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Read the case about Coronado Company on pages 27 and 28. Think about the role of communication in the problems Bill is facing. If you were to look at his situation through the functional lens, what would be emphasized? What does a meaning-centered lens help you see about the case? How might you connect an emerging perspective on organizational communication with the case?
Required Postings. In this discussion board, your task is to reflect on the case and post your thoughts. Here are some questions to begin your thinking about the case. Feel free to comment about other aspects of organizational communication and how the material we’re studying illuminates what happens in the case. You may draw on your own experience to contribute to this discussion.
* What communication behaviors does the functional lens described in Chapter 2 emphasize?
* What evidence in the case can we use to see the case through a functional lens?
* What does a meaning-centered lens help you see about the case? Identify evidence that highlights how focusing on meaning making is useful in understanding the case.
THE CORONADO COMPANY’S QUALITY DEFECTS CASE
Coronado Manufacturing Company, located in Trenton, New Jersey, is a
small-appliancemanufacturer providing house brand products to a series of major chain stores. Thesituation you are about to examine was once a major issue for Coronado, threatening their long-term survival. We use their quality defects problem to assist in understanding major theoretical perspectives for organizational communication.
Bill Drake, president of Coronado Manufacturing Company, could hardly believe theconclusions in the consultant’s report. Product quality had always been strength ofCoronado Manufacturing, and now defective products were being blamed for declining sales in the company’s small-appliance line. The report went on to say that the salesdepartment for Coronado was not passing along customer complaints to anyone in
manufacturing. Furthermore, Drake was confused by his own lack of personal knowledge about customer dissatisfaction and about problems in manufacturing. After all,he met weekly with the management team responsible for spotting these problems,and they all knew that he felt that the customer was number one.
Drake thought about the history of Coronado Manufacturing. Coronado hadbeen founded some fifty years ago by Drake’s father and uncle. Both men had workedmost of their lives for a major manufacturer of small appliances well known for itsquality products and customer concern. In founding Coronado, both men had hiredpeople who cared about quality and understood customers. In fact, stories were toldabout the founders personally emphasizing quality to newcomers on the manufacturing line and making “surprise” visits to customers to check on how “their” products
were working. When Bill Drake’s father retired, he had admonished Bill not to forgetthe basics that had made the business successful.
Bill Drake had assumed he was successfully carrying on Coronado’s quality andcustomer traditions. Was the report accurate? Was his management team withholdinginformation? How could he determine what to do?
Bill Drake is confronted with a management problem requiring immediate action. The decisions he makes, the action he takes, and what ultimately happens toCoronado Manufacturing provide examples of how organizational communicationcreates and shapes events.
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