Organizational communication portfolio and class reflection
Organizational Communication Portfolio and Course Reflection
An Overview of Organizational Communication Course and Final Portfolio
Jordan Cox-Smith
Central Washington University
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Organizational communication portfolio and class reflection
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
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Table of Contents
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Abstract
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Reflection
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Week 3 Assignment
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Week 4 Assignment
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Week 5 Assignment
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Week 7 Assignment
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Week 8 Assignment
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Week 9 Assignment
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Organizational communication portfolio and class reflection
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Abstract
The following document will include a reflection of the Central Washington
University communications course “Communication 365, Organizational
Communication” course and the final project required for completion. I will touch down
on the overall course evaluation and evaluation and assessment of the final project.
Each document included in the project will include an explanation of why the particular
document was selected and also improvements that were made.
Keywords: Organizational Communication, Central Washington University, Jordan CoxSmith, Robin Fuller, Organizational Culture, Communications and Public Relations.
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Reflection of Organizational Communication Course and Final Project
After a long journey through the many concepts and theories covered throughout
our organizational communications course, I would be glad to say that I learned a lot
that can assist me in my occupational future. As a public relations major here at Central
Washington University, it was critical that I learned about the concepts of Organizational
Communication so that I am able to know what it takes to create or maintain a strong
culture within an organization. Organizational communication is defined on
businessdictionary.com as “A process by which activities of a society are collected and
coordinated to reach the goals of both individuals and the collective group. It is a
subfield of general communications studies and is often a component to effective
management in a workplace environment.” (Business Dictionary, 2012).
”I am also a sociology major here at CWU, I believe that the research aspect
along with the knowledge of sociological factors that can effect an organizations culture.
Knowing the sociological environment that your organization is in is instrumental in fully
understanding your organizations culture. If the culture within your organization is
damaged in any way, it can impede the progression to your team’s goals. In this
particular essay, I will do an overview of the course with evaluations, areas of
improvement, and also an overall assessment of the course and my final project
portfolio.
There are a variety of elements that are needed to create a strong culture within
a given organization, which we covered in class. A combination of weekly activities,
quizzes, assignments, discussions, and reviews made it so that we learned the content
from a variety of methods and perspectives which was a major factor in understanding
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the content given. At first, I thought that the content thrown at us in the beginning was a
bit intensive but after going through it, I understand why you formatted your class that
way. This course put an emphasis on deadlines being met and I believe that is another
aspect where I improved. This was evident at the beginning of the class where we were
all pressured to get things done immediately.
Another concept that I found very significant as a public relations major was the
balancing and constraint concepts that were covered in week 2. When it comes to
communication within organization, it is significant to balance the creativity and
constraint in communication among individuals in an organization. “We believe that
communication is the moment-to-moment working out of the tension between individual
creativity and organizational constraint” (Eisenberg 32). One of the reasons why it is so
significant for organizations to balance their communication between individuals is
because throughout our society, people create social reality or organize through
communication in there given environment.
The organizational communication textbook makes a great example of when they
explain the communication process that is used in the design of a retail store. It was a
big point that the organizations paid attention to the multicultural differences in your
given organization and the different worldviews and dreams; this means that it is not up
to one individual to call all of the shots. Having the ability to respect the multicultural
diversity of your respected organization and eliminate ethnocentrism in organizational
communication. Making sure that you give your associates enough creativity so that
they feel that they have the ability to effectively express themselves is essential in the
progression of your organization towards its goals.
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After going over my assignments throughout the quarter, I have found that
I have learned a great deal due to the intense focus on interacting with students and
also the professor in the class. The collaboration between the instructor and all of the
students made for the content of organizational communication a lot easier to
understand. It provided an array of alternate perspectives which made it easier for me to
understand. A lot of the time, courses of this nature are straight out of the textbook
which makes it more difficult to understand and get behind; but having the interaction
with other students on multiple mediums, it made it so that you could go at attacking the
content and understanding it from different perspectives and mediums. The significance
of feedback and peer evaluation is essential in creating an healthy culture within your
organization. In this course, you had the ability to improve a great deal within any
subject you were not familiar with because of the ability to communicate with your
peers. A memorable discussion with my peers that I remember was a discussion on the
significance of leadership and the different types of leaders individuals believed
themselves to be. It was interesting to see individuals try to classify themselves as a
certain type of leader; this caused the students to think outside of the box which I
thought it was a good strategy in understanding the information.
After completing all of the assignments, I thought that there were a few
assignments that I did better on compared to some assignments that I did not fully
understand. The assignments that I fully understood and felt that I filled every
requirement were my week 4 and 5 assignments where I received a perfect score of 65.
My week four assignment focused on the importance of developing a strong culture
within your organization. The importance of cultural awareness within an organization is
Organizational communication portfolio and class reflection
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essential in maintaining a solid public image and positive status with associates inside
of the organization. To get this message across, I decided that it would be efficient to
use an AP press release format which highlighted sociological researched that found
the significance of maintaining a strong culture within your organization. The week 5
assignment that I completed was intended to answer a series of questions on
organizational dominance by company’s management. The organization that I
represented in this assignment was a business research company which sent out a
questionnaire whose intent was to figure out how common corporate dominance was
within their workplace. I thought that both of these assignments showcased my
creativity in presenting information in a visual appealing and content rich matter. Critical
thinking was essential in these assignments because as a writer, you must find a way to
get the content across in a manner that your audience will understand. If you try to pull
straight from the textbook, you can lose your audience and which will result in you not
getting your content across.
The formatting of my assignments in my opinion is just as important as the
content provided in the assignment itself. I take pride in the appearance of my work, I
always make sure that my audience knows who is addressing them and why without
having to look too deep into the content itself. The key points that I like to consistently
hit on is providing the reader with contact information and also letting the reader know of
my intent. There are a few assignments that I believed that I could have formatted better
to suite my intended audience. In my week 8 assignment, I thought that I could have
formatted the hard copy of a memo in a better way. I would have to admit that I got a bit
lazy on this assignment which is why I intended to make drastic changes to it. There is
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always room for improvement as a writer and it is imperative that as a writer you realize
that and always looks to improve. The focus of my revision of my assignments was on
not only the formatting, but also on the content offered.
Taking this course has taught me a lot about the importance of creating and
maintaining a strong culture within an organization. At the beginning of the quarter, I
was not fully sure about what exactly organizational communication was, but after this
quarter, I feel I have a lot better understanding. The significance of having a strong
culture and open communication lines within your organization was a lot bigger than I
previous believed. I believe that organizational communication is a great minor to
obtain; it will complement my public relations and sociology majors.
Overall, I found this class to be extremely beneficial towards my future as a
public relations practitioner, the importance of organizational communication is essential
no matter what career pathway you choose to go down. The significance of organization
communication is huge within any given company. After completing all of these
assignments, discussion boards, wiki’s, and journals, I felt that I have a deeper
knowledge of the significance of organizational communication. This course provided
real life situations that opened students creativity up which is what made this class so
intriguing. It was great that you were able to provide us students with feedback on our
work so that we could look deeper into our work and improve on it. Overall, this course
taught me a lot and I would recommend it to other students.
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WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT
To: Gerald Black, Human Resources Manager of Iron Horse Brewery
From: Jordan Cox-Smith, Project Manager
Subject: New effective approach to the organization of projects using Hierarchy of Needs
Date: January 20, 2012
After researching a variety of organizations tactics and strategies when it comes to the
development of projects, I came across a highly efficient approach to the organization of needs within a
project. The needs hierarchy approach was inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs has proven to be one of, if not, the most essential element
within an organizations human resources management, using this as the system of your communication
tactics within your given organization. The Hierarchy of Needs range from the lowest level of needs which
is physiological needs to the highest which is self-actualization. The same base is used for the approach
to project organizations, it is important that you organize projects like you would individuals. “Projects are
like people. They can be stubborn or cooperative, miserable or fun. Like people, they have needs. Unmet
needs affect the project.” (Brenner, 2011). Maslow’s original model started with the lowest level,
physiological, then safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and then the highest self-actualization.
The needs hierarchy for projects in my opinion is a very effective approach to create a system
that focuses on the organizational aspects of developing a project. In this approach, the lowest level of
need is resources which include the needs for people, a budget, equipment, and also time. The second
level is stability within resources and team structure. The next level is the business purpose which
incorporates multiple projects. Esteem is the second highest level in this approach which focuses on the
execution of the given project. The highest and most important need in the project approach is the
delivery actualization. The delivery actualization level is the need to deliver as promised which is an on
time, acceptable service or product. I believe that this is an effective approach to the organization of
projects (Brenner, 2011). The reason I believe that this has the potential to become an essential aspect of
project development is because to focus of certain priorities like the delivery of an acceptable project
produced by an organization.
Thank You,
Jordan Cox-Smith
Inspire Project Management Corporation
206-999-3344
JordanCoxSmith@InspirePMC.com
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WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENT
The Importance of a Strong Culture within an Organization
ELLENSBURG, Wash. Jan. 28, 2012- In recent sociological studies, we have found the
importance of cultural awareness within an organization is essential in maintaining a
solid public image and positive status with associates inside of the organization.
Looking at organizations from a sociological perspective focuses on the importance of
organizational culture. Authors Eric Weisenberg, H.L. Goodall Jr., and Angela Trethewey
in the organizational communication text book state that “organizational culture stands
for the actions, ways of thinking, practices, stories, and artifacts that characterize a
particular organization”.
Having a strong culture within your organization is significant in attaining your
organizational goals; the culture within an organization can be reflected by the
environment and its use of symbols that represent the organization. It is a lot easier to
obtain your organizational goals if the culture is strong within it, it is essential that as an
organization, you do not ignore the individual cultures that make it up.
The advantages of engineering a strong culture are that not only that your associates
have the comfort and ability to express themselves and work more efficiently, but it will
also improve your public image. The culture of your organization is defined by all
aspects of your organization which are defined by almost everything you do.
The disadvantage of trying to engineer a strong culture within your organization is that it
may take a lot of extra time to organize. Other disadvantages include the cost factory
and also getting all associates to cooperate with one another to make a strong culture.
The advantages of creating a strong organizational culture far exceed the negatives of
focusing on it. Creating a strong culture within your organization will take time to see the
true benefits. It can create a strong public image and chemistry within your
organization. It may take extra effort, time, and money but it will be worth it in the long
road when thinking about the longevity of a given organization.
Media Contact
Jordan Cox-Smith
Society for Human Resources Management
CoxSmithJ@shrm.com
206-888-9989
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WEEK 5 ASSIGNMENT
Questionnaire on Organizational Culture
Please take your time to fill out this questionnaire as honestly as possible; they are open ended questions
so feel free to elaborate as much as you need. Of course this questionnaire will be an anonymous and
strictly used for research regarding dominated organizational ideologies and what tactics to take to
eliminate associates of a particular organization feeling oppressed.
1. What is your gender?
a. Male
b. Female
c. No Comment
2. What is your race?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Asian/Pacific Islander
African American , Black
Hispanic/Mexican
White
American Indian
Other
3. At your job, do you feel like you have the freedom to express yourself within the
organization?
a. Yes
b. No
4. At your job, do you feel that the culture of the organization and there ideologies dominate
the feeling of individuality within the organization? If so, please explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
5. Do you feel that the associates within the job that you work at all get treated equally when
it comes to individual expression? If so, please explain.
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___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
6. How do you feel the overall culture is of the organization you are employed at? Please
explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
7. Are the discipline policies at the organization you work at overly strict or too lenient? Please
explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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WEEK 7 ASSIGNMENT
TO: Project Managers and Team Leaders
FROM: Jordan Cox-Smith, Project Management Institute Representative
SUBJECT: Programs to help improve teamwork and team chemistry
DATE: February 17, 2012
Enclosed in today’s memo is a video provided to you by Simple Truths Motivational and Inspirational Gifts that is
about the Blue Angles ideology on teamwork. Also in this memo is another video about a newly developing project
management program that we believe can develop stronger teams and create a more organized environment.
We here at the Project Management Institute believe that this information provided can assist project managers look
at teamwork from a different perspective. The program that we are offering can be viewed in the second video which is
featuring the Teamwork Project program that offers a well-organized program perfect for project management team leaders
who are responsible for leading large complex groups with a variety of tasks using multiple mediums.
Here are the links to the video provided below:
Teamwork Project webpage: http://www.twproject.com/
Blue Angles video “Power of Teamwork” off Simple Truths: http://www.powerofteamworkmovie.com/
Here at the Project Management Institute we believe that both of these concepts could help you organizations
teamwork on major projects. Like it said in the Power of Teamwork video, it is important that your team works together and is
on the same page when it comes to overall goals. Teamwork makes the dream work; so it is essential to have shared basic
values so that your team can reach its full potential.
With the Teamwork Project program, we believe that project managers could benefit from it if team leaders would
enjoy a highly organized program that offers a variety of services. The program offers a timesheet that different associates can
log in to, issue tracking, document linking and it also offers to integrate a variety of programs. Some of the programs that can
be integrated with this program are Outlook, Entourage, Google, Ical, and also iPhone and other Apple products. If you feel that
the downfall of your project is the digital organization aspect of it, we suggest that you incorporate the Teamwork project
program. Smaller organizations may have more trouble trying to afford such an expensive program for their organization.
If you have any other questions about either of these programs feel free to contact us by e-mail, phone number, or
the website provided below.
Thank you and have a great day,
Jordan Cox-Smith
Project Management Institute
3298 SE. 4th Street
Kent, Washington 98031
Fax: (206) 889-9628
Phone: (206) 483-2239
Email: Projectmanage@gmail.com
www.Projectmanagementinstitute.com
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WEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT
TO: Project Managers and Team Leaders
FROM: Jordan Cox-Smith, Project Management Institute Representative
SUBJECT: Leadership styles within project management
DATE: February 23, 2012
Hello again Project Managers and Team Leaders,
Today I am contacting you regarding a question that I received from a team member within one of the
organizations that we are observing. The question asked was, “what are the most effective leadership styles when
it comes to managing a team”. We have found 5 effective styles that we believe can assist the progression of your
team towards its ultimate goal.
The first approach to leadership that we will highlight is Trait Leadership within teams. Trait leadership
focuses entirely on an individual’s physical and social attributes. Trait models were more popular from the 1930s1950s where they were used to build profiles on successful business leaders. The second approach that we will
focus on is the theory of leadership style. “Leadership style should be conceived of as a continuum from autocratic
(boss-centered power and authority) to democratic (managers and subordinates share power and authority) to
laissez-faire (subordinate-centered power and authority with little to no guidance from managers) (Trethewey,
Goodall, Eisenberg, 2010).
The third approach to leadership is situational leadership. Situational leadership suggests that appropriate
leadership emerges from behavior that is responsive to varied situations (Trethewey, Goodall, Eisenberg, 2010).
Another approach to consider is transformational leadership which is more commonly on international
organizations. Transformational leadership foregrounds organizational change and transformation as the essential
task of effective leaders.
The last approach to consider would be discursive leadership which focuses on the social, cultural and
linguistic aspect of leadership. I would find myself using the discursive leadership approach when it comes to
leading a group. Cultural forces within an individual’s society can have a major effect on the way that they are able
to be led. The Balance of Constraint and Creativity is huge in this particular approach where it draws theories on
social constructions of reality within our organization.
Hopefully this information was useful in your assessment of the approaches which are used when it
comes to leading a team or organization. If you have any other questions, feel free to call or e-mail us here at the
Project Management Institute
Thank you and have a great day,
Jordan Cox-Smith
Project Management Institute
3298 SE. 4th Street
Kent, Washington 98031
Fax: (206) 889-9628
Phone: (206) 483-2239
Email: Projectmanage@gmail.com
www.Projectmanagementinstitute.com
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WEEK 9 ASSIGNMENT
Advertisement analysis blog, “AdFreak” offers a collection of
strategic positioning advertisements
SEATTLE, Wash. – Advertisement web page AdFreak offers a variety of strategic positioning
advertisements from multiple organizations. Researchers are taking advantage of such a vast
collection of advertisements.
AdFreak’s popularity is spreading as many marketing campaign development organizations are
using the collection of advertisement campaigns to research successful, and not successful
strategic positioning tactics.
Strategic positioning in today’s market place can either make or break an organizations
advertisement campaign. HTC Mobile Global Marketing Director Josh Baker goes on to explain
successful strategic positioning. “The goal of strategic placement is to differentiate your market
offering and create value for your market. There are a few organizations that do it better than
others that can be viewed on AdFreak.”
The use of social media in strategic positioning is essential in the success of an advertisement.
The use of such social media outlets as Facebook and Twitter offer the disbursement of
information at a low cost. Blogs are also effective, the word of mouth can power any given
campaign. An example of this can be seen in the BMW advertisements on the ultimate driving
machine. This sparked a larger discussion about that claim which brought a great deal of
publicity to the product. These conversations can also be viewed on BMW’s Twitter and
Facebook pages.
AdFreak offers both successful and unsuccessful advertisements for your viewing. “There are a
few elements that are essential in creating a successful persuasive campaign. Uniqueness can
carry you far in the market place,” said Baker. “A great example of strategic positioning can be
seen on AdFreak with the Ragu’ ad that featured the insane pasta wearing mom, this ad was
unique which differentiates its self in a vast marketplace.”
For more information, please visit www.adfreak.com or www.threefourink.com
MEDIA CONTACT
Jordan Cox-Smith
Phone: (206) 697-5385
Email: Coxsmitj@cwu.edu