(My goal is always to write bright observations on my class readings, but by the time I am falling asleep at the books around midnight the sentences lose their wittiness.)
Today’s blog is about a stand-alone chapter we got to read, pulled out of a book titled Organizational Communication Diagnosis and Change. We got to read chapter 10 — Implementing Organizational Communication Diagnosis: The Communication Audit. From this chapter I learned that audits fall into different areas or field of communication studies, something I did not realize before. They are:
- Homophily Studies
- Credibility Studies
- Contingency Theory Studies
- Network Studies
- Communication and Organizational Effectiveness Studies
The text obviously expects a higher knowledge of the genre of communication studies than I have acquired. “Homophily”? I can make a guess, but I’ve never heard the word before this. The paragraph on homophily keeps on asking if having more or less homophily with various people in the organization increases or decreases communication needs.
The paragraph on apprehension studies mentions a lot more terms, but at least I read them before (was it only yesterday?) with definitions. Do isolates have higher apprehension than centrals, than liaisons, than group members, than bridges? Does apprehension predict frequency and importance of interactions? Talk about jargon and lingo! I am not certain I understand what they mean by apprehension — I think my brain keeps trying to think of it as comprehension — but there must be some reason to say apprehension.
The chapter discussed two phases of the audit: one studying structure related to the overall communication system, and one studying structure related to specific communication activities. The former is the phase for examining the means of maintaining and developing the system. This can be answered by examining the organizational structure, background, and leadership.
Using those two phases, the chapter ther presented a work plan for a communication audit. It looked something like this:
Section A: Overall Communication
Stage 1: Fact Finding
Stage 2: Analysis
Stage 3: Evaluation
Section B: Specific Communication Activity
Stage 1: Fact Finding
Stage 2: Analysis
Stage 3: Evaluation
I noticed a pattern in the structure. Each phase has the same three sections.
In doing fact-finding, there are measurement tools that can be used. They include:
- Questionnaire Survey
- Interview
- Network Analysis
- Communication Experience
- Communication Diary
There was also a whole section on logistics and planning a time-table.
Data gathering an analysis is a key part of the process, as the above outlines make clear. So the chapter discussed techniques. It gave
- Definition of the technique
- Examples of its use
- Strengths and weaknesses of the technique
- Description of nature of data generated by the technique and list of appropriate analysis techniques
Techniques include:
- Observation Techniques — these include duty studies (studies of self) and trained observer (of others).
- Questionnaire-Interview Techniques — Questionnaires collect a lot of information in a little time; interviews allow interaction between auditors and respondents
- Episodic Communication Channels in Organization Analysis
- Network Analysis
- Content Analysis Technique
- Communication Gradients
The chapter followed that by discussing some Practical Problems in Gathering Data
- To gain entry
- Guarantee of confidentiality of data
- Costs of the research
- Poor Interaction with the organization’s gatekeeper
- Not all members in the organization being aware of the study
- Time pressures
- Researchers’ need for information about field study
- Lack of group cooperation during the study
It then wrapped by talking about writing the report. You put all this time and effort into collecting data, and you write this report, and management may not even look at most of it, so you need to organize your data in a way to get the most punch. What will they look at the most? Put the most important content there.
(Okay, maybe a little more punch to today’s blog. Still, a lot of academic yawning — at least that’s what it was like reading and writing after a long day’s work and then a long evening’s study.)
At The Rainbow 