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Assessment 1 Part C. Research: an important part of communication Will emoticons give you career a frowny face? Your project team has just been reprimanded by your boss for missing a deadline. Your colleagues left the meeting grumbling about being criticised in public after working nights and weekends, and you fear that morale has slipped. You can craft an inspirational message to soothe the bruised egos and get the team’s energy turned around in a positive direction. However, writing such a message could be risky, because world-weary teammates might just brush it off as happy talk and resent you for trying to be a cheerleader. Alternately, you could suggest that your colleagues lighten up and stay focused on the ultimate goal of the project. However, you already know that telling grumpy people to cheer up is a surefire way to make most of them even grumpier. Instead, you opt for a quick bit of gentle sarcasm, designed to help release the negative emotions in a collegial way. When you get back to your desk, you write the following instant message: Well, let’s pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on ;‐) The over the top phrasing is a subtle way to remind everyone that the criticism wasn’t all THAT traumatic, and the winking emoticon tells everyone to lighten up w

ithout actually saying so. The apparent sarcasm connect with people who are marinating in their negative emotions, but it is really a pep talk disguised as sarcasm. Then you worry that the emoticon will seem unprofessional, so you replace it with a simple period. Well, let’s pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on. Oops. That one minor change to make the message more professional turned it into a statement of resigned sadness. You search your keyboard for an acceptable symbol that might help: Well, let’s pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on! Great, now you have managed to sound bitter and demanding at the same time. Q1. Given the difficulty of communicating emotional nuance in lean media such as instant messaging (IM) and email, are emoticons really all that bad? Research Q1: Answer indicates that wide research has been conducted using at least 3 journal articles Q2. As a manager, what reaction would you have to job applicants where emoticons are used in the email message accompanying the job application? Research Q2: Answer indicates that wide research has been conducted using at least 3 journal articles Research your answers using journal articles where possible. Quality of writing at a very high standard. Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.