RadioShack: You've Got Mail
RadioShack Corporation's reputation suffered in the past due to an ill-managed company-wide layoff that utilized e-mail to notify employees of their termination. The poor communication choices used while handling the mass layoffs brought national attention to RadioShack. Many people found e-mail a dehumanizing method to inform the employees that they were being terminated (RadioShack, 2006). The current share price of $13.21 for RadioShack indicates that the corporate turnaround implemented by the CEO at the time of the layoffs, Julian Day, was not successful (RSH, 2011). Due to the changes in economy and corporate strategy it is impossible to assign total blame to the e-mail layoffs as the culprit in the waning success of RadioShack. Yet the national coverage of this event and the surprised response it elicited from management specialists indicate that this was not a popular decision (RadioShack, 2006). To regain a favorable public opinion RadioShack needs to mitigate the damage that has already occurred from this decision and integrate policies and procedures that prevent situations such as these from occurring again.
Clean Up the Past
RadioShack needs to reassure the public that future important transactions regarding the well-being of their employees will be done in a tactful, thoughtful manner. In a poll conducted by Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame in 2008 only 6% of Americans found resigning from a job via e-mail to be appropriate behavior (O'Rourke, 2011). If a representative group of Americans do not think it is appropriate to resign from a job by using e-mail they undoubtedly would not think an organization should layoff an individual via e-mail. The ...
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...e press release should also include the ethical statement that is integrated into the guiding principles and the procedure regarding termination; this will reflect RadioShack's sincere desire to regain public favor. These documents will also ensure that future communications with employees are tactful and defined.
Works Cited
Code of Ethics. (2007). Corporate governance: Code of ethics. Retrieved from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/preview/phoenix.zhtml?c=84525&p=irol-govconduct
O'Rourke, J. S. (2011). Management communication: A case-analysis approach. India: Dorling Kindersley.
RadioShack. (2006). RadioShack lays off employees via e-mail. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-08-30-radioshack-email-layoffs_x.htm
RSH. (2011). RadioShack Stock Quote. Retrieved from http://www.dailyfinance.com/quotes/radioshack-corporation/rsh/nys
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Baird, J. E., & Bradley, P. H. (1978). Communication Correlates of employee Morale. Journal Of Business Communication, 15(3), 47-56.
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Sears has seen many different changes in business and has had to adjust to t...
...ced in sales and therefore continued to earn rewards while those who did poorly were reprimanded and punished with further shortened schedules. The low morale reflected upon customers as they were angry with being forced to purchase worthless items and saw some of their favorite employees being maltreated and even fired. The greed of this company ran deep and its downward spiral is only just beginning to stop with the transition of ownership.