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CHAPTER THREE: AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
The learning goal of this chapter: understanding your audience is critical.
Teaching WEYMOUTH STEEL
Weymouth Steel Corporation offers students an opportunity to face the full range of issues
covered in the previous chapters. Like many business communications, it requires managers to
send good news and bad news at the same time. This offers instructors the opportunity to
emphasize that in any significant corporate communication situation, some constituencies will be
pleased by a policy decision, while others will feel disenfranchised, or even deeply injured. In
the case of Weymouth, some of the audience will receive improved benefits while others lose
their jobs. The case makes an excellent first case teaching opportunity and can serve as well as
the basis for an initial paper.
Weymouth drives home the importance of careful audience analysis. The communicators
include the top officials of the corporation. Unlike many similar situations, the communication
considerations have been factored in from the start. This point is worth making during the
discussion, since many organizations — to their detriment — regard communication as a Band-
Aid to be taped on at the end, after other considerations have driven policy decisions.
Some students will argue that communication factors haven’t been factored in enough — that
Weymouth should be willing to modify its layoff policy in order to maintain more trusting
relations with its work force. Up to a point, this argument should be encouraged — especially
Weymouth is often treated as a classic case of the situation where managers have to send good
news and bad news in the same message. Instructors can drive this point home early in the
discussion by asking students to describe the good news and the bad news, listing these on the
board. The truth is, however, that those who receive the good news are affected marginally; those
Weymouth also invites students to face their misconceptions about timing. Many will argue that
Discussion Questions:
(Note: These can serve as a model for boardwork.)
l. What’s the context?
+ 25% fall-off in sales
2. What steps has management taken to meet the crisis?
+ Shut down smaller plants
3. This hasn’t been enough. How have they decided to achieve further work force reductions?
+ Canceled recruiting
+ Early retirement easier
4. What’s the news for those to be retired or laid off?
+ Layoffs across-the-board
+ Termination payment
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5. What’s the good news for those who stay?
+ Salary increases
These points should clarify the fact that Weymouth has considered the need to retain the loyalty
of the employees who will stay. Certain questions will help point the discussion towards the
communication action plan:
6. Should the good news and bad news be sent in the same message?
7. Should the good news and bad news be sent at the same time?
8. Who should be the source of this news?
9. Why is Weymouth communicating this differently than it has in the past?
Generally, students will agree that the best way to get this news out fast is in one or two letters.
Some will argue for meetings or videotaped workfloor sessions. The case offers an opportunity
to emphasize the communication grid — Context, Audience, Goal, Message, Media, Feedback —
by listing these categories on the board, and filling them in during the discussion.
During this period, students’ communication considerations should constantly be tested against
business realities the company faces. Weymouth Steel needs to raise $2 billion a year for five
Weymouth (B) (attached), the letter Harrison actually sent, allows the instructor to initiate
student discussion about effective corporate writing. It works very well to hand out this letter
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Suggested Assignments. This class offers an excellent opportunity for a writing assignment.
Students can be asked to analyze the situation, or to write the letter Harrison should send (see a
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President
October 20, 1990
TO: Weymouth Steel Corporation Salaried Employees
I am writing to tell you about two important matters. One is extensive improvements in your
compensation and benefit programs. The other concerns the need for the company to make
sizeable reductions in its overall operating costs in the U.S.
The compensation and benefit improvements include substantial base salary increases for
eligible General Salary Role employees; more liberal adjustments in the cost-of-living allowance
On the company’s part, these improvements in compensation and benefits reflect optimism
about the future of the steel business and Weymouth’s place in it. They are also indicative of
Weymouth’s commitment to provide each of you with fair and competitive compensation for the
work you do. On your part, we hope that this expression of confidence will be reflected in your
positive response to the challenges facing us.
One of these challenges is the present downturn in the national economy. The steel industry
This economic downturn comes at a time when we are faced with increasing costs and the
need for billions of dollars in investment to meet government regulations and to maintain a
strong competitive position in the marketplace. Therefore, at the time we are announcing
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Our cost reduction program also must include a reduction in our salaried work force. While
we are taking many other actions to lower costs, it is impossible to avoid eliminating some jobs
and some personnel. To minimize the impact on our salaried workforce, open positions that have
not been filled may be eliminated; some employees will be offered transfers to other components
in the company where there are open positions, and some employees will retire early. For those
employees who are laid off, efforts will be made to provide assistance in their job search.
Reductions in personnel are very difficult decisions to make because of their effect on
individuals. Management’s responsibility, however, is to maintain a healthy business, and
Carl Weymouth
Possible Assignment:
Memo: Weymouth Steel
Assumptions: It is mid-September. The Weymouth managers have agreed that some “special
communication” should be sent to salaried employees explaining the need for salaried layoffs
and discussing the company’s future. They have not agreed on how and when the document
You are a member of Harrison’s staff who has been involved in the discussions to date. Harrison
asks you to draft the special communication you think should be sent and to describe and justify
your entire plan for communicating with the employees about these issues in a cover memo.
State and defend your decisions concerning the following (not necessarily in this
order):
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Content: layoffs only, or both layoffs and improved benefits? Level of detail re: general
economic conditions, other cost-cutting measures.
Audience: all salaried staff? Some segment of that audience? How and when should hourly
employees be informed of the salaried layoff?
Source: whose signature?
Channel and timing: how and when should employees receive it relative to effective date of
actual layoffs? How can “voluntary layoffs” (early retirement, etc.) be provided for? How
should the special communication be coordinated with routine channels and
communications? Other communications needed?
Purpose: the goals or values underlying your approach.
Assignment and due dates:
Craft the memo to the salaried employees and the cover memo to Harrison. Structure your cover
memo so that both your overriding concerns and your specific recommendations for action stand
Author:_________________________
Editor:___________________________
Peer Editing Sheet: Weymouth Steel
Editor: Read your partner’s memo with the following questions in mind. Use this sheet for notes,
being as specific as you can in the time allowed. Discuss your reactions with your partner,
exchanging sheets at the end of your discussion. (Author: Please attach this sheet to your
assignment when you turn in your revision next week.)
1. In the cover memo, does the author provide a clear point of view on the situation? If so,
what is it? What theme or overriding concern lends unity and coherence to the approach
taken? If it is explicit quote the relevant phrase(s); if implicit, sum it up in your own words.
2. Are the specific decisions in the cover memo clearly presented and explained? Are they
consistent with the overall point of view? Comment if necessary.
3. How do you think Harrison would have reacted to this approach? Are his views and
concerns taken into account?
4. If you were one of the salaried employees to whom the “special communication” was
addressed, would it have achieved the author’s stated aims? Why or why not?
5. In your view, what are the strengths of the approach taken here (both strategy and
execution)? What risks does it take?