Analyzing Communication Strategies: Delivering Bad News Case Study

This case study analyzes three scenarios where managers communicated unfavorable news to employees, highlighting ineffective communication strategies. The author critiques the managers' lack of empathy and suggests alternative approaches, such as personalized communication and ethical considerations. The analysis emphasizes the importance of delivering bad news with sympathy, preparing for potential employee reactions, and adhering to ethical communication principles like confidentiality and respect. The study examines the negative consequences of poor communication, including reputational damage and employee distress, and offers insights into how managers can learn from these examples to improve their communication skills and foster a more positive and ethical work environment. The author references relevant scholarly articles to support the analysis and recommendations.

Running head: DELIVERING BAD NEWS
DELIVERING BAD NEWS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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1. What’s your impression of what took place in these scenarios? Did
the managers in each of these scenarios communicate effectively?
Why or why not?
In the case study, there are three different scenarios where the managers have
communicated unfavorable news to their employees however the way they have chosen to
express their views is negative according to me as it shows lack of remorse and empathy
towards their own employees.
The method that the managers chose to convey the bad news to their employees is not
effective. According to scholars, managers before communicating bad news to the employees
should consider the feelings of the employees as they are an integral part of the organisation
(Richter et al, 2016). Delivering a bad news
It is important to communicate bad news in a way so that it is less traumatic for the
employees and so that it does not have a huge impact on the employees that will lead to
further mental stress which can have negative effects on them. Communicating bad news to
the employees without any kind of consideration can lead to many unfortunate incidents like
employees committing suicide, employee protests, and lawsuits from the employees and
employee turnover which not has a negative impact on the employees but also on the
operations as well as the reputation of the company.
It is evident from all the scenarios in the case study as well because from the first two
scenarios which involves the company, IBM and AOL it can be seen that the company has
got a lot of backlash for their way of communicating which paved way for a negative
reputation of the company.

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2. For each of the scenarios, discuss what might have been a better way
to communicate this message.
Managers should always deliver bad news to the employees with sympathy and should be
calm. They should be prepared for the outburst which the bad news can create. The managers
in the scenarios should have communicated in the following ways so that they could deliver
the bad news efficiently and sympathetically to avoid negative outbursts and situations.
In the first scenario, rather than making an internal video message addressing the lack of
productivity of the sales staff, the manager could send an e-mail to the sales staff addressing
the issues and could have asked them to meet him or her personally in his or her office to talk
about the issues in details and come up with a fruitful solution which would help in
improving the situation.
In the other scenario, it can be seen that the CEO of AOL, Tim Armstrong provided the
information of cutting off the benefit 401k on national television. The way he informed the
news was very harsh as he did not tell this to his employees and it came as a shock to the
employees. Tim Armstrong should have e-mailed about the new policy which he had in mind
and should have conveyed the message as to why this decision was taking so that he could
garner some support from the employees. He could have also conducted a special meeting
and conveyed this message to the employees and could have a one to one communication
with the employee where he could give his justification and even understand how the
employees have reciprocated to the news.
In the last scenario, it can be seen that around 90 employees who worked for the Ford
Motor Company received a message that they had been terminated in an automation message.
According to scholars, termination has a very bad effect on employees as this can have a
negative on their lifestyle and a matter of their survival and thus companies and managers

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need to be polite and considerate while breaking this news to them (Garrison & Wendt,
2015). The manager should have conducted a meeting and should have told the issue as to
why they were terminated all of a sudden and as an employee they have the right to have a
justification.
3. How could the guidelines to ethical communication have been used in
these situations?
In the three scenarios it can be seen that the way the mangers decided to covey the bad
news to the employees was highly unethical as well as distasteful.
According to scholars, one of the main ethical principles of ethical communication is
sharing opinions, feelings and information and respecting confidentiality and privacy at the
same time (Robinson, 2017). Thus, in the first scenario, Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM could
have maintained confidentiality and should have personally spoken to the sales staff for their
poor performance rather than humiliating them in front of everyone.
Austin & Jin, (2015) state utilitarian ethics usually focuses on the consequences of each
decision or action and focuses on the result that would benefit majority of the people.
Aligning with this concept, in the second scenario, the CEO of AOL should have not broken
the news in the media rather should have communicated to the employees in the organisation
at a personal level and through communication could have come up with an efficient plan
which would have benefited both the organisation as well as the employees.
On the other hand, telling employees they have been terminated without any justification
and reason is also highly unethical which Ford Motor Company did to their employees.
According to the virtue ethics, it is important for people to be concerned with the places with
the moral character and it places value or weight on the dignity of person and the task of

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humanity that ensures taking care of another person (Lawton & Páez, 2015). Here, the
manager should have cared for the employees as termination to many people means the end
of life or a very hard struggle for survival and thus the manager should have encouraged
freedom of expression and speech and should have conducted a personal meeting where he
could tell his obligation as well as listen to the employees as well.
4. What could other managers learn from this about communication
and miscommunication?
The CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty faced backlash because of him creating an internal
video message and the decision of providing information on a news channel before
communicating with the employees of the organisation, AOL also led to the company gaining
negative backlash. From these incidents it can be understood that it is important to have an
effective communication between the managers and the employees.
From the scenarios presented in the case study, it can be understood that even in
unfavourable conditions and situations, it is important to communicate effectively employees
of an organisation as this can lead to miscommunication which can hamper the reputation of
the company and also can have a negative impact on the employees as well as the companies
and the managers.
These scenarios of the communication style of different managers show that making
decisions and not communicating it directly to the employees in an ethical manner can be
detrimental. Managers can learn from these case studies that, the duty of the manager is
difficult as they are the connection between the management and the employees thus in case
of severe situations, it is their duty to communicate bad news efficiently to the employees. If
the managers of the companies would have addressed the bad news within the organisation

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and would have had a face to face communication then the things would have gone smoothly
and would also lead to companies making an attempt to make positive changes in the
business setting to ensure that these issues do not arise in the organisation.
Thus, from the case studies, the managers learn the art of breaking down a bad news to
employees with sympathy and remorse and also learn to be attentive and prepared for the
negative consequences so that they can handle the untoward situations with ease along with
consoling the employees who have been affected by the bad news that has been broken down
to them by the managers. In this way, the employees are told the truth and are not kep in any
fantasy world which is ethical.

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Reference
Austin, L., & Jin, Y. (2015). Approaching ethical crisis communication with accuracy and
sensitivity: Exploring common ground and gaps between journalism and public
relations. Public Relations Journal, 9(1), 2.
Garrison, M. J., & Wendt, J. T. (2015). Employee Non-Competes and Consideration: A
Proposed Good Faith Standard for the Afterthought Agreement. U. Kan. L. Rev., 64,
409.
Lawton, A., & Páez, I. (2015). Developing a framework for ethical leadership. Journal of
Business Ethics, 130(3), 639-649.
Richter, M., König, C. J., Koppermann, C., & Schilling, M. (2016). Displaying fairness while
delivering bad news: Testing the effectiveness of organizational bad news training in
the layoff context. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(6), 779.
Robinson, S. C. (2017). Self-disclosure and managing privacy: Implications for interpersonal
and online communication for consumers and marketers. Journal of Internet
Commerce, 16(4), 385-404.