You may worry that the indirect organizational strategy is unethical and manipulative, but the alternative—breaking the news bluntly—can cause pain and hard feelings.

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate answer.

Your goal in using the indirect strategy is to be______________.

Printing and copying costs have skyrocketed at your company, and the company will begin charging employees for all hard copies of documents related to internal use. The message informing employees of this change uses an indirect approach and focuses on the environmental benefits of going paperless.

Is the sender using an indirect approach in an ethical or unethical manner?

a. Ethical
b. Unethical

At some point, everyone will have to deliver bad news. The bad feelings associated with this type of message can be alleviated if the receiver knows the reason for the bad news, feels the news is revealed sensitively, thinks the matter is treated seriously, and believes that the decision is fair. When applying these strategies, make sure to follow the writing process and determine whether to use a direct or an indirect pattern in your message. Determine what strategy should be used in the following situation?

You are demoting an employee to avoid laying them off.

a. Indirect
b. Direct

Ethical: it is ethical to reduce the emotional impact of a bad news by making use of an indirect approach which is less harsh and blunt unlike the direct approach. In situations such as communicating that a person has lost his job, it is important that the manager communicates using indirect approach

Direct: you are communicating facts to someone that has less time. Therefore the direct approach would be most appropriate as it goes straight to the point without delays

Intend to deceive:your boss is extremely busy therefore in this case it would be important to use the direct approach and move straight to the point from the beginning not hiding the bad news at the end of the mail