb ordered the guns at Battery Buchanan, at the peninsulas southern tip, to fire on the north wall. As his men consolidated their position, Ames found that his lead brigades attack had stalled near the forts fourth traverse. The Fort Falls Bringing up Colonel Louis Bells brigade, Ames renewed the assault. His efforts were met by a desperate counterattack which was personally led by Whiting. The charge failed and Whiting was mortally wounded. Pressing deeper into the fort, the Union advance was greatly aided by fire from Porters ships off shore. Realizing that situation was grave, Lamb attempted to rally his men but was wounded before he could organize another counterattack. With night falling, Ames wished to fortify his position, however Terry ordered the fight to continue and sent in reinforcements. Pressing forward, Union troops became increasingly disorganized as their officers were wounded or killed. All three of Ames brigade commanders were out of action as were a number of his regimental commanders. As Terry pushed his men on, Lamb turned over command of the fort to Major James Reilly while the wounded Whiting again requested reinforcements from Bragg. Unaware that the situation was desperate, Bragg dispatched Major General Alfred H. Colquitt to relieve Whiting. Arriving at Battery Buchanan, Colquitt realized the hopelessness of the situation. Having taken the north wall and most of the seawall, Terrys men outflanked the Confederate defenders and routed them. Seeing Union troops approach, Colquitt fled back across the water, while the wounded Whiting surrendered the fort around 10:00 PM. Aftermath of the Second Battle of Fort Fisher The fall of Fort Fisher effectively doomed Wilmington and closed it to Confederate shipping. This eliminated the last major seaport available to blockade runners. The city itself was captured a month later by Major General John M. Schofield. While the assault was a victory, it was marred by the death of 106 Union soldiers when the forts magazine exploded on January 16. In the fighting, Terry suffered 1,341 killed and wounded, while Whiting lost 583 killed and wounded and the remainder of the garrison captured. Sources North Carolina Historic Sites: Battle of Fort FisherCWSAC Battle Summaries: Battle of Fort Fisher

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Essay - 1671 Words

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Alcohol is a liquor or brew containing alcohol as the active agent. (Online Dictionary) Although it is legal in the United States it is still illegal to those who aren’t twenty one years of age and other. This includes those persons of age purchasing alcohol for those under age. To some college students, heavy drinking that leads to vomiting is not alcohol abuse but simply having a good time. Alcoholism or alcohol dependence is a chronic disorder characterized by compulsive, repeated, and excessive consumption of alcohol to the extent that the individuals health, social and economic functioning is impaired. Alcoholism has four symptoms namely craving, loss of control, physical dependence and tolerance. Craving is a†¦show more content†¦Every day, on average, 11,318 American youth (12 to 20 years of age) use alcohol for the first time, compared with 6,488 for marijuana. According to a national survey, nearly one third (31.5%) of all high school students reported hazardous drinking (5+ drinks in one setting) during the 30 days preceding the survey. Alcohol is the most abused drug among America’s teenagers (CDC.gov). By young adulthood, early alcohol use was associated with employment problems, other substance abuse, and criminal and other violent behavior. Teenagers who begin drinking by the age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin drinking at the legal age of 21(TeenDrugAbuse.us). Teens under 15 who have ever consumed alcohol are twice as likely to have sex as those who have not. Nearly 4 in 10 sexually active teens that use alcohol have had sexual intercourse with four or more individuals (Alcohol Abuse Info). More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year—about 4.65 a day—as a result of alcohol-related injuries. Being an alcoholic may also lead to one abusing drugs. Drug abuse is the constant use of drugs to help change ones mood, emotion, or state of consciousness. Sometimes someone may have to be prescribed a drug however, over using prescribed drugs is illegal. Sometimes people sell certain prescribed drugs to others for personal needsShow MoreRelated Drug And Alcohol Abuse Essay994 Words   |  4 PagesGovernor of Missouri, the issue I would encourage him to address is the manufacture of drugs and the use of drugs and alcohol throughout our state. 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These are the words by Gabor Mate a Canadian physician specializes in addiction. Mate is describing that most of his patients are addicted to cocaine, alcohol, and heroin(Mate 320).This means that most of the people in Downtown Eastside are addicts to illegal substances such as Cocaine, Heroine etc. Addict is someone who cannot survive without particular substance such as Tea, Coffee, Alcohol etc. Living withoutRead MoreSummary Of The False Gospel Of Alcoholic Anonymous793 Words   |  4 Pages The False Gospel of Alcoholic Anonymous In this essay, he False Gospel of Alcoholic Anonymous, the writer is telling his audience about a young lawyer, who is struggling with an alcohol addiction. The seemingly careless lawyer, who would go into work drunk, would defend all of his dui clients. After continuously going into work intoxicated, the lawyer decided enough was enough. He’d final check himself into an alcoholic treatment program. The writer goes on to say that the lawyer was struggling

Negotiate - 1105 Words

P ROGRAM ON NEGOTIATION AT H ARVARD L AW S CHOOL AN INTER-UNIVERSITY CONSORTIUM TO IMPROVE THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION EAZY’S GARAGE DRRC Version Confidential Information for Frances Litchfield, Dentist You have been a steady customer at Jim Eazer’s garage for as long as you have owned a car, and your family has been a customer for as long as you can remember. Eazer’s garage is convenient to your house, Jim has always given good service, and up to now you have always gotten special treatment from Jim Eazer in the form of fast service and reduced bills. You own a five-year old Japanese Merxedes with 75,000 miles on it that you bought two and one-half years ago for $5,000. One week ago you took the car in†¦show more content†¦You both got a little hot under the collar and Jim then prepared a bill based on the estimate given in an industry-wide Standard Manual for the price of parts and how long it should take to do this job: This version of Eazy’s Garage was written by the Dispute Resolution Research Center at the Kellogg School of Management. The original case was created for the Harvard Negotiation Project by Bruce M. Patton, based on an idea from the American Arbitration Association. Copies of the original version are available at reasonable cost from the Clearinghouse, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, 518 Pound Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138. Telephone: 617-495-1684, Fax: 617-495-7818. This case may not be reproduced, revised or translated in whole or in part by any means without the written permission of the Director of the Clearinghouse. Please help to preserve the usefulness of this case by keeping it confidential. Copyright  © 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1995 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. EAZYS GARAGE – Confidential Information for Dr. Frances Litchfield $ 200.00 $ 418.00 $ 618.00 parts labor total Now very upset, you refused to pay, and left. That night after the garage had closed, you returned with a spare key and drove your car away. The next day you were contacted by Jim Eazer’s lawyer, who mentioned the possibility of a criminal complaint for conversion of a mechanic’s lien. TheShow MoreRelatedGovernments Should Not Negotiate With Terrorists1711 Words   |  7 Pagescan make a profit out of stealing purses. The thief would also use the $100,000 to buy a gun or other weapons or vehicles that would help him steal future purses. Now think about the thief as a terrorist and you as a government. Should governments negotiate with terrorists? Terrorism activities have increased these past few years due to faulty decisions made by governments when dealing with terrorists. Many have made the mistake of compromising with terrorists, which makes them appear weak and targetableRead MoreIf A Party Negotiates A Bad Deal?1283 Words   |  6 Pagesmust move from the promisee for the law to assume consideration had taken place. It must also be taken that the consideration is deemed sufficient that it is good and has a value. Under consideration the courts do not consider the value. If a party negotiates a bad deal, consideration does not have to be adequate. The courts role is to ensure that consideration was sufficient Chappel Co v Nestle Co (1960). intention To Create Legal Relations Assessment criteria 1.3 asks you to discuss the ‘intentionRead MoreShould We Negotiate With Terrorists?1286 Words   |  6 PagesShould we negotiate with terrorists? Terrorism has been a problem that the world has faced for many centuries now. Everyone at some point has experienced it in some way or another. Although the names remain unknown, it empowers the terrorist to a certain degree. Being threatened by terrorist shuts down our society. Last year, the entire Los Angeles County school system closed for the entire day, leaving parents that worked scurrying for last minute babysitters, not to mention, the fear fromRead MoreShould The United States Negotiate With Terrorist?999 Words   |  4 PagesShould the United States Negotiate With Terrorist? The event of September 11, 2001 has left Americans afraid and the government on edge when it comes to our national security. Many individuals are wondering how individuals could use themselves as human bombs or would want to sacrifice themselves to kill thousands that they have never met or talked with (Post, Ali, Henderson, Shanfield, Victoroff Weine, 2009). Since 9/11 happened, there has been an emotional change in the American public, whichRead MoreThe United States Should Not Negotiate With Terrorists922 Words   |  4 Pages The United States first tool to achieve these goals is diplomatic. First, the United States needs to retract the policy that the United States does not negotiate with Terrorists. Negotiation creates a negative connotation of concession or handing power over to the enemy. Negotiation, however, can be mere discussion with the enemy to find a way to end violence. Diplomatic tools consist of treaties, conventions, alliances, and accords. Holding conventions and creating accords will be the most successfulRead MoreTips For Negotiate Your Job Salary1319 Words   |  6 PagesTips to Negotiate your Job Salary Whether you are looking for a promotion or starting a new job, salary negotiation provides one of the best routes to increase your pay package. Unfortunately many people do not think of negotiating because they feel uncomfortable or are outright scared. A study conducted by Salary.com, extricates the divide by revealing that a sizable 18% of people do not negotiate for pay. The same statistics indicate that a whopping 44% of people have never considered bringingRead MoreGovernment Should Not Negotiate with Terrorist Essay823 Words   |  4 Pages   Government Should Not Negotiate with Terrorist   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many countries have policies which pledge to not negotiate terrorists yet negotiating are still occurs behind the scene. Negotiating is to reach to an agreement through discussing formally with others but terrorists by definition is someone you disagree with. So negotiating with them to make an agreement is nonviable. In 2003, President George W. Bush proclaimed that â€Å"You have got to be strong, not weak. The only way to deal withRead MoreAnalysis Of Amigas And Amantes : Sexually Nonconforming Latinas Negotiate Family1835 Words   |  8 Pages In Amigas and Amantes: Sexually Nonconforming Latinas Negotiate Family, Katie Acosta explores how Latina women, who sexually identify as lesbian, bisexual, or queer, struggle to create and maintain family ties. Recalling the lived experiences of these sexually nonconformity Latinas, Acosta uses the theory of intersectionality to examine how the different identity markers (such as race, gender, age, sex, etc.) profoundly affects the way these Latinas experience their family. In this essay, we’llRead MoreExploring How Americans Negotiate Between Blackness And Whiteness 2342 Words   |  10 Pageslegitimize the color line, hence blowing the cosmic proportion of the American ideals of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and celebrating instead the idiom of ‘separate but equal’. The aim of this paper then is to explore how Americans negotiate between ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’. The texts offered throughout this cour se have focused on the injustices done to Blacks throughout United States History, by understanding them together they highlight the atrocities still intact today. ThroughoutRead MoreWhy The United States Should Negotiate A Separate Section 123 And 1 Alliance And Hold The Iri1752 Words   |  8 Pagescontinues to meet its obligations, and prior to the expiration of JCPOA enrichment limitations, the U.S. should attempt to negotiate a separate Section 123 like agreement with the IRI. The proposed bilateral agreement will further restrict any future enrichment activities to levels deemed acceptable by the U.S. As an inducement to ratify the proposed agreement, the U.S. should negotiate an increase of humanitarian assistance and foreign aid to Iran. To address activities not specifically covered by the

Case study Stermon Mills case Essay - 1039 Words

What recommendation would you make to Mr. Kiefner? On what basis would you try to persuade him that your proposal is best for Stermon Mills? From my analysis it emerged that the best option for Stermon Mills Inc. is the Option 2, which is moving machine #4 to a one week cycle and run through the existing grades every week instead of every two weeks. The main reason that should convince Mr. Kiefner to look at reducing the cycle time is due to a customer requirement. Elly Ryesham, from the Sales Department, realized a straw poll of the sales force to understand what the most important things are for their customers. I have analyzed those results (see Exhibit 1) and converted the A,B,C†¦ grades to numbers (A+= 4.33, A=4, A-=3.66 and so on†¦show more content†¦There are two main potential issues with this approach. By reducing production lead times a company would likely increase manufacturing costs, but this increase should be leveraged by the increase in demand. The other issue would be the drop of the utilization rate by ten percent using this method. The key would be training the staff to implement faster change-times, which is not an impossible achievement. Due to this last potential issue, the ideal strategy that Stermon should adopt would be a combination of Option 2 (One cycle week) and Option 4 (Labor multi skilling). The Option 4 would definitively improve the effectiveness of the labor in the plant, and it would benefit the change over time reducing it. However, if we look at Saugoe’s notes about the combination of improvement plans we can appreciate that adopting Options 2 and 4 at the same time might cause a lot of discontent if people were asked to change over faster as well as performing multiple functions. Therefore we believe that going with option 2 alone is the best solution to Stermon’s problems. Option 1, doing a much broader range of basic weights would certainly satisfy those customers who value the customization and tailoring. However, the survey of sales force tells us that this requirement is not the top priority for Stermon at the moment, being after the responsiveness in delivery, a broader product line and having helpful and flexible sales people. Moreover,

Internal Corporate Communication on Strategy Free Essays

Internal corporate communication on strategy and employee commitment International Business Communication Master’s thesis Michele Fenech 2013 Department of Communication Aalto University School of Business Powered by TCPDF (www. tcpdf. org) Internal corporate communication on strategy A CRITICAL COMPARISON OF and employee commitment EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCES IN THE CONTEXT OF INTRA-COMMUNITY SUPPLIES Master? s Thesis Master’s thesis Katharina ele Fenech ? MichWeber 26. We will write a custom essay sample on Internal Corporate Communication on Strategy or any similar topic only for you Order Now 09. 2012 2013 Spring International Business International Business Communication Approved by the head of the Department of Management and International Business __. __. 20__ and awarded the grade ___________________ Approved in the Department of Communication / / 20 and awarded the grade AALTO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS International Business Communication Mater’s Thesis Mich? le Fenech e ABSTRACT 02-02-2013 Internal corporate communication on strategy and employee commitment Objectives of the study This Master’s thesis had three objectives. The ? rst objective was to examine the employees’ needs and preferences of the case company’s internal communication channels, speci? ally internal corporate communication channels that convey the company’s corporate strategy. The second was to investigate success of the internal strategy (corporate) communication by analysing the employees’ perception of their strategy knowledge. The third was to research the relation between internal strategy (corporate) communication (ISCC) and employee commitment. Methodology and theoretical framework The research method was a single-case study and the data was collected using a background study, semi-structured interviews and a survey. The qualitative data was analysed and emerging patterns were identi? d, whereas the quantitative data was statistically analysed using the R programming environment. The theoretical framework presents how internal corporate communication conveys corporate strategy messages via rich and lean media, how the channel attributes affect employee preference and choice, and how the communication and interpretation of the strategy eventually result in commitment. Findings and conclusions of the study In the case company, top-down and primarily one-way internal corporate communication conveying strategy (ISCC) met the employees’ needs better than lateral and two-way internal strategy communication. The needs were recognised to include gaining strategy knowledge, gaining ability to use the knowledge, and reducing equivocality and uncertainty. Apart from the needs, the employees’ communication channel preferences and satisfaction seemed to be affected more with the channel accessibility and information quality attributes than with the richness of the channel. Internal strategy (corporate) communication (ISCC) was successful because the employees perceived to have corporate strategy knowledge. This strategy knowledge had a strong relationship with employee commitment, especially affective commitment. The main implication of this study was the recommendation that companies invest resources in internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC), because it was preferred by the employees at the case company, it corresponded to their needs and it contributed to their affective commitment. Key words: international business communication, internal communication, internal corporate communication, strategy communication, communication channels, communication channel attributes, media richness, corporate strategy, employee commitment I AALTO-YLIOPISTON KAUPPAKORKEAKOULU Kansainv? lisen yritysviestinn? pro gradu -tutkielma a a Mich? le Fenech e Sis? inen strategiaviestint? ja ty? ntekij? iden sitoutuminen a a o o ? TIIVISTELMA 02. 02. 2013 Tutkimuksen tavoitteet T? ll? pro gradu -tutkielmalla oli kolme tavoitetta. Ensimm? inen tavoite oli tutkia ty? ntekij? iden a a a o o tarpeita ja n? kemyksi? sis? isen viestinn? n v? lineist? eritoten sellaisista sis? isen yritysviestinn? n a a a a a a a a v? lineist? , jotka v? litt? v? t yrityksen strategiaa. Toinen tavoite oli selvitt? a sis? isen strategiaa a a a a a? a viestinn? n (ISCC) onnistuminen analysoimalla ty? ntekij? iden n? kemys heid? n strategiatiedosa o o a a taan. Kolmas tavoite oli tutkia sis? isen strategiaviestinn? n (ISCC) ja ty? ntekij? iden sitoutumia a o o sen v? list? suhdetta. a a Tutkimusmenetelm? t ja teoreettinen viitekehys a Tutkimusmetodi on tapaustutkimus, ja aineisto ker? ttiin taustaselvityksell? , haastatteluilla ja a a kyselyll? . Kvalitatiivinen aineisto analysoitiin ja kategorisoitiin, kun taas kvantitatiivinen aia neisto analysoitiin tilastollisesti R-ohjelmistoymp? rist? ll? . Tutkielman teoreettinen viitekehys a o a n? ytt? a kuinka sis? inen yritysviestint? viestii strategiaa joko rikkaan tai niukan median kauta a? a a ta ty? ntekij? lle, kuinka v? lineiden ominaisuudet vaikuttavat ty? ntekij? iden mieltymyksiin ja o o a o o valintaan, ja kuinka viestint? ja strategian tulkitseminen lopulta johtavat ty? ntekij? iden sitoutua o o miseen. Tutkimuksen tulokset ja johtop? at? kset a? o Tapausyrityksen ty? ntekij? t pitiv? t parhaana vertikaalista ja enimm? kseen yksi-suuntaista sis? ist? o a a a a a yritysviestint? a, joka v? litti strategiaa (ISCC). Se t? ytti heid? n tarpeensa paremmin kuin hoa? a a a risontaalinen ja kaksi-suuntainen sis? inen strategiaviestint? . Tarpeiksi tunnistettiin strategiatiea a don saaminen, strategiatiedon k? tt? minen, ja moniselitteisyyden ja ep? varmuuden v? hent? minen. a a a a a Ty? ntekij? iden viestint? v? lineiden preferenssiin ja tyytyv? isyyteen n? ytti vaikuttavan enemm? n o o a a a a a v? lineiden k? ytett? vyys ja tiedon laatu kuin v? lineiden rikkaus. Sis? inen strategiaviestint? (ISCC) a a a a a a on onnistunut siin? ett? ty? ntekij? t kokevat, ett? he tiet? v? t yrityksen strategian. T? ll? stratea a o a a a a a a giatiedolla on vahva suhde ty? ntekij? iden sitoutumiseen, eritoten affektiiviseen sitoutumiseen. o o T? m? n tutkimuksen johtop? at? ksiin kuuluu, ett? yritysten pit? si investoida resursseja sis? iseen a a a? o a a a strategiaviestint? an (ISCC), sill? se on ty? ntekij? iden suosima, se vastaa heid? n tarpeisiinsa ja a? a o o a se vaikuttaa he id? n affektiiviseen sitoutumiseensa. a Avainsanat: kansainv? linen yritysviestint? , sis? inen viestint? , sis? inen yritysviestint? , stratea a a a a a giaviestint? , viestinn? n v? lineet, viestinn? n v? lineiden ominaisuudet, media rikkaus, yritys straa a a a a tegia, ty? ntekij? n sitoutuminen o a II Contents 1 Introduction 1. 1 Research objectives and questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Terminology of this study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 3 Structure of the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Review of Literature 2. 1 Internal communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 1. 1 Internal communication matrix . . . . . . 2. 1. 2 Internal corporate communication . . . . 2. 2 Corporate strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 2. 1 Strategy formation . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 2. 2 Strategy implementation . . . . . . . . . 2. 3 Communication channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 3. 1 Media richness theory . . . . . . . . . . 2. . 2 Channel attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 4 Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 4. 1 Organisational Commitment . . . . . . . 2. 4. 2 Three-Component Model of Commitment 2. 5 Theoretical framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 6 8 9 9 13 15 18 19 23 30 32 41 43 46 50 55 61 61 62 63 64 66 66 72 80 83 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Methodology 3. 1 Research design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. 1. 1 Exploratory and descriptive research purpose . . . 3. 1. 2 Quantitative and qualitative research strategy . . . 3. 1. 3 Case study method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. 2 Data collection and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. 2. 1 Background study, interview and survey techniques 3. 2. 2 Statistical data analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. 3 Reliability and validity of this study . . . . . . . . . . . . Findings and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 III 4. 1 4. 2 4. 3 4. 4 Description of the case company’s strategy and the internal communication channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 1. 1 Description of the company’s generic corporate strategy . . . . . 4. 1. 2 Description of the company’s internal communication channels . Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2. 1 Strategy knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2. Employees’ ability to apply corporate strategy . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2. 3 The quantity of strategy information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 1 Media richness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 2 Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 3 Information quality and channel accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 4 Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 5 Channel comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 6 ICC versus non-ICC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. 7 ICC channels ful? l the employee needs to varying extent . . . . . Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 4. 1 Affective, normative and continuance commitment . . . . . . . . 4. 4. 2 Strategy knowledge against commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 4. 3 ICC channels and commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 84 86 89 90 93 94 96 97 102 106 107 109 112 113 116 117 119 122 125 125 127 128 129 130 5 Conclusions 5. 1 Research summary . . . . . . . 5. 2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. 3 Practical implications . . . . . . 5. 4 Limitations of the study . . . . . 5. 5 Suggestions for further research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IV List of Tables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Important terminology of this study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Internal Communication Matrix (Welch Jackson, 2007) . . . . . . . . Adjective-Pairs Used In Evaluating Communication Channels . . . . . Background material from case company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interview data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The stages of channel choice for the survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Case study tactics for Four Design Tests (Adapted from Yin (2009, p. 41)) 7 14 4 2 67 68 70 81 Selected channels and their dimension of internal communication . . . . . 89 The employee channel preference comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 The top three employee channel preferences in terms of media richness and internal communication dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 The employees’ ranking of channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 V List of Figures 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 The Shannon-Weaver model of communication (Shannon Weaver, 1949) Internal Corporate Communication (Welch Jackson, 2007) . . . . . . . Types of Strategies (Mintzberg, 1978) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Strategy Implementation, a link between planned and realizing strategy . Media Richness Hierarchy (Lengel Daft, 1988) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Media Selection Framework (Lengel Daft, 1988) . . . . . . . . . . . A Three-component Model of Organizational Commitment . . . . . . . . Th e Theoretical Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A box plot with annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A box plot with outlier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scatter plot without and with jitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scatter chart with Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scatter plot without and without outlier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Removal of outliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The correlation between Affective, Normative and Continuance Commitment Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Theoretical Framework (Content) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The employees’ perception of their strategy knowledge . . . . . . . . Ability to apply strategy against knowledge of the strategy . . . . . . Having enough strategy information against knowledge of the strategy The Theoretical Framewo rk (Media) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Media richness attribute scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richness and Richness Adjusted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Channel preference ranking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Information quality and channel accessibility scores . . . . . . . . . . The employees’ channel satisfaction scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ICC and non-ICC channel attribute comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . The Theoretical Framework (Commitment) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overall ACS, NCS and CCS results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Commitment scales against Strategy Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . Knowledge affect commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 16 20 25 34 38 51 56 74 75 76 77 79 80 82 90 91 93 95 96 97 99 102 106 108 112 116 117 120 121 31 32 ACS, Strategy Knowledge and Employees’ perspective . . . . . . . . . . 122 The employees’ ? rst channel preference type with respect to strategy knowledge and ACS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 VII Chapter 1 Introduction In recent years, there has been a growing interest in internal communication in corporate communication research (Vercic, Vercic Sriramesh, 2012). Internal communication can be described as any â€Å"communication with employees internally within the organization† (Cornelissen, 2011, p. 164). Not only does internal communication enable companies to have information and knowledge sharing between employees (D. Tourish Hargie, 2004a) but it also satis? es and commits them (D. Tourish Hargie, 2000), and gives them a voice to speak up (Morrison Milliken, 2000). Internal communication is important, because it affects the bottom line of a company (Yates, 2006) and, quite simply, is a contributing factor to success (Argenti Forman, 2002; D. Tourish Hargie, 2004d). According to Welch and Jackson (2007), one of the recent internal communication theories is based on a stakeholder approach, where internal communication is divided into four interrelated dimensions according to identi? ed stakeholder groups: internal line manager communication, internal team peer communication, internal project peer communication and internal corporate communication. In their new approach to internal communication, Welch and Jackson (2007) concentrate on the fourth dimension, namely internal corporate communication. It is de? ned as â€Å"communication between an organisation’s strategic managers and its in1 ernal stakeholders, designed to promote commitment to the organisation, a sense of belonging to it, awareness of its changing environment and understanding of its evolving aims. † (Welch Jackson, 2007, p. 193) The role of internal corporate communication is to convey corporate issues such as goals and objectives (Welch Jackson, 2007). The interna l corporate communication channels are mainly one-way channels, such as newsletters and the intranet. The aim of internal corporate communication is to reach four goals, which are belonging, commitment, awareness and understanding of the business environment. Welch and Jackson (2007) address speci? cally the formal and managed internal communication as opposed to the informal internal communication. Informal internal communication, also known as â€Å"grapevine†, includes the constant chat between people at work. The formal internal communication includes the managed company/work related communication. The new stakeholder approach to internal communication is important, because according to Welch and Jackson (2007), it broadens the previous approaches, which only looked at the employees as a single audience. The four internal communication dimensions give managers a tool to strategically communicate to different stakeholder groups within the company as well as to all employees at once. One of the corporate issues that internal communication conveys is strategy. Strategy has a multitude of de? nitions. Chandler (1962) created the basics for today’s typical strategy de? nition (Mintzberg, 1978; Mustonen, 2009), which is: â€Å"the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals† (Chandler, 1962, p. 3) Corporate strategy is important, because it aids the company to reach its long-term object2 ives and, therefore, affects the company’s long-term wealth (Al-Ghamdi, Roy Ahmed, 2007). After the corporate strategy has been formulated, it needs to be implemented, hence communicated, to the employees. The better the employees understand, acc ept and embrace the corporate strategy, the more successful the strategy communication is (Aaltonen Ik? valko, 2002). Understanding the strategy objectives and the signi? cance a of everyone’s contribution has an effect on the commitment and work motivation of the employees (H? ? l? inen Maula, 2004). a aa In spite of the wealth of research into strategy and strategy communication, there has been a call for more research on internal communication for more than a decade. For example, Argenti (1996, p. 94) points out that â€Å"no other corporate communication subfunction offers more of an opportunity for genuinely sought after research than employee [= internal] communication†. Even today, internal communication still calls for more research (Vercic et al. , 2012; Welch Jackson, 2007). Welch and Jackson (2007, p. 94) call for further research on â€Å"internal stakeholders’ [employees] needs and preferences for communication content and media† to improv e internal corporate communication. Since the internal corporate communication concept is new, there has been little if any research in a corporate strategy context. Furthermore, internal corporate communication and its ability to contribute to the four goals, namely belonging, commitment, awareness and understanding of the business environment, hasn’t been studied much either. 1. 1 Research objectives and questions This Master’s thesis has three purposes. The ? st purpose is to examine the employees’ needs and preferences of the company’s internal communication (IC) channels, speci? cally internal corporate communication (ICC) channels that convey the company’s corporate strategy. The second is to investigate the successfulness of the internal strategy communication (ISC), speci? cally internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC), regarding the employees’ perception of their strategy knowledge. The third is to research the relation betw een internal strategy communication (ISC), focusing on internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC), and the employee’s commitment. The terminology 3 used in this study is described in Section 1. 2. Even though this study focuses primarily on the internal corporate communication (ICC) dimension, the other three internal communication dimensions, namely internal line manager communication, internal team peer communication and internal project peer communication, as well as the informal communication (non-ICC), are also taken into account in this study. This is because the other three dimensions are interrelated with the ICC dimension (Welch Jackson, 2007); and, because informal communication adds an often used channel. This study looks both at the general internal strategy communication (ISC), which includes all four formal internal communication dimensions and informal internal communication, and at Welch and Jackson’s (2007) more speci? c internal corporate communication conveying strategy (ISCC). Hereinafter, the general internal strategy communication (ISC) with the focus on internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC) is referred to as ‘internal strategy (corporate) communication’. Since, this study requires in-depth knowledge about a company’s internal strategy communication (ISC), it was deemed best to focus only on one company instead of looking at multiple companies. Also, since internal strategy communication (ISC) is con? dential, the case company prefers to stay anonymous. The chosen case company for this study is a Finnish daughter company of an international corporation. The daughter company is spread around Finland and has circa 350 employees. More information on the case company and the single case study method is presented in Section 3. . 3. The purpose of this study is transformed into one main and ? ve sub research questions. All of these research questions relate to the case company. The questions are as follows: Main research question: How does internal strategy communication, speci? cally internal strategy corporate communication, meet the employees’ needs and relate to employee commitment? Sub research questions: 4 1. What are th e employees’ internal strategy (corporate) communication channel preferences? 2. How do the channels meet the employees’ needs? 3. How much knowledge do the employees perceive to have regarding the corporate strategy gained through internal strategy (corporate) communication? 4. How committed are the employees? 5. What is the relation between their commitment and strategy knowledge gained through internal strategy (corporate) communication? The main research question studies how internal (corporate) communication conveying the corporate strategy meets the needs of the employees. Also, it studies whether the communication relates to the employees’ commitment towards the company. The ? e sub research questions are studying this main research problem more thoroughly. The ? rst and second sub research questions aim to identify what the employees’ internal strategy (corporate) communication channel preferences are and how the channels meet the employees’ needs. Internal communication media include different kinds of communication channels. On the one hand, it includes two-way internal communicati on channels such as performance appraisals, and on the other hand, it includes one-way internal corporate communication channels, such as newsletters and the intranet. The channel related needs will be identi? d from the literature. The emphasis in the ? rst and second sub questions is on the employees’ viewpoint on the channels and their characteristics. The third sub research question studies how much knowledge the employees perceive to have regarding the corporate strategy. It is assumed that strategy knowledge is gained and understood via several different ways, one of them being internal strategy (corporate) communication. The needs of the employees for internal strategy (corporate) communication are to receive the message, understand it, and gain the required strategy knowledge. The employees’ level of strategy knowledge and their ability to use this knowledge in their everyday work will help to determine whether the internal strategy (corporate) communication is effective and successful. The fourth and ? fth sub research questions investigate the commitment level of the case 5 company employees, and the relation between their commitment and their strategy knowledge. As has been discussed earlier, ICC leads to four goals, which are commitment, belonging, awareness and understanding of the business environment. Due to the scope restrictions in this study, only the ommitment goal is researched. The organisational commitment theory will be used to analyse how committed the employees are to the company. The gained strategy knowledge will be seen as a result of internal strategy (corporate) communication. Therefore, the employees’ strategy knowledge acts as a middleman in determining the relation between internal strategy corporate communication and the employees’ commitment. This Master’s thesis is well positioned in the research ? eld of International Business Communication, because this study is set in an international business setting researching communication. The Finnish case company is a subsidiary of a multinational company, with subsidiaries all over the world. There is close co-operation between the parent and subsidiary companies, providing an international setting for the business. This study explores internal strategy (corporate) communication in the ? eld of business. The speci? c interest is in the case company’s corporate strategy, how this company communicates the strategy to its employees, how the employees perceive the communication and whether the communication relates to their organisational commitment. 1. 2 Terminology of this study Since the ‘internal communication’, ‘internal corporate communication’ and ‘internal strategy corporate communication’ related concepts and terminology used in this study are very similar to each other, there is the potential for misunderstandings. In order to increase clarity of this study, a summary of the key terminology is provided. The terminology, the abbreviations and their descriptions are presented in Table 1. As can be seen in Table 1, the key terminology used in this study consists of variations about ‘internal communication’ and ‘strategy’. In each chapter, the ? rst time a term is mentioned, it is spelled out entirely with the abbreviation in brackets as a reminder. After 6 Table 1: Important terminology of this study Abbr. IC Description Terminology Internal communication Internal corporate communication ICC Formal non-ICC Internal line manager communication Internal project peer communication Internal team peer communication Informal Small talk, corridor chats ISC Overall internal communication happening in a company. Could be both one-way or two-way communication. Includes all four formal internal communication dimensions and informal communication Predominantly one-way communication between an organisation’s strategic managers and its employees on corporate issues Other internal communication that is not ICC. It includes most two-way communication, formal and informal, on work related issues between all the employees (line manager to subordinate, employee to employee, project peer to project peer, team peer to team peer) of the company 7 ISCC Internal strategy communication Internal strategy corporate communication Formal Internal communication conveying strategy information in a company. Could be both one-way or two-way communication. Includes all four formal internal communication dimensions and informal communication Predominantly one-way communication on precisely the corporate strategy conveyed from the strategic managers to all the employees more or less simultaneously Internal strategy line manager communication Internal strategy project peer communication Internal strategy team peer communication Informal Strategy small talk, corridor chats Other internal communication on strategy that is not ISCC. It includes non-ISCC most two-way communication, formal or informal, on strategy between all the employees of the company that the abbreviation is usually used. However, in selected places, like Section 2. 1 on internal communication, the term ‘internal communication’ is spelled out instead of using the abbreviation IC in order to make the difference towards ICC more prominent. 1. 3 Structure of the thesis The four main sections in this Master’s thesis are the literature review, the methodology, the ? dings and discussion, and the conclusions. The literature review presents the most relevant literature for this study, including literature on internal communication, strategy, internal communication channels and commitment. The ? nal section of the literature review explains the theoretical framework of this study. The methodology chapter presents the research design, methods and data, and reliability of the study. The ? ndings and discussion chapter explains ? ndings on the internal strategy (corporate) communication channels, employee preferences and need ful? ment, employees’ perception of their strategy knowledge, and employees’ overall organisational commitment and its relation to the gained strategy knowledge. All of the ? ndings are discussed throughout this chapter. Finally, the conclusion chapter reviews the research summary, explains the practical implications of this research, presents the limitations of the study, and proposes suggestions for further research. 8 Chapter 2 Review of Literature This chapter will review literature that is relevant to this Master’s thesis. All of the sections in this chapter ? st review more general literature on the topic at hand and then dive into the more speci? c theory or model that is of relevance to this study. The ? rst section presents research related to internal communication in general and, more speci? cally, to the internal communication matrix and the internal corporate communication (ICC) concept. The second section addresses the formulation and implementation of strategy. The third section highlights communication channels, in general, and then more speci? cally focuses on the media richness theory and communication channel attributes. The fourth section elaborates on commitment, organisational commitment and the threecomponent model of commitment. The last section presents the theoretical framework of this study. 2. 1 Internal communication The word communication is based on the Latin words â€Å"communis† and â€Å"communicare† (Wiio, 1977). â€Å"Communis† means sharing in common and â€Å"communicare† means to make common, hence communication is something that is being done together (Wiio, 9 1977). Wiio (1970) de? nes communication simply as the exchange of information between the sender and the receiver. One of the earliest ways to describe communication is the Shannon-Weaver model of communication, which includes more elements than just the sender and the receiver (Shannon Weaver, 1949). This model is presented in Figure 1. Transmitter Information message (Encoder) Source signal Channel Noise Source received signal Receiver (Decoder) message Destination Figure 1: The Shannon-Weaver model of communication (Shannon Weaver, 1949) In Figure 1 the sender encodes a message, transmits it via a channel to the receiver who decodes the message. Along the way there is noise, which refers to any disturbance that could affect the reception of the message (Shannon Weaver, 1949). What makes this communication successful, according to Al-Ghamdi et al. (2007), is that the information transferred from the sender to the receiver is understood by the receiver. For a long time now, it has been recognised that the Shannon-Weaver model of communication is outdated because it cannot fully grasp the complex process of human communication, nevertheless, it is one of the best known models (Bowman Targowski, 1987). It is important to note that communication can be both internal and external (Cornelissen, 2011). Traditionally it was easy to distinguish between the internal communication between the employees in a company and the external communication to, for instance, customers. Nowadays, however, with the arrival of technology and new communication tools (e-mail, intranet, videos, online newsletters) the borders between internal and external communication have become fuzzy (Cornelissen, 2011). For the purpose of this study, it is assumed that internal communication can exist as its own concept separate from external communication. This study will only focus on the internal aspects of communication. Internal communication is important because it helps to share information and know10 ledge with everyone at the company (D. Tourish Hargie, 2004a). It informs (Smith, 2008), satis? es and commits the employees (D. Tourish Hargie, 2000), as well as, engages them (Kress, 2005) and gives them a voice to speak up (Morrison Milliken, 2000). Especially in today’s rapidly changing business world, with all the downsizing, outsourcing and restructuring, internal communication is important (Vercic et al. 2012). It has emerged as a critical function, because organisational leaders need better management skills in regards to employees (Vercic et al. , 2012). Welch and Jackson (2007) argue that internal communication, speci? cally ICC, explained in Subsection 2. 1. 2, leads to commitment, and commitment leads to better performance (Meyer Allen, 1991) and, therefore, internal communication is crucial for business succe ss. It is the key to good management (Jay, 2005) and it produces better results (Smith, 2008). Internal communication affects the bottom line of a company, by decreasing employee turnover and increasing market premiums, shareholder returns and employee engagement (Yates, 2006), therefore, leading to success (Argenti Forman, 2002; D. Tourish Hargie, 2004d). The growing importance of internal communication is visible in many initiatives, for instance, the setting up of the Institute of internal communication in the UK, with the aim of understanding and studying the ? eld (Vercic et al. , 2012). Already in the 6th century St. Benedict said: â€Å"Smaller organisational decisions should be taken by senior individuals, but large ones should be decided as a group. Everyone’s voice must be heard to avoid murmurs and back-biting† (Smith, 2008, p. 10), which indicates that internal communication has existed for a long time and it is not only a phenomenon of today’s business world (Smith, 2008). Although the actual practice of internal communication has probably existed for quite some time, the concept itself is relatively new, having started in the US and spread from there to Europe (Vercic et al. , 2012) in the 20th century (Clutterbuck, 1997; Smith, 2008). Even though internal communication has been studied directly or indirectly by many researchers such as Argenti (1996); J. Grunig and Hunt (1984); Jefkins (1988); Kalla (2005); Quirke (2000); Smith (2008); Stone (1995); D. Tourish and Hargie (2004b); Wiio (1970); Wright (1995); Yates (2006), there has been a considerable gap in the academic research and understanding of internal communication (Welch Jackson, 2007). This is highlighted with the following quote. â€Å"no other corporate communication subfunction offers more of an opportunity for genuinely sought after research than employee [= internal] communic11 ation† (Argenti, 1996, p. 4) It is dif? cult to de? ne internal communication because it has several, often interchangeably used, synonyms such as change management (Smith, 2008), employee communication (Argenti, 1996; Smidts, Pruyn Van Riel, 2001), employee relations (Argenti, 1996; J. Grunig Hunt, 1984; Quirke, 2000), integrated internal communications (Kalla, 2005 ), internal public relations (Jefkins, 1988; Wright, 1995), internal relations (J. Grunig Hunt, 1984), industrial relations (Smith, 2008), reputation management (Smith, 2008), staff communication (Stone, 1995), staff communications (D. Tourish Hargie, 2004b) and transformation (Smith, 2008). These synonyms add to the complexity of de? ning internal communication. The term internal communication has been chosen for this study due to the interest in Welch and Jackson’s (2007) ICC concept; for details see Subsection 2. 1. 2. In addition, the term internal communication is preferred by corporate communication theorists such as Van Riel (1995) and J. Foreman and Argenti (2005). There have been very few useful and appropriate de? nitions of internal communication. De? nitions have either been very simple, for example â€Å"communication with employees internally within the organization† (Cornelissen, 2011, p. 64), or describing something else entirely. For example, a very widely used de? nition of internal communication is that of Frank and Brownell (1989), which more accurately seems to be a de? nition of organisational communication instead of internal communication (Welch Jackson, 2007). â€Å"the communications transactions between individuals and/or groups at various levels and in different areas of specialisation that are intended to design and redesign organisations, to implement designs, and to co-ordinate day-today activities† (Frank Brownell, 1989, p. -6) Appropriately, Welch and Jackson (2007) addressed this gap in the academic research and understanding of internal communication and rede? ned internal communication. Welch and Jackson’s (2007) de? nition is adopted for this study, because of the interest in ICC 12 speci? cally. The de? nition is presented below. â€Å"the strategic management of interactions and relationships between stakeholders within organisations across a number of interrelated dimensions including, internal line manager communication, internal team peer communication, internal project peer communication and internal corporate communication† (Welch Jackson, 2007, p. 84) This section continues by explaining Welch and Jackson’s (2007) internal communication matrix with its four fo rmal internal communication dimensions in Subsection 2. 1. 1. Then, Subsection 2. 1. 2 de? nes the internal corporate communication concept and its four goals (Welch Jackson, 2007). 2. 1. 1 Internal communication matrix The internal communication matrix created by Welch and Jackson (2007) consists of four formal internal communication dimensions, which are the earlier mentioned internal corporate communication (ICC), internal line manager communication, internal team peer communication and internal project peer communication. The internal communication matrix helps to separate the ICC dimension from the other internal communication dimensions. Welch and Jackson (2007) take a stakeholder approach to internal communication. This is done in order to address the criticism and recent calls for research. L’Etang (2005, p. 522) criticises that â€Å"employees are too often treated as a single public† with respect to internal communication in a company. In addition, Forman and Argenti (2005) call for more research on employees as the target audience of internal communication. Welch and Jackson (2007) address these issues by differentiating stakeholder groups at the company, while at the same time still focusing on communication that reaches all the employees. Hence, Welch and Jackson (2007) take a stakeholder approach to internal communication. 13 According to Freeman (1984, p. 25), a stakeholder is: â€Å"any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the ? rm’s objectives†. Stakeholder theory, together with internal communication, add to the identi? ation of participants that form stakeholder groups at different organisational levels: all employees, strategic management, day-to-day management, work teams and project teams (Welch Jackson, 2007). This implies the earlier mentioned four interrelated dimensions of internal communication (Welch Jackson, 2007). These four internal communication dimensions in a management context form the internal communication matrix, which is visible in Table 2. Table 2: Internal Communication Matrix (Welch Jackson, 2007) Dimension 1. Internal line management communication 2. Internal team peer communication 3. Internal project peer communication 4. Internal corporate communication Level Line managers/ supervisors Team colleagues Project group colleagues Strategic managers/ top management Direction Predominantly two-way Two-way Two-way Predominantly one-way Participants Line managersemployees Employeeemployee Employeeemployee Strategic managers-all employees Content Employees’ roles Personal impact, e. g. appraisal discussions, team brie? ngs Team information, e. g. team task discussions Project information, e. g. project issues Organisational/ corporate issues, e. . goals, objectives, new developments, activities and achievements As Table 2 shows, the four dimensions of internal communication are followed by the organisational level, the direction, participants and content of the internal communication, respectively. The level, direction, participants and content of the internal communication differ according to the internal stakeholder group in q uestion. The ? rst dimension, internal line manager communication, is between the line managers and the employees of a company at the line manager/supervisor level. This communication is mainly two-way, between superior and subordinate with the content being, for instance, about employee roles (Welch Jackson, 2007). The second dimension, internal team peer communication, is two-way communication between team members, employee to employee, with the content being team information (Welch Jackson, 2007). The third dimension, internal project peer communication, is two-way communication between project peers, employee to employee, with the content being project informa14 tion. The difference here between a team and a project is that teams are work teams in departments and divisions while projects have a wider scope with dispersed teams (Welch Jackson, 2007). The fourth dimension, ICC, is strategic one way communication from the strategic managers/top management of the company to all employees. This communication deals with corporate issues such as goals, objectives and achievements (Welch Jackson, 2007). Internal line, team peer and project peer communication have been considerably researched by J. Grunig et al. (1992). Therefore, the focus of this study will be on ICC, which has been largely ignored to date. 2. 1. 2 Internal corporate communication The internal corporate communication (ICC) concept developed by Welch and Jackson (2007) is communication between the strategic top of the company and the rest of the company. It focuses on all the employees and, therefore, ? lls an existing void in research (Forman Argenti, 2005). Internal corporate communication is predominantly oneway and includes issues such as company goals and objectives. The concept of ICC is presented in Figure 2, with the de? ition of ICC being: â€Å"communication between an organisation’s strategic managers and its internal stakeholders, designed to promote commitment to the organisation, a sense of belonging to it, awareness of its changing environment and understanding of its evolving aims† (Welch Jackson, 2007, p. 186) Figure 2 shows that the strategic managers, who are situated in the circle in the middle o f Figure 2, send corporate messages, shown as arrows in Figure 2, to all the company employees, who are situated in the circle depicting internal environment. Figure 2 also points out that internal corporate communication, where the strategic managers are sending corporate messages to the employees, leads to four goals, which are visible in the thick one-way arrows: commitment, awareness, belonging and understanding. In addition, there are four smaller double headed arrows between the internal environment and the external micro environment. These arrows imply two-way communication, which ex15 External MacroEnvironment Employees Commitment External MicroEnvironment Corporate Messages Understanding Strategic managers Awareness Belonging Employees Internal Environment Figure 2: Internal Corporate Communication (Welch Jackson, 2007) ists in the other three internal communication dimensions: internal manager communication, internal team peer communication and internal project peer communication. Finally, there is also an external macro environment in Figure 2. The double headed arrows in Figure 2 show that even though the main messages are predominantly one way, the strategic managers are still getting feedback and information from their employees in other ways, for instance, through internal team peer communication (Welch Jackson, 2007). Welch and Jackson (2007) note that the one-wayness of the internal corporate communication concept can be criticised; however, it would be unrealistic to assume that the company could have face-to-face discussion with every single employee on every issue at hand. Therefore, it is important that the messages sent from the top are consistent and this could be done with mediated means of communication (e. g. external news release, corporate television advertisement, corporate web site, internal newsletter). Internal mediated communication can be considered symmetrical: â€Å"if 16 its content meets the employees’ need to know rather than the management’s need to tell† (L. Grunig, Grunig Dozier, 2002, p. 487). The channels of ICC are a focus in this study, which is to answer the call for further research highlighted in the following quote. â€Å"Research into employee preferences for channel and content of internal corporate communication is required to ensure it meets employees’ needs† (Welch Jackson, 2007, p. 87) The aforementioned goals of the ICC concept are to increase commitment of the employees to the organisation, develop their awareness of the environmental change, increase their belonging to the company and develop their understanding of the changing objectives. Out of these four goals the commitment goal is of speci? c interest to this study. Commitment is like a positive attitude among employees (De Ridder, 2004; Meyer Allen, 1997; Mowday , Porter Steers, 1982) and a degree of loyalty towards an organisation (Welch Jackson, 2007). It is de? ned as â€Å"the relative strength of an individual’s identi? cation with, and involvement in, a particular organisation† (Mowday, Steers Porter, 1979, p. 226). Meyer and Allen (1997) identify three types of workplace commitment, namely affective, continuance and normative. Since the concept of commitment and Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three types of commitment are relevant for this Master’s thesis, they will be further reviewed in Section 2. 4. Belonging is described by Cornelissen (2004, p. 8) as â€Å"a ‘we’ feeling [–] allowing people to identify with their organizations†. Internal communication has an effect on this degree of identi? cation (Smidts et al. , 2001, p. 1052). The need to belong is a strong motivator for people (Baumeister Leary, 1995). Therefore, it has to be remembered that organisations could use a persuasive strategy to in? uence the employees (Cheney, 1983) or even use internal communication as a tool to try to manipulate employees (Moloney, 2000). Due to this Welch and Jackson (2007) point out that ICC has an ethical aspect. It is important for the employees to be aware of the environmental change, and understand how it impacts the organisation (Welch Jackson, 2007), because the organisational environment is dynamic. This dynamic environment has three levels, namely macro, micro 17 and internal (Palmer Hartley, 2002), which are also shown in Figure 2. These environments are subject to change, and change in the business world has been substantial in the past years for instance due to technology (Cornelissen, 2004). Due to these environmental changes and the implications they could mean, it is vital for the employees to be aware and understand the change (Welch Jackson, 2007). In addition, to just plainly communicating the current situation of the organisation to the employees, the organisation should even communicate about the external opportunities and threats of the company. Effective internal corporate communication should enable employees to understand the constant changes the company is going through (Welch Jackson, 2007), thus reducing employees’ uncertainty. In sum, ICC is of speci? interest in this study, because it hasn’t yet been extensively researched. Internal communication is important for companies, because it contributes to their success (Argenti Forman, 2002; D. Tourish Hargie, 2004d). When a stakeholder approach is taken, internal communication can be divided into four interrelated dimensions (Welch Jackson, 2007). These dimensions together form the internal communication matrix (Welch Jackson, 2007). Out of these four dimensions ICC is the strategic top addressing all the employees simultaneously about the company goals and objectives (Welch Jackson, 2007). The goals of the ICC include giving the employees a feeling of belonging and commitment, as well as raising the employees’ awareness and understanding of the company’s changing environment (Welch Jackson, 2007). 2. 2 Corporate strategy Corporate strategy is important, because it aids the company to reach its long-term objectives and, therefore, affects the company’s long-term wealth (Al-Ghamdi et al. , 2007). Understanding these objectives and the signi? cance of everyone’s contribution has an effect on the commitment and work motivation of the employees (H? m? l? nen Maula, 2004), a aa which is a contributing factor to an effective company (Koch, Radvansk? Sklen? r, y a 2011). 18 The origin of the word strategy comes from the Greek word â€Å"strategos†, â€Å"a general† (Bracker, 1980, p. 219), referring to skills of warfare (Cummings, 1993; Lahti, 2008). Furthermore, the Greek verb â€Å"stratego† stands for †plan[ning] the destruction of one’s enemies through effective use of resources† (Bracker, 1980, p. 219). The word strategy was originally linked to war and politics, and only after World War II was there a need to link the word to business (Bracker, 1980). The ? rst ones to connect the strategy concept to business were Von Neumann and Morgenstern with their game theory (Bracker, 1980), where strategy is the set of rules that players follow (Mintzberg, 1978). Chandler (1962) created the basics for today’s typical strategy de? nition (Mintzberg, 1978; Mustonen, 2009): †the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals† (Chandler, 1962, p. 13) Bracker (1980, p. 221) sums up many of the strategy de? itions to: â€Å"entails the analysis of internal and external environments of a ? rm to maximize the utilization of resources in relation to objectives†. Strategy quite simply put is a †plan† (Mintzberg, 1978, p. 935). This section continues by explaining the strategy formation with Mintzberg’s (1978) theory and a brief review on vision and mission related resear ch in Subsection 2. 2. 1. Then, the strategy implementation is explained in Subsection 2. 2. 2. Issues covered include the importance of the implementation process, the de? nition, Aaltonen and Ik? alko’s (2002) a theory, the importance of managers in the process, some practical issues and the dif? culties of strategy implementation. Finally, the subtle difference between internal strategy communication (ISC) and internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC) is discussed. 2. 2. 1 Strategy formation The strategy process starts with the company’s corporate strategy formation. Mintzberg’s (1978) theory is one of the many theories that explains the theoretical strategy formation. 19 A more practical view of strategy formation is found in research on vision and mission statements. Mintzberg’s (1978) theory Mintzberg (1978) developed a strategy formation theory, where there are two kinds of strategies, the intended and the realised. According to Mintzberg (1978), in the mainly theoretical strategy formation research, the majority of strategy de? nitions have one thing in common: they are a deliberate set of guidelines that determine future decisions. This type of a strategy is called an intended strategy, and it has the following three characteristics (Mintzberg, 1978). First, it is explicit. Second, it is created purposefully and consciously; and third, it is made in advance to help decision-making. Opposite to the intended strategy is the realised strategy, which is the actual strategy that is put into action. In order to expand the strategy formation research, Mintzberg (1978, p. 935) de? nes strategy as â€Å"a pattern in a stream of decisions†. He then claims that these two kinds of strategies, intended and realised, can be combined in three different ways, resulting in ? ve types of strategies, namely the intended, unrealised, deliberate, emergent and realised. These ? ve types of strategies and their relations are presented in Figure 3. Intended Strategy Unrealized Strategy Deliberate Strategy Realized Strategy Emergent Strategy Figure 3: Types of Strategies (Mintzberg, 1978) As can be seen in Figure 3, the intended strategy is to the left implying a starting point, and the realised strategy is to the right implying an end result. Mintzberg (1978) reasons that the intended and the realised strategy, at least theoretically, can be combined in the following three ways. First, intended strategies that get realised without anything left 20 out or added are called deliberate strategies. Second, intended strategies that do not get realised are called unrealised strategies. This could be caused by issues such as unrealistic expectations. Third, unintended strategies that get realised are called emergent strategies. These could develop over time, unintended, out of a pattern of continuous decisional behaviour. Mintzberg and Waters (1985) suggest that for a strategy to realise itself exactly as it was planned, three conditions need to be met. First, the strategy needs to be planned in detail, in a way that it can be communicated clearly. Second, everyone in the company needs to know it. Third, the strategy implementation is not in? uenced from outside of the company (Mintzberg Waters, 1985). At least two out of these three conditions need communication, which emphasizes the role that communication plays in the strategy process, especially in the implementation, which is presented in Subsection 2. 2. 2. Vision and mission Vision and mission have been recognised as a part of the more practical view on the strategy formulation process for all types of organisations (Darbi, 2010; David, 1989). However, David (1989) argues that the strategy formulation process consists of not only the creation of the vision and mission statement, but also of the SWOT-analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and the identi? ation of the long-term objectives, to name a few. H? m? l? inen and Maula (2004) point out that it is common practice that a aa companies de? ne at least vision, mission, strategy (a more limited concept, not to be confused with the main corporate strategy) and value statements during their strategy process. These four components could be seen as the most central operational guidelines of a company (H? m? l? inen Maula, 2004). a aa Vision and mission statements are important, because they in? uence strategy and organisational performance (Darbi, 2010). Vision and mission statements give direction and clarity to the employees; and create a common sense of purpose (Campbell, 1997; Ireland Hirc, 1992; Klemm, Sanderson Luffman, 1991; Matejka, Kurke Gregory, 1993; Mullane, 2002). In addition, these statements also motivate (Ireland Hirc, 21 1992), shape behaviours (Collins Porras, 1991), develop commitment (Klemm et al. , 1991) and ? nally in? uence employee performance positively (Mullane, 2002). Vision describes the desired future state of a company (Darbi, 2010; H? m? l? inen a aa Maula, 2004). The content and length of this description may differ (Darbi, 2010). In addition, G. Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008) argue that the vision should show how the company produces value for its stakeholders. A vision gives strategic direction to a company and, furthermore, is the foundation for the mission and other related goals (Darbi, 2010). â€Å"Vision statements are supposed to be challenging and ambitious yet workable enough to evoke employees’ ingenuity as far as its realisation is concerned† (Darbi, 2010, p. 96) A mission is the company’s current purpose (Darbi, 2010; H? m? l? inen Maula, 2004). aa It answers the question: â€Å"what is our business? † (David, 2009, p. 85), and expresses the corporate strategy in terms of scope and value creation (David, 2009). The mission should convey the company’s strategic direction to the stakeholders (Bartkus, Glassman McAfee, 2004). Hence the company should identify the most important stakehold ers in their mission statement and assure that their needs are met (Mullane, 2002). The mission should speci? cally correspond to the values and expectations of the stakeholders (Darbi, 2010). The last two corporate strategy components presented are values and strategy. Values refer to the company embraced principles (H? m? l? inen Maula, 2004). Strategy shows a aa how the company is going to achieve its vision and mission (H? m? l? inen Maula, 2004). a aa This type of strategy is a more limited concept in the whole big corporate strategy process, and its purpose seems to be to show a practical way to reach the goals. It seems to be rather confusing to have two separate concepts named the same, which de? nitely can be seen as a problem in the strategy implementation phase. This could potentially be solved by renaming the more limited strategy concept as something else. However, the word strategy has also many other meanings (Jones, 2008), and it has become a synonym for 22 different words. For instance, strategy could refer to a plan, a position, a purpose or a long term view (Jones, 2008) and in the adjective form of â€Å"strategic† even important or signi? cant (Alvesson, 2002). There is some criticism in regards to the usefulness and bene? ts of these vision and mission statements (Simpson, 1994). In terms of the content, for instance Simpson (1994) and Goett (1997) note that the majority of these vision and mission statements sound very general and are â€Å"rarely useful† (Goett, 1997, p. ). Hussey (1998) notes that there are semantic problems with vision and mission, therefore what someone thinks of as a vision, another one would say is a mission. Jones (2008) points out that the terms vision and mission have as many de? nitions as people want to give them and they are very overused. Collins and Porras (1999) go a step further and indicate that vision is one of the most overused words in the English language; it is also the least understood. In addition to the criticism against the content, there is also criticism against the process of formulating the vision and mission. Mullane (2002) noted that it is not really the content itself but rather the process of formulating the vision and mission, and how they are then implemented. These statements are seen as top management’s compulsory work that will inevitably end in the employees’ desk drawers or walls, forgotten. So, are the vision and mission statements useful after all? Well, the literature that supports the usefulness and relevance does outweigh the opposite literature (Darbi, 2010), implying that the vision and mission statements are useful. However, the problem of not everyone knowing and understanding the vision and mission statements remains, and should be addressed with a well thought-out strategy implementation, which takes this into consideration. 2. 2. 2 Strategy implementation It is not enough if only the top management knows about the corporate strategy; it also needs the employees embracing the parts of the strategy that affect their work (H? m? l? inen a aa Maula, 2004). Therefore, a successful strategy implementation is vital for any com23 pany (Aaltonen Ik? alko, 2002). Strategy communication, being a major part of a strategy implementation, is important, because it is essential to operational ef? ciency of a company (Kagan, 2004; Roy, 2001). The more successful the strategy communication (Aaltonen Ik? valko, 2002), the better the employees understand, accept and a embrace the corporate strategy and, hence, the more successful the strategy implementation. H? m? l? inen and Maula (2004) concluded from Juho lin’s (1999) work that strategy a aa communication also increases work satisfaction. Strategy communication does not only affect culture, general well-being and performance, but when it is missing, there might be moral problems and weaker performance (Kazoleas Wright, 2001). In H? m? l? inen and Maula’s (2004) viewpoint strategy implementation means those cona aa crete choices and decisions that employees do everyday at work. Noble (1999, p. 120) de? nes strategy implementation â€Å"as the communication, interpretation, adoption, and enactment of strategic plans†. Communicating strategy to the employees is a central part of strategy implementation (Alexander, 1985; Noble, 1999; Roy, 2001). Strategy communication, as part of the strategy implementation process, is both written and oral communication about the corporate strategy. It is usually communicated in a top-down direction (Aaltonen Ik? valko, 2002). The communication is about the responsibilita ies and tasks the employees need to know so that they can ful? l the corporate strategy (Alexander, 1991). Naturally, a strategy might need to be communicated to other stakeholder groups as well, such as customers, suppliers, partners, analysts, media, authorities, local community, NGO’s and competitors (H? m? l? inen Maula, 2004). Steckel (2000) even points out a aa that companies commonly communicate the strategy to partners and customers and forget the employees. However, in this study the emphasis is put on internal strategy corporate communication (ISCC) and, therefore, the only receivers considered are the employees of a company. Aaltonen and Ik? valko (2002) developed a strategy implementation theory based on earlier a research (Mintzberg, 1978; Noble, 1999; Pettigrew, 1987). They adopted the strategy formation theory from Mintzberg (1978) and the strategy implementation components from Noble (1999). Aaltonen and Ik? valko’s (2002) strategy implementation theory is a presented in Figure 4. 24 vision planned strategy Strategy implementation: communication interpretation and adoption actions realizing strategy Figure 4: Strategy Implementation as a link between How to cite Internal Corporate Communication on Strategy, Papers

Common Sense and Integrative Thinking free essay sample

Common Sense and Integrative Thinking Introduction This article is a discussion about Common Sense and Integrative Thinking. It discusses about the connection or role of Common Sense in Integrative Thinking on the basis of â€Å"Common sense and Integrative thinking† by Joy Ben and Sally Dresdow, 2009. I will be discussing about their arguments. This paper will show the link between Common Sense and Integrative Thinking. In general Common Sense does not seem to play a great role in Integrative Thinking but actually Common Sense does play an important part in Integrative Thinking and it helps to Improve Integrative Thinking. This paper support the argument of the author that the common sense and Integrative Thinking are connected and if common sense is accessed properly in the beginning of the Integrative Thinking it will improve the Integrative Thinking in later stages. Body The strength of the authors in their article is they support Common Sense enhance Integrative Thinking, If Common Sense is integrated at first stage then it will enhance the thinking in the other stages and the Common Sense and Integrative Thinking are compatible to each other. On the other hand the authors have weak argument like Common Sense can interfere with integrative Thinking, the insights and intuitions derived from past experience and action can overemphasize knowledge acquisition for taking action. Common sense is the sound practical judgement which is not dependent of any specialized knowledge or training but with the normal native intelligence. Common sense decides the situation without much thinking, and sees the things as it sees. It is a gut feeling, native ability, knowing how, learning from mistakes, demonstrable cognitive abilities and self-motivated. The common sense gives people the ability to make reasonable assumptions and think different courses of action, to think realistic expectations and to make sensible decisions and it takes corrective path when things go opposite. In contrast to common sense Integrative Thinking is the ability gained from learning, experimenting and visualising according to facts and figures. The Integrative Thinking is the ability to constructively face a complex decision by combining all the diverse facts, ideas, issues and instead of choosing one at the cost of the other; making a creative decision by taking the elements of all. The person’s common sense, which is their knowledge and experience, can conflict with integrative thinking. I agree with the author that we should not depend on the common sense thinking alone, as common sense varies among every individual as not all the people have the same amount of experiences. People are born in different parts of the world and when they grow they do different things, see different thing believe different things, get experience of different things to other people born in other part of the world. So the level of Common Sense if different in different people, some people may know something better and some people may not know it at all. Therefore, common sense requires great effort to develop a common pool of judgement. I also support the authors’ argument that Common Sense knowledge is not the same as theoretical knowledge and fully relying on it may result in reliance on brief information. In theoretical knowledge we gain vast information, experimented and found by different people and scientists from all over the world on the other hand common sense is knowledge gained from our day to day normal life. Therefore our Common Sense knowledge is comparatively smaller than theoretical knowledge so if we fully depend on Common Sense than we will be thinking with small knowledge and in small area only. The decision making of a complex situation requires knowledge developed from both practical and theoretical. The problem of only relying on practical action is that the situation may be misdiagnosed and the action may not suit the situation. The dependence on the past success experience can have risk of assuming some level of predictability, an inability to see new patterns, researching new ways of thinking, that leads to the inability to address the complex contexts that exist in the organizations. Common Sense usually reflects their existing mental knowledge gained from the past experience and therefore it may not be in equivalent to current situation. It increases the confidence of being right and restricts learning, exploring new approaches and the enthusiasm to change paths. Integrative Thinking is tackling a problem in a different way and creating a solution differently, beyond common thinking going much deeper to find perfect solution despite of interferences. It is something like thinking outside the box, and not fully depending on what they think, fell or believe. Collecting all the facts, current situation, thinking the problem in every possible angle and every consequences of the result produced. Integrative thinkers approach any decision in four steps which are as follows: 1. Salience: In this step thinker choose the main factors or features to pay attention for and the factors/features which they should not. Its categorizing the problem accordance to the importance of the facts. 2. Causality: In this step thinker sees the problem from every angle as possible and the relations that may exist between the various pieces of the problem 3. Architecture: Based on the choices from the first two steps they create an overall mental model. 4. Resolution: Based on the reasoning the decision is made. In integrative thinking models are made rather than to choose between them. The models consist of consideration of numerous variables like customers, competitors, employees, capability, cost, environments. The models should capture the complicated, multi-faceted and multidirectional casual relationships between the key variables in the problems. We should consider the problem as a whole not break it into small parts and look after the small parts. The different aspects of the issue are looked to find how they connect together and influence each other. Integrative thinking involves solving the tension among competing alternatives producing innovative solutions. Common Sense tends to filter information and oversimplifies the problem leading to ignorance of the important features and adopting short paths based on assumptions not on current facts. The thinker who responses to an issue by thinking it is just common sense will not effectively identify the issue or identify the cause of challenge. Common sense assist integrative thinkers to access facts sort them and base the choice on practices gained from experience (Snowden and Boone, 2007). It also supports integrative thinkers in decision making in complex issues as experience is used to analyse the circumstances and then thinkers develop a response that is derived from their area of knowledge or expertise. The result of the use of common sense produces decisions heavily based on intuition, which may not address all the facts and issues on the problem. It will create overconfidence and oversimplification of the problem and may not produce a perfect decision to address all the issues of the problem. Conclusion From the discussion above I can say that Common Sense and Integrative hinking are connected to each other. In every complex decision Common sense and Integrative thinking have their own important role. If Common sense is considered properly it enhances the integrative thinking. Common Sense seems to be an important part or factor for a better integrative thinking. But we should not depend on Common Sense alone as it limits the knowledge and areas of the issues so may not give a perfect decision for the current situations. Therefore it should be taken as an important part of integrative thinking and should be integrated at the first stage of the integrative thinking for a perfect decision.

Economic Approaches to Organizations

Question: What would you do if asked to do something on the job that you think is unethical in healthcare? Answer: Ethics is vital in the smooth running of an organization and shapes the destiny. It is a yardstick and balances every sphere. Any act of unethical nature leads to destruction of the entire atmosphere (Douma Hein, 2013). Hence, I will act according to the protocol and will detest doing something that goes against the policy and deem to be unethical in nature. Healthcare is an area where unethical practice might lead to a severe problem and the end user can end up his or her life (Lakhan et. al, 2009). Therefore, considering such result I will not act unethically rather will speak to the top head and use whistle blower mechanism against the ones who forced me. Healthcare is a critical area and therefore special emphasis needs to be paid in this regard. Moreover, doing any unethical act is a condemn of the law and attracts actions. Hence, in order to be free from any impending danger and have a clean role it is essential that I will not pay any heed to the influences. The only remedy t hat i have in my hand is to report to the top management and raise my voice against it (Masters, 2010). This issue is directly concerned with the life of the people and hence, considering the critical nature of such I will ensure that no such practice is done that will bring any harm to the lives of the people. I will play my part until the time it is under my duty and is not unethical in nature. References Douma, Sytse and Hein, Schreuder. (2013). Economic Approaches to Organizations. London Lakhan SE, Hamlat E, McNamee T, Laird C. (2009). Time for a unified approach to medical ethics. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 4 (3), 13. Masters, K. (2010). Non-disclosure in Internet-based research: the risks explored through a case study. The Internet Journal of Medical Informatics, 5 (2).