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Subject: OT: Current Scandals/ Crises in Corporate World Posted by: C1-NRB - [17348117] Sat, Nov 03, 2007, 19:56 I'm making a call to the Gurupies for help with an assignment for a class I'm taking. The class is about organizational communication. The assignment is to evaluate current (within the last 12 months, so no Enron, TYCO, Martha Stewart) business crises and/ or scandals from an communication viewpoint. My problem is my industry isn't business- it's education, so I can't use examples that I am most familiar with, i.e. presidential votes of "no confidence" by faculty senates, unethical dealings in financial aid, etc. I've come up with this year's toy recalls- Thomas the Tank Engine's lead paint, Hasbro's EasyBake ovens, Graco's infant blocks. Anyone know of anything else? I'm just looking for a point in the right direction- any tips will be appreciated. | |||||||
| 1 | Perm Dude ID: 51101737 Sat, Nov 03, 2007, 20:05 | I don't suppose Blackwater might qualify? | ||||||
| 2 | C1-NRB ID: 17348117 Sat, Nov 03, 2007, 21:50 |
Thanks, PD. Blackwater walks a fine line because it's a private contractor operating on behalf of the government. I'll ask which side of the line it would fall on- government or business. | ||||||
| 3 | Boxman ID: 571114225 Sat, Nov 03, 2007, 22:19 | I would look up Dell and their accounting irregularities. | ||||||
| 4 | Jag ID: 14828255 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 04:09 | Ford company almost going under due to oppressive unions and little forsight. | ||||||
| 5 | C1-NRB ID: 17348117 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 09:39 |
Those are good ones, Boxman and Jag. Keep 'em coming, guys! | ||||||
| 6 | Pancho Villa ID: 495272016 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 09:53 |
Here's one you can probably use. Chiquita admits to using terrorist security resulting in big cuts in management. | ||||||
| 7 | Challenger Sustainer ID: 481126818 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 10:09 | Seagate to repay customers over inaccurate gigabyte definition | ||||||
| 8 | biliruben ID: 4911361723 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 12:11 |
Countrywide Financial. WAMU. The mortgage crisis is huge right now, and it's all about (mis)communication for fun and profit. WAMU is being investigated by Spitzer. Countrywide's Mozillo has been pumping his stock and selling hundreds of millions that he owns. | ||||||
| 9 | C1-NRB ID: 17348117 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 17:46 |
The Chiquita story looks like a prime example. I can probably work with Seagate, too. I had considered the housing bust/ lending market finaggling on a "global" scale but hadn't put my finger on any one company in particular. I like to think I am farily well-informed but I guess I'm not. You guys are great. Thanks for all the help. | ||||||
| 10 | biliruben ID: 4911361723 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 19:31 |
If you want to add some color, Here's some local color. Merit Financial was selling subprime using jocks fresh out of college and Hooter's girls who'd been waiting tables the week before. And making outrageous cash. And throwing keggers.  Until the party ended. The filed for Bankruptcy last year. | ||||||
| 11 | Jag ID: 14828255 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 20:29 | C1, you need to find out if your teacher leans right or is a pinko socialist liberal. If he leans to the right, there are probably 1000 stories about how unions and government interference has ruined companies, if he is pot smoking hippy type from the 60s, I am sure he is looking for the 5 or 6 stories about scandals. | ||||||
| 12 | Boxman ID: 571114225 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 20:57 |
C1 I would tell your teacher about the crises that unions in this country have caused. Start with teachers unions. Ask him why it's so hard to get a teacher fired once they obtain tenure. Ask him if the regular guys at real jobs have such job protection like tenure. Ask him flat out if he believes teacher performance would improve if they could be fired at a moments notice like the rest of us. Ask him all about why schools in this country suck relative to our foreign counterparts. Why is it that billions spent on education in this country don't amount to a hill of beans for our youth. Find out why every teacher movie is seemingly about the Jamie Escalentes (the latino guy who taught algebra in California) but every movie about corporate America is evil. Why does Hollywood believe all teachers are great and companies are evil? But then teachers allegedly prepare you to get a job (ha ha ha) which then exposes you to the evil corporate America that Hollywood promotes. See the hypocrisy? Ask why a college education is so expensive and the role teacher wages have in that. See if he thinks that makes us more or less competitive to the Chinese and Indians. See what he thinks about scholarships given based on race and then ask him if other benefits in life, like a job, should also be given based on race. The media would have us believe that teachers do their jobs because they are so passionate about kids and yadda yadda yadda. Find out if this guy would do his job for $5 an hour if he's so damn passionate and concerned; or is he really out for the benefits? | ||||||
| 13 | Wilmer McLean ID: 61053322 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 21:21 |
Meat Company Going Out of Business After Recall (NY Times) E.Coli Kills Topps Meat Company Several angles of communication: News Agencies Old Owners/New Owners -- First recall in their 67 years. Bought by a holding company in 2003. Were there cost cuttings that could have contributed to the contamination? Did they hire illegal immigrants? Employees Governemnt -- What health oversight did the government have? What happened to the federal agent(s) and plant inspector(s)? Economists -- Does this show the market taking care of itself? Should there have been greater governmental regulations and oversight? There are many more questions from each above. | ||||||
| 14 | Perm Dude ID: 51101737 Sun, Nov 04, 2007, 21:33 | Box, the assignment is about organizational communication failures, not about your political difficulties with unions. | ||||||
| 15 | C1-NRB ID: 17348117 Mon, Nov 05, 2007, 00:11 |
Boxman- You might have missed the part in my first post about my industry. Let me be a little clearer: I'm in higher education. I moght be able to do a fair job explaining tenure, but I couldn't do it justice so I'll leave it for another day. Suffice to say I waver on the whole tenure concept. Further, this is a graduate level course and I think my professor's politics are to the far right of most "liberal-pinkos" in the classroom. Now for further self-disclosure: My very first post in the politics forum (circa 2000) was questioning the modern day necessity of unions. In that post I said I understood all the good they accomplished (past tense) like the 40 hour work week and minimum wage but wondered aloud about why anyone would pay annual/ monthly dues just to get and keep a job. Furthermore, my grandfather was union in a right-to-work state and all it got him was a $50/ month pension after 30 years. Like PD said, the assignment is about communication in times of crisis; a scandal is just one type of crisis. The textbook uses as examples the Johnson & Johnson cyanide Tylenol incident (handled well) and the Exxon Valdez spill (not so much.) Here are two I can't believe we all missed: Referee Tim Donaghy scandal and how David Stern and the NBA handled it. As a stretch, all the NFL off-season action- Michael Vick, Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones- could be spun as the NFL commissioner's office in a crisis management/ communication way. We forget sports is business, too. | ||||||
| 16 | Boxman ID: 211139621 Mon, Nov 05, 2007, 06:22 |
Further, this is a graduate level course and I think my professor's politics are to the far right of most "liberal-pinkos" in the classroom. While in graduate school I noticed that my professors were also a little more sane politically and more relevant to what they were teaching. My Organizational Management teacher (basically an HR class) was the former head of HR for Spiegel. I had an accounting teacher that worked for a Big Four(?) firm downtown. My marketing professor was a VP of Promotions for Kraft. All my finance professors walked the talk too. A couple of them were full fledged college professors, but they weren't the famous "poor finance professor". I had a prof one time who was a day trader and talked about how he became a professor for the health insurance just for the time that his kids were in HS and college and that he made more in a week than he he did all term as a teacher. Grad school was a blast for me and it was certainly 100x more value added than undergrad. Pardon my teacher rant, but I just think that whole system is a scandal. What is your area of specialization or are you getting a general MBA? :) | ||||||
| 17 | C1-NRB ID: 5932328 Mon, Nov 05, 2007, 09:31 | I already have an MS in Student Affairs. I'm picking up hours in Communications to become eligible to teach intro-level Speech for community colleges. For a few more hours I could get an MA in Professional Development, but for what I'm paying per course the economics don't make it very likely I'll go that far. | ||||||
| 18 | C1-NRB ID: 5932328 Mon, Nov 05, 2007, 12:24 |
My instructor cleared me to use Blackwater and, at the same time, said higher ed was fair game. She even tossed Virgina Tech out as an example. Thanks for all your input. I knew the Gurupie nation would come through for me. | ||||||
| 19 | DWetzel from work ID: 3316412 Tue, Nov 06, 2007, 10:56 | Probably too late, but look into the recent scandal at Absolute Poker. | ||||||
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