Overview
Communication is an integral part of any organisation. It is especially important for managers or those individuals who may be working within a communications department. This unit will introduce you to the structure of organisations to develop an understanding of the different types of communication processes used. You will learn that issues and crisis management skills are also important to prevent organisations from making critical communication errors. In this unit you will develop a communication strategy as a means of applying communication theory to organisational policy and practice.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: 36 credit points
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2019
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
- Analyse and assess major theoretical perspectives relevant to communication within organisations
- Apply key research skills and techniques to develop an appropriate communication strategy for an organisation
- Analyse an organisations's communication policies and practices.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||
2 - Group Work - 50% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | |
1 - Communication | |||
2 - Problem Solving | |||
3 - Critical Thinking | |||
4 - Information Literacy | |||
5 - Team Work | |||
6 - Information Technology Competence | |||
7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||
8 - Ethical practice | |||
9 - Social Innovation | |||
10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures |
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
2 - Group Work - 50% |
Textbooks
Communicating for Managerial Effectiveness
Edition: 6th (2017)
Authors: Phillip Clampitt
Sage
Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks , USA
ISBN: 9781483358512
Binding: Paperback
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 6th Edition (APA 6th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
c.lawson@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Chapter
Clampitt, Chapters 1, 2 and 3
Events and Submissions/Topic
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Readings as advised on Moodle
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Clampitt, Chapters 4 and 5
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Clampitt, Chapters 6 and 7
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Clampitt, Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11
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Clampitt, Chapter 12
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This unit is presented in an intensive style, with the unit's content condensed into the first six weeks of term. From weeks seven to twelve, there is no additional content and students will be directed in assessment based study, which includes a significant research component.
1 Group Work
Assessment Type
Group Work
Task Description
This assessment requires students to review a crisis and present findings on that crisis within an organisational communication context. You will work in teams due to the size of the task.
Each team will research a crisis topic. These topics are specified by the Unit Coordinator. Within your team, you will be required to:
- Conduct research on a crisis topic;
- Synthesise information about a crisis and an organisation’s response to that crisis so it can be understood by others;
- Collate your findings in the form of an online presentation;
- Submit your presentation.
Crisis communication will be covered in the Module 2 materials for the unit.
Online presentation
As a team, you will be required to submit a recorded presentation with a slideshow. You can use PowerPoint, Prezi or some other form of slide presentation. Voiceover must be provided on the presentation, and the format of the presentation must be seamless as if produced by one voice. There is no limit to the number of slides. As a guide, aim for a presentation of between 10 and 15 minutes, although there is no time limit. You can choose to have one team member voice the presentation, or each student can provide a contribution to the voiceover. All slides must follow the same theme, and be professionally laid out. It is expected that the voiceover will contain the bulk of the information for the presentation, while the slides will contain dot point or pictorial accompaniment. Information on how to record voice on PowerPoint is provided on Moodle. Information about how to lay out professional presentation slides is also provided. The final assessment must include the following elements:
- Summary of crisis event;
- How the organisation responded;
- The result;
- The issues/lessons for the organisation;
- References
It is expected the team will:
- Conduct thorough research of media (and social media if relevant) about the event (perhaps presented as a graph or infographic). Students will need to identify the extent of media coverage received about the event, and the media coverage during the reactive phase.
- Conduct thorough research on the organisation, its structure and its executive. This is required to assess the appropriateness of the response to the crisis. For example: was a spokesperson assigned for the duration of the crisis, and was the spokesperson the best choice for the task?
Examples are provided on Moodle. This assessment is worth 50%.
All presentations require a list of references on the final slide. Any use of photographs must be attributed.
Working in teams
Teams are required for this assessment. Team members are responsible for communicating with each other and negotiating tasks. You will nominate to join a team by Week 4, and teams will be allocated by topic. The topics will be listed on the unit Moodle site. Information about working in teams will be provided, and individual tasks for team members will be suggested.
All team members will conduct a self and peer assessment, whereby each team member will evaluate the performance of themselves, and their peers. This will be worth 20% of the overall mark (10 marks). (You may opt out of a team in extenuating circumstances only. Students not participating in a team will be ineligible for the peer mark.) Details of how to conduct a self and peer assessment will be provided.
The assessment will be submitted via Moodle. Total file size is a maximum of 100MB. Please be mindful of this restriction if you use graphics in your presentation. You may have to resize photo/graphics quality to reduce the overall size of the presentation.
A detailed marking criteria is available on Moodle.
Week 7 Friday (6 Sept 2019) 5:00 pm AEST
Submitted by one team member only.
Week 9 Wednesday (18 Sept 2019)
The assessment will be returned within 10 days of submission
A marking criteria sheet is available on Moodle. Elements include:
- Summary of crisis
- Organisational response
- The result
- Issues/lessons
- Structure of presentation
- Evidence of research
- Referencing
- Presentation
- Attention to requirements of task
- Apply key research skills and techniques to develop an appropriate communication strategy for an organisation
- Analyse an organisations's communication policies and practices.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
2 Written Assessment
Assessment Type
Written Assessment
Task Description
You are required to identify an organisation with which you are familiar. This could be a club, a church, or your workplace, for example. This group must operate as an organisation as defined in Module 1.
You will conduct a communication assessment of this organisation. (Please note that some organisations may require you to obtain permission to conduct an assessment. Discuss your choice of organisation with the Unit Coordinator if you have any concerns or queries.)
The material in Module 6 will explain what is usually involved in a communication assessment. The communication assessment will draw on theoretical material covered in the first six weeks of the unit. The communication assessment must be very well supported by the various theories covered in the unit.
The communication assessment will answer the following questions about communication between workers in the organisation selected:
- What are the existing channels of communication (such as email, meetings, newsletters, reports)? The assessment may focus on one aspect of communication, rather than attempting to address all communication methods in use.
- What are the communication goals for the communication channel (such as sharing information, providing recognition)?
- What types of messages are typically transmitted in this channel (such as business results, future plans, personnel news)?
- Who are the target audiences for the channel (such as managers, line employees)?
- What are the problems or issues identified with the communication channel, goals, messages or audience?
You will then prepare a communication strategy to address one particular communication issue identified in the communication assessment.
- Using the information gathered in the communication assessment, develop a communication goal. The communication goal must link with the organisation’s goals.
- Develop a series of key messages. The messages must support organisational goals. Identify relevant internal audiences and channels for the messages.
- Align the messages, the audience and the communication channels as a series of communication strategies which address the identified issue or problem.
- This strategy is for an internal audience NOT external. (That is: it is not designed to obtain new customers or clients, but to communicate to staff.)
Hint: The messages must be written to suit the organisation, and they must be in response to an issue identified in the communication assessment.
Students are NOT required to implement the strategies.This is a theoretical assessment only.
Presentation
This assessment will be presented as a report in the style and manner of a real Communication Strategy as discussed in the unit material. Write the report as if it was being developed for the person in charge of the organisation. The structure of the report will include:
- Introduction: Background to the organisation (including style/type of organisation, its worldview, culture); and any relevant issues identified that may influence the communication assessment and communication strategy (for example that the organisation is virtual and communication must be undertaken electronically, or that the organisation is informal and follows an ad hoc process). In this section, you set the scene for the communication channel or problem being investigated.
- Communication Assessment: This section addresses the communication assessment dot points posed above. Additional subheadings can be added as appropriate (for example: Communication channel, Communication messages, Target audiences).
- Communication Problem: Identify ONE communication-related issue or problem from the communication assessment. Explain the problem.
- Communication Strategies: This section will craft a strategy to address the problem identified. See the dot points above. The following content must be included as a minimum: the communication goal, key messages, audience and channels. Use subheadings as appropriate for your strategies. It is likely you will identify multiple strategies to fully address the communication problem.
- Considerations for implementation: Students are not required to implement the strategies. This section is prepared as if the Communication Strategy was being provided to the organisation for implementation. This section lists issues or considerations of which the organisation must be aware in order for the strategy to be potentially achievable.
- References: Students are expected to provide evidence of the organisational goals and structure (through a website, annual report or other document). Where possible, students are expected to provided references that support the choice of strategies. APA referencing style is required.
Word count is between 3,000 and 3,500 words. This is strict and assessable. Please note that the word count is designed to be challenging. Focus on a specific issue, rather than attempting to solve all communication problems. This will help meet the word count.
A detailed marking criteria is available on Moodle.
If extenuating circumstances mean that a student can not identify a suitable organisation from their own experience, a negotiated and hypothetical topic may be provided. This option is only as a last resort, as selection of an appropriate organisation is part of the assessment requirements. The Unit Coordinator will provide further details on an as-needs basis.
Review/Exam Week Monday (14 Oct 2019) 5:00 pm AEST
Late penalties will apply from Tuesday.
Exam Week Friday (25 Oct 2019)
The assessment wil be returned within 10 days of submission.
A detailed assessment criteria is available on Moodle. Elements will include
- Background to the issue
- Communication channel - goals, messages and audience
- Communication problems
- Gathering data
- Structure
- Linking with communication assessment
- Communication goals
- Message strategy
- Evidence of research and integration of theoretical perspectives
- Writing standard
- Referencing
- Presentation
- Attention to requirements of the task, including word count
- Analyse and assess major theoretical perspectives relevant to communication within organisations
- Analyse an organisations's communication policies and practices.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
- Social Innovation
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.