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Bateman competition

In lieu of taking a capstone course, Klein College of Media and Communication's Department of Advertising and Public Relations allows PR students to participate in the PRSSA Bateman Competition. Christina Billie, Katie VanHouten, Matt Robinson and I formed the 2021 competition team. Our campaign name was Civility on Cecil, named based on our Philadelphia roots and in honor of late civil rights activist, Cecil B Moore, who has a major road in his name that runs through Temple University's campus. 

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We decided to focus on finding tactics to battle workplace incivility. The workplace is a setting PRSSA can impact. The company can't fix incivility overnight, but it can start making improvements in the place most people spend 1/3 of their day in. Below is a summary of our research, implementation, and evaluation from the campaign. I also included some of our deliverables we used online.

A hand using a pen to write on a piece of paper

Research

We conducted secondary research through articles our client provided. Some of our most prominent findings were:

  • Workplace incivility has an average annual impact of $14,000 (Michigan State University)

  • More than 60% of people who work in uncivil environments experience stress (Positive Psychology News)

  • 25% of managers said they were uncivil because their leaders were rude (Harvard Business Review.

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We also conducted primary research through a focus group (FG), two surveys, and eight in-depth interviews (IDIs). Some significant findings were:

  • Incivility in the workplace always changes staff dynamic (FG)

  • 60% of respondents report uncivil incidents only sometimes get resolved (surveys)

  • People want management involved in monitoring incivility (IDIs)

The Cecil B Moore mural located in Philadelphia

Implementation

Inspired by our research, our implementation tactics took place between February 8th and March 8th, 2021. They included:

  • Social media accounts on LinkedIn (Civility on Cecil), Twitter and Instagram (@CivilityOnCecil). 

  • A website dedicated to our project, keepingitcivil.org

  • A leadership summit event series with three installments:

    • Guest speaker Tricia S. Jones​, PH.D.

      • Dr. Jones joined event attendees to speak about the realities of incivility in the workplace​

    • Media Mania

      • Participants looked at and analyzed clips from popular TV shows​ that showed unethical workplace antics

    • Unhappy Hour

      • Young professionals gathered to vent about their workplace woes in a safe environment with their peers​

  • An educational program for communications students to learn about incivility in the workplace and how to manage stressful situations.

Deliverables

Social graphics
Website (keepingitcivil.org)
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