UNIT TWO ASSIGNMENTS
Unit Two Case Analysis
Read case examples 1, 2 and 3 on pages 123-125. Prepare your composition to cover the following topics
or questions with in the Body section of the paper described for this assignment:
a) What was the leadership challenge for each of these cases?
b) How did these cases showcase the importance of communication?
c) How did these cases counter the problem of miscommunication?
Write a 5 page paper (1500 or more words) in APA format. Below is a recommended outline.
1. Cover page (See APA Sample paper)
2. Introduction
a. A thesis statement
b. Purpose of paper
c. Overview of paper
3. Body (Cite sources with in-text citations.)
4. Conclusion – Summary of main points
a. Lessons Learned and Recommendations
5. References – List the references you cited in the text of your paper according to APA format.
(Note: Do not include references that are not cited in the text of your paper) CASE EXAMPLE 1 MISCOMMUNICATION
A family expects overnight company during the weekend, and on Wednesday the parents of sixteenyear-old Sarah ask her to clean her room so that the visitors can sleep in it. Friday arrives, and Sarah has
not cleaned her room. A typical parental reaction is to assume that Sarah just didn’t get around to it,
didn’t follow through, or was perhaps being rebellious in reaction to giving up her room or being told
what to do (an attitude problem).
If Mom looks back, however, to see how she carried out her responsibility as sender, she might find
other reasons for the miscommunication. For instance, she may remember that when she told Sarah to
clean her room, Sarah was on her way out the door. Also, Sarah had stayed up late studying for a test she
was very worried about, and she had overslept and was late leaving for school (internal anxiety—noise in
the system). And as any parent knows, “Clean your room” may mean one thing to a sixteen year old and
something entirely different to a parent (semantic differences). To Sarah, it meant getting everything out
of sight: stuffed under the bed or in the drawers or the closet. To her mom, it meant emptying a drawer
and making closet space available, as well as ensuring that clutter and odors emanating from under the
bed wouldn’t disturb the guests. CASE EXAMPLE 2 MIXED MESSAGES
A three-hundred-bed hospital in the St. Louis area was in severe financial straits. Part of a larger system,
the hospital was given six months to reverse these financial problems, or it would be sold. The director
of education purchased modular educa- tion that the managers and supervisors (as internal facilitators)
were to deliver to employees in the belief that this education would assist in an extensive downsizing
and restructuring effort that was under way. An outside trainer arrived to present the modules for the
internal facilitators beginning on a Monday afternoon.
On Monday morning, the internal facilitators were gathered together and received a message from the
CEO regarding the corporate decision about a likely closure or sale, a planned layoff, and the reduction of
management and supervisory positions by half. In the afternoon, these same people were expected to
attend a learning and development session. Although they rallied and concentrated on how they could
use the educational modules, the effectiveness of any communication that afternoon was greatly
reduced by the presence of strong emotions (a technical problem) following the morning session. If
administrators later labeled these managers and supervisors as resistant or nonsupportive because they
had not used the modules, this example would closely parallel the parenting example in the previous
case example. Sometimes where the message is delivered is less than optimal and results in communication difficulties.
How many important conversations take place in the hallway or in the minutes before or after meetings?
There never seems to be enough time to communicate thoroughly, and yet the sender and receiver may
end up spending hours to clear up miscommunication.
Communication and Leadership
Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus describe communication as the manage- ment of meaning (1985). When
Max DePree (1989) talks about a leader’s role as defining reality, it means that the leader and follower
have reached a CASE EXAMPLE 3 INAPPROPRIATE SETTINGS
A management development specialist told the story of feedback she received from her leader regarding
an important project that the leader had asked her to undertake. Their offices were located in different
cities, making face-to-face feed- back difficult because of inaccessibility. It happened that both the
specialist and the leader were attending a seminar together. The specialist decided to use this opportunity to obtain feedback on the project, but the only place and time available was in the women’s
restroom during a break. As one might imagine, the feedback left a lot to be desired.
