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Longwood Admissions Office Communication Audit. Presented by Acadia Communications. Longwood University December 6, 2012. About Us. Katee Locke Team Manager Catherine Marrin Creative Designer Meghan Roan Team Assistance Coordinator. Courtney Carnevale Team Leader Abby Glascock
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Longwood Admissions Office Communication Audit Presented by Acadia Communications Longwood University December 6, 2012
About Us Katee Locke Team Manager Catherine Marrin Creative Designer Meghan Roan Team Assistance Coordinator Courtney Carnevale Team Leader Abby Glascock Interview Coordinator Tori Spooner Survey Coordinator
Research Overview • Observations: 3 separate observation days and times. • Interviews: 6 interviews with key members of the department • Survey: 17 total respondents and 12 finished surveys
Strengths • Communication with the Dean and Coworkers • Employees knowing their primary objective and goals and being satisfied with their personal productivity
Communication with the Dean and coworkers • “Informal communication with the Dean, even within meetings everything is easy going, everyone feels free to communicate their ideas, beliefs, and concerns” • The first interaction we saw happened between a supervisor and an Admissions Counselor. The Admissions Counselor was in the supervisors office having a conversation. The non-verbal seemed open and positive towards the two. The Admissions Counselor was standing at the front of the supervisors desk asking a question. They were using face-to-face communication.
Communication between employees • “Pollock, Whitbred, and Contractor (1996) found that employee satisfaction was predicted by the satisfaction of people in their communication networks. The satisfaction of their communication linkages was more important even than the job characteristics or employee dispositions” (Downs p. 190).
Goals and Productivity “The big goal for the office is to get prospective students here, to tour the campus, want to makesure the student feel like they fit here, try to get students information about Longwood. Get students where they feel comfortable” One of the recruiterscame in and thanked one of the receptionists for giving him a heads upabout the location of a school and how to get inside without having problems.
What employees are saying • 5 communication functions: • task/ work, • social/ maintenance • motivation • integration • innovation • “Taken in combination these five communication functions characterize a healthy organization. Although auditors differentiate among them for analytic purposes, none of them really stands alone” (Downs p. 62).
Areas for Improvement • Employees want more information through newsletters, telephone, and meeting minutes • Information that needs to be received by employees about promotion and advancement opportunities as well as how organization decisions are made that affect their jobs.
Information through newsletters, telephone, and meeting minutes • “In writing, no formality of minutes in the office, University communication with the Dean is more formal than within the Admissions office”
How to Convey your message • Media Richness Theory: Channels and Ambiguity • Adler and Elmhorst (2010) describe the telephone as a communication channel that could be a very helpful tool for the organization, “ When using the telephone as a way to communicate, it can lack in the rich visual feedback because it often discloses how a message is getting across, vocal signals, tone of voice, pauses, interruptions, pitch and rate.” Even though face-to-face communication is always a good first choice to communicate important messages, the telephone can be a way to communicate with people who are across the state or even the country.
Recommendation • Weekly Newsletter • Examples include: • Elsie Angus weekly e-mail to students • Cormier Honors College Monday Memo • Week @ Glance in Organizations • Communication Networks: Strength of Ties • “Fulk and Boyd (1991) found that the more cohesive (stronger) ties positively affects employee attitudes and use of e-mail systems. Fulk (1993) explained the importance of cohesive ties by arguing that when strong ties are present employees give greater support and assistance using technology” (Downs p. 190).
Conclusion • Summary • Client’s future communication • Thank You Admissions
Works Cited • Adler, R., & Elmhorst, J. (2010). Communicating at work: principles and practices for business and the professions. (10th ed., pp. 23-25). • Downs, C. W. & Adrian, A. D. (2004). Assessing organizational communication. New York: The Gilford Press. • Fulk, J. & Boyd, B. (1991). Emerging theories of communication in organizations. Journal of Management, 17(2), 407-446. • Pollock, T., Whitbred, R., & Contractor, N. (1996, February). Social information processing, job characteristics and disposition: A test and integration of competing theories of job satisfaction. Paper presented at the Sunbelt XVI International Social Network Conference, Charleston, SC.