MGT 550 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation of a strategic communication case study.

Effective communication skills are critical to success in almost all managerial positions. Several challenges exist surrounding the creation and implementation of effective communications both internally (inside organizations between individuals and groups) and externally (outside organizations with markets, partners, and other third parties). Technology, change, and the various needs of stakeholders are just a few of the concerns that impact business communications. This course is designed to help you communicate effectively in a variety of business settings with both internal and external stakeholders. Effective communication is a necessary tool for managing people and organizations.

In this project, you will enhance your skills and knowledge of techniques in various communications to lead change, develop and maintain relationships, and address sources of conflict through effective communications tied to organizational goals and core visions. Through the development of a strategic communication case study, you will gain comprehensive, hands-on experience in evaluating and constructing communications that inform, persuade, and influence intended audiences in order to achieve strategic goals. Using the provided case study, you will identify issues that must be addressed from an organizational perspective. Additionally, you will make informed decisions regarding what actions to take, paying particular attention to appropriateness of communications and mediums, as well as evaluating effectiveness. To access the final project case study, “Research in Motion: Sincerely, a RIM Employee (A),” refer to the MGT-550 Textbook/Case Study Bundle mentioned in the syllabus.

The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final product will be submitted in Module Nine.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

Differentiate appropriate communication strategies that address a variety of audiences Generate clear communication materials that promote strategic goals

Develop communications using change management principles for supporting employee development Determine strategies to assess the reception of communication for informing appropriate next steps

Analyze sources of conflict for determining appropriate communication response techniques for internal and external stakeholders

Prompt

Your strategic communication case study should answer the following prompt: What messages should be communicated in response to the presented issue, who are the target audiences of the messages, and how will the messages be delivered? Additionally, how will you evaluate the effectiveness of your communication decisions in order to inform future decision making?

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

9. Introduction

   1. Establish context for your paper by summarizing the important details of the case and outlining the specific problem(s) that you will address.

9. 2. In response to the presented issue, define clear and specific communication goals. Who are your target audiences and what do you want to accomplish with your communication?

35. Internal Communication

    60. 1. Determine the medium(s) that you will use to deliver your message and explain how you made this decision.

35. 60. 2. Define the target audience of your internal communication. Include key factors and any cultural factors about this audience that you considered.

35. 60. 3. Craft the message that you will communicate internally and explain what change management principles you considered when developing this message.

        4. Explain how you considered the personal needs and development of employees when creating messaging.

        5. Explain what considerations are being made in order to offer continuous support to employees through the change process.

35. 60. 6. Identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your internal communication. Consider the message you are communicating as well as the medium(s) used.

35. 60. External Communication

        1. Determine the medium(s) that you will use to deliver your message and explain how you made this decision.

35. 60. 2. Define the target audience of your external communication. Include key factors and any cultural factors about this audience that you considered.

        3. Craft the message that you will communicate externally and defend how the message promotes the organization’s strategic goals.

35. 60. 4. Identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your external communication. Consider the message you are communicating, as well as the medium(s) used.

IV. Follow Up

1. Explain how your message and delivery decisions align with the mission, vision, and goals of the organization.

2. Describe how you will monitor and measure how the information was received and interpreted by your internal audience.

3. Describe how you will monitor and measure how the information was received and interpreted by your external audience.

4. Explain how you will document the lessons learned from your communication plan to inform future decision making. What would you have done differently?

Milestones

Milestone One: Draft of Introduction

In Module Three, you will submit a draft of the introduction to your case study. Define the problem you identified in the case and begin to develop a plan to address the problem using internal and external communications. Furthermore, prioritize the first steps in the process of addressing the problem and set goals for your communication. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Milestone Two: Draft of Internal Communication

In Module Five, you will submit a draft of your internal communication. Craft the internal message that you will use to address the problem you identified in the case study provided. In doing so, you will specify the mediums you will use to deliver the message, explain why these mediums are important, and outline the target audience. Furthermore, you will explain how you factored in the personal needs and development of employees when creating messaging, including the considerations being made to support employees through the change process that will be implemented to address the problem. Finally, identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your external communication. Consider the message you are communicating as well as the medium(s) used. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Draft of External Communication

In Module Seven, you will submit a draft of your external communication. Craft the external message that you will use to address the problem you identified in the case study provided. In doing so, you will specify the mediums you will use to deliver the message, explain why these mediums are important, and outline the target audience. Furthermore, you will explain how the message promotes the organization’s strategic goals. Finally, identify potential sources of conflict that may arise as a result of your external communication. Consider the message you are communicating as well as the medium(s) used. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.

Final Submission: Strategic Communication Case Study

In Module Nine, you will submit your strategic communication case study. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final project. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded using the Final Project Rubric.

Deliverables

Milestone	Deliverable	Module Due	Grading
1	Draft of Introduction	Three	Graded separately; Milestone One Rubric
2	Draft of Internal Communication	Five	Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric
3	Draft of External Communication	Seven	Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric
	Final Submission: Strategic Communication Case Study	Nine	Graded separately; Final Project Rubric

Final Project Rubric

Guidelines for Submission: Your strategic communication case study should be 12 to 15 pages in length, depending on the complexity of the crafted communications and the robustness of the research and analysis. Do not simply copy and paste from previous milestones; edit and revise for cohesiveness, but be sure to keep any supporting evidence by the text or other scholarly sources. Use one-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font. Adhere to the latest edition of APA formatting.

Critical Elements	Exemplary (100%)	Proficient (90%)	Needs Improvement (70%)	Not Evident (0%)	Value
Introduction:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Summarizes the important details	Summarizes the important details	Does not summarize the	6.33
Context	response demonstrates an	of the case and outlines the	of the case and outlines the	important details of the case and
	advanced ability to extract a	specific problem(s) that will be	specific problem(s) that will be	outline the specific problems that
	thorough and accurate case	addressed	addressed but summary is cursory	will be addressed
	summary from a narrative		or missing important details or
			problems outlined are vague or
			illogical
Introduction:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Defines clear and specific	Defines communication goals but	Does not define communication	6.33
Communication	response demonstrates a	communication goals in response	goals are vague or unclear or lack	goals
Goals	complex grasp of how to	to the presented issue	connections to the presented
	effectively communicate to a		issue
	target audience
Internal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Determines the medium(s) that	Determines the medium(s) that	Does not determine the	4.75
Communication:	explanation demonstrates a keen	will be used to deliver message	will be used to deliver message	medium(s) that will be used to
Medium(s)	insight into the use of	and explains how this decision	but does not explain how this	deliver message
	communication mediums for the	was made	decision was made or explanation
	promotion of strategic goals		is cursory or illogical
Internal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Defines the target audience of	Defines the target audience of	Does not define the target	6.33
Communication:	response demonstrates a	internal communication, including	internal communication but	audience of internal
Audience	nuanced understanding of key	key factors and any cultural	definition is vague or key factors	communication
	considerations when defining a	factors that were considered	and cultural factors are missing
	target audience
Internal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Crafts internal message and	Crafts internal message and	Does not craft an internal	6.33
Communication:	explanation demonstrates a	explains change management	explains change management	message and explain change
Message	sophisticated awareness of how	principles that were considered in	principles that were considered in	management principles that were
	use change management	its development	its development but message	considered in its development
	principles to support employees		lacks cogent connections to
			change management principles
Internal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Explains how the personal needs	Explains how the personal needs	Does not explain how the	6.33
Communication:	explanation provides keen insight	and development of employees	and development of employees	personal needs and development
Needs and	into employee needs and	were considered when creating	were considered when creating	of employees were considered
Development	development	messaging	messaging but explanation is	when creating messaging
			illogical or lacks cogent
			connections between the needs
			and development of the
			employees and the messaging

Internal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Explains what considerations are	Explains what considerations are	Does not explain what	6.33
Communication:	explanation demonstrates a	being made to offer continuous	being made to offer continuous	considerations are being made to
Support	nuanced understanding of using	support to employees through	support to employees through	offer continuous support to
	change management principles to	the change process	the change process but	employees through the change
	support employee needs		explanation does not reference	process
			internal communications or
			considerations are illogical
Internal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Identifies potential sources of	Identifies potential sources of	Does not identify potential	6.33
Communication:	response makes cogent	conflict as a result of the	conflict as a result of the	sources of conflict as a result of
Conflict	connections between	communication	communication but response is	the communication
	communication methods and/or		illogical or does not consider the
	messages and potential conflicts		messaging and the mediums used
External	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Determines the medium(s) that	Determines the medium(s) that	Does not determine the	4.75
Communication:	determination demonstrates a	will be used to deliver message	will be used to deliver message	medium(s) that will be used to
Medium(s)	keen insight into the use of	and explains how this decision	but does not explain how this	deliver message
	communication mediums for the	was made	decision was made or explanation
	promotion of strategic goals		is cursory or illogical
External	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Defines the target audience of	Defines the target audience of	Does not define the target	6.33
Communication:	response demonstrates a	external communication,	external communication but	audience of external
Audience	nuanced understanding of key	including key factors and any	definition is vague or key factors	communication
	considerations when defining a	cultural factors that were	and cultural factors are missing
	target audience	considered
External	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Crafts external communication	Crafts external communication	Does not craft external	4.75
Communication:	defense demonstrates a	message and defends how	message and defends how	communication message
Message	sophisticated awareness of how	message promotes organization’s	message promotes organization’s
	external communications can be	strategic goals	strategic goals but defense lacks
	used to promote strategic goals		cogent connections to the
			message or strategic goal
			promotion is illogical
External	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Identifies potential sources of	Identifies potential sources of	Does not identify potential	6.33
Communication:	response makes cogent	conflict as a result of the	conflict as a result of the	sources of conflict as a result of
Conflict	connections between	communication	communication but response is	the communication
	communication methods and/or		illogical or does not consider the
	messages and potential conflicts		messaging and the mediums used
Follow Up:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Explains how message and	Explains how message and	Does not explain how the	4.75
Mission, Vision,	explanation makes cogent	delivery decisions align with the	delivery decisions align with the	message and delivery decisions
and Goals	connections between delivery	mission, vision, and goals of the	mission, vision, and goals of the	align with the mission, vision, and
	decisions and the promotion of	organization	organization but explanation is	goals of the organization
	strategic goals		cursory or illogical or lacks cogent
			connections between the
			message and the mission, vision,
			and goals of the organization

Follow Up:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes how to monitor and	Describes how to monitor and	Does not describe how to monitor	6.33
Monitor and	description demonstrates a	measure how the information	measure how the information	and measure how the information
Measure	sophisticated awareness of the	was received and interpreted by	was received and interpreted by	was received and interpreted by
Internal	nuances of message receptions	the internal audience	the internal audience but	the internal audience
	and interpretation		description is cursory or methods
			are illogical
Follow Up:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes how to monitor and	Describes how to monitor and	Does not describe how to monitor	6.33
Monitor and	description demonstrates keen	measure how the information	measure how the information	and measure how the information
Measure	insight into the reception of	was received and interpreted by	was received and interpreted by	was received and interpreted by
External	communication strategies	the external audience	the external audience but	the external audience
			description is cursory or methods
			are illogical
Follow Up:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Explains how to document the	Explains how to document the	Does not explain how to	6.33
Lessons Learned	description demonstrates keen	lessons learned to inform future	lessons learned to inform future	document the lessons learned
	insight into the reception of	decision making, including what	decision making but
	communication strategies	to do differently	documentation strategies are
			cursory or illogical, or does not
			include to do differently
Articulation of	Submission is free of errors	Submission has no major errors	Submission has major errors	Submission has critical errors	5.04
Response	related to citations, grammar,	related to citations, grammar,	related to citations, grammar,	related to citations, grammar,
	spelling, syntax, and organization	spelling, syntax, or organization	spelling, syntax, or organization	spelling, syntax, or organization
	and is presented in a professional		that negatively impact readability	that prevent understanding of
	and easy-to-read format		and articulation of main ideas	ideas
				Total	100%