Inter-office memos and related ethics
� Create an e-mail draft you want to send to your committee members about an initial meeting to discuss
the party. In the e-mail, include any information you think is appropriate to get everyone excited and on
board to make this the best holiday party ever.
� As you developed this e-mail, what did you consider including in the message? Why did you feel that
was important to include?
� Were there any topics that you decided would be best not to include in this message? What were they
and why did you choose not to include them?
� Were you concerned about how formal or informal this e-mail needed to be? Why?
� Is It ethical to include blind carbon copies (Bcc) in business e-mails? Give reasons for your agreement
or disagreement.
INTER-OFFICE MEMOS AND RELATED ETHICS 2
� The information you have heard about John being difficult to work with has you concerned. Do you
plan to communicate with him before the initial meeting? If yes, what method will you use to communicate
with him? If no, why not?
Inter-office memos and related ethics
This paper is a discussion on inter-office memos and related ethics; discussing various
issues on office communication. The discussion is centered on a company holiday party, in
which I am the head of the planning committee.
Draft Email
To: Susan, Mark, John, Kathy
Subject: Company Holiday Party First Meeting
Dear colleagues,
INTER-OFFICE MEMOS AND RELATED ETHICS 3
It is my sincere hope that you are all excited about the upcoming holiday party. As head of the
committee, I am delighted to be part of a wonderful team, which will ensure that this will be the
best holiday party in the company’s history.
This year’s holiday party will not only give employees an opportunity to travel to a new location
but it will also offer a fun-filled experience with numerous fun activities, entertainment, exotic
food and giveaways like never experienced before. Whether this becomes the best party ever is
entirely our discretion. In this regard, it is important that we start the planning process as soon as
possible.
To kick off the planning process, I would like to invite the team for the first meeting on May 30,
2016 from 10.00 AM at the main office boardroom. The aim of the meeting is to discuss how we
will plan for the party including the theme, possible destinations and activities to include. I hope
to see you all then and look forward to fruitful collaboration. Please get back to me in case of any
concerns.
Best Wishes,
Tiffany Shakespeare
Head of Committee – Company Holiday Party
Email and ethics discussion
INTER-OFFICE MEMOS AND RELATED ETHICS 4
In writing the email, it was important to include an email subject that would
automatically tell the reader what the email was about. This way, it creates interest and ensures
that the message is communicated. Given that the communication was about the party’s first
meeting, providing a date, time and venue for the meeting was important. An introduction on
what to expect about the upcoming party was also important as this gave the reader some idea on
the nature of the party (Gupta, 2012).
There are topics that were intentionally excluded from the email, such as the personal and
working relationship with the different team members. The email avoided indicating that I had
not interacted well with some members and instead addressed them equally. This ensured that
none of the team members felt inferior or unwelcome; which would otherwise affect their
performance (Guffey and Loewy, 2015). By choosing not to include them, I intended to start
conversations that would help me build better relationships at an individual level as opposed to
using a collective email.
I was concerned on the formality and informality of the email; mostly because it was an
official duty, yet the nature of the assignment could essentially be considered informal. Planning
a party requires an informal attitude as it is aimed to give the employees a fun experience. I
therefore had to write the email in a way that conveyed importance of the planning process as
well as portraying the excitement that should accompany the task (Gupta, 2012).
It is unethical to include Bcc when doing business emails. This is because in business
settings, it prevents recipients from knowing who else is involved in the communication or email
subject. Using Bcc means that the recipients are not aware of who else read the message and this
may influence the nature of their response or willingness to participate in the conversation
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(Dvorak, 2012). This raises issues where the client may not be comfortable with third parties
accessing the email, mostly for private and confidential information.
Having heard that John is difficult to deal with, I would plan to engage him before the
initial meeting. The best approach as provided by Guffey and Loewy (2015), would be to have a
face-to-face meeting where I would get to know him better. If he is far, I would call him in
advance and schedule for an informal meeting such as during lunch break.
In conclusion, writing inter-office memos requires consideration of various factors that
must be considered to ensure that messages are well communicated and that unethical issues are
avoided.
References
Dvorak, J. C. (2012). E-mail Etiquette Part II: CCing and BCCing. PC Magazine,
Guffey, M. E., & Loewy, D. (2015). Business Communication: Process and Product, 8 th Ed.
Hampshire: Cengage Learning
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Gupta, N. (2012). E-mail Etiquettes: Dos and Don’ts. IUP Journal Of Soft Skills,
