Assessing Organizational Communication: Strategic Communication Audits

1. Assessing Organizational Communication:Strategic Communication Audits Chapter 2 Initiating and Planning an Assessment

2. Initiating and Planning • Planning is necessary to orient both the auditor and the client to the assessment project. • Assessments can be initiated either by the consultant or by the client. • Sometimes the ethical auditor should refuse the assignment because of lack of expertise or because of the unsuitability of certain goals.

3. Phase 1: Initiating • Meet with key people to: • Accommodate client’s purposes. • Achieve consensus about the project. • Define the scope of the assessment. • Familiarize the assessment team with organization • Familiarize management with the assessment procedure

4. Phase 2: Planning • Make financial arrangements • Decide nature of final report • Clarify auditor-client relationship • Purchase model • Medical model • Process model • Arrange liaison with organization

5. Phase 2: Planning • Determine focal areas • What do you need to know for the analysis? • What would you like to know? • What information is it possible to get? • What are your priorities? Management’s priorities? • What information will most benefit the organization when it is fed back?

6. Phase 2: Planning • Select Assessment Techniques • Observations • Interviews • Questionnaires • Critical Incidents • Network Analysis • Content Analysis • Focus Groups • Communication Diaries

7. Phase 2: Planning • Select Assessment Techniques • Recommendations in choosing • Use multiple techniques when possible (triangulation). • Focus on actual behaviors as well as perceptions. • Collection of data through electronic means is increasingly promising. • Better return rate • More in-depth open-ended questions

8. Phase 2: Planning • Choose Employees to be Audited • Canvas or Sample? • Cost • Audit Technique • Expectations • How to decide who should be included • Stratified sampling is necessary • Avoid making the sample too small • Include all key people • Do not overlook part-time employees

9. Phase 2: Planning • Forecast the Time Sequence • Publicize Assessment before It Happens • Formalize Audit Arrangements • Contract • Letter

10. A Matter of Perspective • The entry to an organization is almost always through management. • However, many people in organizations are excited at the prospect of improving communication.

11. A Matter of Perspective • Organizations are systems of human interaction. • Employees want to be respected and involved at work. • Often when employees resist organizational change, the resistance can be traced to how the change was introduced rather than to the nature of the change itself.

12. A Matter of Perspective • Managing change is a matter of managing communication. • We view communication audits as a powerful integrative tool in helping managers and employees meet their rights and obligations to communicate with each other.

13. A Matter of Perspective • Perspective also means determining what your professional standards are and how they will be used. • It is never unprofessional to “tell it like it is.” • It is woefully unprofessional either to bend your assessment to a management whim or to avoid dealing with unpleasant assessments related to specific people

14. An Important Opportunity • Auditors often have a research component in their assessments which helps in the refinement of their own theories. • Cumulatively, such audits have been worthwhile in developing research tools that try to discover the keys to effective organizational communication. • However, the first objective is to do a good job for the company.

15. Assessing Organizational Communication:Strategic Communication Audits Chapter 2 Initiating and Planning an Assessment END