1. Is my primary audience external or internal?
My primary audience in this case is Jeff Clarke who is an employee at the hotel. This necessarily makes him an internal audience, as he is part of the organization’s operations (Snell & Bohlander, 2012). In addition, unlike the external audience, the organization has direct control over him.
2. What are some key demographics about my audience, such as age, gender, family situation, etc.?
The most important demographics of my audience can be focused in two categories namely the primary and secondary audience aspects. The demographics of Jeff Clarke include his elderly age and family situation. These are major influences to his behavior at the workplace. On the other hand, my secondary audience has demographics such as cultural diversification (McCain & Cumming, 2003).
3. How much does my audience know about the topic?
I am for the opinion that the audience is well aware of the topic at hand, as there have been plenty of training and development initiatives within the organization addressing the same. In addition, each of them has a copy of the acceptable codes of conduct that guides their behavior at the workplace (Snell & Bohlander, 2012).
4. How much formality does my audience prefer?
While my primary audience will prefer a more informal and casual approach to addressing this topics, the secondary audience (the Human Resource Department) will prefer a profoundly formal form of communication for the purposes of record keeping and future references (Weitzman, Raskin & Society for Human Resource Management (U.S.), 1998).
5. How do I expect my audience to react to this message?
The secondary audience will be by far satisfied that the communication process was done according to the recommendations of the organization while the primary one, Jeff Clarke, will be rather disappointed as a record of the warning will tarnish his performance profile (Secord, 2003).
6. What are my audience’s values in relation to this message? What do they care about most?
While my audience is concerned with timely, accurate and fair judgment of the subjection of treatment to each of them, I will be majorly interested in putting the message across in a more clear and thorough way (McCain & Cumming, 2003).
7. What do I want my audience to think, do, feel, or believe after reading my message?
In my mind, I imagine that my primary will read the message with profound disappointment while the secondary audience will receive the message with much relief, as professionalism is one of key values of the organization (Snell & Bohlander, 2012).
8. Are there any benefits for my audience that is related to this message?
Some of the benefits associated to this message are the clarity and precisely due diligence among the audience in the end. Further, it will be a great relief of the role of Jeff’s colleague this weekend (Secord, 2003).
9. What information do I need to include for the secondary audience?
My secondary source needs to note that the major concerns of the message in this case are issues of equal treatment to all employees, which forms a platform for fairness (McCain & Cumming, 2003).
10. Which medium is most appropriate for this message and this audience? Why?
The most appropriate media for this message is through a memo, which will be sent to Jeff Clarke via email and copied to Human Resources (Snell & Bohlander, 2012).
MEMORANDUM
CC: Human Resources
We regret to bring to your attention that your previous request for an emergency leave of absence this weekend has been denied. After a thorough review of the request, we have established that it will be particularly difficult to accommodate the request especially at this time. Further, at the time your request was place for leave of absence, the hotel will be encountering the highest level of volume across the weekend. It would be impractical for the organization to give up one of its best workers at this time. Previously, we have been encountering difficulties making it through busy days every month, and without you, I do not think we will be in a position of making it through. It is for this reason that I strongly suggest that you resubmit the request quoting a different period (weekend) for our review.
Thank you.
References:
McCain R., Cumming S., (2003) HR How To: Employee Leaves. New York: CCH Incorporated
Secord H., (2003) Implementing Best Practices in Human Resources Management. New York: CCH Canadian Limited
Snell S., Bohlander G., (2012) Managing Human Resources. New York: Cengage Learning
Weitzman A., Raskin X., Society for Human Resource Management (U.S.) (1998) Issues in employee leave. New York: Society for Human Resource Management
