BINDI SAIKIA
COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
Creating original, yet compelling content is key to keep your readers engaged. Enclosed below are some of my recent academic assignments. The content for each assignment have been drafted thoroughly after extensive research and contemplation.
Course: Communications and Society
Title: Volkswagen - The Diesel Dupe
Summary:
There has been a wave of corporate scandals since 2000 and the list continues to grow. There are documented instances of bribery, illegal accounting maneuvers, underreporting of profit, overcharging and reporting exaggerated earnings, safety violations and theft. All of these scandals are the result of ethical misconduct within the organizations, with the most recent being the Volkswagen debacle. Although organizations have tremendously increased their commitment towards social, environmental and ethical issues, following the recent Volkswagen scandal, it has been widely argued by industry experts that the whole idea of corporate social responsibility needs to be improved. Organizations need to step up and encourage their employees to voice concerns and malfeasance acts, and cultivate a culture where employees feel motivated enough to comply with the law and wider social expectations. In this paper, I argue, how Volkwagen's recent egregious violations represents a massive ethical and legal lapse. The paper provides a detailed account of how the scandal has been developing for a while and how the repercussions will impact the entire automotive industry.
Course: Media Studies - Theory and Practice
Title: Impact of Social Media on Political Participation and Campaigns
Summary:
Internet and social media have drastically changed the political landscape. Social media has become the central form of communications with distinctly different properties than traditional mass media approaches. The 2008 and 2012 presidential elections in the U.S. and the last 2014 India elections saw an exponential rise in social media engagement by candidates and their political campaigns. As voters massively shift towards Internet for social interaction and political participation, candidates can no longer afford to only create Facebook pages. The use of the various social media platforms has to be well planned and strategized to garner maximum participation. Social media platforms are the news tools of political voice. These tools are empowering younger demographic to connect with political candidates directly and engage in peer-to-peer discussions about the elections. In this paper, I examine the various social media platforms and strategies adopted by Barack Obama and India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mobilize voters and how they continued to lead the elections making them the most social media savvy political candidates.
Course: Globalization, Media and Social Change
Title: Utilizing New Media to Enhance Citizen Participation and Government Responsiveness for Better Governance
Summary:
The rapid development of new media has played an integral role in democratization and accelerating widespread communication across all institutions of the society. Especially in the political landscape, new media technologies have become the central form of communications with distinctly different properties than traditional mass media approaches. Using technology and new media platforms, we have seen how contemporary social movements utilize mediated technologies to connect, garner worldwide support and fight collectively against repressive issues. For movements like the political uprisings in the Arab World, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Central and #BlackLivesMatter, communications and specifically new media tools have played a central role in gathering support globally, disseminating information and mobilizing citizens on a massive scale. In this paper, I argue that citizen empowerment through mobilization, networking and advocacy is critical for participation in good governance process. In my opinion, governments across the nations are witnessing this new paradigm shift that society is equally dominated by the power of communities and groups, therefore strengthening the relationship between governments and citizens is of paramount importance.
Project | 01
Project | 02
Project | 03
Project | 04
Course: Organizational Change
Title: Starbucks - Evaluating the change effectiveness and leadership
Summary:
Change is a leader-led process. Change in any organization is a continuous process and the whole change initiative should be embedded across all levels of the organization. It is, therefore, imperative that leaders become effective change agents. Leaders are called upon to stabilize the unstable and destabilize the rigid, adapt to the present and anticipate the future, improve what is and invent what is to be, lead a renaissance while preserving the tradition, the possibilities for which are grounded in the belief that progress is possible and that leaders can make a difference. For an effective organizational change, leaders need to make a deep analysis of the organizational situation, consider the organizational resources and resistance, and strategize to identify and refine the process accordingly For any change situation to sustain, it is ideal that leaders adapt the ‘learning organization’ change model, where an organization continuously develops the capacity to adapt and change. Given that change is a multi-dimensional process and that change agents (i.e. the leaders) should understand the need and embrace change in a positive manner, they are also often critiqued when the change initiative fails. The brutal fact that 70% of all change initiatives fail, it exerts a heavy toll, both human and economic. In this paper, I evaluate the change effectiveness of the global coffee chain maker – Starbucks, and in particular the former company CEO – Howard Schultz.