Communication Audit Project

COMMUNICATION AUDIT

2

COMMUNICATION AUDIT

Communication Audit Project- HRMN 302

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Introduction

A communication audit refers to a comprehensive evaluation of a firm or organization with a purpose to discover strengths and weaknesses of that organization to come up with a plan to address weak areas in order to improve the overall functionality and performance of the organization (Hart, Plemmons, Stulz, & Vroman, 2017). Having communication related issues in organizations is not a different or unusual thing and my organization Verizon Wireless is no different. Verizon Wireless has over 44,000 employees’ nationwide and over 500 employees in the Indirect sales department. Verizon wireless services over 1 billion customer nationwide.

The target participants for communication audit included 10 participants from the Indirect retail sales department. The survey would be individually handed out and given four business days to complete. The surveys would then be picked up for analyzation on the fourth day. The focus was mainly on the employee’s middle management category (Account Manager and Field Managers). The participants would have had to have 3 years of tenure with the company.

In the Indirect department of Verizon Wireless, at various levels, communication runs smoothly, however, sometimes when the Account Manager and Field Managers employees have to communicate something with the upper management, it becomes a little tricky causing some communication gaps. The following communication audit will help in the identification of weak areas to get an opportunity to fill the communication gaps for a smooth and efficient information flow.

The areas that will be investigated in the communication audit will include Receiving Information from others, Sending Information to Others, Sources of Information, Timeliness of Information and Channels of Communication.

Methodology

This study demanded for a quantitative research design while quantitative refers to the measuring of something. As the objective of this survey is to narrow down to areas that have a significant gap in the communication process. The purpose is to identify using survey responses on how information is received to and sent from people within the organization. Another goal of this survey is to also discover if there are any communication gap between the top management/leadership and the middle management and supervisors.

The participants initially where confused regarding the answers of the questions asked in the survey. The confusion was due to the participants not knowing how to effectively answer some of the questions however, after having them explained they started to answer these questions easily.

Findings

As discussed above, there were some questions which were confusing to the participants. The following chart will show those confusing questions from each area along with the response of the participants.

In the above chart it can be seen that one question from each section is selected as a sample to illustrate the averages from the various questions for some specific questions. The reason behind choosing these questions is that these were related to some very simple and common issues within communication with in the Indirect department.

The Receiving Information area, Question number seven was taken that is “How I am being judged?” despite its simplicity, this was the most confusing question for the participants. This question immediately strikes the mind of the participants that they are asked to give some information on the basis of their performance. Many of them were hesitant to respond to this question as they were deeply thinking about their performance as well as their relationship with their colleagues. Later on, the question was explained to them that they are asked to mark this question on a general perspective on the amount of information they received now on how they are being judge from others. The participants had to think about their colleagues, managers, and supervisors consider the feedback on how they are communicating with them on their performance. On average, 4.5 people marked option “5” that they are being judged.

Question number 10 from the Sending Information to Others category was selected which was “Reporting job-related problems”. The reason behind selecting this question is that it is one of the important things that many people overlook at their workplace and prefer to stay silent instead of reporting job-related issues that causes a huge communication gap. On average, 1.9 people responded that they report job-related issues.

Question number 23 is selected from the area of Sources of Information which is “The Grapevine”. On average, 3.1 people said that there are some sources of information that are received from the grapevine.

From the area of Timeliness of Information, Question number 28 was chosen which is “Top Management”. On average, 1.6 people answered that Top management has the lowest amount of information given in a timely manner.

From the area of Channels of Communication, Question number 33 was chosen which “Written (memos, letters)” Written (memos, letters) was selected to be the lowest area of communication that transmitted information to employees. On average, 1.4 participants reported that using written memos and letters, they receive “very little communication” from various levels of management.

Discussion

On the basis of the findings of my study and calculated results, I discovered that the critical communication issue at my organization is Timeliness of Information and Channels of Communication that needs to be addressed.

The flow of information from top to middle management is very slow due to which the managers and supervisors are unable to properly communicate the infor006Dation to employees and as a result most of our projects task are delayed and can be disorganized. According to Eisenhauer (2015) communication is the basis for human interaction and lack of proper communication or miscommunication cause potential issues in organizations that ends up with low productivity and poor performance. As an account manger they have the responsibility to merchandise different location as any given day. The correct merchandise is important due to the merchandise elements being the first things customer see when shopping in Indirect locations. If the merchandise is incorrect due to a miscommunication it negatively impacts sales and productivity in the location.

Another area of concern is the lack of written communication through proper memos and letters which is causing some other types of communication related issues such as grapevine. The top management in the Indirect department is not using written and formal style of information flow due to which the prevalence of informal and unauthentic information flow is high.

Due to unofficial communication prevalence, any rumor can easily affect the middle management and can distract them from their actual goals or task. Grapevine communication has a potential to cause a serious threat to the reputation of a person or entire organization, therefore, it is important to ensure formal communication sources and to eliminate informal and unofficial communication sources to avoid any potential hazard. In the field if an account manager or field manager is advised the wrong information concerning a phone plan from another colleague due to Grapevine communication and then passes that information on to a customer it can cause a lot of damage and could possibly lose a phone sale in turning, hurting the brand of the account manager and or field manager that was given the incorrect information.

Conclusion and Recommendations

For the solution of any issue, it is important to first identify its root causes. The findings of this study have affectively identified the weak areas in communication system at Verizon Wireless in the indirect department, therefore, an effective solution can be proposed to improve the effectiveness of the organization. There is a need of a revised set of policy regarding information flow from top management to middle management to bottom-line. The biggest thing is to ensure that every official news, decision, meeting call, holiday, or anything else will be communicated through memos and letters. The top management would have to strictly follow this policy as this is the only way to convince middle management and supervisors to use a formal communication channel.

The use of proper communication channel will help in assuring that all information is dispersed in a timely consistent manner. For immediate tasks, it is important to send out information in advance. Another recommendation is to have an assessment and monitoring plan also that would help in the identification of employees who does not use proper communication channel. This will not only enhance the timeliness but also eliminates the grapevine source.

References

Eisenhauer, T. (2015, November 08). Why lack of communication has become the number one reason people quit. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/11/08/why-lack-of-communication-has-become-the-number-one-reason-people-quit/

Hart, C., Plemmons, T., Stulz, K., & Vroman, M. (2017). Auditing Communication Effectiveness In Higher Education: A Team-Based Study By MBA Students. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1137701.pdf.

Question 7

Receiving Information Sending Information to Others Sources of Information Timeliness of Information Channels of Communication 4.5 Question 10

Receiving Information Sending Information to Others Sources of Information Timeliness of Information Channels of Communication 1.9 Question 23

Receiving Information Sending Information to Others Sources of Information Timeliness of Information Channels of Communication 3.1 Question 28

Receiving Information Sending Information to Others Sources of Information Timeliness of Information Channels of Communication 1.6 Question 33

Receiving Information Sending Information to Others Sources of Information Timeliness of Information Channels of Communication 1.4