COM4900 Internal Communications

Case Analysis II Assignment Parameters (With Questions per Case

for Consideration)
Spring Semester 2016
Cases/Due Dates:
Case One: Communication at Microsoft Services Asia (Parts A & B) (DUE:
Tues., Apr. 19th)
Case Two: Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change (DUE: Thurs., Apr. 21st)
Case Three: Building Community at Terra Nova Consulting (DUE: Tues., May
3rd)
Case Four: Posco's Journey: Building Employee Trust through
Communication
(DUE: Thurs., May 5th)
Case Five: Technology Driven Transformation at Comair Limited (DUE: Tues.,
May 10th)
Case Six: The Scanfin Merger: (Part A) A Matter of Culture And Identity; (Part
B) Communicating A New Corporate Identity To Employees; And (Part C)
Managing Organisational Change
(DUE: Thurs., May 12th)
Case Seven: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.: Driving Change through
Internal Communication (DUE: Tues, May 17th)

Assignment
This is an individual assignment -- a four to six page, double-spaced case
study analysis, choosing one from the above set of seven pre-selected case
studies.
(NOTES: Analysis can exceed the six page limit; Use footnotes, citations as
needed; You must choose a case study that you WILL NOT present on.)
Submission: Submit via Blackboard via link in Assignments folder
The Case Analysis II is worth 25% percent of your overall grade (25
points).

Each case analysis should include:

A summary of the case.

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Important/critical aspects should be noted.

Integrate how internal communications could support the case
Consider the specific questions for each specific case as follows:

CASE: COMMUNICATION AT MICROSOFT SERVICES ASIA

(Tuesday, Apr. 19th)
1. What were the issues at MSA?
a. What was the need for change?
2. How to prepare for change?
a. What key issues to address?
b. Who/how would you recruit support for change?
3. How to address low employee morale?...and low employee
engagement?
a. How could communications make a difference?
4. In an ongoing effort to move the organization forward, what is the
communications role for:
a. Leadership, managers, IC?
5. How could the organization step it up, and move from good to great?
a. Again, what would be the role of communications (leadership,
managers, IC)?
6. What is the value of an aspirational goal?
a. How can it evolve from aspirational goal to reality?
b. How could communications support it?

CASE TWO: ALASKA AIRLINES: NAVIGATING CHANGE

(Thursday, Apr. 21st)
1. Why was change necessary at Alaska Airlines?
2. Upper level management and leadership understood the challenges
facing the airline and the industry, yet there seemed to be a gap in
employee understanding.
a. What were the barriers to developing a performance culture at
Alaska Airlines?
b. What tools could the company have used to increase employee
awareness of internal and external/industry issues?
c. How might employees transition to feeling personally
implicated in the success of Alaska Airlines?

3. Alaska Airlines suffered from both operational and internal

communication challenges. Identify and analyze some of these
challenges.
a. What issues should have been foreseeable by
leadership/company?
b. How did the company address operational challenges?
c. Recommend how the company could address communications
challenges.
4. What was the culture at Alaska Airlines (actual culture, artifact)?
a. How might a true culture of customer service be embedded in
the airline (the foundation being the customer service initiatives
outlined on bottom of pg. 13/top of pg. 14)?
b. What is the role of internal communications in driving culture
change (from leadership/manager/IC function perspective)?
CASE THREE: BUILDING COMMUNITY AT TERRA NOVA CONSULTING
(Tuesday, May 3rd)
1. What is the need for change?
2. What are the barriers to change?
3. How can the company rebuild former collegial culture and build
renewed commitment to the companys core values? (and the role
of Internal Comm?)
a. What was the collegial culture? What is it now? What are the
artifacts?
4. What is the importance of core values, organizational vision and
mission? (and the role of Internal Comm?)
5. Finding from cultural assessment huge gap between senior partners
and junior professionals
a. How to close the gap and build consensus between different
levels with different priorities (How can Internal Comm support
this?)
6. Consider the peculiarities of professional service firms and managing in
a flat, decentralized structure
a. Flat organization greater attention to human relationships; the
right fit of people in order to achieve the shared purpose of the
organization
b. How can internal communications be effective in this
environment?

CASE FOUR: POSCO'S JOURNEY: BUILDING EMPLOYEE TRUST

THROUGH COMMUNICATION
(Thursday, May 5th)
1. The core: Introducing a new CEO, new management philosophy, and
new operating systems. Trust is at the core and strategic internal
communications builds that trust.
a. How can the organization gauge the effectiveness of
communications within the company and measure the level of
trust?
2. What is the current culture and what culture change is necessary for
the new management philosophy and operating systems to be
effective?
a. How can communications become embedded in how the
company operates?
b. How can communications support a new culture?
i. What is the role of managers in driving a new culture?
ii. How will communicating culture be enforced at the
management level?
3. What is the role of leadership, managers and employees in increasing
engagement?
i. What factors drive engagement?
ii. How can communications support/drive engagement?
4. What is (or can be) the interrelationship between
vision/mission/valuestrust-communication at Posco?
5. Comment on the new internal communications tools developed.
6. Can the hierarchical culture in the steel mill be changed?
a. What measures must be in place?
b. How can communications support it?
7. Bottom Line: Can trust be established through communication?

CASE FIVE: TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION AT COMAIR

LIMITED
(Tuesday, May 10th)
1. What was the need for change at Comair Limited?
2. The technology transformation at Comair involved both technical and
adaptive challenges. Technical challenges include learning new
operating systems, procedures and protocols while adaptive challenges
deal with risk, conflict and uncertainty, requiring people within the
organization to experiment and being open to learning new ways of
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accomplishing a task that usually require adopting positive attitudes

and behaviors to ensure a successful outcome.
a. Comment on the technical and adaptive challenges for Comair
employees during Operation Crossover.
b. What would be the role of both transactional and
transformational communications during the change initiative?
3. Cultural considerationwhat was the culture at Comair?
a. What was learned from the cultural assessment?
b. How can Comair leverage its family businessdo what needs to
get done mentality culture as the airline scales up?
c. How can it leverage the sense of purpose and cohesion
generated through Operation Crossover in the long-term?
4. What internal communications strategies and tactics can be used to
make all employees feel personally implicated in shaping a successful
future of Comair?
a. What is the role of leaders, managers, internal communication
function?
5. Comment on the internal communications strategies and tactics used
during Operation Crossover.
a. How can internal communication continue to build momentum in
the long-term?
CASE SIX: THE SCANFIN MERGER
(Thursday, May 12th)
1. What are the main issues of cultural integration as noted in the case?
a. What are some of the barriers per the ethnographers
observations (from an employee perspective)?
2. In the best scenario, Internal Communications should have been
counseling leadership prior to the merger. In this regard, what steps
might IC have taken to minimize or mitigate some of the barriers?
a. What role can communications play in a merger of this scale?
3. How was the new company brand formulated?
a. How was it communicated to the workforce?
b. Comment on the success or failure of the effort.
c. What communications strategies could be suggested for a better
outcome?
i. What is the role for leadership, managers and IC in
communicating new brand? and brand promise?
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4. Middle managers are certainly critical for integrating change within

their departments.
a. What are the barriers faced by managers such as Mr. Hansen?
b. What could make his (and other managers) ability to transition to
a different way of working smoother and more efficient?
c. What steps should be taken (both pre and post-merger) to better
ensure compliance (and acceptance) among Hansen-like
managers?
d. What is the role of Internal Communication in this environment?

CASE SEVEN: HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION LTD.: DRIVING

CHANGE THROUGH INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
(Tuesday, May 17th)
1. What was the need for change in the company?
2. Cultural consideration company needed to move from a public
system mentality to culture of customer service. How can that
become embedded in an organization?
a. What systems/processes need to be put in place?
b. How can communications support it?
3. How did HPCL go about building a new vision and accomplishing what
it set out to do?
a. Vision workshops comment on the stated risks undermining
managements authority and/or discovering lack of alignment
between future direction and employee reality.
b. How effective was the visioning process?
4. How does transactional communication differ from transformational
communication in the company?
a. What is the role/benefit of each?
b. Comment on the tools and techniques used to communicate
within the company.
5. Did (or how did) the company fundamentally change from 2003 previsioning process to 2009?
a. What specifically was different?
6. The company is looking to become the market leader No. 1 position.
a. What needs to happen to make this a reality?
b. How can internal communications support it?
i. (Role of leadership; managers; IC)