You are the general manager of a large car dealership in Chicago. Although your dealership narrowly escaped being closed last year, car and truck sales are still down. To remain profitable, you will need to cut the dealerships budget by 20 percent.

Before you decide how and where to make the cuts, you want to have a meeting of all employees to share information about the dealerships financial situation. You hope that this meeting will help you gain the employees support and prepare them for the difficult decisions the dealership will have to make in the next few months. You draft a message to all employees. The message contains an outline of the circumstances, and it also contains complicated financial information about the current situation. In the message, you also call a company meeting for Friday at 11:30 a.m.

Which is the most likely purpose for your message to the employees?

To motivate employees to work harder

To provide background information and prepare them for the meeting

To persuade older employees to take early retirement

The best channel for delivering the message you are drafting is