Evaluating Communiques

While reviewing the communiqués of week four's learning team assignment each communication did convey the intended message. The intended message was to inform the CEO, sales manager, marketing manager, and accounting peer that the accounting manager and staff accountant has recommended an acquisition of JJJ Company at this time is not in ABC Company's best interest. Each of the types of communications that were used is appropriate for the intended audience. The communiqués included the level of communication that was needed for the audience as well. For instance the letter report to the CEO included information about financial statements and reports, along with the profit margin. The financial statements and profit margins are not needed while writing an e-mail to the sales or marketing managers. When writing to them, either e-mail or a memo is appropriate and the contents within each can be a brief of what has been recommended and why.

The leadership style affected the communication with the group by having the communiqués written in both a formal or informal manner and all being written professionally. As the team members wrote the communiqués, I did suggest changes, in which everyone agreed to. For instance, Jason has not taken an accounting course so he used interpret instead of analyze when writing about financial statements. So I gave my suggestion along with the reason why I wanted to make the change. I did this with everyone's communiqués, made suggestions and always gave the reason for the proposed change. In my opinion, each communiqué includes the correct amount of information, when writing to the CEO more in depth information about financial statements is needed, but when writing to the others all that is needed is the recommendation and a brief statement why.

The ethical implications of the information being shared is basically saying that JJJ Company is going to go bankrupt if another company does not make an acquisition or merger with the company. This may be something some mangers may not agree with and may think that the accountants are being unfair by not giving ABC Company a chance to improve JJJ along with ABC by moving forward with the acquisition. In my opinion though, accountants should always analyze the financial statements and make a recommendation that is best for ABC, not for a company that may or may not be a liability instead of an asset. Considering the ethical implication allows me to see how someone that does not have accounting experience may see things. Although this does not change my decision of not moving forward with the acquisition, this just helps me to select my words better for future communications and communiqués.