MNG81001 | ASSESSMENT 4 REPORT | MANAGMENT

Assessment Task

Effective communication throughout a workplace is an essential ingredient to align people’s efforts towards achieving organisational goals. Yet it seems that ‘communication problems’ are continually mentioned as one of the main difficulties for most organisations.

Your boss, the CEO of ABC Company, has asked you to prepare a report investigating the question: 'why managers should make effective communication a priority'? In so doing she expects you to examine four issues:

1. The personal and interpersonal aspects of communication - communicating to persuade and influence others (key points for practicing the art of persuasion) - including personal networks and the grapevine.

2. The organisation as a whole and formal communication channels - establishing and maintaining formal and informal channels of communication downward, upward and horizontally.

3. Aspects of communication that relate to sustainability: communication of sustainability activities and achievements (corporate social responsibility), and the sustainability of an organisation's communication activities themselves.

4. Crisis communication and the development of communication strategies to protect the reputation of the organisation in a crisis.

Working in groups of four, each student will write on one of these four workplace communication issues. (Please note: depending on final student numbers there may be groups of three or five. In the case of a group of three students write on three of the four issues. In the case of a group of five a fifth communication issue will be presented).

Please follow these guidelines to complete the assessment: The assessment task comprises two parts:

1. one group-based report comprising 1500 words per individual per section (representing 60% of the final grade); and

2. group-based activities focussing on:

• the completion of a team contract;
• the organisation, structure and editing of the actual report;
• a group-based poster presentation reflecting on the processes of group work (representing 40% of the final grade).

Please note:

1. Details of the marking criteria and mark distribution will be available on the Blackboard.

2. At the beginning of Week 8 you will be assigned to your group. Each group is expected to produce a team contract: establishing team procedures, identifying expectations, and specifying the consequences for failing to follow these procedures and fulfil these expectations. Since the basic purpose of this team contract is to accelerate your team's development, to increase individual accountability for team tasks, and to reduce the possibility for team conflict, make your contract as specific as possible.

Specify:

• each task in as much detail as possible
• each step in a procedure or process, in as much detailed as possible
• the exact person(s) responsible for each specific task, and
• the exact time and exact place for completion or submission of each task.

Complete, sign, and submit a copy of your finalised contract to your tutor by end of Week 9.

Please note: Writing a group report requires effective organisation, time management and communication skills. Students often find report writing on their own challenging, and group writing can be even more intimidating. Guidelines for approaching a group report - for structuring the report and dividing the workload, who will write what sections and take responsibility for editing, proofreading, publishing - are provided under Assessment Tasks and Submissions. Without guidelines, one or two students in a group often end up writing the group report, and this can create workload issues, and resentment when marks are distributed.

3. Each student in your group needs to select ONE of the four workplace communication issues.

4. Start your web-based research with a search of popular business publications, even trade journals, professional journals and current affairs journals, for any information about workplace communication issues. Finally, use academic research to support your findings in relation to your selected theme.

5. Each student needs to find 8-10 secondary sources for their particular section. Please note that you are expected to use a minimum of four (4) refereed academic journals. You will be shown how to tell if a journal is peer-reviewed/refereed. Do not include more than 10 references per student.

6. You are encouraged to write a first draft of this report at least one week prior to the due date to ensure adequate time for revision. Please be aware that in addition to the content, the writing quality and use of appropriate referencing will be marked.

7. Instructions on how to go about designing your poster, web page links, and past examples intended to provide support and guidance, are available under Assessment Tasks and Submissions (Task 4). Producing a poster can be a great way of presenting research findings in a concise and powerful manner. Posters are used widely within the academic community at conferences and conventions. The best posters are those which can effectively summarise the important aspects of a given research topic, are easy to read and understand, and are visually appealing. You want your poster to stand out and to leave the reader with more than a cursory knowledge of your topic. Normally posters are presented in an A0, A2 or A1 format.

8. Submit the report to Turnitin via the Blackboard site no later than the due date: Friday 5th October 9.00am (QLD time). Poster presentations will take place in Week 13 during the nominated tutorial sessions.

9. Refer to the Marking Criteria Guide and Marking Rubric located under Assessment Tasks and Submissions on the Blackboard.

PRIOS/CDT brief for Assessment 4:

1. Purpose: To conduct web-based research into four workplace communication issues.
2. Reader: The CEO of ABC Company (your boss).
3. Information: Based on secondary research.
4. Organisation: Direct order approach.
5. 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.
6. Channel choice: Written document and oral presentation.
7. Document design: Report format.
8. Length: 1500 words per group member for the report + one poster presentation.

Assessment Overview

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.

This is a graded unit and grades are awarded as detailed in the University's Rules Relating to Awards. To achieve a passing grade in the unit all assessment tasks must be submitted and an overall mark of 50% or more must be obtained.

1. Special consideration

All applications for Special Consideration need to be submitted before the due date of the assessment item.

Submission of Special Consideration form, together with all supporting documentation does not guarantee Special Consideration will be granted. NB: Only the Unit Assessor can approve a Special Consideration application.

Requests for special consideration in relation to assessment tasks shall only be considered on the following grounds:

• health (including impacts of religious fasting);
• compassionate circumstances;
• religious observances or celebrations;
• serious unforeseen personal events;
• selection in State, national or international sporting or cultural events;
• rendering genuine and unforeseen emergency service in a professional or voluntary capacity; or
• rendering any service (including undertaking training) in the Defence Reserves.

Computer failure will not be accepted as a reason for missing an assessment deadline: you are strongly advised to backup all of your work, for example on a USB flash drive, to ensure that you are still able to submit to a deadline in the event of a computer related failure.

Section 4 — Grounds for Special Consideration

Section 5 — Types of Special Consideration

Section 6 — Examination and Special Examination Periods

2. Late penalties

Any assignment submitted after the due date will be processed in accordance with the University's Assessment Policy and Procedures. In cases where there are no accepted mitigating circumstances as determined through Special Consideration procedures, the late submission of an assessment task will lead automatically to the imposition of a penalty.

Specifically, this means a deduction of 5% of the available mark from the actual mark achieved by the student, one minute after the due date and time specified by the Unit Assessor. A further deduction of 5% of the available mark from the actual mark will then be imposed for each 24 hour period that the assignment remains overdue. For full details of the For full details of the penalty and how it is applied, please refer to SCU’s Assessment Policy and Procures, available on the unit’s Blackboard site.

A practical example

Assume that you have an assessment that is worth 30 marks and you submit your paper 1.5 days late. After assessing it in the same way that all other papers are assessed, your tutor determine that you should receive 20 marks. As per the Late Submission policy, 1.5 marks should initially be deducted (5% of 30). A further 1.5 marks should also be deducted for the one complete 24 hour period that the assignment was overdue. A total of 3 marks should therefore be deducted, leaving a final mark of 17.

Please note that late assignments are likely to be returned with a significantly reduced amount of feedback.

3. Academic Integrity

Students are reminded of the extremely serious view the University takes with regard to plagiarism and are strongly advised to read the university’s policies on academic integrity and the penalties associated with academic misconduct

Plagiarism means claiming credit for someone else’s intellectual work. If you find any of the following problems in your academic writing, you may be guilty of plagiarising someone else’s work.

• Copying
  • This includes copying materials, ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document, presentation, composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or software, website, internet, other electronic resource, or another person's assignment, without appropriate acknowledgement.
• Inappropriate paraphrasing skills, resulting in copying the written expression of someone else without acknowledgement
• Distortion of meaning.
• Missing attribution.
• Missing quotation marks.

• Relying too much on other people’s material.
• Inappropriate and inadequate citation and missing reference entry.
• Inadequate citation of images.
• Self-plagiarising.

It is important you understand what constitutes using sources responsibly. If in doubt, please discuss with your tutor.

4. Assignment Resubmission

Assignment resubmission is permitted in the unit MNG81001 Management Communication for those students who have received a fail grade in either assessment item 1, 2 or 3. The resubmit is for one assessment item only and the result will be awarded either a pass (of 50% of the mark for the assessment item) or fail grade.

Further details on resubmission will be made available after the release of Assessment 3 grades.

5. Turnitin

All assessment items (1, 2, 3 and 4) must be lodged through Turnitin accompanied by an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’.

6. Student Access and Inclusion