ENGL210F Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Stephen Elop, Hafsa Bint Umar, Disintermediation
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Contributors: jasmine lazarus, hafsah memon, kajal patel, & ldya tekle. Taking into account this week"s assigned reading, an indirect approach should be used when delivering bad news to an audience with emotional investments and when the audience could be displeased. In this sample communication, the primary audience is the group of microsoft employees being laid off. As these employees will likely be emotionally affected by the outcome of the news, the choice to deliver the bad news at the end is appropriate. However, the email by stephen elop was an ineffective message to his employees. The clarity in elop"s message was severely lacking. The structure and content of both his buffer and reasoning were poorly planned and will likely result in aggravating his audience. The indirect approach when writing a bad news message should use the following as a guideline: construct a buffer, providing reasoning, deliver the bad news, end off on a positive note.