Refusal Memo
Case
(Case developed and submitted by Kathy Rentz, Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati)
You were hired two years ago as the Director of Human Resources for Dawson & Engels, the third largest construction company in a Midwestern U.S. city. Shortly after you joined the company, you realized that D&E, while respected for its quality work, was behind the times in terms of being a community citizen. The company’s main competitors proudly featured their many donations of time and money to the community on their websites and in their other marketing materials, but your company was completely mute on the topic, even though many of its employees did community service on a personal basis. You felt that this apparent lack of community mindedness might help explain D&E’s downward slip on the city’s list of top 100 companies while your competitors steadily held their positions. You also felt that both the employees and the city were missing out on productive partnerships. Thus, with the assistance of the marketing director, you worked hard to organize an employee volunteer program.
The program is now finally up and running, with its own page on the company’s website, a growing database of company-approved service opportunities, a modest amount of paid time off for volunteering, a mechanism for recognizing outstanding volunteers, company grants for special projects, and other attractive components. Through a great deal of internal marketing, you’ve generated a healthy amount of employee participation—without which, of course, the program would be a failure—and the momentum is growing. But now you have to write your first negative message related to this initiative.
Carolyn Smythe, who works in the Purchasing Office, has just emailed you her request that the Center for Non-Violence (the CNV) be included in D&E’s program. In other words, she would like D&E’s official approval for the CNV, which means that it would be
(Case developed and submitted by Kathy Rentz, Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati)
You were hired two years ago as the Director of Human Resources for Dawson & Engels, the third largest construction company in a Midwestern U.S. city. Shortly after you joined the company, you realized that D&E, while respected for its quality work, was behind the times in terms of being a community citizen. The company’s main competitors proudly featured their many donations of time and money to the community on their websites and in their other marketing materials, but your company was completely mute on the topic, even though many of its employees did community service on a personal basis. You felt that this apparent lack of community mindedness might help explain D&E’s downward slip on the city’s list of top 100 companies while your competitors steadily held their positions. You also felt that both the employees and the city were missing out on productive partnerships. Thus, with the assistance of the marketing director, you worked hard to organize an employee volunteer program.
The program is now finally up and running, with its own page on the company’s website, a growing database of company-approved service opportunities, a modest amount of paid time off for volunteering, a mechanism for recognizing outstanding volunteers, company grants for special projects, and other attractive components. Through a great deal of internal marketing, you’ve generated a healthy amount of employee participation—without which, of course, the program would be a failure—and the momentum is growing. But now you have to write your first negative message related to this initiative.
Carolyn Smythe, who works in the Purchasing Office, has just emailed you her request that the Center for Non-Violence (the CNV) be included in D&E’s program. In other words, she would like D&E’s official approval for the CNV, which means that it would be