Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 11

Date: April 6, 2016

To: Katie Watts


English Professor
Washington State University
From:
Jordan Rudolph
Katie Smith
Marissa MacKinnon
Dessa Cole
Subject:

Recommendation Report for the Communication in your Future Career project

Attached is the report for our project, Communication in your Future Careers which was
compiled within our English 402 Technical and Professional Writing class at Washington State
University, Global Campus. Our team constructed and undertook multiple tasks in order to
showcase how important professional and positive communication is within the workplace at all
levels of employment. This project was completed over a span of four weeks and involved a lot
of teamwork and compromise. As a team, we are proud of our project and hope our final report
and website provides beneficial use to students in their future workplaces.
Once we established our subject and which research project to pursue, we established a five step
research method plan. Since this project was done between four students in an online course, we
tried to keep every step as simple as possible in order to decrease confusion, improve time
productivity, and pursue the best information to present. We did research through online articles,
study previous successful and unsuccessful communication methods within the workplace, and
compiled our findings into a single website.
The time and research studies information that we have dedicated to this project are presented
along with this letter. Our team would encourage you and your colleagues to review our project
and would appreciate any constructive feedback in order to improve future students workplaces,
as well as our own! Any comments or concerns can be directed to our team at
marissa.mackinnon@wsu.edu or (360) 281-6087, or through our contact section of our website at
http://kathleenjsmith.wix.com/repurpose.

Communication in your Future Career


Prepared for: Katie Watts
English 402
Washington State University
Prepared by:
Jordan Rudolph
Katie Smith
Marissa MacKinnon
Dessa Cole
April 6, 2016

Tables of Contents
Executive Summary .4
Introduction ..4
Research Methods.6
Results ...8
Conclusions ...9
Recommendations ...10
Appendix ..11

Executive Summary
Miscommunication within the workplace is a very common problem and also has many simple
solutions to improve communication. In order to better educate current and future students (as
well as any future employees) our team has worked hard in order to create this report and a
website full of workplace scenarios, positive workplaces, and how to react so that you can create
a workplace with positive communication. This report has been extracted from a previous study
done by one of our members, Jordan Rudolph in order to pursue his findings further. Our team
has researched previous studies, found new developing communication techniques, and studied
companies that excel in positive communication. Our research has been compiled into a website
aimed for students entering the workplace yet it is also accessible to anyone who wishes. Our
team highly recommends students to review our website and apply their new learning in their
future workplace.
Introduction
In college we are taught the skills needed to do a job, but we are not trained on how to
communicate our knowledge and skills through verbal cues. Graduating students are not aware
of what workplace environments are like in general. That is why our group has developed a web
page that informs those entering into the workforce about communicating well at work. Good
social skills within a workplace is pertinent to the success of individual employees as well as the
company. However, poor social skills between co-workers, as well as with bosses, is a growing
problem. Bad communication is a major instigator of workplace conflicts. It may also
negatively affect an organizations financial well being due to dissemination of inaccurate
information (Wicks). Being a newcomer in the working world, and most likely working an entry level
job, puts a lot of hardship on a person. Informing future employees, as well as current employees,
about ways to improve their communication skills and understanding of workplace
communication will boost the confidence of new employees and have a greater impact on the
overall well-being of the work environment, employee, and the company.
The research we conducted is aimed towards graduating students. From the beginning of
this project our group had a clear audience in mind. Each member became in charge of a specific
page on the website. Being able to work independently helped broaden our groups knowledge
and the amount of information provided onto our site. The first page is dedicated to background
information and defining what morale is. This helped us set the precedence for our our project.
Having a clear definition of what it was going to be about helped keep us all on track. This
project provides strong examples for a variety of issues. It covers how to communicate to your
boss and coworkers effectively, provides examples of successful companies to look at and to
understand what it takes to communicate well, and it provides examples of poor communication
in the workplace. Our team has looked at successful companies not just for their impressive
business model that pushed them ahead, but their internal communications with employee that
have boosted their companies morale.
The goal in completing this research is to lessen workplace miscommunication and help
new graduates understand what poor communication is. Ultimately the effect that this project
hopes to achieve is to broaden the knowledge of graduating students. However, it can also be
4

used by any employee that wants to boost their communication skills. A consensus that our
group can come to from the findings in our project, is that open and detailed communication is
what will help an employee succeed. The impacts of this report will hopefully increase company
morale and decrease the amount of complaints towards a company and its employees.

Research Methods
We began our research by collaborating within our group and communicating in our Google Doc
Drive Conversation since 03/21 to current the current date. We were in pursuit of a repurposing
Communication and Morale and we came up with a planned project titled Communicating in
your Future Career. We chose our audience to be students who are preparing to go into the
workplace. As we were collaborating we were focusing on what students would most likely want
to know and what would be the easiest way for them to find quick information on starting out in
the workplace. With this information, we decided to take an informative approach and create a
webpage that will provide resources, information and facts about communication in the
workplace and how it might affect topics such as Morale, and Communicating with your boss.
This approach for a webpage had us focus on usability as it states in Chapter 13 of our book.
Although we did not have enough time to conduct an actual evaluation given our limited time,
we became our own evaluators simply because we are the students and we liked the idea of a
quick informative reference such as a web page.
As a group we decided on a five step research method that we could follow in order for our
project to reach completion.
Step One - Establish basic understanding of issues with communication in the workplace.
Step Two - Obtain information on solving communication problems in the workplace.
Step Three - Assess and present proven methods/examples on how to improve communication.
Step Four- Post the gathered information onto the webpage that we have created to make it
available for our target audience (students).
Step Five -Prepare recommendation and finalize webpage.
Step One - Establish basic understanding of issues with communication in the workplace.
Katie and Jordan uploaded past proposals to the group since they actually had similar topics to
help bolster a better understanding of issues in communication within a workplace. Katies
proposal purpose was to bring awareness to unprofessionalism in management systems and how
to dissolve this problem. Jordans proposal purpose was a look at how to build morale of
employees in a workplace and assess procedures and systematic processes in place for this
purpose.
Step Two Obtain information on solving communication problems in the workplace.
Through our running conversation on Google Doc as a group we decided to do research on
certain areas within communication and workplace functions and the effectiveness between the
two. We focused on students getting ready to join the workforce and the information that we can
present to them through:
journals, magazine articles, websites that pertain information about communication
Analysis on this topic through its needs; (What is out there currently for information).
Research on how to present the information in a readily available and easy to navigate,
legible way.
Step Three - Assess and present proven methods/examples on how to improve communication.
As we were collaborating we decided to each make a page representing:
Communication and Morale
Communicating
Successful Companies
Examples
Were focusing on what students would most likely want to know. With Communication and
Morale it was how the employee and supervisors/bosses communicate and what techniques and
6

good supervision might look like to help boost morale. With Communicating we wanted to help
explain and give examples of proper ways to communicate with your peers and your boss in
hopes to give you a long lasting career. We also looked at companies that have great success in
communicating with their employees to give the students examples of where they might want to
work in the future or companies like them. We also conducted a page with some great examples
on how to communicate within an organization.
Step Four- Post the gathered information onto the webpage that we have created to make it
available for our target audience (students).
As a group we generated our web page onto our website for distribution, hoping this will be
extremely useful for any new student going into the workforce. We also generated links to
websites that we acquired some of our information from because the we felt the student would
love to have more insight and great readings to help bolster the idea of the importance of
communication in a workplace.
Step Five -Prepare recommendation and finalize webpage.
In this step we divided our parts within the report model of Front Matter and the Body of the
Report to compile our report for final submission on April 10, 2016. We have also put the
finishing touches on our web page in hopes that the information will be seen and used for the
greater good of future employees going into the workforce. The acceptances of any and all future
recommendations or suggestions for continual improvement are highly accepted.

Results
Using the above mentioned research methods, we were able to gain more knowledge on different
aspects with communication in the workplace. Together, we created a website, using wix.com.
The goal is for the website to be made available to graduating students in the same way a job
placement program would be. We were able to focus on employee morale, communicating with
both your boss and co-workers, types of communication that may be encountered, and also
examples of what companies out there are well-known for their communication skills.
As a group, we all agreed that communication in a new job, regardless of what field it may be in,
is always difficult to anticipate. We feel that if students are given tools prior to entering the
workforce to help them better communicate, both with their bosses and co-workers, and in
different scenarios, then maybe we can eliminate this issue altogether. Since this site also gives
insight into popular companies known for communicating with their employees well, it could
also be a motivator to apply to jobs within those organizations.

Conclusions
This project includes research from different topics within communication at a workplace. It
shows different aspects of information that are pertinent to know and understand to succeed as an
employee and as a company.
In researching morale within a workplace there has been a consensus on certain issues within a
place of work that reduce company morale and increase complaints. Our website details that
bosses who yell instead of praise do not succeed as well as those who praise when its needed.
The solvency of scenarios like this is that positive reinforcements help strengthen and boost
company morale. Companies like Google and Marriott are outlined as successful companies in
our project. This isnt due to their successful business model, but for their internal
communications with employees. Specific tasks companies enforce each day help ensure the
quality of the work environment for their workers. Our project also includes examples of poor
communication in the workplace. These examples detail problems that are frequently seen
among companies with poor social skills. Some examples include real life scenarios that will
hopefully help future graduates in understanding why there is a problem. We provide a lot of
research in the project, but one page on our website that will really be useful to employees is the
one titled Communicating. This page will help provide specific ways an employee should
address certain issues and scenarios. It also provides helpful hints in how to develop good habits
in a place of work.
Overall, our project shows that workplace communication is a problem, but we have also found
that there are many solutions that will help alleviate those problems. Our research has been wellrounded and helped our groups understanding of workplace communication as well as helped
build our website. This site, aimed towards new employees, will hopefully become a website that
will inform and be helpful to go back to for a quick review later on.

Recommendations
We recommend that this webpage be used by all students graduating either from Washington
State University or any other college for future reference on how to communicate within a
workplace. You can certainly look at pros and cons regarding this website and for that reason I
would like to give you two scenarios of success and possible unsuccessfulness.
Scenario One:
Lets start out by discussing the possibility that no one would actually visit the site leading for
unsuccessfulness. Could we actually have a marketing problem and students just simply dont
care enough about communication simply because we live in a high tech fast pace world that has
allowed us to communicate without a face to face interaction anymore. I suppose to combat this
communication devices are given out by companies for this reason. The problem with this is and
why our website could become a great tool and even grow into something bigger like some form
of a workshop style seminar could be the need. With tech devices increasingly changing
communication the interaction meeting needs to be known therefore communication style
workshops will always be needed. So I dont see traffic to a website like this being a problem
although it could become highly competitive but that is a whole scenario in itself. As you can see
this topic could get bigger I dont see a lack of success.
Scenario Two:
With the use of this web page students will have a better idea on the how to successfully
communicate in the future workplace, how morale can be affected by negative reinforcement and
the ways in which companies find success when communicating with employees. This web page
is an exceptional tool for graduating students to use throughout their life when navigating a
competitive job market. It will assist with success in obtaining jobs and keeping them, along
with maintaining positive relationships in the workplace with future bosses and employees. With
the links, articles, resources and web pages included in the product, students can go into the
workforce more confident and able to succeed. If this webpage is not readily available students
will be less informed and may not have the skills or resources to be as successful when entering
the workforce as someone who has had access to our product.
We feel that this webpage should be readily available to all students upon graduation. This
website can continually be updated as knowledge on this subject grows and further research and
information becomes available. Such as including a section on great companies to work for
which in turn can create competitiveness even within companies to strive for better
communication practices. Success is the only option after observing this website because it will
lead to a positive outcome and focuses on how to improve and create readiness for a successful
career.

10

Appendices
Product
Website link: http://kathleenjsmith.wix.com/repurpose

Sources Used
Below are a list of references we used for the content of our website.
Boosting Employee Morale Increases Productivity, By Neal B. Burgis. PH.D. Website:
http://www.businessperform.com/articles/performancemanagement/boosting_employee_morale.html
Boosting Morale, By Amy Novotney, December 2010, Vol 41, No. 11.
Employee Assistance Network, Inc., 2011. Tips for Communicating Effectively with Your Boss.
Website: http://www.eannc.com/employees/tips-for-communicating-effectively-with-your-boss/
Great Place to Work. By Prasenjit Bhattacharya. 2013 January 9. Website:
http://www.greatplacetowork.in/publications/blog-posts-articles-and-news/690-communicatingat-great-workplaces-key-principles
HR Magazine, SHRM.ORG, November 2015. Article, 15 Ways to Thank Employees, by John
Scorza.Website:https://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2015/1115/page
s/1115-employee-appreciation.aspx
"Nonverbal Communication." Encyclopedia of Small Business. Ed. Virgil L. Burton, III. 4th ed.
Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 899-901. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
Root, George N. Examples of Miscommunication in the workplace. Small Business. Hearst
Newspapers, LLC. 2016. Web. April 8th, 2016.
US News. By Lindsay Olson. 10 Ways to Communicate Better at Work. 2012 August 14.
Website: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/08/14/10-ways-tocommunicate-better-at-workWicks, Diana. Examples of Bad Communication at Work. Small Business. Hearst
Newspapers, LLC. 2016. Web. April 8th, 2016.

11

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi