kaplan MT340 unit 9 assignment

Unit 9 Final Project: Ineffective Meetings

Instructions Summary: Click on the Rubric icon for full details.

Have you ever been in a marathon meeting that never succeeds in addressing the agenda items? 3M conducted a study of over three thousand people where the topic of unproductive meetings was covered and found that it was the second most important reason why most dislike meetings (Lumsden et al., 2010, p. 318).

Take some time to read the Chapter 13 Box 13.3, Lousy Meetings, article. Then read the scenario and based on what you have learned and Chapter 12 regarding conflict management and complete your Final Assignment

Due in Unit 9

Have you ever been in a marathon meeting that never succeeds in addressing the agenda items? 3M conducted a study of over three thousand people where the topic of unproductive meetings was covered and found that it was the second most important reason why most dislike meetings (Lumsden et al., 2010, p. 318).

Take some time to read the Chapter 13 Box 13.3, Lousy Meetings, article. Then read the scenario to complete your Final Assignment.

Meeting at JJB Company, an industrial products company located in Minneapolis, Minnesota (U.S.)

Participants:

Kerry O’Neil: V. P. Human Resources

Jerry Redding: Manager of Customer Care Julio Cheung: Industrial Products Manager Stephanie Eichner: Marketing Manager Seeli Arnot: Industrial Sales Manager

Clio Vanutti: Customer Representative (Call Center) Barbara Nordstrom: Customer Accounts

Aaron Penopolous: Media Relations Specialist

Dr. Curran Schmidt: V.P. International Labs Division

Kerry (Leader- V.P. Human Resources): First, I want to welcome you and thank you for your willingness to help us resolve this problem on such short notice. As most of you know, this is our current situation:

In March we launched a new product, Silver Moon laundry detergent (a powder), into the global market.

By April, we were inundated with complaints to our international call center. Customers were saying that their clothes were not coming out clean. Then, to complicate matters further, customers were saying that their customers’ children were seeing some rashes after they played in their clothes that had been washed in this detergent. From what we know now, it has been determined that these rashes are nothing serious but a small reaction to some ingredient in the detergent.

Clio here was the first to detect the pattern and called Jerry, her Supervisor, to let him know there was a huge problem. The only statement issued by the company thus far, by Aaron’s team, has been that the company is investigating the situation and will issue further statements as information becomes available.

We have two major tasks ahead of us: First, we must address what immediate action the company will take and secondly, what long-term changes and adjustments should be made to resolve this situation? Today we will direct ourselves to addressing the first priority; how should the company respond?

Meeting Dialogue:

Aaron-Media Relations (leaning into the conference table): I will need to create a press release about this and before it is published, it will have to be run through Legal.

Stephanie-Marketing (rolled her chair back from the table tilted with her arms crossed): Aaron, wait a minute. I need to work with you on this because this is one of my products.

Barbara-Customer Accounts (in a very worried voice): I really need a concrete answer I can provide for my customers. My customers are already calling me on my cell phone and are threatening to leave for another competitor’s product.

Jerry-Customer Care (using his arms and hands to calm Barbara down and speaking softly): Barbara, it will be okay, we will get through this.

Clio-Customer Representative (Looks over worriedly at her boss Jerry as she sinks down into her seat)

Seeli-Industrial Sales (eyes popping out in surprise): Why was I not notified of this back in April? It is almost the end of May. No wonder some of my customers are not returning my phone calls.

Kerry-V.P. HR (standing in front of the team waiving his hands): Whoa, wait, wait, we all need to calm down. We need to respond to the press, our stockholders and shareholders as soon as we can.

Julio-Industrial Products (waiting patiently to speak and sighs before he is given the floor): But don’t we have to have a plan in place to discover what the real issue is and how we are going to resolve it? How can we put a statement out there if we do not have a tactical plan?

Dr. Schmidt-V.P. Industrial Labs (stands up to grab the attention of all in the room): Folks, we need to come up with a plan to analyze the issue in order to come to resolution. How can we only speak to the issue and not the resolution via a press release or a press conference?

Stephanie-Marketing (rolling her eyes and looking at Dr. Schmidt): Have you all got some answers to this since it all started with the lab?

Checklist: Your job is to:

• Analyze the dialogue that transpires here and determine the communication style for each character as evidenced by the verbal and non-verbal communications.

• Determine what miscommunication took place and why.

• At what points was progress on the goal of the meeting subverted?

• Explain how they could have stayed on track using your previous experience in your team activity in Units 2 through 4.

• How was leadership evident in the conduct of this meeting or could something more have been done to make it more effective?

Detail your response in a minimum of three pages in APA format.

Percent Kaplan

Possible Score for This Assignment 100 100

Content per checklists: Percent Possible Points Possible Points Earned

Answer provides correct and complete information: 50%

Analyze the dialogue/ determine the communication style for each character as evidenced by the verbal and non-verbal communications. 10

Determine what miscommunication took place and why. 10

At what points was progress on the goal of the meeting subverted? Explain how they could have stayed on track using your previous experience in your team activity in Units 2 through 4 and this week’s reading. 10

How was leadership evident in the conduct of this meeting or could something more have been done to make it more effective 10

Discuss how conflict management strategies might be applied here (CH. 12). 10

Analysis and Critical Thinking 30% 30

Writing, Spelling, and grammar 20% 20

100% 100

Your total Score:

Reference:

Lumsden, G., Lumsden, D., & Weithoff. (2010). Communicating in groups and teams: Sharing leadership. (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.