SCCA 3023 Communication Audit 1.

0 Executive Summary The Centre for University-Industry Collaboration (CUIC) has started as a sub-unit known as Career and Industrial Placement Unit (UKPI) under the Research and Consultancy Institute. Besides that, the University Executive Council has approved the status of the Practicum Unit to become a Practicum Centre. The Practicum Centre has also changed its name to the Centre for University-Industry Link (UIL) in 2008. The functions of UIL include academic activities such as managing curriculum development programmes and non-academic activities such as organising vacation trainee programmes, career programmes and job-matching programmes. Under this new structure UIL also assists the Registrar's Department, UUM to place staff in industries (under staff industrial attachment programme) and bridge the three colleges with various industries for various academic programmes. UIL has been restructured and known as the Centre for University-Industry Collaboration (CUIC) On 15 August 2010. Apart from structural changes, CUIC has also been given new functions which include managing academic staff placement process, coordinating Industrial PhD Programme, organising industry related programmes and activities, and commercializing UUM research products. We have chosen two methods as for data gaining on CUIC communication practices. Observation and interview the key person in CUIC. Regarding our observation and interview, we have found few weaknesses in the organization. The staff involved in helping others to get his/her work to be done. This issue might face setback in sense of productivity. Besides that, the placement of the staffs working station is too congested. In addition, we found out the director approach towards her staff is a bit pushy through our interview. Based on our observation, we saw the organization`s cultural and their working norms. We found out that human behaviors and organization norms can shows their problems in the organization. In observation, we have the chance to assume certain possibilities and to prove the validity of our assumptions or predictions interviews will be the right instrument. Besides that, we had interviewed some key person in the organization whose are Assistant Administrative Officer, Director of CUIC and the secretary. According to the interview, we had found how the communication between upper management and lower management. Besides that, upper management willing to listen their workers idea whiles some decision-making.

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit

2.0 Corporate Overview The Centre for University-Industry Collaboration (CUIC) has started as a sub-unit known as Career and Industrial Placement Unit (UKPI) under the Research and Consultancy Institute. In February 1992, UKPI has been combined with the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development. With the increasing number of students registered for practicum, in August 1994, UKPI has been separated from the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development and functioned as an isolated unit. Later, on 15 September 1997, UKPI has been renamed and known as the Practicum and International Education Unit (UPPA). On January 23, 2000 the University Executive Council has decided that the centre should fully focus on all practicum matters. On 25 April 2004, the University Executive Council has approved the status of the Practicum Unit to become a Practicum Centre. In 2008, the Practicum Centre has also changed its name to the Centre for University-Industry Link (UIL). The functions of UIL include academic activities such as managing curriculum development programmes and non-academic activities such as organising vacation trainee programmes, career programmes and job-matching programmes. Under this new structure UIL also assists the Registrar's Department, UUM to place staff in industries (under staff industrial attachment programme) and bridge the three colleges with various industries for various academic programmes. On 15 August 2010, UIL has been restructured and known as the Centre for University-Industry Collaboration (CUIC). Apart from structural changes, CUIC has also been given new functions which include managing academic staff placement process, coordinating Industrial Ph.D Programme, organising industry related programmes and activities, and commercializing UUM research products. Part of the main practicum management processes that are registration and assessment were reallocated to the Colleges. Meanwhile career related programmes shall only be in the form of intervention programmes that are specially organized for final year undergraduates irrespective of programmes and colleges. CIUCs mission is to provide excellent avenues that enhance universityindustry collaborations for mutual benefits by stimulating application, communication, integration and discovery of knowledge the vision is to become the gateway to sustainable university-industry

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit collaborations including this four elements, which is business focus, leadership, destination and strategic intent.

3.0 Methodology In order to gain data regarding CUIC communication practices, two methods been carried away. Observation and interview some key people in CUIC. Observation was carried away for three days. First day, it was regarding communication between upper level and lower level. Formal or informal communication which are the most been used. The effectiveness of delivering and receiving information been observed. Second day, it was more on communication between staffs. How they work together, share ideas, manage work stress and are there any morale support between them. Third day, it was on the usage of technology for communication purpose. What type of tools been used to communicate? Does the information or data flows easily or there are few setbacks. Each day four out of six of us will take do the observations and take shift for the three days. In every organization there will be vision and mission that play an important role as guidelines for the whole management to be in the right track. Second, few top people in CUIC were interviewed. The purpose of these interviews is to gain more information regarding communication practices and setbacks in the organization. Director, Secretary, and Administration Officer were interviewed. Besides that, information from the interviews will show us clear picture when we compare with our observation results. Observation might give us little thing to analysis, thats why we need interview top people and few people from lower management to earn the right data. Interview was carried away through informal way so respondents will be more relaxed and the chances for them to tell the true thing are high. Easy questions were designed so respondents will feel comfortable to answer. The purpose to interview both level is to see what the expectations towards each other are. 4.0 Analysis After observations and several interviews were carried away we found out there are few weakness in the organization. The staff involved in helping others to get his/her work to be done. The weakness that we found regarding this favor is when staff A helps staff B to get the work done,

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit staff B are not learning anything because someone is finishing his/her task. If this goes on the organization might face setback in sense of productivity. We highlighted this weakness because we could predict the possibilities of such action (helping other colleagues) that it will bring down the productivity and there is no gaining new experience for those who received continuously favor. In an organization senior staff helping around the junior it is a common situation but by helping around for a long time, then what is left for junior staff to learn. Every staff has their own job description and sticking to it will be much appreciated by the organization. Furthermore, CUIC have 30 staffs, every task have been delegated and assigned whom have to do it. Thats what we call following the order but if a staff wants to do another staffs task it can be considered has breaking the order. There are 22 administrative officers where each of them has different responsibilities such as administration for forms, talent finding, talent management, internship management and etc. We found out the staffs that are assigned for talent finding also doing administration for forms because they believe there are too many forms so they could help around. After help around the form rising is not recorded. Forms that are out and in the record couldnt be matched. Administration officer which handles the form have too much of free time to chit chat around because her task have handled by others. Those three days after observations and interviews this is the main weakness we identified. Besides that, the placement of the staffs working station is too congested. When all are arranged too close, there is less movement and all looked packed. Indirectly it will bring stress and staff couldnt focus on certain task. Furthermore, chances to have creative mind set are low due to lack of spacious area to work. We saw the staffs having difficulties to move around and when they do others get distracted by their movements. In addition to that, through our interview, we found out the director approach towards her staff is a bit pushy. She might think she is motivating them but the truth, from her action staff will be focusing on getting the task done quickly and produce less quality outcome.

5.0 Audit Diary 24 April 2012 (8am-4pm)

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit Observations based on communication process between the upper management and lower management. Staff wore formal attires with their IDs on. There was a whiteboard which shows what are the tasks yet to be done and who are assigned for it. We could see the director use faceto-face communication more often to deliver certain message. Staffs prefer the same type of communication. Formal data or information, email been used to deliver and send feedbacks. At one moment the director was asking the staffs to move fast on getting task regarding talent management reports to be done. Normizan Bt Yusoff (Assistant Administrative Officer) was interviewed. She just joined CUIC and she is very comfortable with the management. A friendly and committed type person. Due to we ran informal interview she tell us the truth and real point of view. 25 April 2012 (8am-4pm) Observations based on the communication process between the staffs. Everyone of them are very punctual. Right after sign in at 8am they carry on with their task. Few of them looked stressful due to yet to finish task. The relationship between staffs is very close like a family. They motivate each other by asking others difficulties and give solutions. The working place was lively because some of them were singing in chorus and other was enjoying it. At the same time we found out the workstation area is very congested. Hard for the staffs to move around. Most of them use face-to-face communication. There are memos too for informing non-formal things such as celebrating staffs birthday. Prof. Dr. Hartini Ahmad (Director) was interviewed. On the first day couldnt get her because she was busy. A person who is very dedicated and focused personality. She was telling that she is quite happy with her staffs because they respect and follows her ideas. 26 April 2012 (8am-4pm) Observation based on what are the communication tools been used in CUIC. We saw administration officer was doing receptionist work and when we asked why she replied here staff involve in multitasking. Nothing much, just email and memo been used to communicate but most of the time they are using face-to-face communication.

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit Qistina binti Mohd Nafis (Secretary) was interviewed. We asked regarding the relationship between director and staffs. What are alternative ways been taken in CUIC to overcome stress? She answered us patiently with smiles. We manage to gather correct data from her because she holds a key position as a bridge in between the upper management and the lower management.

6.0 Result In communication audit, although the effective feedback requires sensitivity to clients ability to process the information, there are several considerations audit instruments that we need to identify and determine which is the one of the best instrument that we or CUIC can use it to get maximum information on the next communication audit. Based on our assessment from both instruments, observation and interview, will be limited in terms of completeness or in the ability to identify communication problem in CUIC. The main reason is because of the organizations culture. Most of the employees at CUIC are avoid from audited, they are not openness and not comfortable at all to be observed. So, we only can analyze the surface communication problem from the organization. We found out reveal content of jobs and roles, identify the effects of individual personalities and clarify formal communication structure through the interview. Focus group is a good instrument that can encourage people to think the organization as a whole. We can found out the problem from internal communication. For example we detected CUICs staffs like to get involve in others work by calling it as favor. We can gather this group and tell them, the actual consequence by helping others. When you get others work to be done, others are not learning anything new and indirectly it does bring down the productivity. Focus group will help the staffs to be clear with their own task and work hard to hit organizations objectives.

7.0 Recommendation & Conclusion

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit We believe observation and interview are the best two instruments can be used in the process of communication audit. In any organization, human behaviors and organization norms can tell off the problem or lacking. To get a clear picture we continue with interviews. When we do observation, we have the chance to assume certain possibilities and to prove the validity of our assumptions or predictions interviews will be the right instrument. For observation, three type of observation can be carried away. First it will be more on hows the communication process between upper management and lower management. This is to see whether upper management sending right information and lower management giving constant feedback. Upper management will drive the lower management by sticking to the vision and mission so through the communication between them we can observe are both parties clear with their role and organization running smoothly. Second it will be on communication between the employees. This is for finding out are the employees clear with the objectives and the working rate (individual and group) is good. Employees are an organizations biggest asset, if they work together as team and produce quality outcome (productivity) it will bring profits to the organization itself but before that we have make sure all of them are communicating well with each other. Third, observation can be on what are the tools or channel existed in the organization for communication process. If they have emails observe how frequent the employee check it, do they have updated bulletin boards, memos used for what, which one is effective virtually or face-to-face communication? For interview, it would good if manage to get a represent from each department for an organization which consists of less than 50 employees. One person is more than enough because they are aware of every single thing happening in their respective department. Question can designed in simpler way and most of the interview session must carried away in more informal way so respondent will give right answer (relaxed and not stressed). These are examples of question you may ask the respondents; Q: Q: Q: How many staffs are working here? What is the relationship like among the staffs? What about the director and staffs?

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit Q: Q: Q: What you can say about the time punctuality? There is any morale support among the staffs? How does the information flows in the organization, how effective the emails, bulletin boards, memos, face-to-face communication and etc.? Q: which one is the best for a communication process? (Email, memos, bulletin board, faceto-face communication, phone calls) Q: Q: Do you think the information sent and received successfully? What you can say about your directors approach when it comes to getting a task done?

After observations and interviews were carried away we found out there are three weaknesses in CUIC. Staffs involved in helping other too much, workstation area is congested, and director intends to be pushy. Our recommendations towards these problems are, staffs have their own responsibility and task. Even though it might look like helping a colleague but directly it shows colleague will not learn anything new due to help from other staff. Helping to get others work to be done should be avoided because staffs are enough. Staffs working station (tables) are arranged too close and it will create stress because cant move freely anywhere. The tables must arrange with much space surrounding so staffs can focus well in their daily task. The last one, director choose to be a bit pushy due to wanting staff to be more productivity but the style go through some changes. Director can be more motivating rather than being pushy. By doing this staffs will feel more comfortable and produce quality outcomes. In conclusion, problems or setbacks do arise in an organization. Actions must be taken to solve it immediately to prevent organization from getting bad name. Here comes communication audit in order to alter or design new communication flow, which run smoothly. We believe observation and interview are more than enough to identify the real problem in an organization.

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit

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SCCA 3023 Communication Audit +best+instrument&source=bl&ots=5MscX7g7av&sig=eTxVBZQrxbs2bCpydS4Snvnl30c &hl=en&sa=X&ei=uZukT5n8FovkrAfm2N39AQ&ved=0CGIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q= communication%20audit%20report%20-%20best%20instrument&f=false Keiser, B, E., Alexandria., Stein, P, H., Raton, B. (2006). Conducting a Comprehensive Communications Audit. Retrieved from http://www.sla.org/PDFs/2006CPKeiser.pdf Walt, S. (2006). Communication at ICG: Internal Communication Audit as an Integrated Measuring Instrument. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.my/books/about/ Communication_at_the_ICG.html?id=MnpMNwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y.

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