Hello class!
Welcome to the COMM 483: Organizational Communication blog. Each week, each student in the class will be the "blogmaster" and will be posting THEIR article as a post on the blog (please see details in the syllabus). Each week, you will respond to their post (again, see the syllabus for the details for your responses). Please leave your initials with your responses, so that it is clear who is responding.
The popular article post for this week can be found at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35268917
I chose this article because I think it directly relates to the discussion of changing business practices and changing employment. No longer are jobs dictated by a CEO, a manager, or a president. There are often many members with input on almost all decisions made at a business. These multiple voices can often lead to conflict, confusion, and a loss of a sense of identity-- unless an organization has a clear focus and strategy. Those are the areas that we will be examining in this class. This article brings into question what Chipotle stands for? What is their response to the most recent E. coli outbreak, and can the brand survive the most recent losses to their stocks? The company is being greatly impacted by their shareholders, and this shows the influence that outside participants can have on an organization in today's organizational environment.
Marisa Meyer-Klubben
ReplyDeleteCOMM 483
The definition of "organizational communication" in our textbook is "the interaction required to direct a group toward a shared goal" (Eisenberg et al, 2014). This made a lightbulb go off in my head in regards to the Chipotle E. coli scandal. It appears that there has been a huge breakdown in their communication culture when it comes to the safe preparation of food. Based on Chipotle's response, they are reworking their identity to include standing for better food preparation techniques.
Mmk
Tasha Piehl
ReplyDeleteCOMM 483
Discussion
I think it's interesting that certain jobs are now moving away from the CEO, manager type of business practices and more towards member friendly. After reading the article I feel that Chipotle is doing what they can to words towards better food quality. I looked at their mission statement and they they strive on "Food with Integrity" which they fell short of with the E. coli outbreak. They made no comment other than they are working towards better food preparation techniques. I think that they will struggle a bit with their stocks being down but should be able to come back from it if all is handled accordingly.
TP
Stacy Cenedese, COMM 483
ReplyDeleteOrganizational Communication might be a good way for companies to work under. But, you still need to have the connection that keeps the company running and moving to a positive environment. You still need a leader who knows how to lead. Organizational Communication seems to me to be like teamwork, everyone working towards the same goal. But, if you don’t communicate what that goal is then you will have a product in the end like Chipotle is facing. Chipotle declining any comment, I am not sure if that is really smart from a business point of view. The company’s stocks going down, it might be hard for them to bounce back, no matter what type of organization communication form, they might be under.
SDC
Clint Jewett, COMM 483
ReplyDeleteChipotle has definitely had an organizational breakdown that has caused them to produce unacceptable products. These breakdowns usually start with leadership not doing their job communicating and verifying the business is being run in a way that ensures compliance to food standards that are in place to protect their customers.
I am surprised that Chipotle being a large franchise has fallen short of producing a quality product with the structure that they have. A self directed workplace will usually achieve the results needed. Maybe the need of verifying certain steps in food handling were not communicated by the organization.
The cause of e coli has not been relayed which in turn tells me they do not know if it is their food product supplier or their own people and processes that are the cause. Either way their customers and investors should be notified of what happened and the corrective action being taken to re gain trust with them. I
Katelyn Boyd, COMM 483
ReplyDeleteIf Organizational Communication is supposedly a group working towards one common goal, then how come Chipotle wasn't transparent about this issue right away when it happened? As a food chain, I would think they would want their customers to be aware of the issue right away when it starts rather than it turning into a lawsuit against them. This could ultimately cause some major issues for them, but then the question is whether or not they have one specific person in charge as in a top down management system or if they have the horizontal management system with many people having to make decisions together?
I have never eaten at Chipotle and don't know if I ever will now, especially knowing they are not very good at being open with the public about any issues they may have.
KMB
Adam Aikens
ReplyDeleteCOMM 483
It seems to me that there is some definite communication issues within the company. Problems like this can start from the top and trickle down, because the people in charge of other people do not communicate effectively, and that becomes the norm for every hierarchical level. This is really too bad, because Chipotle has very good food at reasonable prices, and does strive to use farm-fresh products. I can only hope that they get their issues figured out, as I would be sad to see them go out of business!
Joe Wright
ReplyDeleteComm 483
I think that Chipotle in general has a good idea going on with the whole being completely organic thing. That is going to bring in customers. But there are risks with that when they use plants that have not been treated to get the things that could make people sick off of them. I don't know if that is the problem, but it could be adding to it. I think that it is a leadership issue like everyone else has suggested. If you want to be organic, than you need to have the food checked and tested. Obviously that is not happening. Whether it is a manager or the CEO. Some one needs to make sure this happens. I do think they can get it turned around but they need to have the correct steps in checking food first.
Morgan Nalley
ReplyDeleteComm 483
Chipotle is just a recent example of disasters that can take place within a company. The disaster outbreak of E. coli in their restaurant chain has been unexpectedly disastrous to their business and as stated in the article has shown some obvious harm to their economical situation. I believe that Chipotle is doing an appropriate job on communicating with their consumers by publicizing the issue. They are using multiple departments within their company to ensure that there is extra attention being paid to food safety. I think that if they continue using all of their resources within there company and publicly complete the procedures in order to earn their consumers trust back then they will be able to return to where they were before this mishap occurred.
Staci Hovland
ReplyDeleteComm 483
I think that Chipotle has had a hardship to deal with which is this E. Coli outbreak. They need to focus on how they prepare their food and to make sure the food is properly stored. The concern that the customers have are about food safety. Chipotle is trying to communicate with the pubic on how they plan to fix this recent issue. If Chipotle uses does their research and uses its resources, I think that the problem can be fixed. The only bad this is, is that Chipotle now had to try and get their customers back because of this huge E. Coli outbreak. I think people are still going to have mixed feelings about eating at Chipotle.