Writing Question

Part A

Write 23 pages discussing various communication styles and create an infographic depicting the style that best fits your preferred method for communicating in a professional environment.

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Introduction

Communication styles refer to the diverse ways in which people express themselves and interact with others. These styles play a crucial role in shaping how information is conveyed, received, and understood. Understanding communication styles helps foster positive relationships and enhance organizational processes. Adaptability and awareness of context are key to effective communication in various business situations.

Each assessment in this course introduces you to a different communications challenge. This assessment will help you better conceptualize communication styles and identify your own style.

Overview

We have seen that there are many communication styles that can be used to relay a message from sender to receiver. This assessment lets you explore social styles and how those impact communication. You’ll create an infographic depicting the social style that best fits your approach to professional communication.

Understanding Social and Communication Styles

Social styles are behavioral preferences that shape how we naturally communicate and interact with others. They’re typically consistent and reflect deeper aspects of our personalities. Communication styles, however, are more situational, describing the specific ways we express our thoughts and ideas. Some communication styles may feel warm and hospitable, while others can come across as clinical or intense. Effective communication involves thoughtfully considering your message’s tone, content, and delivery method (verbal, written, email, et cetera) to ensure it resonates appropriately with your audience.

You will use the Communicate Like a Pro: Know Your Style and Communicate Like a Pro: Flex Your Voice activities to explore and identify your preferred social style, deepening your understanding of how it influences your communication in different situations. Afterwards, you will further research your social style and create an infographic highlighting the impacts it has on your communication with others, especially with those whose styles differ from your own.

What Is an Infographic?

An infographic (information graphic) is a graphic format used to present information in a way that is both appealing and easily understandable at a glance. Infographics are a fantastic way to convey information through visual cues that can enhance your target audiences reception of the information. You can use PowerPoint, , , or any other program that you feel comfortable with to create your infographic. This was created using Canva.

The Canva and Piktochart sites offer templates and quick tutorials for designing infographics. You can search the Internet to find many others. YouTube is a good place to look for helpful resources, such as these:

• reading list.

Any template that you choose is acceptable as long as your infographic effectively communicates the important aspects of a communication style.

Instructions

Complete the Communicate Like a Pro: Know Your Style and Communicate Like a Pro: Flex Your Voice activities. In 23 pages:

• Briefly compare the four primary communication styles (passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and assertive). Do you tend to gravitate toward one of these more frequently?
• Discuss your preferred social style and how it impacts your communication with others.
• Further research your preferred social style. What are some strategies for maintaining assertive communication?
• Identify 23 potential business scenarios that you may have previously experienced or may potentially find yourself in. Create a plan to avoid potential breakdowns in communication and ensure that communication is as clear, effective, and assertive as possible. How may you benefit from adapting your social style in each situation?
• Create an infographic that explains your preferred social style and how this impacts your approach to successful, professional communication with others including those whose preferred social style is different from your own.
  • Save the infographic in whatever image format you like.

Additional Requirements

Your assessment should also meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
• Format and length: Complete and submit both parts of this assessment:
  • 23 double-spaced pages in Microsoft Word. Page count does not include your cover page or reference page.
  • The infographic can be submitted as an image inside of your Word document or as a separate attachment to the assessment.
• APA style and formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards.
  • Use for guidance in citing sources and formatting your paper in proper APA style. See the for more APA resources specific to your degree level.
  • Also refer to the , which provides basic formatting and APA guidelines you should follow to create attractive and usable documents not just within your business program but in the workplace as well.
• Cited resources: Use a minimum of three scholarly sources outside of the course text. All literature cited should be current, with publication dates within the past five years.
• Academic integrity and honesty: You must adhere to academic integrity and honesty policies and incorporate practices that support ethically sound work in your assessments. View .
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point, Arial, 11 point, or Calibri, 11 point.

Before you submit your assessment, carefully read the grading criteria in the Communication Styles Scoring Guide to ensure you understand all of the requirements for success.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze business communication situations.
  • Compare four communication styles.
• Competency 2: Apply fundamental principles of organizational communication.
  • Discuss business scenarios in which each of the social and communication styles would be appropriate to use.
• Competency 3: Analyze the interrelationships of communication within organizational systems.
  • Create an infographic explaining a social style.
• Competency 5: Communicate effectively and professionally.
  • Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references.

  Part B

Write a 34 page analysis of ethical and communication issues surrounding one of the provided whistleblower scenarios and then write a 1-page communication detailing lessons learned from the incident.

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Introduction

You are contemplating going above your management team to bring something that you feel is being overlooked to the attention of those higher up, maybe even the press. The issue matters enough to you, and you feel your management either wont or isnt in a position to do something about it.

Hopefully, in your current work environment, youre in a collaborative enough place that this kind of situation doesnt come up. But its common in many different types of organizations, and it raises all kinds of questions, not just about ethics, but how you go about communicating, too.

Overview

Whistleblowers have been responsible for bringing many illegal or unethical situations to light. There are several modern examples of whistleblowers that we can examine. In this assessment, you are asked to identify the communication strategy used and analyze the ethical and communication issues surrounding one of these scenarios.

1. Erin Brockovich and PG&E – Erin Brockovich became a whistleblower when she spoke out against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) after finding widespread unexplained illness in the town of Hinkley, California while working as a legal assistant. PG&E had contaminated the towns drinking water with toxic chromium 6. She decided to expose the issue by gathering evidence, connecting with affected residents, and advocating for their rights.
2. Enron – The Enron corporation was a company dealing in energy resources based in Houston, Texas. Enrons scandal involved dubious accounting practices, leading to bankruptcy. Executives engaged in fraudulent transactions, hiding losses and inflating profits. These issues were exposed by Sherron Watkins, one of the executives in the company.
3. OceanGate – In June 2023, the OceanGate submersible Titan embarked on a voyage to the wreck of the Titanic with five passengers, including the CEO, on board. The submersible experienced a catastrophic hull failure, resulting in the loss of the vessel and all passengers. David Lochridge, the director of marine operations, expressed concerns about the safety of the ship years prior to the disaster.
4. Boeing – In 2017, The Boeing Company introduced a new generation of its venerable 737aircraft called the 737 Max, featuring design and equipment modifications which changed in-flight characteristics compared to previous 737 aircraft. These changes were not fully communicated to all airline customers in 737 Max training materials, leading to two high-profile fatal airline crashes in 2018 and 2019. These crashes caused significant ripples in the airline industry, and negatively impacted Boeings reputation as an aircraft manufacturer. Boeing had multiple whistleblowers that raised safety and quality concerns. One of these was John Barnett, a quality control manager at Boeing, who reported his findings to management and the FAA.
5. Nike – In 1991, fashion retailer Nike was faced with the fallout of an independent investigative report, by labor activist Jeffrey Ballinger, outlining unethical and unsafe working conditions in its overseas factories. This report caused widespread anti-Nike sentiment globally, and the company reacted by improving its working practices while communicating with the public about the changes.

Planning and Preparation

The time it takes to complete an assessment can vary greatly. But it often takes longer than we think to explore the scope of a task, research it, write a draft, and then come back and revise it. Consider the following as rough guideposts for setting aside the time you need to do your work. You will want to adjust these as you learn more about your own pace and working style.

• Research and reading: 2 hours.
• Revisit Interactive activities: 45 minutes.
  • Communicating Ethical Concerns.
  • .
• Writing: 6 hours.
• Revising: 2 hours.

Select one of the whistleblower scenarios above and in addition to the course resources, use the and Internet to conduct additional research to support your analysis. You must use a minimum of three resources outside of the course resources in this assessment.

In your research, you will find that there is a lot going on in these scenarios. However, it is clear that each of the whistleblowers was facing a difficult ethical situation and tried to find the best way to communicate their concerns. There are many questions that likely come to mind, such as:

• What was the ethical concern addressed by the whistleblower?
• Was the method of communication (channel, recipient, content) appropriate and ethical? Why or why not?
• How did the communication affect the outcome of the situation?
• What, if anything, should have been done differently?
• What lessons can be learned from this situation?

Instructions

Consider the whistleblowers decision to expose the illegal or unethical activity, their motivation, the manner in which they communicated the issues, and the recipients of the communication. Complete both parts of this assessment in a single Word document and be sure to cite all sources using APA reference style.

Part 1: Analyze the Scenario

Using at least two of the provided scenarios:

• Analyze the ethical decision that the whistleblower faced as it relates to how they communicated.
  • Consider the sender, receiver, message, and channel.
• Analyze the outcomes of the communication strategy.
  • Make sure to consider how the communication was distributed, the possible intent, and the content of the communication.
• Describe the effectiveness of the communication in the scenario.
  • Focus on how specific events were influenced by the communication.
  • What were the primary failures and successes?

Part 2: Write a Communication

Imagine that you are working in the same industry as the whistleblower in your chosen scenario and have followed this sequence of events closely. Your research has provided you with a great deal that can be applied to your industry, and you are anxious to share your lessons learned from the situation.

• Write a communication to a colleague that conveys and reinforces the primary lessons learned from the incident.
  • Be sure to focus on the actions of the whistleblower in your communication.
  • The medium is your choice, but it is also very important, so state the medium you have chosen within your message and the reason you feel it is the most appropriate medium to use. Address possible reasons such as confidentiality, tone, and convention.

Additional Requirements

Your assessment should also meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
• Format and length: Complete and submit Parts 1 and 2 of this assessment in a single Word document.
  • Part 1 should be 34 double-spaced pages.
  • Part 2 should be 1 double-spaced page.
    • Page counts do not include your cover page or reference page.
• APA style and formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards.
  • Use for guidance in citing sources and formatting your paper in proper APA style. See the for APA resources specific to your degree level.
  • Also refer to the , which provides basic formatting and APA guidelines you should follow to create attractive and usable documents not just within your business program but in the workplace as well.
• Cited resources: Use a minimum of three sources. All literature cited should be current, with publication dates within the past five years. Do not use any books other than the course text as references. Professional websites, news articles, and journal articles should be used as references.
• Academic integrity and honesty: You must adhere to academic integrity and honesty policies and incorporate practices that support ethically sound work in your assignments. View .
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point, Arial, 11 point, or Calibri, 11 point.

Before you submit your assessment, carefully read the grading criteria in the Communicating an Ethical Dilemma Scoring Guide to ensure you understand all of the requirements for success.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze business communication situations.
  • Describe the effectiveness of communications in the scenario.
• Competency 2: Apply fundamental principles of organizational communication.
  • Write a communication that effectively presents lessons learned.
• Competency 3: Analyze the interrelationships of communication within organizational systems.
  • Analyze the outcomes of a communication strategy.
• Competency 4: Analyze the application of ethical principles in organizational communication.
  • Analyze the ethical decision that the whistleblower faced as it relates to how they communicated.
• Competency 5: Communicate effectively and professionally.
  • Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references.

  Part C

After analyzing the CapraTek: Leading for Change scenario, choose one of the following: record a presentation of your choice (45 minute Kaltura video recording), create a 1012 slide PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes, or create a 1012 slide PowerPoint presentation with narration to effectively address specified goals.

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Introduction

Change is inevitable in every organization. Innovations and evolving market conditions result in changes whether an organization is ready for them or not. Because not everyone sees the importance of a change at the outset, how the change is communicated requires special consideration. This assessment examines communications as they relate to organizational change.

Overview

For this assessment, you will analyze the CapraTek: Leading for Change scenario and create a presentation that effectively addresses specified goals.

Preparation

• If you have not yet done so, view CapraTek: Leading for Change.
• Review the articles on the following reading list about stages of group development and change.
  • reading list.
• Decide what type of presentation you want to create. You have three options: you can record a Kaltura video, create a standard PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes, or record a PowerPoint presentation with your own audio narration.
  • Kaltura is a Capella-supported tool for recording presentations using a webcam and microphone. If you are unfamiliar with Kaltura, learn more in the tutorial.
  • If you want to do a PowerPoint presentation, review for help creating effective PowerPoint presentations.
  • Review media.
  • The PowerPoint presentation can be slides with speaker notes or include audio narration.

Instructions

After analyzing the scenario presented in CapraTek: Leading for Change, create a presentation that briefly introduces items for your team to consider. In the presentation:

• Create an appropriate response to the scenario based on a sound analysis of the situation.
  • Communicate your decision on how you plan to address the team’s communication issues and concerns about leadership changes. (23 slides or 11.5 minutes).
• Explain three critical communication issues and challenges faced by the team, including communication issues to date. (23 slides or 11.5 minutes).
• Describe an action or policy that you will introduce to improve communications and assure people are working with a unified purpose. (23 slides or 11.5 minutes)
  • You may want to consider Tuckman’s model for stages of group development and Kotter’s change model as you plan to improve the team dynamics.
• Define your expectations for ethical discourse in team communications. (23 slides or 11.5 minutes)

Additional Requirements

Be sure your presentation meets the following requirements:

• Communication: Although this is not a performance, you will be judged on the communication skills that you have studied in this course including your consideration of audience and content.
  • Organize content for ideas to flow logically with smooth transitions.
• Format and Length: Content must address all items defined in the scenario and assessment instructions.
  • If you choose to submit a video (Kaltura) or narrated (PowerPoint) presentation, the recorded presentation should be 45 minutes.
  • If you choose to submit a standard PowerPoint presentation, your presentation should consist of 1012 slides, not including the title and references slides.
    • Use the speaker’s notes section within the PowerPoint slides to provide all the information relevant to each slide, which you would otherwise present verbally.
    • Each slide must have no more than 45 bullets and each bullet should summarize your point in approximately 46 words.
    • Use graphics throughout the presentation, but ensure they are appropriate for the content provided and provide value.
• Quality: Audio and visual quality should approximate that of a properly functioning video conference. Review the instructions.
• Visuals (if used): Create visuals that are easily read and interpreted. Use colors, fonts, formatting, and other design principles that make the information clear and generally add to the aesthetic of the presentation.
• APA style and formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards.
  • Use for guidance in citing sources and formatting your paper in proper APA style. See the for more APA resources specific to your degree level.
  • Also refer to the , which provides basic formatting and APA guidelines you should follow to create attractive and usable documents not just within your business program but in the workplace as well.
• Academic Integrity and Honesty: You must adhere to academic integrity and honesty policies and incorporate practices that support ethically sound work in your assessments. View .

Before you submit your assessment, carefully read the grading criteria in the Communicating a Team Vision Scoring Guide to ensure you understand all of the requirements for success.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze business communication situations.
  • Create an appropriate response to the scenario based upon sound analysis.
• Competency 2: Apply fundamental principles of organizational communication.
  • Create a presentation that effectively addresses specified goals.
• Competency 3: Analyze the interrelationships of communication within organizational systems.
  • Explain critical communication issues and challenges faced by the team.
  • Describe an action or policy that would likely improve communications and assure people are working with a unified purpose.
• Competency 4: Analyze the application of ethical principles in organizational communication.
  • Define appropriate expectations for ethical discourse in team communications.
• Competency 5: Communicate effectively and professionally.
  • Organize content for ideas to flow logically with smooth transitions.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references or create a video that effectively addresses specified goals.

  Part D

Choose one of the following: Record a 45-minute video, create a 68 slide PowerPoint presentation with speaker’s notes, or write a 23 paper to establish a team vision.

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Introduction

In your previous communication challenge, you resolved a situation that became negative and was getting in the way of a team functioning.

In this challenge, youve been given a task by your leader, and you need to bring your team along, not only to get past the previous negative communication but to buy into whats needed to move forward.

To do that, you will think about what positive qualities support strong communication and effective teamwork. Youll need to decide what you want to advocate for. And then youll need the communication skills to bring others along on your plan. You will do that via video.

Overview

Innovation and change within organizations often require establishing not only a vision but specific agreements that a team can work within to be successful. You will get practice establishing just such a policy and communicating it to a team in this assessment. You may choose to submit a video, a PowerPoint presentation with speaker’s notes, or a paper as your means of communicating.

Planning and Preparation

Consider the following as rough guideposts for setting aside the time you need to do your work. You will want to adjust these as you learn more about your own pace and working style.

• Research and reading: 4 hours.
• Interactive activities: 30 minutes.
• Drafting script or PowerPoint: 6 hours.
• Revising: 2 hours.
• Practicing with the technology: 1 hour.
• Recording: 5 minutes.

Complete the following:

• Complete the CapraTek: Organizational Communication Policy activity.
• If you choose to record your message, this assessment requires you to use Kaltura, a Capella-supported recording tool. You will also need to have access to a webcam and microphone for recording your video. For more information, see .

Scenario

In the CapraTek: Organizational Communication Policy activity, you observed more difficulties, indicating that the team needs your help overcoming their communication challenges. You have resolved to reset the team members attitudes so that they clearly understand your approach to future communication strategies and feel invested in the vision that you are laying out for them.

Instructions

Remember that a communication policy should be a formal, enforceable document that reinforces ethical behavior and acceptable methods for communication within and about the team. The policy should clearly define all actions and consequences, and you will need to present it in a way that encourages acceptance of the policy by the team. Your goals for this communication include the following:

• Explain the communication issues that have led to the need for a new policy.
• Create a communication policy that you will introduce to improve communications and assure people are working with a unified purpose.
• Define your expectations, or contract, for ethical discourse in team communications.
• Provide a rationale that addresses the importance of defining appropriate communication channels.

Choose one of the following for your communication and be sure to cite all sources using APA reference style.

• Record and submit a 45 minute video message using Kaltura to address each aspect of the scenario.
• Create a presentation of 68 slides with speaker’s notes, not including title page and references.
• Write a 23 page paper.

Presentation Guidelines

Be sure your video meets the following requirements:

• Communication: Although this is not performance art, you will be judged on the communication skills that you have studied in this course including your consideration of audience and content.
  • Organize content for ideas to flow logically with smooth transitions.
• Format and length: Address all items defined in the scenario and instructions. Organize ideas to flow logically and with smooth transitions.
  • If you choose to submit a video (Kaltura) or narrated (PowerPoint) presentation, the recorded presentation should be 45 minutes.
  • If you choose to submit a standard PowerPoint presentation, your presentation should consist of 68 slides, not including the title and references slides.
    • Use the speaker’s notes section within the PowerPoint slides to provide all the information relevant to each slide, which you would otherwise present verbally.
    • Each slide must have no more than 45 bullets and each bullet should summarize your point in 46 words.
    • Use graphics throughout the presentation, but ensure they are appropriate for the content provided and provide value.
  • If you choose to write a paper, it should be 23 pages, not including the title and reference pages.
• Quality: Audio and visual quality should approximate that of a properly functioning video conference.
• Visuals (if used): Create visuals that are easily read and interpreted. Use colors, fonts, formatting, and other design principles that make the information clear and generally add to the aesthetic of the presentation.
• APA style and formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards.
  • Use for guidance in citing sources and formatting your paper in proper APA style. See the for more APA resources specific to your degree level.
  • Also refer to the , which provides basic formatting and APA guidelines you should follow to create attractive and usable documents not just within your business program but in the workplace as well.
• Cited resources: Use a minimum of two scholarly sources. All literature cited should be current, with publication dates within the past five years.
• Academic integrity and honesty: You must adhere to academic integrity and honesty policies and incorporate practices that support ethically sound work in your assessments. View .

Before you submit your assessment, carefully read the grading criteria in the Communicating a Team Policy Scoring Guide to ensure you understand all of the requirements for success.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 3: Analyze the interrelationships of communication within organizational systems.
  • Explain critical communication issues and challenges faced by the team.
  • Create a communication policy that would improve communications and ensure future communications are handled appropriately.
• Competency 4: Analyze the application of ethical principles in organizational communication.
  • Define appropriate expectations for ethical discourse in team communications.
  • Provide a rationale that addresses the importance of defining appropriate communication channels.
• Competency 5: Communicate effectively and professionally.
  • Organize content for ideas to flow logically with smooth transitions.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references.

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