Assessment overview
1. It is strongly advised that the assessment instructions and marking criteria be considered alongside the Assessment Marking Rubric. Other Resources and Discussions will be posted on the Discussion Board.
2. All applications for Special Consideration need to be submitted before the due date of the assessment item.
3. Late submission of assessment tasks will lead automatically to the imposition of a penalty in cases where there are no accepted mitigating circumstances as determined through Special Consideration procedures. Penalties will be applied as soon as the deadline is reached. Please note that late assignments are likely to be returned with a significantly reduced amount of feedback.
4. Assignment resubmission is permitted in MNG81001 Management Communication for those students who have received a fail grade in either assessment item 1, 2 or 3. Please note: the resubmission is for one assessment item only and the resubmit result will be awarded either a pass (of 50% of the marks for the nominated assessment item) or fail grade. Only one resubmit is permitted.
5. Students registered under the Academic Adjustments for Students with Disabilities Policy need to discuss their arrangements with the Unit Assessor or Course Coordinator prior to the due date as required.
6. Students are reminded of the extremely serious view of the University with regard to plagiarism and are strongly advised to read the university's policies on academic integrity and the penalties associated with academic misconduct.
7. All assessment items (1, 2, 3 and 4) must be lodged through Turnitin accompanied by an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet'.
Please note: The referencing style used in this unit is Harvard. There are many varieties of the Harvard referencing system. The School of Business and Tourism follows the SCU Hravrad style
Assessment 1: Executive summary
Assessment task 1
Your boss is keen to understand the challenges and opportunities that technology has brought to corporate communication. She has asked you to prepare an executive summary giving a brief outline on how to embrace these challenges and opportunities in the workplace.
Please follow these guidelines to complete the assessment:
1. Read the article by Argenti, P 2006, ‘How Technology Has Influenced the Field of Corporate Communication, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 357 - 370 (located on the Blackboard under Assessment Details).
2. Engage in research to find two other articles (academic journal, industry journal, website article, or a newspaper article) related to the impact of technology on corporate communication. Use Google Scholar and the SCU library website to do your research.
3. Print and read all articles and complete the Article Analysis Form (located under Assessment Details) for each of the three articles.
4. After carefully reading the three articles, draft a two-page Executive Summary (synopsis) using the format of an Executive Summary memo. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Ed, (2000), the word synopsis is defined as "A brief outline . . . a summary"
5. Identify three headings that relate to the purpose of the memo to form the structure for the body of your work. Support for each heading must come from at least TWO of your THREE sources. Use one quotation in each section from one of your three sources.
6. You will need to use SCU Harvard style to document your sources within the text and in the Reference List.
7. Write the two-page Executive Summary (12pt Times New Roman font - single spaced). The Reference List must be on the third (separate) page.
PRIOS/CDT brief (covered in lecture and tutorials) for Assessment 1:
a. Purpose: To identify the effect that technology has had on the field of corporate communication.
b. Reader: Your boss (who is keen to understand more the challenges and opportunities of technology on corporate communication).
c. Information: Three (3) articles.
d. Organisation: Direct order format.
e. Style: Formal.
f. Channel choice: Written document.
g. Document design: Memo format.
h. Length: 500 words.
Assessment 2: Persuasive evaluation
Assessment task 2
Your Sydney HQ is developing a new marketing team with team members located in New York, Beijing and Mumbai. This will necessitate the establishment of a virtual team spread over four different time zones to use both synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (not concurrent) communication. A number of the team have expressed concerns about how it will all work, and meetings might be scheduled when one part of the team is about to go to lunch, while the other part is asleep.
To help 'sell' the idea to the team, your boss, the Marketing Director, is planning a virtual meeting with all team members. She is aware of the concerns and knows how important presentation will be in creating a favourable association with virtual teams, as well as a good opportunity to build engagement, trust and candour among the team members.
To prepare for the virtual meeting she has asked you to:
(i) evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous communication, and
(ii) develop recommendations on how to use both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, to not only be productive, but to maintain positive working relationships.
Persuasion aims to influence other people's behaviours and attitudes. Successful persuasion shows readers ‘what's in it for them'. Persuasive writing is one of the main types of academic writing. At work, some of the persuasive documents you might have to write are proposals, offers to clients, and memos suggesting alternative methods or new ways of doing particular tasks.
Persuasive writing has all the features of analytical writing (that is, information plus re- organising the information), with the addition of your own point of view. Most essays at university are persuasive, and there is a persuasive element in at least the discussion and conclusion of a research article.
Points of view in academic writing can include an argument, a recommendation, interpretation of findings or evaluation of the work of others. In persuasive writing, each claim you make needs to be supported by some evidence, for example a reference to research findings or published sources.
The kinds of instructions for a persuasive assignment include: argue, evaluate, discuss, take a position.
Please follow these guidelines to complete the assessment:
1. To help reach your own point of view on the facts or ideas:
- read some other points of view on the topic. Who do you feel is the most convincing?
- look for patterns in the data or references. Where is the evidence strongest?
- list several different interpretations. What are the real-life implications of each one? Which ones are likely to be most useful or beneficial? Which ones have some problems?
- discuss the facts and ideas with someone else. Do you agree with their point of view?
2. To develop your argument:
- list the different reasons for your point of view.
- think about the different types and sources of evidence which you can use to support your point of view.
- consider different ways that your point of view is similar to, and different from, the points of view of other researchers.
- look for various ways to break your point of view into parts.
3. To present your argument, make sure:
- your text develops a coherent argument where all the individual claims work together to support your overall point of view.
- your reasoning for each claim is clear to the reader.
- your assumptions are valid.
- you have evidence for every claim you make.
- you use evidence that is convincing and directly relevant.
4. Use three to five secondary sources.
5. Refer to the Marking Criteria Guide and Marking Rubric located under Assessment Details.
PRIOS/CDT brief (covered in lecture and tutorials) for Assessment 2:
a. Purpose: The purpose of this document is to evaluate the advantages and
disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools and persuade team members of the benefits and advantages of working as a virtual team.
b. Readers: Your boss (the Marketing Director of XYZ Company).
c. Information: Based on secondary sources.
d. Organisation: Direct order approach (start with you most significant criterion, etc.)
e. Style: Formal. Focus on being clear and concise, not flowery or overly-descriptive. Be sure to proofread carefully to ensure that there are no sentence-level errors such as spelling mistakes, wrong word choice, incorrect punctuation, etc.
f. Channel choice: Written document.
g. Document design: Part 1: Memo format. Part 2: Powerpoint slides.
h. Length: Total 750 words for both Part 1 and Part 2. A good target for each Powerpoint slide would be a three-word title plus five bullet points of four words each.
Assessment 3: Case study
The objective of Assessment 3 is to understand the concept of ‘analysis' and learn how to analyse information efficiently and effectively.
According to Rosenwaser and Stephen (2009, p. 4), analysis is:
More than just a set of skills, analysis is a frame of mind, an attitude toward experience. It is a form of detective work that typically pursues something puzzling, something you are seeking to understand rather than something you are already sure you have the answers to.
Analysis finds questions where there seemed not to be any, and it makes connections that might not have been evident at first.
Assessment Task 3
Companies around the globe are embracing and adapting social media for many different reasons, including: customer service, marketing, internal communications, public relations, and corporate social responsibility. It is now a reality that social media is changing the way stakeholders and companies communicate daily, providing opportunities for collaboration, participation, interactivity, and engagement.
Your task is to analyse a business case study that chronicles the management of a social media strategy by First National Bank (FNB), one of South Africa's ‘Big Four' banks.
A business case study ‘is a description of an actual situation, commonly involving a decision, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by a person (or persons) in an organization' (Erskine, J.A. and Leenders, M.R., Learning with Cases, © 1997, Richard Ivey School of Business).
Cases contain relevant data about the issue available to the key person in the case, plus background information about the organisation.
Please follow these guidelines to complete the assessment:
1. Carefully read the Ivey Business School case: ‘Banking on Social Media' (Part A only).
2. Read the case several times and answer the following four questions in your analysis:
- How has First National Bank (FNB) used digital and social media to engage with its customers?
- What benefits does FNB obtain from investing in a social media strategy?
- What lessons can FNB learn about developing and implementing a social media strategy?
- Identify two (2) important factors for an organisation to consider when using social media to communicate with customers and improve their experience. Use 3-5 secondary sources to support your analysis in this section.
3. You are encouraged to write a first draft of this memo at least one week prior to the due date to ensure adequate time for revision. Please be aware that the writing quality and appropriate referencing will be marked as well as the content.
PRIOS/CDT brief for Assessment 3:
a. Purpose: Analyse the management of a social media strategy.
b. Reader: Lana Strydon, Head Digital Marketing and Media, FNB.
c. Information: Based on secondary sources.
d. Organisation: Direct order approach.
e. Style: Formal. Be sure to proofread carefully to ensure that there are no sentence-level errors such as spelling mistakes, wrong word choice, incorrect punctuation, etc.
f. Channel choice: written document.
g. Document design: Memo format.
h. Length: 1000 words.
Assessment 4: Written report and oral presentation
Assessment task 4
Your boss, the CEO of ABC Company, has asked you to investigate the issues associated with each of the following four workplace communication strategies:
1. Social media to improve internal and external communication.
2. Communicating to customers.
3. Connecting with employees.
4. Crisis communication developing strategies to protect the reputation of the organisation in a crisis.
Working in groups of four, each student will write on one of the workplace communication strategies.