IT 520 Module One Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric
This course includes five short business memos. These are designed to actively test your understanding and to apply that knowledge to potential real-world
situations. These writing activities also provide practice in communicating your reasoning in a professional manner.
Prompt:
Team Building and Collaboration (Module One)
International Gadgets is a company with offices throughout the United States and in Europe. There has been a history of miscommunication within office
departments, between offices, and, most importantly, between the company and its wide customer base. You have been hired as a manager in the newly
created communications department. The purpose of your position is to improve these problematic channels of communications.
Company Background
International Gadgets (IG) is a multinational company of 1,300+ employees and over $4 billion in revenue. Headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, the
company designs, manufactures, sells, and supports a variety of low- and high-tech business productivity tools.
IG has manufacturing facilities in Detroit, Michigan, and Shanghai, China, and sources component parts from suppliers in Vietnam, China, Brazil, and the United
States. While IG maintains sales offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Munich, Paris, Moscow, and Brussels, its products are sold throughout the
United States and all of Europe and in China through a partner firm. IG employs both a direct sales force targeting its top 1,000 customers as well as selling via its
website. Sales offices also include service and support operations, managed separately from the sales teams. The company is considering expanding more
directly into China and exploring the possibility of opening a sales office in Beijing.
IG’s current top-selling product is the OfficeDrone, designed for workplace monitoring. The OfficeDrone is a small unmanned aerial vehicle for indoor use that
includes real-time video monitoring and a targetable built-in water pistol and reservoir. The OfficeDrone is marketed to management and security teams to
break up water cooler conversations and other non-productive behaviors among groups of workers.
IG has introduced several new products and experienced rapid growth during the past year with many new employees in all departments. The management
team has greatly expanded as well, including several first-time managers, and is experiencing difficulties in functioning as effectively as in the past.
Communications within and between all parts of the organization, external partners, and suppliers and customers, are at serious risk of completely breaking
down.
In a recent example, Detroit Manufacturing was unable to meet a product delivery deadline because of parts shortages from supplies. (The component parts
originated in Brazil and had been seriously delayed due to a dockworker’s strike at U.S. West Coast ports.) Manufacturing believed they had informed Sales of
the delay, but Sales indicated they had never received that information and ended up losing the customer to a competitor. In another example, European sales
were impacted when Switzerland unexpectedly devalued its currency, impacting IG’s profitability. Revised profitability forecasts were provided by several of the
European sales offices, but others did not understand the request from the corporate office due to how it was worded, and the delay in response led to
unnecessary costs.
Your first task is to hire a small team to address these issues. Write a memo to management describing the makeup and roles of your proposed team, what
attributes you will be looking for in team members, and what you hope to accomplish with your new team. Be sure to offer solid reasoning in all areas of your
memo.
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Review the Purdue Owl: Memo website for suggestions and formatting guidelines on memo structure.
Critical Elements
Description of
Business Case
Recommendations
Conclusions
Articulation of
Response
Exemplary (100%)
Meets “Proficient” criteria,
and ideas are substantiated
with specific and relevant
details
Meets “Proficient” criteria
with substantial detail for the
rationale
Meets “Proficient” criteria,
and conclusions are
substantiated with specific and
relevant research
Submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and
organization and is presented
in a professional and easy-toread format
Proficient (90%)
Accurately describes the
business case and uses specific
details in explanation
Needs Improvement (70%)
Accurately describes the
business case, but lacks
specific details in explanation
Not Evident (0%)
Does not accurately describe
the business
Value
30
Provides a discussion
highlighting the
recommendations, with
sufficient detail for rationale
Draws informed conclusions
that are justified with evidence
Provides a discussion
highlighting the
recommendations, but lacks
sufficient detail for rationale
Draws logical conclusions, but
does not defend with evidence
Does not provide a discussion
highlighting the
recommendations
30
Does not draw logical
conclusions
30
Submission has no major
errors related to citations,
grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization
Submission has major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or
organization that negatively
impact readability and
articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or
organization that prevent
understanding of ideas
10
Earned Total
100%
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