An important part of any change project is how the change is communicated to the organization, to the change agents, to the line workers, to the customers, and to the public. Along with media relations issues, communicating change (especially in a publicly traded company) can involve multiple legal and regulatory aspects as well as personnel and management concerns. Perhaps the single most difficult piece of handling Kotter’s “establish a sense of urgency” is that too many inexperienced or immature change agents read this to mean “panic the troops.” Never do this.

This project piece will have three parts.

PART 1: (GRID) The main part of this project component will ask you to pick one of the company’s change plans and develop a communication plan for the company. This plan should be submitted by using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and setting out the stakeholders, the timeline of the communication plan, the method/form of communication, the rationale for why you chose this method of communication, the purpose of the communication, and identifying who will do the communicating. HRM587CommPlanGridforWeek7.xlsx Download HRM587CommPlanGridforWeek7.xlsx

PART 2: (HYPOTHETICAL) As the Change Manager, select one of the communication pieces (text or oral) that you would have used that is listed in your communication plan, and write the communication in a Microsoft Word document. Be sure to review the chapter 7 information and the examples of communication plans and types for more assistance on this section of the project. If you use any form of communication from templates you find online or in a textbook, be sure to cite your source.

PART 3: (FACT) Locate and attach the ORIGINAL press/media release of the crisis/event/situation/problem/issue of your course project company. (OPINION-BASED) Write a 1-2 page paper analyzing any media, news, or other communications that explained the change going on in the organization. Explain in your paper how the company handled communicating the change to its stakeholders.