98 Communication Business Case

Discussion: The Ultimate Cost of Poor Communication

Preparation:

Research an example from the news of a situation in which a breakdown of teamwork and/or communication had serious or disastrous consequences. For example, in this article from the Daily Mail a two-year-old boy died from internal bleeding as the direct result of a total breakdown in communication between his physicians: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2286012/Toddler-bleeds-death-complete-failure-communication-doctors.html

General Discussion Instructions:

Write a minimum of one short paragraph and a maximum of two paragraphs. Word totals for this post should be in the 100–200-word range. Whether you agree or disagree, explain why with supporting evidence and concepts from the readings or a related experience. Include a reference, link, or citation when appropriate.

For Discussion:

  1. Provide a brief description of the situation. Include a link to the article or site, as I have above, where we can find and read the details. (In order to insert this link, copy and paste the URL from your browser window into the text box where you are making your post. You do not have to do anything special; it will automatically be converted to a Web link.)
  2. Describe or discuss the result of the breakdown in communication and/or teamwork.
  3. What, if anything, do you believe could have been done to prevent this breakdown?
  4. What can we learn from your example?

Attribution

In addition to the resources listed in the acknowledgements page, the following resource was used in this chapter:

References

Duarte, D. L. & Tennant Snyder, N.  (2006). Mastering virtual teams: Strategies, tools, and techniques that succeed.  Josey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint.

Govindarajan, V. & Gupta, A. K.  (2001) . Building an effective global business team.  MIT Sloan Management Review. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/building-an-effective-global-business-team/.

Lojeski, K. S. & Reilly, R. R. (2008).  Uniting the virtual workforce: Transforming leadership and innovation in the globally integrated enterprise. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Meyer, E.  (2010, August 19). The four keys to success with virtual teams.”  Forbeshttps://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/virtual-teams-meetings-leadership-managing-cooperation.html?sh=532fa6e630cc

Purvanova, R. K. (2014).  Face-to-face versus virtual teams: What have we really learned? The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 17(1), 2-29. http://www.doi.org/10.1037/mgr0000009

Siebdrat, F., Hoegel, M., & Ernst, H. (2009, July 1).  How to manage virtual teams. MIT  Sloan Management Review,  Summer,  63-68. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-manage-virtual-teams/

Thompson, L. [Kellog School of Management]. (2015, July 31). Optimizing virtual teams [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SzWrazgt7Y&feature=youtu.be.

Text Attributions

This chapter is a derivative the following texts:

Essentials of Project Management by Adam Farag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

License

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Communication Business Case Copyright © by Sharon Blanchard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.