Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Communicating during Project Crises

In September 2019, the project manager of Washington, DC, technology company Zinthro found a serious calculation error in her company’s bid for a major government project. When she discovered the mistake, the bid had already been accepted and the project was well under way. The issue threatened her working relationship with several key individuals related to the project, including the executive overseeing the project, the client representative, the team that put together the original bid for the project, fellow project managers, and team leaders. Although she was not the one who made the mistake, she was the one who had discovered it and had to decide what to do next. Who should she talk to about the error? Who should be told first? How should she deliver the bad news?

This case is suitable for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in organizational behaviour, leadership, business communications, and project management. Students are presented with a real-world scenario that requires balancing multiple complex relationships simultaneously, and in a situation where a real threat looms over all parties involved. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<br><br><ul><li>identify all relevant stakeholders within a particular business context or situation;</li><li>interpret the quality of relationships between various stakeholders in a particular business context and evaluate how those relationships may impact each other in interconnected ways;</li><li>align the quality or importance of stakeholder relationships with the best method for disseminating information;</li><li>identify issues that “bearers of bad news” face in this context and in the general workplace; and</li><li>determine appropriate influence tactics for communicating information effectively to different stakeholders.</li></ul>

• conflict
• influence tactics
• whistle blower
• business communications
• stakeholder relationships
• project management