Purpose:

The purpose of this assessment is to encourage you to think, learn, and critique how you communicate with others within an organisational context. To do this you are asked to self-reflect. Self-reflection is a particular way of learning. It involves exploring, interpreting and understanding the implications of your behaviours.

Task:

In this task you are asked to write an essay based upon two significant communication incidents that you have experienced in the workplace. The first incident should be one in which you feel that you communicated successfully. The other should be one in which you feel that you communicated in a way that was unsuccessful. In thinking about what constitutes successful or unsuccessful communication you should focus upon such issues as: were the goals of communicating achieved or not, were interpersonal relationships/networks enhanced or diminished, was teamwork effective or ineffective, was the communication clear or ambiguous e.g. In this part of the essay you need to establish what happened and the context.

Having described the incidents, you will then analyse and interpret them. This means that you will need to break the incidents down into their constituent parts in order to assign meaning to your behaviours (i.e. demonstrate an understanding of what has happened). Specifically you will need to describe particular behaviours in terms of how it made you feel (use your Emotional Intelligence) and the consequences of your behaviours. It is important to include data (i.e. specific aspects of the incident) and academic sources to support your interpretations.

Next you will address what you learned and what would you do in the future. This will require you to think critically. In the context of this essay this means that you must synthesise (i.e.) bring together all that you have learned in a logical and persuasive manner and evaluate your behaviours. Specifically you will need to address what you did well and how these actions have strengthened or honed you competency as a communicator. In addition, you should talk about areas that need improvement and what you would specifically do to ensure more successful future communicative interaction.

Other:

This essay should be 1200 words in length (excluding references) and should cite five peer reviewed journal articles.