When Carol Telnchek and Bruce Marshall first started Sundown Bakery, the business was fairly simple: Carol ran the shop up front, while Bruce ran the bakery and ordered supplies. When the business began to grow, Carol hired two part-time clerks to help out in the shop. Marina had moved to the country two years earlier from El Salvador, and Kim was a newly arrived Koreen working his way through college. Bruce hired. Maurice, a French Canadian, as an assistant. The ovens were soon running 24 hours a day, supervised by Maurice, who was now master baker, and two assistants on each of three shifts. Marina and Kim supervised the shop because Carol was usually too busy managing general sales distribution to spend much time with customers. Bruce still spent 3 or 4 hours a day in the bakery whenever he could get out of his office, but he devoted most of that time to coordinating production and solving problems with Maurice. Over the next year, Sundown expanded from its original location, adding two new shops as well as two kiosks in local malls. Carol and Bruce hired an operations manager, Hans Mikelson, formerly a regional manager of a national chain of coffee shops. Hans had plenty of new ideas about how to operate an expanding business: He launched a website, added an extensive range of drinks and meal items to the menu, and instituted two dress codes-one for all counter help and another for kitchen employees. He also put together an employee manual to streamline the process of orienting new employees. Hans announced all of these changes by memos, which store managers distributed to the employees. Sundown's expanding size led to a change in the company. The "family feeling" that had been so strong when Sundown was a small operation became less noticeable. The new employees barely knew Bruce and Carol; as a result, there was less give-and-take of ideas between the owners and workers. Hans's memos on the dress code and the employee manual created a crisis. Old-time employ- ees were furious about receiving orders from the bureaucrats," as management came to be called. Bruce and Carol recognized the problem and wanted to keep the lines of communication open, but they weren't sure how to do so. "I'm just a baker" Bruce confessed in exasperation. "I don't know how to run a big company" Another set of challenges grew out of the changing character of the employees. In the original - location alone, Sundown now employed workers from seven different countries. Jos, who was born in Brazil, confessed to Bruce that he felt uncomfortable being managed by Carol. "It's nothing. personal," he said, "but where I come from, a man doesn't take orders from a woman." The Sun- down employees profile was different in other ways as well: Two of the assistant bakers were openly gay, one of the sales clerks got around by wheelchair. Carol, Bruce, and Hans know that good products alone aren't enough to guarantee Sundown Bakery's continuing success. They need to improve the quality of communication among the grow- ing team who make and sell their products. 1. Apply the Communication Model to analyze Hans's communication to employees regard- ing the employee manual and uniforms. Consider the impact of the sender, message, decoding, feedback, context, and probable sources of noise. Which ele- ments seem to contribute most to the apparent lack of shared understanding? 2. Identify the changes that have occurred in the com- munication channels between employees and manage- ment as Sundown Bakery has grown. Suggest alternative communication strategies that might have reduced employee resentment. Explain why these channels could help improve management's commu- nication about workplace changes. How might an organization's culture affect its choice of communica- tion channels? 3. Identify the instrumental, relational, and identity mes- sages that employees seem to have received from management as Sundown's business grew. Which functions of downward communication do you notice? Can you find examples of upward and hori- zontal communication in this case study? How could Sundown improve its upward communication flow? How have Sundown's formal and informal communi- cation networks changed as the company expanded? In which ways have both the formal and informal net- works contributed to Sundown's growing pains? In which ways can these networks be used to improve the relationships between management and employees? 1. How do the changes in the demographic makeup of Sundown Bakery reflect transformation of the larger workforce as described in Communication in a Diverse Society 2. Reflect on the six parts of the Customs and Behavior section, Cite a specific instance or predict the impact of three of these customs and behaviors in this workplace. 3. Consider the following hidden dimensions of culture as you describe the impact of culture on communica- tion within the company: high- and low-context styles, individualism and collectivism, power dis- tance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, and long-term orientation. 4. which specific advice would you give to Sundown's management team about how to communicate most effectively in the face of the com- pany's growth?