Assessment of Communication Effectiveness

Made at TU Organization is an organization that existed at The University of Tulsa since the 1970s in order to help mechanical engineering students fund their projects. The organization was founded after the then Dean, Steve Bellovich, became interested in the efforts by mechanical engineering students at the institution to develop projects that help meet the needs of the local residents suffering from physical and developmental disabilities (The University of Tulsa, n.d.). Since its inception, Made at TU has developed to become an important student organization in this academic institution through leadership and service. The main objective/goal of Made at TU is to utilize the university's mechanical engineering students to help enhance the lives of people with disabilities. This paper focuses on examining communication effectiveness at the organization given the value of its social service aspects to the university's students and faculty.

One of the major factors that have contributed to the success of Made at TU organization across all its operations is communication. Communication plays a crucial role in ensuring that the organization's members understand the needs of the locally disabled people. Additionally, communication is crucial towards the creation of projects that meet the needs of these people in an effective and sustainable manner. The field of organizational communication has gained considerable attention in the recent past because of its significance to the effective functioning of an organization (Hargie & Tourish, 2015). In this regard, there are several methodologies that are utilized to assess communication effectiveness within an organization.

For this paper, the methodology utilized to assess communication effectiveness in Made at TU organization is a communication audit approach. This approach helps in understanding the wide range of communicative behaviors within an organization. While there are several variables and techniques that can be utilized in this approach, this analysis will focus on examining the communication strategy employed by the organization's leadership and communicative behaviors of group members. The strategy and behaviors will be examined with regards to their role in the achievement of organizational goals and effective functioning and operations of the organization.

As previously described, one of the major factors towards smooth operations of Made at TU is communication effectiveness. Koschmann (2012) contends that organizational communication refers to information sharing processes within an organization through the use of effective communication channels. In this regard, organizations establish structures that promote smooth communications between its members towards the achievement of desired organizational goals and objectives (Cheney et al., 2010). The leadership of Made at TU has established a focused communication strategy that plays a crucial role in enhancing interactions between students and the local residents. The organization's leadership has established interdependent communication systems and structures through which organizational components are dependent on each other. These systems, which act as the focused communication strategy, are based on the concept of vertical communication. The vertical communication concept refers to up-and-down communication from the organization's leadership to the members and vice versa. This system also follows a common-sense approach through which communication moves across a chain of command.

For Made at TU, vertical communication takes place through ensuring that the faculty and students interact regularly towards carrying out various roles and responsibilities. While students are mandated with the responsibility of creating projects that meet the needs of the locally disabled people, they need to work with the faculty to ensure development of suitable projects. Since the students are still learning, they work in collaboration with the faculty to ensure that the understand the needs of local residents and create relevant projects towards meeting those needs. In addition, the organization has established a horizontal communication system and structure through which students work together as well as with clients. Through this system, students from different departments in the organization are invited to participate in the creation and implementation of the various projects (Exceptional Parent, 2015). Moreover, these students meet regularly with their clients to help enhance the success of the projects they create with regards to meeting the needs of the students. The need for communication and enhanced interactions with faculty, students, and clients at Made at TU is influenced by the comprehensive technical challenges associated with creating projects. The communication and enhanced interactions act as ideal exercises in the creation of design requirements for a project.

The communication strategies and initiatives utilized at Made at TU organization is associated with some strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths of these strategies is their creation of an environment when the faculty, students, and clients interact freely and easily. Secondly, they have enhanced control of information flow and decision-making throughout the organization. In this regard, the communication strategies have enabled the faculty and organizational leadership to engage students in critical decision-making processes and understand what is happening at the organization's lower levels. Third, the organization's communication approaches have helped to improve the quality and success of projects through involvement of clients in the design process since client feedback is vital towards project success (Exceptional Parent, 2015). Despite these strengths, there are some weaknesses including the fact that the use of up-and-down communication framework contributes to filtering of information, which sometimes changes its nature and dilute its significance. Secondly, the use of various communication channels in the organization sometimes affect how information is perceived and acted upon by the students or organization's members. Third, the communication approaches sometimes enhance the complexities and costs of a project because client feedback increases technical challenges relating to a project.

In light of the weaknesses associated with the communication approaches that are currently utilized at Made at TU, the effectiveness of the organization's communication can be enhanced through several recommendations. First, the organization can enhance the effectiveness of its communication through identifying and utilizing applications that help in obtaining and sending pertinent information. This will help improve communication through ensuring direct communication and lessening the probability of delivery of diluted or filtered information. Secondly, the organization should consider utilizing written communication methods as approaches for delivery of formal information. This helps in enhancing the consistency of communication across the organization's hierarchy. Finally, an open-door management policy should be adopted to help students to easily interact with their leaders and faculty. This will help in improving upward communication within the organization and improve the faculty's understanding of issues affecting the students.

In conclusion, Made at TU is a student organization at The University of Tulsa, which was established to enable mechanical engineering students meet the needs of locally disabled people through creating relevant projects. Similar to other organizations, communication has played a crucial role in the effective operations of Made at TU. The methodology utilized to examine communication effectiveness in this organization is communication audit approach, which helped in examining the management communication strategy and communicative behaviors. Based on this approach, the communication approaches utilized in this organization include interdependent systems/structures, vertical communication, and horizontal communication. These approaches are associated with various strengths including enhanced interactions, enhanced control of information flow and decision making, and improved quality/success of projects. On the contrary, the weaknesses are increased information filtering, negative impacts on how information is perceived and acted upon, and increased complexities and costs. The organization can enhance its communication through utilizing written communication, electronic communication applications, and open-door management policy.

References

Cheney, G., Christensen, L. T., Zorn, T. E., & Ganesh, S. (2010). Organizational communication in an age of globalization: Issues, reflections, practices (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Exceptional Parent. (2015, June 29). Engineering A Very Special Project. Retrieved June 26, 2017, from http://www.eparent.com/special-features/engineering-a-very-special-project/

Hargie, O. & Tourish, D. (2015, February 26). Assessing the Effectiveness of Communication in Organizations: The Communication Audit Approach. Health Services Management Research, 6, 276-285.

Koschmann, M. (2012). What is Organizational Communication? Retrieved June 26, 2017, from http://koschmann.webstarts.com/uploads/what_is_organizational_communication.pdf

The University of Tulsa. (n.d.). Make a Difference Engineering (MADE at TU). Retrieved from College of Engineering - The University of Tulsa website: https://engineering.utulsa.edu/academics/mechanical-engineering/make-a-difference-engineering/