CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
Case Study Assignments are self–administered, guided problems that follow each of the readings. The purpose is to walk you through the readings, emphasizing the points that will provide the foundation for understanding the overall importance of storytelling and touching narratives in communicating the benefits of an organization and/or its products and processes. The information sets emphasized in the Case Study Assignments follow the readings of each Module: Week and highlight the key parts of the chapters. Think of each exercise as Interactive Mental Highlights (IMH).
INSTRUCTIONS
You will read each case study and the corresponding questions in MindTap and submit your responses to the questions by uploading a Word.doc or similar format into Canvas.
● Length of assignment – at least 1 paragraph per case study question (no specific word or page count)
● Format of assignment – current APA
● At least 1 citation from textbook
● At least 1 integration of a Biblical principle
● Acceptable sources – Textbook, Bible
In this final case study, we turn away from looking at fictional (or occasionally factual) organizations for information and inspiration. Instead, as we close our examination of organizational communication, we ask you to look at yourself and others close to you as a way of understanding how the work world—and communication within that world—has changed in recent years and will continue to change in the future.
Throughout this chapter, we have highlighted ways that society has been transformed in recent decades and the implications of those transformations for organizational communication. Our economy is now primarily a service economy. We live in a global village dominated by business conducted in the global marketplace. Many workers are “disposable,” moving in and out of organizations, as temporary and contract work become more common. These workers are sometimes (but certainly not always) disposable by choice. At a more macro level, companies merge and acquire with such frequency that the question of “what owns what” is often difficult to answer, and loyalties toward organizations are not at all straightforward. In short, we live in an organizational world that is far different from the one inhabited by workers one hundred, fifty, or even twenty years ago.
As you conclude this course in organizational communication, then, we would like you to first take a look at those who have worked in organizations for many years. Talk to your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, or old family friends. Ask these people how the work world has changed in the years they have been employed. Here are some questions you might ask them:
• Have they worked for one or two organizations throughout their lives or have they changed jobs frequently? What kind of loyalty do they feel to their organizations and occupations?
• Has technology transformed the nature of their work? Do they feel these shifts are for the better or worse?
• Do they feel the impact of globalization in their work? How do other nations and cultures influence their work lives and the flow of business in their organizations?
• How have economic shifts affected them? Have they ever been laid off or downsized? Have they chosen alternative work arrangements like contract work or temporary work? Have they started their own businesses as a result of economics (or other factors)? And how have all these alternative work arrangements influenced the quality of their work and family lives?
• Are the people you talk to happy with their work lives? Do they enjoy their work? Do they like the amount of time they spend working? If they could go back in time and make different choices about work, what would those choices be?
