Individual performance Review 3
Individualperformance Review (Learning Logs)
RegistrationNo
COMM300, as the extension of Business Communication II, gave me moreunderstanding of the importance of business communication. Indeed,business communication entails more, than the way we talk or writepapers. Through the course, I was able to learn how a successfulbusiness can take advantage of various means of communication torelay meaning to various stakeholders of the business. These mayinclude, managing social media or even implementing CSR with the aimof capturing public interest, and also maintaining customer loyalty.Communication assists in giving corporate reports to the public as itbuilds the reputation of the business too. The course built myconfidence when it came to conceptualizing, designing and evenrationalizing communications in various complex and divergentsituations. COMM 300 teaches learners to be considerate, explorativeand interrogative when handing communication and cultural contexts ofbusiness. It also gives students strong internal and externalcommunication skills in the business, and this is critical for thefuture career of students.
Individuallearning
Manyfactors determine the way human beings in the business world, orotherwise, communicate today, for instance ethical matters andtechnology. During the course, in particular, ethical issuesdiscussed captured my attention for example, in the past, mostorganizations were just profit oriented, but nowadays the businessworld have diverted attention to the social impacts of the corporatebusiness. And every decision in the business has to be ethical for itto be accepted socially. Due to technological advancements, news andother information spread at a faster rate than ever before. Thus,every action by an organization and the messages it gives, have theimpact on the kind of image it has to the community. With this kindof knowledge, my future career is on the safer path as I am nowlearning of the right things to do in every occasion courtesy of thecourse.
Asa business student, I may face a lot of ethical issues in the job.For instance, I may get employed in the industry, and may find thatthe kind of production taking place in the industry negativelyaffects the lives of the people around. In such a scenario, I will beon the forefront to identify the ethical issue and explain it to thesenior members of the industries so that a solution can be sorted.But when I fail to take any action, the reputation of the businesswill be damaged as other people will explain to the outsiders. And inso doing, the company might be closed, and this would mean we becomeunemployed, investors will lose their capital. As a future player inthe job market, I am grateful to learn more on professional behavior.
After-actionreview of group performance
Thegroup project provides a great means of applying whatever we learntin class in an actual case setting. The requirements and evaluationsof the course are separated into group evaluations, and individualevaluations. The evaluations of the group have four deliverablesApproval, Group ISA Report, Group Internal progress presentations,Strategic Communication plan and Group Final SCP Presentation. Thefour tasks must be handled within the group whereby the groups haveto decide on how to go about the assignments. The report by the groupdemands that every member in the group participates fully in thegroup assignment. Participation by each member is to the advantage ofthe group, if it is composed of members from different cultures,religious affiliations, gender, countries, and even different interms of ages. Through diversities in the groups, we are able tolearn more, thus, we will end up having divergent opinions andknowledge when addressing issues in the business. In the group, wehad a task of developing Strategic Communication Plans. From thegroup, I learnt that strategic planning require that an individualshould always articulate and rationalize the desires of anorganization by laying down specific measures to pursue the strategy.Planning plays a bigger role in the business communication setting asit aims at answering questions such as where, how, why, who etc. thegroup want the task to be handled, and these determine the success orfailure of the task.
Fromthe research I did for the group, I learnt there are three vitalfactors that make a good SCP analysis, reasonable tactics and havingattainable goals. We shared a lot in the group as every membercontributed. From the group presentation, I learnt that the groupassignments did not only build our knowledge on the topic wediscussed, but it also helped us polish our presentation skills. Soas to ensure a good grade for the group, all the members activelyparticipated throughout.
COMM300 is one of the requirements for the school of business, whichbuilds from the foundation of COMM 100 that focuses more onresponsible, professional internal and external passage ofinstruction in all business setups. Through the exams, classdiscussions, group tasks and the skills relay business informationindependently and in the group, gave me a confidential view of thebusiness world.
WeeklyParticipation Log
May5-10, 2016
Participationgrade: 86%
Inthe first class, we were issued with the course outline, we reviewedthe policies of the class and we also formed groups for handlinggroup assignments. In the second class, we talked more aboutcommunications and cultures. Communication is responsible for makingus view diversity and help us understand different cultures. In thatclass, the professor demonstrated to us how our cultures affect ourliving by the use of an example of a YouTube video to identify theCanadian culture. From the video, we were able to learn that Canadahas diverse cultures, and those living in Canada are born and raisedin the country or are from other countries. Canadians are good atmaking love in the canoe without the canoe tipping. Due to thediverse culture of the Canadian people, the place can be recommendedfor tourists.
Cultureis a concept that exists both in the daily lives of individuals andin the business environment. A culture adopted by a businessdetermines the means of integrating, accommodating and managing thediversities of several people in a manner that help advance thebusiness. Culture also determines the way we respond to differentindividuals and situations. In Canada, being a multicultural nation,there is a need to adjust the communications skills so that peoplecoming from several backgrounds in a manner that make them feel athome.
Inthe same week, we also learnt about the Strategic CommunicationPlanning where we learnt that strategic planning mainly articulatesand rationalizes the desired direction of any organization, as itprescribe how resources necessary to accomplish the strategy will beallocated. According to me, the planning stage is most crucial partof the whole business. This is because planning stage helps lay downshow, where, why, when who etc. will participate to ensure success ofany task in the organization.
Ithink the main factors that ensure good SCP include analysis,reasonable and calculated tactics and setting achievable goals.Thorough analysis the communicator understand the basic exact senseof the whole scenario. Reasonable tactic helps attain goalseffectively and efficiently, and for this to happen the goals mustjust be realistic and reachable. Unrealistic goals can demoralizestakeholders while simple goals allow the participants to completethe tasks with less effort, and this may make feel the task is notchallengeable in turn making them lose focus in the job.
May12-17, 2016
Participationgrade: 89%
Westarted the week with Lululemon case analysis, particularly, thecommunication pattern they adopted in real life business. One thingthat was of interest to me was the fact Lululemon tried to come upwith a tween-focused brand. The main aim of building the tweenfocused brand was to come up with a strong brand image in the mind ofthe customers to ensure successful communication. After readingthrough the case study, I realized that Lululemon was successfulbecause it directed its audience to a particular part of the societyi.e. health-conscious women. With this, Lululemon was able to satisfythe needs of the customers, thus, increasing the profits. Anotherreason for its success is that it enjoys the strong loyalty from thecustomers as it can easily retain former customers as it works hardto get new ones. Suggestions and feedback help bonds the customer andthe company relationship, coupons and discounts on the products tobuild strong client relationship.
Duringthe same week, we also discussed ethical communication. During thediscussion, I learnt that ethical communication entails giving thetruthful and honest information when communicating and that ethicalcommunicators normally advocates for truthfulness, accuracy of theinformation and honesty. And with such, the integrity of an ethicalcommunication can be easy to cultivate and sustain.
Tobe specific, Canadian and Chinese have different values on ethicalpractices, for instance in Chinese you are free to copy term paperswith no citations provided the copied part does not go beyond acertain limit. Canada on the other hand, you have to cite the authorin either MLA or APA style. That Canadian culture gave me a sense ofrespecting the work of others. Apart from ethical writing, thereexist some other aspects of ethical communication. For instance,relaying a message without offending the target audience ensuringexistence of a relationship with your audience, not withholdingcritical information, ensuring appealing value system and insistingon accurate information to reach your audience.
Duringthe same week, we discussed more on professional standard codes ofethics where we learnt that any professional communication has to belegal, ethical and must be in good taste. At the same time suchcommunications must take into considerations, cultural values andbeliefs. Any institution can be viewed to be ethical only if thepeople it employs are highly ethical, thus before employing anyone inthe industry, there is a need to ascertain their ethical values. Mostpeople have lost hope in the business schools thus there is a need ofbusiness schools to ensure that students adopt holistic means ofhandling business problems.
Wealso learnt that ethical communication is very crucial when coming upwith Strategic Communication plan for an organization as it willdetermine the ethical standard of the organization, it also haspolicies and activities that can help support an ethical culture inan organization.
May19-24, 2016
Participationgrade: 85%
CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) was the topic we started the week offwith. CSR is the order of doing business today, making it animportant part of corporate strategic communication. It helps devisenew ways of doing business while at the same time making peoplerethink of the responsibilities, rather than just the benefits of thebusiness. Therefore, a bigger business organization has a lot ofresponsibilities outside the business as this is responsible forbuilding reputations of the business. For instance, in the Canada oilsector, it can be said that Canada has more ethical oil in most ofthe areas and this is determined by mining guidelines. Before any oilcompany resolve to mining of oil, they are required to take intoconsiderations the benefits of their act to the society, environment,thus CSR explains commitment of a company to operate in both aneconomically sound and environmentally sustainable way whileappreciating the interests of all people that may extend beyond theborders of a country. CSR has great functions in connection thebusiness environment for the customers and the society.
Duringthe same week we discussed Information Communication technology as itvery important in today’s corporate communication taking socialnetworking as the main contributor here. We discussed much on thehistory of ICT and how it is useful in the current businessenvironment.
Duringthe discussions, we learnt that technology can cultivate antisocialbehaviors among people as people can exchange any information nottaking cultural believes into considerations due to technology. Atthe same time the internet has made the world a global village andthis can make people stay indoors with no time to hang around withfriends to understand their environment better.
However,we cannot rule out the numerous benefits that are associated withtechnology. Doing business has become very easy as one can ordergoods from one continent without having to be in the continent andhave the goods delivered. Thus the main focus should be to ensureresponsible use of ICT to benefit the society and individual. Eventhough organizations take advantage of the social media to interactwith clients, some businesses misuse it with giving wrong informationto the customers when describing their products. Thus, anyorganization should devise responsible means of handling, ICT toensure all mutual benefits for both the business and the customers.
May31- June 2, 2016
Participationgrade: 85%
Westarted the week with discussions on equity and diversity in theworkplace and this was a very interesting topic as it touches on thecurrent ethical issues that people face in the workplace. In thetopic, I learnt that equal chances should be granted to allindividuals in the workplace despite the race, region, gender and allthe business environments should encourage an accommodating culturethat does not look down upon any person. Diversity should be taken asa competitive advantage as a business appreciating all people isviewed as having good reputations thus will have more customers. Wewent ahead to learn on equity in the workplace as every organizationis encouraged to ensure equity in the workplace by ensuring genderbalance, race equity, the disabled etc.
Inthe same week, we talked about media and government relations. Undermedia, we discussed the ways in which the business communities takeadvantage of the media to advertise their businesses in thenewspapers, billboards, TV commercials, cell phones and other meansof reaching out to the customers. Today, the mainstream of the mediais based on the convenience, effectiveness and efficiency of a mediachoice, but then I think the most effective and efficient way wouldbe each corporation designing its own website where it can manage thecampaigns of its products while it ensure it does not misinform thepublic of its products.
June7-9, 2016
Participationgrade 88%
Afterthe midterm exam, we discussed crisis communication and here we foundthat crisis can be turned into a great opportunity for the business.After a crisis in a place most organizations tend to fall but then areasonable organization should take crises as a way of reconstitutingthe business to get extra benefits. We discussed a lot concerningcrises communication.
Inthe same week, we also discussed globalization and cross-culturalcommunication. Here, we learnt that the main aim of globalization andcross-cultural communication is to as much people as possible forsustainable progress. The ability to handle cross-culturalcommunication gives the business an opportunity to combine differentcultures to ensure sustainable development. Due to the current trendof setting branches in international borders, it is important tolearn different cultures so that these international companies canappreciate the cultures, and in the process, get support and from thecommunity. The importance of cross cultural communication is that itcan help a business prosper in the international market.
June14-16, 2016
Participationgrade 89%
Theweek was mainly concerned with individual performance review andfinal group presentation about the Strategic Communications Plan. Wereviewed what we learnt throughout the course to ensure we couldrecall all of it. During the group presentation, we learnt more fromthe various groups.