ITECH5401 Professional Communication

School of Engineering and Information Technology

Assignment 2: Group Assignment 2014 Semester 2

Part A. Oral Presentation with supporting written artefacts for

a workplace scenario;

Part B. Description and justification of communication strategy

for the workplace, with references.

Worth: 20% Type A

Due date: Refer to Course Description.

Objective:

The purpose of this assignment is to:

enable students to collaborate to plan and effectively implement a workplace
communication strategy;
enable students to demonstrate their ability to speak effectively in public and to
present to audiences such as peers, lecturers or tutors or potential clients
allow students to demonstrate the use of different conventions for
communicating orally and in written form - such as posters, case studies or
reflective journals etc.

Research the topic using books, journals and reputable websites (except Wikipedia).
There should be at least five (5) references. Each student must individually contribute
at least one reference.

Description of assignment:

Students will prepare a poster, report and/or other written artefacts for distribution
to staff within the context of their created scenario. Students will also demonstrate
their chosen strategy for oral communication using role-play within an oral
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ITECH5401 Professional Communication Group Assignment Sem 1, 2014
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presentation of 10 minutes + 5 minutes for question time. The assignment is to be
completed in a group and will be marked as a group. In addition to the material
created for the scenario, students will outline and describe their chosen
communication strategy and write a justification of their communication strategy
outlining how it suits their chosen target audience. This justification will include
citations and references. The reference material should support the chosen strategy
and provide examples where these strategies have been shown to be successful.
Please refer marking criteria for more detailed breakdown of marks.

Group composition:
You must choose your team from within your own tutorial group. Group sizes will
be limited to 3 students per group unless circumstances preclude this.
Assignment topic:

Implementing change in the workplace: communicating to manage cultural

change

Consider a workplace environment in which a technological change is about to be

introduced. For instance, it may be that all employees are about to be issued with an
ipad to take to meetings, or a smart phone. The manager is forward thinking and
wants to ensure that this cultural change toward more technology is managed well.
The manager hopes that all employees will embrace the new technology. You have
been tasked with the responsibility to manage the introduction of this change. You
need to consider how best to do this. It is important for you to encourage uptake of
the new technology and also manage the usage so that employees do not use the
technology inappropriately.

As a group, you will imagine a workplace scenario built on the above paragraph. You
will choose two(2) different employee groups and for each a different strategy for
communication. One strategy you choose must be based around written work (e.g.
poster, email, report or other). The other strategy you choose must be based around
an oral presentation (e.g. run a meeting, conduct interview/s, give a presentation, or
another oral-based situation). You will design and demonstrate by role play the oral
strategy chosen. This will be presented to the class. Additionally, you will submit
written supporting material.

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ITECH5401 Professional Communication Group Assignment Sem 1, 2014
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Assignment tasks:

I. Create a workplace scenario in which you will work on this task. Describe the
employees and the work environment. Provide an organizational chart that
describes at least 3 roles in the workplace (e.g. manager, floor supervisor,
receptionist, assembly production-line worker).
II. Choose a technology to be introduced and describe the existing culture in the
workplace relating to this technology. For example, you might construct a
scenario where a workplace is accepting the usage of personal IT devices in the
workplace or introducing mobile devices into the workplace to facilitate virtual
meetings across different geographic locations. You can create your own
scenario. Talk to your tutor to confirm that your scenario is appropriate.
III. Discuss within your group possible strategies for addressing how
communications may occur in your imagined workplace around the proposed
change. Research appropriate strategies that you could use. Collect references
to support your chosen strategies. You may script some mock interviews with
key staff to demonstrate how these would occur (and to highlight issues you
think may be relevant), or you might plan and run a meeting with an agenda
and demonstrate how they present a proposal to the CIO at their meeting, or
conduct a less formal staff meeting. Think about various audiences and the
appropriate communication styles that would fit and then the medium is it a
presentation, a poster, a report tabled or presented at a meeting?
IV. Choose two(2) different employee groups/roles that you will focus on for this
task.
V. For each employee group, consider how best to communicate information to
staff in that group/role. Consult reference material to inform your decision. You
may choose to (for example):
a. hold a staff meeting; or
b. create posters for the staff room;
c. send an email;
d. other
For your chosen audience, write a justification of your chosen communication
strategy. Ensure you appropriately cite and reference material as evidence to
support your choice.
VI. Design a communication strategy to effectively manage and inform the
employees in each of your chosen roles about the workplace change. This may
result in a written report and/or become part of your presentation. Consult
reference material to inform your strategic planning. Your strategy might
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 involve, for instance:
a. conduct a survey of current workplace habits, then use that data to
support the need for change;
b. conduct a pilot trial where one division uses the new technology and
then makes recommendations before it is rolled out to all staff;
c. focus group or individual interview with employees on their current
behaviour and try to then convince them of the benefits of change
possible with the new technology;
d. presentation/training sessions;
e. other?

In your workplace presentation and written artefacts, address the following aspects:
Benefits and opportunities provided by the new technology;
Protocols to govern how staff will use (and not use) the new technology;
Any consequences for inappropriate use of the new technology;
How the change will be managed (e.g. timeline of introduction
and adoption of the new technology).

Part B.
Write a formal description of your task include your workplace description,
organizational chart and a brief outline of the scenario. Outline your chosen
communication strategy. In this academic writing, use references to support and justify
your choice of communication strategy. Consider the target audience profile, the
number of people in the target audience as well as the mechanisms for communication
of the message. Each student should contribute to this document by providing an
annotated bibliography for a relevant reference (submit these as appendices).

Submission requirements
Part A. You are required to submit all your written artefacts as well as your
presentation notes/script. You must also submit a short profile description of
your intended audience (each employee groups).

Part B. Submit a written report that describes your situation and your chosen
communication strategy. The report should provide your academic justification
of why your chosen strategy is the appropriate form of communication to these
groups of employees. Use appropriate reference material to support your
justification.

Also submit a contribution statement to indicate how each group member

contributed to each piece of submitted work.
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 Plagiarism

It is important to learn from the work of others and you are encouraged to explore
the library, World Wide Web resources and have discussions with other students.
However, work for the assessment must be entirely your own work.

Plagiarism is the presentation of the expressed thought or work of another person

as though it is one's own without properly acknowledging that person.

You must not allow other students to copy your work and must take care to
safeguard against this happening. In cases of copying, normally all students
involved will be penalised equally; an exception will be if you can demonstrate the
work is your own and you took reasonable care to safeguard against copying.
Plagiarism is a serious offence. As set out in the University Regulation 6.1.1.,
students who are caught plagiarising will, for a first offence, be given a zero mark
for that task. A second offence will result in a failing grade for the course involved
and any subsequent offence will be referred to the Student Discipline Committee.
University Referencing/Citation Style Guide:
The University has published a style guide to help students correctly reference and
cite information they use in assignments. A copy of the Universitys citation guides
can be found on the universitys web site.

http://federation.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/164121/FedUni-General-
Guide-to-Referencing-2014.pdf

It is imperative that students cite all sources of information.

References

Mohan, T., McGregor, H., Saunders, S., & Archee, R. (2008). Communicating as
Professionals (2nd Ed.).
South Melbourne, Victoria: Cengage Learning.

Archee, R., Mohan, T., & Gurney, M. (2013). Communicating as Professionals (3rd Ed.).
South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning Australia.

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ITECH5401 Professional Communication Group Assignment Sem 1, 2014
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WRITTEN ARTEFACTS /30 Student ID Grade

(15 marks)
High level of skill in presenting relevant ideas appropriate to the target
Artefacts produced: audience. Ideas are well informed. Selection of artefacts are appropriate,
14 15
based on references. Writing is of a high standard, is clear and well
Executive summary expressed. Most of the writing is written in your own words. Appropriate
report for CIO artefacts produced.

Report for distribution Ideas are adequately presented. Most of the content is appropriate to the
to staff 11-13
target audience. Some references have been used to inform the content.
Writing is acceptable. Appropriate artefacts produced.
Email to staff
The purpose of the written artefact is not clear, content is not well planned
Training guide
or not based on reference material. Content of some writing is too similar
8-10
Poster to the original source or it is not concise, clear or accurate. There are a
number of sentence structure and expression problems evident. The
Other: artefact partially addresses the requirements.

(Artefacts must be Poor understanding of the purpose of the document. Inadequate reference
contextually appropriate to an appropriate background reference. Writing is unclear, inaccurate or 0-7
and consistent with chosen hard to follow. Spelling, sentence structure and expression are problematic
communication strategy.) and/or the document is incomplete.

Artefact includes a full citation which complies with the general guide. All
Annotated bibliography artefacts that should contain references include appropriate references and
5
and Referencing correct citations.

(5 marks) An artefact which is clearly based on reference material does not include a 4
full citation and/or the full citations mainly comply with the general guide.

The full citations are partially complete and only partly comply with the 2-3
general guide.

0-1
The citations are incomplete and do not comply with the general guide

Clear evidence that students have considered the target audience as well
as consulted appropriate reference material in order to choose
communication strategy. The communication strategy is clearly articulated. 9-10
Artefacts presented are consistent with the strategy. Justification of the
communication strategy is clear with appropriate citations to support it.
Outline of communication
strategy and
Justification of chosen Some evidence that students have considered the target audience. Some
communication strategy indication that reference material has informed the content of the written 7-8
(10 marks)
artefact. The communication strategy seems appropriate. More in depth
content would improve the overall content.

Minimal justification of the communication strategy or justification is based 5-6

on informal opinion rather than supported by appropriate references.

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STUDENT PRESENTATION /30 Group Student ID

0-1 2 3 4-5

Audience cannot Audience has difficulty Student presents Student presents

understand following presentation information in logical information in a
presentation because student sequence which logical, interesting
Organization
because there is no jumps around. audience can follow. sequence which
sequence of audience can follow.
information.

Student does not Student is Student is at ease Student demonstrates

have grasp of uncomfortable with with expected full knowledge (more
information; student information and is answers to all than required) by
Subject
cannot answer able to answer only questions, but fails to answering all class
Knowledge
questions about rudimentary elaborate. questions with
subject. questions. explanations and
elaboration.

Student uses Student occasionally Student's graphics Student's graphics

superfluous uses graphics that relate to text and explain and reinforce
Graphics
graphics or no rarely support text and presentation. screen text and
graphics presentation. presentation.

Student's Presentation has Presentation has no Presentation has no

presentation has three misspellings more than two misspellings or
Mechanics of
four or more and/or grammatical misspellings and/or grammatical errors.
supporting
spelling errors errors. grammatical errors.
material
and/or grammatical
errors.

Student reads all of Student occasionally Student maintains Student maintains eye
report with no eye uses eye contact, but eye contact most of contact with audience,
Eye Contact contact. still reads most of the time but seldom returning to
report. frequently returns to notes.
notes.

Student mumbles, Student's voice is low. Student's voice is Student uses a clear
incorrectly Student incorrectly clear. Student voice and correct,
pronounces terms, pronounces terms. pronounces most precise pronunciation
Elocution and speaks too Audience members words correctly. Most of terms so that all
quietly for students have difficulty hearing audience members audience members
in the back of class presentation. can hear can hear presentation.
to hear. presentation.

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 Mark Summary Student Name ID

Item Group Individual

Mark
Mark
Total Mark
Written work /30 /30 (Scaled to /20)

Oral Presentation /30 /30

/20
Total /60 /60

NB. Individual student mark may be less than group mark if contributions of all team
members are not equal.

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