Part: 1 : recording

Length: Interview: aim for 20 minutes, maximum 1/2 hour.

Submitted recording section: choose a 5 min segment.

1. Choose an organisation with more than four employees, relevant to your field of study (e.g. a sports organisation; an accountancy firm; a tourism company; a nonprofit organisation; a hotel or resort, a museum or gallery, etc.).
2. Do some independent research on the organisation, e.g. by browsing their website or collecting brochures, promotional material, and information about the organisation’s structure.
3. Using the theories and skills put forward in Topic 10, “Interviewing”, design a set of interview questions, geared to gather information about the following communication issues in organisations:
   • Intercultural communication.
   • Persuasion and motivation.
   • Presentations.
   • Groups, meetings and discussions (formal and informal).
   • Trust and/or conflict resolution issues.

Aim to have an interactive conversation that is engaged, structured but not stilted (do not read out loud from a prepared script!), and leaves room for opinions.

1. Contact a person within the organisation to interview. The interview needs to be at least 20 minutes, but try not to go longer than half an hour. You will need to record the interview so make sure to inform the person of this. The interview must be conducted in English.
2. Ask the person to complete the Informed Consent form (found on MySCU and available through eReadings).
3. Interview the person and record the interview.

Recording and submission
Record the interview, preferably digitally (you can use the following file types: mpg, mp3, mov, avi, wmv). If that is not practicable, you can record on video cassette, audio cassette or microcassette. (NB: There are no grades assigned for the quality of the recording). On the recording you need to be audible and/or visible.

Select a five-minute section of the interview that you think best represents your interviewing style and copy this. Submit this five-minute copied section of the recorded interview.

Do not submit the original! You will need your original recording for the next assignment. You will NOT receive the recording back, so do not send memory sticks or other expensive media. Do not delete your recording until you have completed and passed this unit.

Ensure that your recording is labelled with your name, student number, the unit code, and the date.

Part 2: written task (1250 words)

Listen carefully to the interview and consider the communication issues discussed. Read whatever background material you have gathered about the organisation. Drawing on materials from Topics 8 to 12 identify and evaluate the interpersonal communication issues in your participant’s organisation from the employee’s point of view. Relate these issues to theory and use academic research to support your findings. Present your findings in your report.

In this report:

• include a section which describes the company and the interviewee. Use pseudonyms for the employee and the company. Do not use real names.
• important! Ensure you describe and reflect upon your methods for conducting this research: how did you select your interviewee, how did you persuade them to participate, what kind of interview techniques did you apply? Refer to relevant theories on persuasion, presentations, interview techniques, possibly intercultural communication, and so on.
• describe your findings, and analyse them using pertinent theories (from not just Module One but certainly from Module Three). Reference the theories appropriately.
• include recommendations for your participant’s organisation. In your recommendations, make sure that you offer viable solutions. If there are no problems at all, then analyse which factors ensure that communication is so successful in this company.
• include the informed consent form as an appendix.

Throughout your report, do not refer to your participant or their organisation by their real names. Use pseudonyms at all times, to protect the identity of your participant.

You must have at least eight academic (peer reviewed) references in your report. No Wikipedia or World Wide Web (Googled) references will be counted as academic.

Structure your report according to the relevant readings set for Topic 6:

• Interpreting the Assignment task: Report.
• Report Writing.
• Report Writing Checklist.
• Writing an Abstract or Executive Summary.
• How is an Abstract Different from an Introduction?
• Introductions and Conclusions: Report.

Please note that all formal academic reports require the following sections:

• Title.
• Abstract (or often referred to as an Executive Summary or Summary in Business).
• Table of Contents.
• Introduction.
• Methods, Methodology or Procedure.
• Findings.
• Discussion or Interpretation of Results.
• Conclusions.
• Recommendations (if requested).
• List of references.
• Appendices (or Appendix if there is only one).

 

 

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