Question

NEGATIVE NEWS MESSAGE CASE

You’re the Accounting Department manager of a successful and growing organic food delivery company: Home Organics. The owner (you can make up a name) recently put you in charge of deciding on a corporate giving program (the company decided to give $5000 to a non-profit organization). Your job was to decide which organization. You had the idea of asking the other managers for input and inviting them each (if they wanted) to give a presentation on a non-profit organization to support. The owner, you, and the managers watched all the presentations, and everyone was invited to email you feedback after.

You’ve made your decision—one non-profit organization in particular met all your criteria perfectly. However, it was a much tougher task than you’d thought—choosing one organization out of a bunch of really great causes. Unfortunately, saying yes to one means you have to say no to all the others. You took the job of choosing the organization very seriously—$5000 is a lot of money for your company. You made sure to really compare each organization to your criteria. You read all the feedback from the presentations carefully. You consulted the owner. You’re very confident that the process of choosing the organization was good and totally fair.

Now, you have to tell some of the managers that their non-profit organizations weren’t chosen. Initially, you’d thought that a simple email announcing the chosen organization would be fine, and it would still work fine for many of the managers. However, you realized from the presentations that one of the managers in particular (Rupert Hennessey) felt very passionate about his organization (the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society), and he clearly had put a lot of work into his presentation. You know Rupert lives in an area of Vancouver with many poor people and that he’s a strong anti-poverty advocate in his neighbourhood. Thus, you’re afraid he’ll feel hurt and rejected that his organization wasn’t chosen and will resist the decision. You decide you’d better write him a personal email to explain the reasons and give him the bad news gently, before you make the general announcement. Because of his potential emotional/resistant reaction, you’ll use the indirect approach.

The trouble was that Rupert’s organization doesn’t meet the criteria you’d set up for the non-profit organization. Months ago, you and the owner had talked about what type of non-profit organization to choose for the $5000, and you’d agreed you wanted an organization that was as good a match or fit as possible with the Home Organics goals and values. In other words, you wanted a non-profit organization related to issues like environmental sustainability and of course organic farming and also fair trade. Thus, when you emailed everyone to invite them to give presentations on a non-profit organization, you’d mentioned in the email that the company wanted an organization that focused on these issues. You’d mentioned that ideally the organization would be one that would provide some education for people on these issues, and one that worked not just with farmers but also with stores. What’s more, you wanted the organization to be for all of BC, rather than just the Vancouver area. You work with lots of farmers in all parts of the province, so you want to support an organization that also does work around the province. You’d wanted the managers to know that you’d set up specific criteria and a fair process for choosing the non-profit organization—that’s why you gave them all this info in your email.

Rupert had simply either not noticed these criteria or ignored them. However, you want to make sure he knows that you absolutely think the food bank is extremely important and should be supported; there may be other ways you can all still do to help the food bank. For example, perhaps Home Organics could set up some kind of ongoing donation of some food? (Note: this is a weak example – think of something creative to suggest to Rupert) And Rupert could organize something like a food bank collection at the office—inviting the other staff to donate food or money.

The organization you and the owner chose after the presentations is Simple and Sustainable (SAS), a local organization. SAS does fantastic work educating people. It tells both businesses and communities about all the incredible benefits of sustainable organic farming and fair trade. It even helps local businesses find fair trade producers around the world. It’s a perfect match for Home Organics’ goals and values. (You can tell Rupert you chose S & S and explain the reasons why.)

Write the email to Rupert (you can make up his email address; remember that Ruper WORKS FOR YOU, FOR HOME ORGANICS) that will achieve the negative-news goals of clarity, acceptance, and positive image.

Remember that this case deliberately contains content and wording that may not be appropriate for your message, and the content will need reorganization to fit the 4-part indirect negative news pattern. Avoid copying long phrases/sentences from the case, and be especially careful with tone. Remember this message isn’t only about explaining why you didn’t choose the Food Bank—it’s also about making Rupert feel valued/respected and showing that the process was fair.

Answer 1

To: [email protected]

Sub: Regarding the organisation for corporate giving program.

Dear Rupert,

I am writing this mail to you to tell you that the organization you gave presentation for, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society has failed to meet the criteria for the selection of the organisation which we will be supporting. However, the team and I noticed that you were really passionate about the organization and have put a lot of effort in presenting it, so, we thought it would be inappropriate to announce the organization selected in the company. We understand that the food bank is really important and should be supported and I know that you are a strong anti poverty advocate but however due to the criteria already been set it cannot be selected. We do not want you to feel rejected or disheartened and we do not want our employees to feel neglected and disrespected. We hope you understand it.

The organisation chosen for the program is Simple and Sustainable (SAS), it is a local organization and does great work in educating people. It focuses the businesses and communities both about the benefits of sustainable organic farming and fair trade. It also helps local businesses find fair trade around the world. It matches our company (Home Organic's) goals and value.

We would also like to tell you that however we cannot support The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society, we will be setting up donation drives for them on our website. We will also set up one in our office.

Best Wishes.

Your sincerely

xyz

(Account Department Manager)