essay on a scenario for workplace communication course

Spring -Summer 2023 Cape Breton University

Final Paper Assignment - Scenarios (Please choose ONE of the four scenarios presented)

Directions: The final paper will be a 1250 -1750 word double -spaced, essay -style assignment.

Students will be expected to incorporate materials from the textbook or PPT slides and a

minimum of 3 -5 academic sources using APA Formatting 7 th Edition.

YOUR TASK – Based on what you have learned in this course, yo u will critically analyze one of

these hypothetical scenarios examining the ethical, cultural, and technical issues presented.

Explore the communicative strategies that could be used to manage the situation. ( For example:

How could you help the individuals involved understand what went wrong in the event?) Also

explore the possible alternatives to remedy the situation based on your knowledge of effective

business communication. What styles of communication and technical wri ting could be used in

this process?

1) A First Nation elder was spending their last days in the hospital, and they had many of their

family members come to be around them. This family was a traditional First Nation family which

meant they practiced First Nation spiritual traditions such as as smudging and pipe ceremonies.

The family requested for their family member to be in a private room for privacy and to have

ceremonies if they wanted to . One evening the family brought in 3 elders in the community to

do a pipe ceremony. There was one hosp ital in that city that had a few rooms designate d for

First Nation families to do smudging ceremonies and pipe ceremonies during their last days. This

particular hospital was not that hospital . The head nurse on duty that evening could smell the

smoke from the room and asked to speak to a family member. The nurse told the family

member that it was against policy to smoke in the hospital and that they would have to put the

pipe out. She said that they could all stay in the room as long a s they needed. One of the family

members left the hospital in tears because they felt they were not treated fairly.

2) A young female football/soccer player moved to Canada from Brazil to play in the Premier

League in Canada. Her first language is Spanish, and she was still lea rning the English language

when she arrived in Canada. During her first game, she had a serious accident where she had

torn ligaments in her right leg. The accident was so severe that she was told that she may not be

able to play soccer again. Immediately after the accident, she was quickly referred to a specialist

and then to a Physiotherapy Clinic in the area that treated many of the soccer players from this

particular team. In this case, the Physiotherapist who was assigned to the soccer player was a

rec ent graduate who hadn’t completed an internship with the clinic but was hired because of

her high University grade average. This new Physiotherapist took their job very seriously but did

not give the time needed to develop a rapport with the athlete. After 3 sessions with the

Physiotherapist, the athlete felt as though she didn’t understand what the physiotherapist was

saying during her appointments and left very upset. Feeling very frustrated and alone she went

to her coach who supported her by writing a l etter to the manager of the Clinic. This resulted in

the newly trained Physiotherapist being fired for not being culturally sensitive and empathetic.

Please keep in mind that the soccer player was from a High Context country, Brazil, and the new

Physiother apist came from a Low Context country, Canada.

3) 4 teenagers arrived in the Emergency Room at a local hospital after being in a car accident. They

were triaged and then asked to wait in the waiting room. One of them was having difficulty

walking so they were given a wheelchair and another one thought she may have a concussion

because she had one before and she was having difficulty focusing her eyes. The other 2 teens

had cuts and bruises, but still needed to be checked for any other injuries. These teenagers were

in the waiting room for 12 hours. Three of their parents arrived immediately and the other one

was on their way. By the time they saw a doctor, he was really surprised that the doctors that

had been on shift before him didn’t see these young people earlier. O ne of them had a major

concussion and the other teen had a broken leg in two places. The 4 th parent only arrived just

before the doctor saw the teens. It was their son who was sitting in a wheelchair all night with a

broken leg. The doctor realized that he knew the 4 th parent because they had grown up in the

same community. Once this doctor treated the teens he spoke to the nurses on duty in a very

aggressive tone and asked why they weren’t admitted earlier . He told the 4 th parent to write a

letter because he felt the teens weren’t admitted earlier because their families were from BIPOC

communities .

4) A retail employee was finishing his shift at a department store. At the end of the day, he is

required to send a spreadsheet of his activities to his manager as part of their performance

appraisal. He had fifteen minutes left to his shift, so he decided to fill out the form for the

remainder of the day and close early. Just as he was about to send the email, a customer

entered the store looking for a specific item. The employee went to as sist the customer quickly

closing out of their spreadsheet. Once the customer was served it was now after hours, the

employee rushed to send his spreadsheet to his manager. He did not realize he had sent the

wrong spreadsheet to the wrong recipient. The sp readsheet he sent contained information from

customers who had signed up for their customer loyalty program that day, which includes their

addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, clothing sizes, employment, and dates of birth.

Instead of sending this in formation to their manager, he sent it to the entire customer mailing

list. Later that night, when he went home, he received a call from his manager explaining that

the company’s social media and customer support was being bombarded with complaints.