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ANJU
ROLL NO :KH.BU.P2ASB22052

PART 1

The Cable News Network (CNN) is a global news channel. It is headquartered

in United States. Its founders are Ted Turner and Rees Schonfeld.C.

Chris Licht, CEO of CNN, has big plans, but employees are nervous and there
will be more job cuts. This was a recent event pertaining to this organization.
Chris was appointed as CNN's new CEO. Prior to accepting the position, he
clearly studied the company's operations. He began conducting a business
analysis of the news network. He faces numerous obstacles at CNN, where, like
all cable news networks, business is declining.

Through subscription fees and advertising, CNN was making money. However,
most Americans are moving to streaming services. So, they are unable to
increase their subscription fees as a result of these streaming services. As a
result, number of viewers are declining

For the first time since 2016, CNN's profit this year fell below $1 billion.
Warner Bros. Discovery's valuation has been reduced to half as investors lost
interest and expectations in CNN + .

David Zaslov ,CEO of Warner Bros Discovery had instructed Chris to transform
CNN so he started a process called ‘right sizing’. It is a process of bringing
some changes in the structure of the company for bringing profit and efficiency.
So Chris decided to cut the jobs of many employees .All these decisions were
private .Chris had wrote a memo to all the staff to alert them that there will be
lay offs at the end of six months of business. Since the channel is declining
there is a concern over the global economy .All these are done in order to bring
significant changes to the company. It is very difficult to bring such changes
into the company since it affects the life of people, the budget of the company
and the upcoming projects.
 As per the idea given by the Zaslov Chris was trying to cut down the costs of
the company .Many of the employees would loss their job at Warner Bros
Discovery. They have about 4000 employees out of that about 1000 people will
lose their job .Chris had also brought many changes before. Chris has reduced
CNNs audio division to get rid of podcasts that people don’t like .He has shut
down the NFT market place for CNN .Additionally , his first task was to destroy
CNN+ , The company’s Fledging streaming service , which was well supported
by former CNN head Jeff Zucker.
Chris told to CNN employees that the network uses its ‘Breaking News’ banner
too frequently .This banner should be used only to convey some big happenings
. He also told them that they are the truth tellers so that they should not alarm
their viewers .This was most significant strategy taken by Chris .His aim was to
give more importance to journalism than sensationalism.
Chris’s challenge as CNNs new leader is that he is not the previous leader.
Other than increasing revenue or profit His main aim was to gain the trust of
his own employees. Jeff Zucker was the former CEO of CNN. He was more
than just CNN’s CEO. He was the Network’s driving force participating daily in
every significant decision. He managed editorial calls collaborated closely with
every shows producers and anchors ,and gave feed back everyday. He was
adored by many workers who valued his care for their careers and attention to
detail .
Jeff Zucker had resigned from CNN because he had a relationship with his
senior executive which he did not disclose .But some investigation proved that
he was in relationship .So he was forced to resign. This led to decline in the
number of viewers .It fall down nearly 90 per cent . He also faced many
criticism from the people who supported Donald Trump .Because of the unfair
Coverage.
The leader ship style of Chris is totally different from that of Zucker .Chris
stated that he wants to give executive producers and show producers the
authority to make their own decisions. He would rather direct managers to give
orders to employees than him. It was a great change brought by him. When
Zucker was the head they had no choices .All the orders were given by Zucker
and they have to act accordingly.
A person with the extraversion personality type is assertive, gregarious, and
social. Zucker was like that, but he made a mistake somewhere.He kept the
secret about his relationship. Therefore, the employees were in shock when the
news was made public. However, he was a sociable individual who was well-
liked by CNN anchors, producers, and employees. When it came to Chris, he
was closed off to his workers. He had numerous strategies for elevating CNN to
prominence. He is still not trusted by employees. They will lose their jobs, so
the memo he sent to them was shocking. The decisions and plans were kept
secret.
PART 2
We can learn a lot about organizational behavior concepts and theories from this
event. Let's start with employees' attitudes and job satisfaction. A person's
perception of their job can be either positive or negative depending on how it is
evaluated. Job satisfaction can be both positive and negative. In order to boost
the company's revenue and profits, CNN CEO Chris Licht has made the
decision to implement numerous changes. Many of them were surprised when
he wrote in his memo that employees would lose their jobs. They became
extremely anxious.

Actually, the majority of employees prefer the previous chief to the new one.
With Chris's arrival, employees lost confidence in their jobs and became very
nervous. If they lose their job, they have no recourse. Employees were no longer
satisfied in their jobs as a result of this. As a result, job satisfaction suffered.
Employees' psychological attachment to and loyalty to an organization is known
as organizational commitment (OC). This loyalty is based on employees' belief
that their organization values them and their pride in being a part of the
organization.
The discipline of organizational behavior, which defines, explains, and
humanizes the reasons behind employee commitment in organizations, includes
organizational commitment. Under Jeff Zucker's direction, CNN employees
were extremely content and dedicated to their work. Numerous workers
admired him for his concern for their careers and attention to detail. Because of
these factors, employees are extremely loyal to their jobs and believe they
should put in a lot of effort.

The topic of corporate social responsibility will come up next. Actions that an
organization takes on its own to the advantage of society or the environment
beyond what is required by law. Therefore, the new CNN chief, Chris, used a
variety of strategies at this event, focusing primarily on providing the audience
with accurate news. He was concerned about society and wanted to replace
sensationalism with journalism.

A theory called "person-organization fit" asserts that people are drawn to and
choose an organization that reflects their values and leave when there is no
compatibility. As can be seen, Zucker, the former CEO of CNN, did not fit into
the culture of the company. Because he was secretive and broke some rules. As
a result, less people were watching the channel. Chris was therefore unsuitable,
so he had to quit.

Chris and Zucker exhibit some of the personalities outlined in the Big Five
Personality Model. The type of personality known as conscientiousness includes
being responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized. Chris is more
responsible because, as we can see, he studied the CNN business thoroughly
prior to joining. He wants to improve CNN's condition and make profit .He is
actually a good person who is reliable, persistent, and organized, and he is very
sharp in his opinions. Zucker was not very accountable. However, he was
unorganized and his employees adored him because he valued their careers and
supported them very much.

A person with the extraversion personality type is assertive, gregarious, and

social. Zucker was like that, but he made a mistake somewhere. He kept the
secret about his relationship. Therefore, the employees were in shock when the
news was made public. However, he was a sociable individual who was well-
liked by CNN anchors, producers, and employees.

When it came to Chris, he was closed off to his workers. He had numerous
strategies for elevating CNN to prominence. He is still not trusted by
employees. They will lose their jobs, so the memo he sent to them was
shocking. The decisions and plans were kept secret.

Chris had a personality of agreeableness. He didn't want to have control over his
subordinates. He told producers and anchors that they can have their own
opinions and decisions and don't need to wait for his orders. He is a good
person. He doesn't like the commanding nature. He told managers that they can
make any decisions if they feel they are right. He made employees to do their
work.

Zucker was a person of directing .every one of the representatives and the
organization individuals hung tight for his orders .Each choice in the
organization was made solely after getting his request .that was the principal
distinction among Zucker and Chris
The idea of perception, which is the process by which we organize and interpret
sensory impressions to give meaning to our environment, can also be found in
this event. It is possible for what we perceive to differ significantly from
objective reality. Organizational behavior is based on people's perceptions of
reality rather than on reality itself, so perception plays a crucial role.
Person perceptions, or the perceptions that people have of one another, are one
aspect of perception. A lot of our perceptions of other people are formed by first
impressions and insignificant cues that have little support. From that, we can
deduce the horns effect and halo effect. These two contain shortcuts for
evaluating other people.
The halo effect is the tendency to create a favorable general impression of a
person based on a single quality.
We can see from this event that Zucker is very attached to both his coworkers
and his employees. As a result, his coworkers and employees formed a
favorable general impression of him based on a single trait. This is an
illustration of the Halo effect. The horns effect is the tendency to form a
negative general impression of an individual based on a single trait.

As a result of this event, we can see that Chris sent a bad memo to CNN
employees about the upcoming layoffs, which tarnished Chris's reputation.
However, Chris performed his duties honestly in order to achieve the
organizational objective and make the company profitable. Next, we can discuss
crisis decision-making. The company was thrust into crisis as a result of the
incidents that transpired in CNN regarding Zucker's undisclosed relationship
with his senior executive. Zucker was having issues with Donald Trump; as a
result of office news coverage that was hostile to Trump, he received a lot of
criticism from Trump supporters. Additionally, news of the relationship
surfaced as a result of the company investigation.
CNN's viewership decreased as a direct consequence of this. CNN was
experiencing a crisis as a result. It is very important to make decisions during a
crisis. During times of crisis, decisions are more likely to be intuitive and
emotionally charged. In addition to adding an additional layer of anxiety and
negative emotions to typical decisions, the decisions themselves may become
highly charged due to the stress of the crisis.
Therefore, the primary decision made during the crisis was to hire a new CNN
CEO, Chris. Chris evaluated the company. He acted in accordance with Zaslov's
instructions. Therefore, he introduced numerous changes to the company from
the beginning. All these changes are meant to bring back the old CNN and to
increase the company's profit. He wanted to replace sensationalism with
journalism.

It is necessary to adhere to ethics when making decisions. Not just in crisis

situations. The ethical perspective of utilitarianism, in which decisions are made
with the goal of achieving the greatest common good. However, Chris had made
the decision to lay off many employees; I don't think this was a good move; it
was not good for everyone. This idea was not applied when making decisions,
but Chris made creative choices, as we can see. In reality, he had made this
choice to cut costs for the business.so that they can get over the crisis and start
over. Additionally, he did not support politics. He wanted to keep politics out of
the channel. He wanted to provide facts-based information. He wants customers
to receive accurate information.so that customers will become more devoted to
the channel.

We can now discuss emotions and moods. Emotions are triggered by specific,
brief experiences. Anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and others are some
of the emotions. Moods last longer than emotions because they are vague and
general. Both positive and negative effects are included. As a result of the event,
it is evident that Zucker's resignation, the arrival of Chris, the new CEO, and his
memo about cutting employees' jobs all affected employees' emotions and
moods. After hearing such bad news, employees were extremely anxious.
Additionally, they did not have faith in CNN's new CEO.

Emotions are, in some ways, a mystery. Emotions may be essential to an

efficient workplace, according to OB researchers. According to the most recent
reviews, content employees tend to have positive job attitudes, engage in fewer
withdrawal and unproductive work behaviors, and perform better on tasks and
in civic duties. CNN employees were under stress. Numerous additional issues
will arise as a result. Because decisions regarding layoffs are kept secret. It’s
possible that the employees will lose all motivation to complete their work. It
may occasionally result in services of poor quality.

Moving on to the part about the drive. When Zucker was in charge, CNN
employees made sure that they were paid for their work. They are unable to
make decisions on their own. They were required to follow his orders. There
was no factor of motivation. However, Chris gave his employees and
subordinates the chance to actually participate in decision-making. They are not
required to obey any directives. Everyone might be motivated by this. However,
the employee lacks confidence.

We can link Zucker's needs to McClelland's theory of needs. According to the

theory, there are three important needs that help explain motivation: the need
for achievement, power, and affiliation. The term "need for achievement" refers
to the need to excel or meet a set of standards. Therefore, Zucker was putting in
a lot of effort to succeed and meet his standards.

The next is the requirement for power. The need for power is the desire to
influence others to act in a way they would not otherwise. Zucker had complete
command over everything. His employees followed his orders. And everyone
complied with his directives.

The requirement for affiliation comes next. People today want to be close and
friendly with others. He actually had close relationships with his subordinates,
producers, and channel anchors. They really cared about their careers.

Informational justice is very important to the organization. It refers to the extent

to which employees are informed of the decisions and given an explanation for
them. Employees feel more fairly treated when managers are more detailed and
open with them. A few chiefs are straightforward with their representatives
anyway numerous directors are reluctant to share data. This is particularly the
situation with terrible news, which is awkward for the chief conveying it and the
worker getting it.
Next is about the deviant workplace behavior, it is the voluntary behavior that
violates significant organizational norms and ,in so doing ,threatens the well -
being of the organization or its members. Also called antisocial behavior or
workplace incivility.

The victims of numerous other deviant behaviors experience numerous negative

outcomes. Personal aggression includes things like sexual harassment, verbal
abuse, and so on. Other examples include showing political favoritism,
spreading rumors, and blaming coworkers.
We can observe similar events on CNN. After Zaslov disclosed the relationship
with his senior executive, there was personal animosity between him and his
coworkers, as well as political favoritism. Since he was against Donald Trump,
he faced multiple criticisms.

The next idea that we're going to talk about is leadership. The ability to
influence a group to achieve a vision or set of goals is leadership. For optimal
efficiency, organizations require strong management and leadership. We need
the leaders to challenge the status quo, develop future visions, and motivate
members of the organization to realize those visions.
The personal qualities and characteristics that distinguish leaders from non-
leaders are the focus of trait theories of leadership.

Chris' leadership skills at CNN, in my opinion, were superior to Zucker's.

Zucker was a very nice person who had good relationships with his coworkers
and subordinates. He cared about their careers and always supported them.
However, he lacked leadership qualities because he was a controlling
individual.

Because Chris was not a controlling type, he was able to exert influence over
his team members in order to achieve the organization's objectives. As a result,
everyone was working in accordance with his instructions; there was no line of
personal opinion. However, Chris gave the managers and his subordinates
complete freedom to make decisions.
Leaders can have positive impact on their organization through building trust
and mentoring.
Because the leader is typically the one who directs us toward our objectives,
leadership plays a crucial role in comprehending group behavior. Leadership
and personality are linked strongly and consistently in the Big Five personality
framework.

The CEO's job responsibilities include meeting the needs of the company's
employees, customers, investors, communities, and the law. While some of the
CEO's responsibilities can be delegated, several aspects of the job must be
performed by the CEO.
A CEO needs to know how to measure their success as a CEO, avoid pitfalls
that are unique to the CEO's job, and conduct themselves in a way that keeps
them skilled over time. He or she should also set the company's culture, values,
and behavior. He or she should also build and lead the senior executive team.

Numerous of the aforementioned characteristics are shared by both CEOs.

There are a lot of challenges and opportunities to manage a company. The
following are some notable ones:

They have to improve the quality and productivity as we can see that Chris has
made a lot of changes in the CNN. All these were done to improve the quality
of the news coverage and for providing informative and truthful news to their
viewers in order to capture the customer loyalty.
Other challenge was to empower the people .Chris had a major challenge to
build the trust among his employees .Trust is a very important part of the
leadership . When there is trust everything will go smoothly . Building trust is
not a simple task . It requires a lot of time .And the end result will be favorable .
So it is task of Chris to bring the company into a good position .He is still doing
many things for the betterment of CNN.
By this I have covered all the theories and concepts in the organizational
behavior course
PART 3
In my opinion the situation was handled well by the by Chris Litch according
to the order given by Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav to transform
CNN.
Since the former head of CNN was involved in violating the organizational
rules and culture ,the company was about to lose its value .So I appreciate the
decision taken by David Zaslav to appoint Chris as the new leader of the
company. Chris was person with great experiences ,he is very enthusiastic
person and he is doing his part correctly .He has many strategies for bringing
the company to top position .And I hope that he will be able to capture his
employees trust .
Apart from these favorable points, there are some recommendations that I have
to give .Other than Cutting the jobs of the employees .He could have chosen any
other strategy to reduce the cost of the business. By doing that he could have
gained the trust of his employees .Because he was person who allows freedom
to his subordinates to take the decisions other than commanding them to do
their works.
As I have said before we can discuss about some strategies that allows to reduce
the cost of business. First of all they must evaluate the business’s present
condition as well as they should make plans for future .This process is called
forecasting
The next strategy is to track the expenses .They could have invested in the
technology .New technology will improve the efficiency of the business ,there
will be more productivity thus reduces the cost.
Another method is by narrowing the focus .when there are lots of projects there
will be no focus ,as well as the expense would increase .This happened In the
case of Zucker. He was trying to expand CNN to various other channels like
CNN+ and many other programs. Since there was many things to focus .The
expenses went really high.
But Chris came up with the ideas to remove many of the programs and channels
brought in by Zucker. He removed CNN+. So that the expenses reduced .other
wise company would have fallen into huge losses .The focus was narrowed
.This Would reduce the cost as well as it will increase the efficiency.
Several trainings should have been given to the employees in order to maximize
their skills. Some times the employees appointed would not be fit for the job.
Employee job fit is a very important aspect .If an employee is appointed in a
wrong position ,this would in turn increase the costs of business ,as well and
there will be low productivity and efficiency.

So it is very necessary to evaluate the current employees performance and

efficiency .From that we could identify if they are appointed wrongly . If so
necessary actions should be taken other wise it would lead to loss of money.
These employees can be provided more responsibilities in order to enhance their
skills .Also right job should be given to right person at right time.
Sometimes job rotation can be done .it is the periodic shifting of an employee
from one task to the another
Providing more responsibility to a job in order to increase the motivation is
called job enrichment .By doing this it increase the efficiency and thus cuts the
cost of business .

Also I suggest Chris could have better interpersonal relationship with his
employees. Instead of making them nervous he could have used many
techniques to motivate the employees.
If motivation is there ,the workers would do their job very well. Two factory
theory of motivation could have been used .
In this theory it includes two factors ,these factors causes the job satisfaction
First one is the hygiene factors .These are the factors which satisfy the basic
needs of the employees it includes
✓ Job Security
✓ Salary
✓ Fairness
✓ Working Conditions etc

Motivational factors are those factors that motivate the employees to stay in the
company and grow their position
It includes
 ✓ Achievement
✓ Recognition for accomplishments
✓ Status
✓ Interpersonal relationship

All these are my recommendation towards the event of the company . If

employees are satisfied and if there are no disputes taking place in the
organization this event would not have taken place .That’s all my
understandings from the study of an organizational event

REFERENCE
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/26/cnn-chief-chris-licht-business-review-job-
cuts.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/02/new-cnn-boss-has-a-message-for-staffers-
cool-it-with-the-breaking-news-banner.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ceos-activities-five-models-organizational-
behavior-kazi-adnan-raihan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Licht
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Zucker#:~:text=Zucker%20oversaw%20CN
N%2C%20CNN%20International,residence%20at%20Columbia%20Business%
20School.&text=Homestead%2C%20Florida%2C%20U.S.
Organizational Behavior ,Eighteenth Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy
A. Judge, Neharika Vohra, Pearson Publications