You have just taken over as an executive in a large company, and shortly after you start you find out that the company is going to be merging with another company very soon. You were not aware of this when you took the job, but regardless, the situation has now been brought to your attention from the CEO in one of the first executive meetings that you attend. During the process of merging with the other organization, it is likely that there will be some restructuring and based on that there will also be some people let go. No one else in the organization is aware of what is going on outside of the executive team.

You learn that there is already culture and morale issues within the organization and there is a fairly high turnover rate among the employees. So, the concern is that this type of merger is going to make things even worse in terms of morale and increase turnover even more. You are working to come up with communication to the employees to let them initially know that the merger is coming.

• What is the best way to communicate this type of news to a large organization, and why?
• Who should the communication come from an why?
• What are the most important things to consider when initially communicating this news to the rest of the organization?
• What other information should you have (other than what was provided above) before you communicate to the organization, and why?
• Draft what you would recommend be said to the employees (it can be right in the discussion area as opposed to a separate document), and after you have drafted the communication, explain why you included what you did in the communication. Keep in mind that if you state the communication should be face-to-face, this can be a transcript. If you state the communication should be in a written format, you can provide an example of the written format of the communication.