For this exam, you’ll submit a completed proposal in letter format presenting your solution for the problems at the Roanoke Branch. Your proposal should include an introduction as well as these labelled headings:
• Background
• Proposal and Schedule
• Staffing
• Budget
• Request for Authorization
The Grading Criteria section below makes a good checklist for the expectations for each heading in this assignment in terms of content and format.
Preparation
Before you begin this project,
• Review the full information provided in the exam section of Organizing, Illustrating, and Researching Your Material.
• Review the content related to writing informal, internal proposals in Proposals and Special Projects. Study the differences between proposals and reports (like your field investigation report). The example used in the Informal Proposal section shows the general style and basic format you’ll use for this final exam.
• Review the formatting for a full-block style business letter, covered in Writing Effective Communications.
• Review the explanation provided in each lesson related to writing style, tone, audience, word choice, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Gather the brainstorming, freewriting, and graded exams you’ve already prepared for previous assignments about Phoenix Advertising. You’ll build on some of the details you developed and incorporate suggestions from the instructors evaluating your previous work. You’ll also have to brainstorm further in order to create facts, figures, names, numbers, analysis, and proof to support your plan of action in your proposal.
Important Note: Do not submit your final draft for this project until you’ve received the evaluations of all your previous written exams, so you can make use of the evaluators’ comments to improve your final project.
Background Information
Phoenix Advertising, with its main headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, serves clients that include banks, insurance companies and local businesses such as restaurants and shops. You’re the vice president of human resources management at Phoenix, and you report directly to Gregory S. Forest, the president of the company.
Mr. Forest advises you that in the last month, four clients have complained about the advertising work produced by the Roanoke, Virginia branch of the agency. He reminds you that the Roanoke branch and its clients are vital to the overall success of the company.
You’ve already investigated the branch and provided a report on the problems there and your recommendations for managing them (for lessons 3, “Organizing, Researching, and Illustrating Your Material” and 4, “Writing the Report”). Mr. Forest has reviewed that report and now wants you to present to the executive team a specific proposal developing one of the recommendations you gave.
Consider the problems outlined in the background as well as the underlying causes you discovered and reported on previously.
Three graphic designers and four copywriters have threatened to quit because their creative contributions on projects are being rejected or revised without their input. They want to be part of a collaborative team, not to simply produce work that the art directors and account executives can alter arbitrarily. These changes to projects have also caused tension between the creative teams and account managers, causing an art director and an account manager to leave the agency.
In addition to the four clients who complained, others have not renewed their contracts with Roanoke. Several have posted poor reviews of the Roanoke branch on social media sites, leading to a drop in profits.
In an attempt to increase revenues, the branch is accepting new clients without evaluating the effects of the new accounts on the current project workload. As a result, without notice or compensation for the additional hours, all salaried employees are required to work long hours several days each week. Employee morale and productivity are declining day by day.
For your final project, you will write an informal proposal that focuses on one of the recommendations you made in your informal report. The following instructions show to properly complete this project.
Process
Step 1
Choose one of the problems. Use your brainstorming notes and the investigative report for the recommendations you listed to solve that problem. Brainstorm further about the reasons for and causes of that one problem by delving even further into the “whys” of that problem. As you did previously, list several questions and review the answers you’ve discovered.
Explore those answers in greater depth to determine the fundamental causes of the problem. (Think of the problem as a set of symptoms of an illness that you need to treat. What disease is causing the symptoms? What areas of the body are affected by the disease?)
Step 2
Freewrite further on each recommendation you made in your investigative report for resolving this problem. Ask yourself questions about what must change, what you must make happen with the employees and departments at Roanoke to solve the problem so it won’t reoccur. Remember that your primary goal for the proposal is to revitalize the employees and departments in order to restore the Roanoke branch to full productivity. Use as a starting point any of the following that apply to the problem you’ve chosen:
• What can the executive team do to reverse the downward spiral of employee morale and increased workload requiring overtime?
• How can the executive team help the Roanoke branch retain its current clients and gain new ones?
• Is training needed for employees and/or managers? If so, what types of training are required? How can the executive team accomplish training over time to minimize impact on business?
• What can be done to streamline or reorganize the office procedures or to incorporate new technology to improve productivity? What training/support will then be needed to enable the office employees to embrace the changes and succeed?
