Academic Works
A collection of academic works focused on strategic and organizational
communications, including papers, training, & media kits.
Understanding Cultural Difference
A training presentation for educators
Understanding Cultural Differences is the first module of a training course designed for educators. The course introduces the concept of relational empathy (RE) and provides the tools necessary to begin building RE. The first session was concept heavy and needed to included appropriate graphics and images to reinforce new concepts that were introduced. Microsoft PowerPoint was the software used to create the presentation.
The presentation needed to be clean and easy to read without the receiver getting bogged down and lost in text and concepts. The resulting
PowerPoint presentation shows the power of combining text, graphics, and animations in presentations.
Session #1 Slides
Disciplinary Grounding for Relational Empathy
The importance of parental participation in student success is no longer the subject of much debate. Parental involvement is almost universally accepted as an important factor in student success; this includes English Language Learner’s (ELL) parental involvement. There are, however, existing barriers to ELL parental participation in schools, including language and cultural differences. Shim (2013) suggested that parental involvement alone is insufficient for increasing student success, rather the more salient issue is the quality of interactions and communication between teachers and parents that can have the biggest impact on student achievement and parent satisfaction. This paper is the academic groundwork for the Relational Empathy Training Program.
Academic Papers & Projects
My Personal Communication Philosophy
At the end of my Master's Program, we were required to submit an updated version of our personal communication philosophy. This was updated from the one we submitted in our first class when we were just getting started.
Susan G. Komen vs Planned Parenthood
On January 31, 2012, two iconic organizations, focusing on women’s health Susan G.Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood became embroiled in a heated public relations controversy when Susan G. Komen (SGK) decided to defund Planned Parenthood (PP). The following paper is a study in the two different approaches taken by each organization.
Ethical Dilemma and Critical Analysis for Organizational Communications
Making ethical decisions in our postmodern, multicultural, global village can be a tricky proposition. How can we possibly make ethical decisions when faced with moral subjectivism that says everyone is free to decide right and wrong, good and evil for themselves, while not
having the ability to speak to anyone else's decisions? Is there a way forward for us as a society to make ethical choices that take into count other belief systems and cultures? This paper explores a specific moral dilemma and use two frameworks to help guide ethical decisions. This
paper also seeks to understand ethical pluralism as a middle ground and way forward for making ethical decisions in the face of relativism and absolutism.
Critical Analysis Essay on Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management
It is no longer a rarity for organizations to utilize and participate in various forms of social media to communicate with customers, stakeholders, and employees. For many people, business, and organizations, social media have become embedded into the fabric of our daily lives whose use is expected. Ubiquitous social media usage was not always the case, and in the earlier days of social media, its usage brought to light new challenges for organizations venturing Into the world of social media. Much of the foundational principles that organizations learned early in their social media usage are still applicable today.
Communication Practices for Social Change
Social change is complicated and involves more than a few variables for success. This paper will explores Connie Rice's use of three communication practices, the ethical dimensions of those practices, and the social situations those practices created in producing an environment where social change had a chance to incubate.
Dialogic ethics and the revitalization of Seattle’s Central District
We live in a time where multiple ethics compete in trying to establish what is the “good” and for whom. These competing ethics raises the necessity for a dialogic ethics as a pragmatic necessity for this moment. In a time when there is no unified ethics theory from which to make
decisions and offer guidance, a dialogic ethic offers a response to contrary and contrasting senses of the “good” (Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2008).
Framing the Strategy-Media Kit
This is a project for the Highline School District after receiving a backlash of negative press and comments. The goal was to create a media kit and plan to help change the negative perception of Highline Public schools stemming from failed bond measures to boundary changes caused by not being able to build enough schools and 6th grade students being transitioned to middle school.
The Ethical Decoupling of Mars Hill Church
People might assume that because churches are engaged in what they believe to be God’s work, that power struggles, bullying, cover-ups,
misappropriation of funds, and looking out for self-interests wouldn’t exist within church organizations. We can say that these behaviors should not exist in organizations anywhere, and most certainly not in a Christian church; however, churches are not immune to ethical decoupling. Sometimes churches make decisions which are antithetical to their core values and morals (Johnson, 2016). This paper explores one such decoupling.