Organizations or individuals are frequently found to be the perpetrators of unprofessional and poor communication. In this case, KitchenAid was a guilty party on Twitter after sending an inflammatory tweet against President Obama's grandmother. According to the corporation, she was aware that Obama becoming president would be a tragic narrative and died three days before he was sworn in (Stenovec, 2012).
It appears to be a scenario that has no regard for the living or the dead, as it attempts to link the death to a predicted occurrence that did not occur. In fact, the United States went ahead to have a distinguished tenure under Barrack Obama, and there is no valid connection between the former president’s grandmother and the eventualities. On the same case, the company realized immediately that the tweet was trending for the wrong reason and did all that it could manage to put it down but in vain. Shortly, a lot of people circulated the message many times; therefore, it also had an impact on the company’s image as it appeared politically inclined and a spreader of hatred.
In a way to redeem itself, the company went ahead and issued an apology although the damage was irreversible. In fact, many took advantage of the case to attack the company as well as capitalizing on it to damage its reputation. The entire scenario is an accurate reflection regarding unprofessional communication. Characteristically, it is unethical in nature as it has a significant reference and connection with the dead. More so, other than being sarcastic, the tweet stoops too low to spread hatred as it doesn’t contain any element to bind the parties involved with others socially. Although it happens often and particularly during campaign periods, tarnishing of other people’s names should have some element of respect and relating a person to their dear ones who are dead is also painful besides being disrespectful.
In one way or the other, there is a high possibility that the employee who made the tweet did not factor how much damage it would cause or the weight it had carried. In a way to avoid a similar scenario, there are several ways that one can change the communication to make it more effective and professional. As an elemental note, the major procedure that characterizes professional communication involves ethical inclusions. In this case, the person speaking, writing, or using gestures must ensure that there is no reflection or promotion of character damage, which as well must eliminate features that involve insults, mockery, and disdain of anyone’s personality (DiSanza & Legge, 2016). Consequently, the mention that Obama’s grandmother knew it would be bad should not appear anywhere. Else, it can read as “sad that Obama’s grandmother is gone before America decides.”
Apart from the ethical dimension, the other important part in professional communication involves showing respect and doing it in a procedural way (Schriver, 2012). In many societies especially with the matter concerning the aged or peacefully departed, it is recommended to tag them with a farewell message or an encouragement note. Regarding that, the tweet is incomplete and shows disrespect without the “Rest in Peace” or a similar note like “Gone too soon” note. It is very plain and more to do with hurting feelings as well as reminding a person of his losses, which is as well dishonorable.
In conclusion, issues regarding unprofessional communication are very often especially when parties are competing politically. People and companies like spreading hatred and speaking in a way to hurt other feelings is a typical case. The damage such as in the scenario involving KitchenAid can be regrettable hence the need to be somewhat cautious especially when referencing people. All in all, to promote effective and professional communication, everyone must factor ethics as a principle as well as respect all through.
References
DiSanza, J. R., & Legge, N. J. (2016). Business and professional communication: Plans, processes, and performance. Pearson.
Schriver, K. (2012). What we know about expertise in professional communication. Past, present, and future contributions of cognitive writing research to cognitive psychology, 275-312.
Stenovec, T. (2012). KitchenAid twitter account sends offensive tweet about Obama’s deceased grandmother (TWEETS). The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/kitchen-aid-twitter-tweet-obama-grandmother_n_1938031.html
