4-1 Case Studies
Communication Situation: Your manager asked that you research pinyin, a method of pronouncing
Chinese words, for some brief facts to present at a luncheon discussion group. You have noted some
basic information, but your information is not in logical order.
Task: Prepare a memo from you to your manager. Provide an informative subject line. Organize the
memo in the direct pattern of organization: Open with the main idea, which is your response to the
request for information. Your notes appear below. Explain your findings by grouping similar ideas
into paragraphs. Close by offering additional assistance. Review, edit, and revise your notes to
incorporate the six Cs of effective messages.
Signs and posters around China are frequently spelled in pinyin but without the tone marks. The
population of China was introduced to pinyin in about the late 1950s for the purpose of
standardizing how to pronounce Mandarin for all of China. The phonetic alphabet approximates
Mandarin pronunciation with Western spellings and includes tone marks to signify at what pitch
to say a word. The tone used in pronouncing a word is critical to the meaning of the word. Not
pronouncing the word correctly can completely change the meaning of the word. A web site that
will help with pronunciation is http://hua.umf.maine.edu/chinese/topics/pinyin/pinyin.html.
Something else too is that major Western newspapers have adopted the pinyin spelling of
Chinese names and words. Pinyin is based on the letters of the Roman alphabet in an effort to
provide a phonetic alphabet for Chinese. Before the ’50s, the different and variety of dialects
made it difficult to comprehend and understand the spoken language from one region to another
region.
4-2 Case Studies
Communication Situation: Your manager wants to emphasize how misuse of e-mail and instant
messaging can cause legal and ethical problems for your company. The manager has asked you to find
an article that clearly demonstrates how e-mail or instant messaging played a role in legal
proceedings, corporate scandals, etc.
Task: Find an article using print materials or search online using keywords such as e-mail or IM
liability and e-mail or IM scandals. Key one or two paragraphs summarizing the main points of the
article and cite the article source. Do not offer your opinion. Attach the article to your summary. Save
your summary for Case Study 4-3.
4-3 Case Studies
Communication Situation: Use the information that you gathered for Case Study 4-2. Offer your
opinion of the article.
Task: Based on your findings in Case Study 4-2 and on other articles you have read, address these
issues: personal e-mail or IM use at work and employer monitoring. Express your opinion in one or
two paragraphs.
4-4 Case Studies
Ethics in Action—Discussion Generator
Directions: Read this case. Use the space provided to write your responses to the “Questions for
Thought and Discussion.” For assistance in resolving ethical problems, refer to the “Framework for
Making Ethical Decisions” available online at http://www.thomsonedu.com/bcomm/brantley.
Case: Problems with Internet security, spam, and viruses have caused businesses to implement
measures to protect hardware, software, and intellectual property. A few weeks ago your company,
Big Shoes Incorporated, initiated an acceptable use policy (AUP) to reduce liability and to increase
security. The policy prohibits employees from using company computers to check personal e-mail or
to send any e-mail that is not directly related to the business. The AUP also requires employees to
report immediately the receipt of any non-work-related e-mail or spam to the Information Technology
(IT) Department. The company also is monitoring employee e-mail messages for these (and other)
policy violations.
Before this new program was in place, you and other department employees often forwarded
amusing messages, pictures, and interesting news articles to each other. The new policy, however, has
drastically reduced those kinds of e-mail messages. In fact, you have completely adhered to the policy.
Dustin Lozano, a longtime coworker and friend in your department, has ignored the new policy.
Last week he was still sending e-mail messages with titles such as “Joke of the Day,” “You Won’t
Believe This!!!” and “Funny Pictures” to your business account. Most of the time you were able to
spot and delete them quickly. In one case, though, one of the silly messages sat in your in-box
overnight. Two days ago you went to see Dustin and asked him to stop sending nonwork messages,
reminding him of the new policy. Your discussion does not seem to have done much good. When you
arrived at work this morning, your first e-mail was a message from Dustin with a subject line that read
“World’s Craziest Dogs.”
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
1. What ethical issues or questions do you see in this case?
2. What are your options? What could you do to try to resolve the situation?
3. What should you do? Why?