You are required to respond to the following:

Eric Stone, CEO of Star Enterprises is perplexed after listening to his management teamabout the issues they were experiencing. Eric is a great proponent of technology. Last yearwith an IT expert friend, he introduced a suite of new information and communicationtechnology (ICT) and social media platforms to improve communication among the 300 staffthat worked in the company. Instant messaging, email, group/team Facebook pages andTwitter were available as various communication platforms for employees to use.

All staffmembers had received a one day training that focused on the technical aspects and use ofthe technologies. While there had been some people who had been unhappy with thechange, most employees had welcomed this technological advancement. Given this, Ericcannot believe that George, the HR Manager, has just been talking about this huge conflictthat has developed between two team members over a minor misunderstanding thatemerged from comments made on the HR team Facebook page.

Carla, the MarketingManager, has spoken of a rise in absenteeism in her team sensing an increase in stressamong some of her workers. Eric himself has just been talking to an important customerwho was complaining about the lack of communication from Star Enterprises regarding theirproject. Eric is puzzled about why the introduction of technology had led to so manyproblems and is questioning his own judgement about the advantages of the use of suchtechnologies in workplaces.

You as a consultant have been asked to help Eric understand the situation by writing aresearch report so that he has a better understanding of media choice, what factors need tobe kept in mind when choosing media as well as a better understanding of thepositive/negative implications of the use of ICTs on employees and organisations.

Finally, heneeds to be provided with some concrete recommendations that he can put in place nowand for the future to address some of the issues that you have identified in your analysis.

In answering this question:

• Discuss the communication media choice models and explain the implications ofeach on media choice.

• Discuss the positive/negative implications of ICTs on management, employees andorganisations.

• Provide examples to support your analysis and application of the theory/research.

• Provide recommendations for what can be done to address the potential issues youhave identified and critically evaluate your recommendations.

• Show that you have an in-depth and critical understanding of relevant theories andresearch on implications of ICTs

STRUCTURE

A report structure as discussed in the Summers and Smith (2010) reading. You do not need to include a "Letter of Transmittal" and appendices if required. Readings from week 6 would be useful to look at for planning and writing th report.

It should be written in paragraphs using double line spacing and a 12 pt font size. Please leave at least one inch margins on all sides for feedback.

CRITERIA FOR MARKING

Appropriate response to the assignment question. Full and relevant response to the question.

Quality of ideas: Originality, creativity and completeness of ideas.

Quality of analysis: defining terms and concepts; evaluating concepts and critical use of research.

Use of Communication concepts/theories: Appropriate use of key concepts and frameworks to support your analysis and discussion.

Quality of research on the topic: Completeness, relevance and range of supporting information provided; clear evidence of thorough research. Use of research to provide scholarly arguments in your own words demonstrating an understanding of research material.

Specificity, concreteness and credibility: Avoidance of generalizations and jargon; use c specific examples to support points; ensuring that conclusions/recommendations/implications are reasonable, realistic, specific and well-supported.

Organisation and writing: Overall clarity and logical organization of thoughts. Correct referencing, citations using APA referencing system. Following report structure and using paragraphs.

Please see more information on referencing under the referencing section below.

RESEARCH

Your discussion should draw mainly on academic theory and research, but you can also include references to publicly available information on organisational practices or currei cases where relevant. You are required to use a minimum of ten (10) academic/scholarl references.

Academic or scholarly references can be found in peer-reviewed academic journals and some books.

Your reading list and the list of relevant journals is comprised of academic/scholarly references and you are encouraged to use relevant materials from this resource as well as engaging in independent library research. You can, however, only use a maximum of three (3) references from the key and further readings.

General textbooks, magazine articles, material from websites and newspaper articles can also be used in your report. However, they do not count as academic/scholarly references and should only be used as supplementary material (in other words, do not build your argument around them). If you are in doubt about whether a reference can be considered academic/scholarly, please ask your lecturer.

A list of relevant journals for the subject is available under the assessment menu item on LMS.

REFERENCING

All material used must be correctly cited and referenced, using the APA Referencing System which includes:

• in-text citations in the body of the report.
• a reference list as the last page of your assignment (listing only the references you have cited).

There is a APA Referencing System Guide provided on the LMS subject page under the Assessment menu item.

Your work will also be screened for plagiarism using the Turnitin software program. More information about the university's policy and the Turnitin program is available from the following website: http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au

Cases of plagiarism may result in failure.

In-text Citations and Reference List are NOT counted in the word count.

2500 words and requires academic sources referencing