Custom essays on Organizational communication

To prevent future communication crises in your Virtual Organization, what tools could you use to continually assess the people, the tasks, and the systems?
First of all, strategic communication audits have to be performed, including strategic communications practices, use of Practice Maturity Scale, assessments of organizational performance and capacity (Papa & Daniels & Spiker, 2007). As a result, a Strategic Communications Matrix can be constructed, which includes evaluation of communications practices, and assessment of all steps at the strategic, implementation, support and integration steps of the communications process (Griese, 2001). Such audits can be performed both internally and externally, and in order to prevent future communications crises, both types of audits are required (Papa & Daniels & Spiker, 2007).
In addition to strategic audits, Organizational Culture Assessment should be used to identify organizational vulnerabilities, and Intercultural Competency Assessment (Modaff & Dewine & Butler, 2011). Among other methods of assessing people, tasks and systems there are employee surveys and interviews, analysis of critical incidents, network analysis, participant observation and document review.
What communication theories did you consider in your analysis? Evaluate how well you applied them.
Key theories of organizational communication are mechanistic, systems-interaction, psychological and interpretive-symbolic perspectives (Schockley-Zalabak, 2008). I have used all four theories for analysis purposes, and each of them had a significant impact on my understanding of the role and dynamics of communications in Kelsey Unified School District. First of all, the interpretive-symbolic theory helped to understand the role of an individual in shaping the reality of organizational communication and interpreting the events; psychological theory allowed to identify the role of values and leadership in organization communication, and brought nonverbal elements to the attention of crisis response team. Mechanistic perspective was used to determine the sources of “noise” in the communication transmission process (Schockley-Zalabak, 2008), and the concept of gatekeepers applied in this theory allowed to represent the situation to the public and to the students in a proper way. Finally, systems-interaction approach helped to develop a dynamic communication system and as a consequence of using this approach, additional student training activities were considered and such measures as school safe line and the help of professional counselors as well as regular seminars for students and parents were organized. Overall, it is possible to evaluate the use of interpretive-symbolic and psychological perspectives in this analysis as 7 points out of 10, and the application of mechanistic and systems-interaction theories can be evaluated as 9 points out of 10.
From this course, which communication theories, research techniques, studies, or methods might you emulate in your professional life? Explain.
I believe that the idea of strategic communications audit and appropriate matrix can be very useful for analyzing both organizational communications and personal communication strategy. The resulting matrix and graph showing the dynamics of strategic communications is very effective for identifying communications vulnerabilities and for evaluating the effect of these vulnerabilities on overall performance. The division of communication steps into strategic decision, implementation, support and integration also represents a very effective model which will help me to find out which of the steps in the communication process can be improved and refined.
I would also like to mention the systems-interaction approach, which will help me in my professional life in all situations where a long-term impact is required: the sequence of messages described by this theory is a highly effective method of delivering the necessary message and changing the communications climate.
How did your communication analysis synthesize what you have learned in your BS/COM program? Provide specific examples.
The course of communication analysis has helped me to apply my management and commercial knowledge for analyzing crisis situations, improving organizational effectiveness and developing organizational scenario for challenging events. During analysis of organizational communications of Kelsey Unified School district I gained the skills of improving communications climate, building direct communications and addressing intercultural and diversity conflicts. This course also helped me to study the interaction of students in the environment and the effect of mass media on the organizational communication. During the analysis of the crisis event, I had to review the concepts of change management, leadership and organizational behaviour in addition to the communication theories. Overall, this analysis helped me to apply my skills in organizational environment and to gain valuable practical experience.
References
Gillis, T. (2011). The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership. John Wiley and Sons.
Griese, N.L. (2001). How to Manage Organizational Communication During Crisis. Anvil Publishers, Inc..
Keyton, J. (2010). Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work Experiences. SAGE.
Modaff, D.P. & Dewine, S. & Butler, J.A. (2011). Organizational Communication: Foundations, Challenges, and Misunderstandings. Allyn & Bacon, Incorporated.
Papa, M.J. & Daniels, T.D. & Spiker, B.K. (2007). Organizational Communication: Perspectives and Trends. Sage Publications.
Schockley-Zalabak, P. (2008). Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, Sensitivity, Skills, Values. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon Publishers.