This document provides guidance for an activity to help students brainstorm topics for their final communication project. It instructs students to think about communication problems they have experienced in their workplace or other organizational setting. Students are asked to describe a communication problem they have witnessed, identify the relevant communication phenomenon, and state the communication theory goal they wish to pursue in investigating the phenomenon. Examples of theory goals include describing, explaining, or predicting a communication behavior.

1. Objective:
This activity is designed to help you brainstorm a topic for
your final project. You should be able to use material from your
response to help you research relevant communication theories.
Background:
Please begin this exercise by reading the following information
carefully.
In general, we use theories as a way to approach knowledge,
test it, and find out more about it. Your final project in this
class will require you to apply communication theory to
identifying, describing, analyzing, and resolving a real-world
communication problem that you are experiencing or have
experienced in the context of the workplace.* For this
discussion, you will begin the process of developing your final
project by collaborating with your classmates on brainstorming
communication problems in your workplace that a
communication theory could explain and resolve.
Visualize your workplace for a few moments. Are their
conflicts? Are there cliques? Do some managers engage in
power trips? How does everyone get along? A workplace is the
sum of many different formal and informal
relationships
that influence and define its communication channels. In most
work settings, people are identified by titles and roles:
accounting supervisor, intern, customer service representative,
and so on. These roles combine to create
formal communication
—interaction that follows officially established channels.
There are three types of formal communication within all but

2. the smallest organizations (Adler & Elmhorst, 2002; Sanchez,
1999). In
upward communication,
subordinates communicate with their bosses. Topics for upward
communication include progress reports, problems, and
suggestions for improvement. In
downward communication,
managers address messages to subordinates, such as
instructions and feedback.
Horizontal communication
occurs between people who do not have direct supervisor-
subordinate relationships. These types of messages include task
coordination, information sharing, and conflict resolution.
Informal communication
in organizations grows out of friendships, shared personal or
career interests, and proximity. The messages shared through
these networks of relationships within an organization can
confirm, contradict, expand upon, or help an employee
circumvent information relayed through the formal
communication channels. Workers must navigate between
formal and informal communication within a relationship. For
example, your boss might drop by your desk to share some
office gossip with you—and a few minutes later take you aside
to talk about a project underway. Modern employers are seeking
job candidates who demonstrate
communication competence
, the knowledge of effective and appropriate communication
patterns (Spitzberg, 2000) and the ability to use and adapt that
knowledge in various contexts (Cooley & Roach, 1984).
To understand the dimensions of communication competence,
consider how you might handle everyday communication
challenges, such as declining an invitation or getting a co-
worker to clean his dirty dishes in the break room.
Effective

3. communication will get the results you desire.
Appropriate
communication, on the other hand, would do so in a way that,
in most cases, enhances the relationship in which it occurs
(Wiemann et al., 1997). Imagine what happens when one of
these criteria is satisfied but not the other. Effectiveness
without appropriateness might satisfy your goals, but leave
others unhappy. Conversely, appropriateness without
effectiveness might leave others content but you frustrated. The
competent communicator has a large repertoire of
communicative skills, is empathetic and adaptable, cares about
and is committed to the relationship, can see situations from
multiple perspectives, can read the room, and is self-aware.
Activity:
Theories can be approached in a variety of ways, depending
upon what is being studied. Write a detailed response to the
following questions. Your objective here is to gain a hands-on
understanding of theory building by applying this week’s
concepts to
brainstorming a workplace* communication problem
with your classmates that you can investigate for your final
project.
(*Remember, if you are not employed or cannot discuss your
workplace, brainstorm communication problems that you have
experienced in another organizational setting, such as in school
or as part of a church or community group.)
Think about the communication phenomena that scholars study.
Which aspects of communication intrigued you the most in this
week’s readings—verbal or nonverbal behaviors? Oral or
written messages? Interpersonal, small group, or organizational
dynamics? Face-to-face or mediated contexts?

4. Then, reflect on the informal and formal communication
channels in your workplace. What types of breakdowns have
you experienced or observed in the flow of that communication
which affected your work?
Finally, to begin learning about how communication
competence can help you or your co-workers to effectively and
appropriately handle challenging workplace* communication
situations,
answer the following
:
Describe your workplace* communication problem
with your classmates. What happened? How did it affect you or
the workplace?
What is the communication
phenomenon
involved in your workplace problem that you would like to
investigate?
What is the
communication theory
goal
that you would like to pursue in investigating this
phenomenon? Remember, communication theories seek to
describe or understand, explain, predict, or control a
communication behavior. A theory goal can be expressed as
simply as one of the following:

5. My theory goal is to [describe/understand, explain, or predict]
__________.
My goal is to persuade co-workers to do or think __________ .
My goal is to change people’s attitudes toward
__________
.
Make sure to connect your ideas to the course content that you
were asked to read by using American Psychological
Association-style references. If you are unfamiliar with that
reference style, you can find examples at the following link:
http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/apa_examples.cfm
References
Adler, R. B., and Elmhorst, J. M. (2002).
Communicating at work: Principles and practices for business
and the professions
(7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cooley, R. E., and Roach, D. A. (1984). “A Conceptual
Framework.” In R. N. Bostrom (Ed.),
Competence in communication: A multidisciplinary approach
(pp. 11-32). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Sanchez, P. (1999, August-September). How to craft successful
employee communication in the information age.
Communication World, 16
(7), 9-15.

6. Spitzberg, B. H. (2000). What is good communication?
Journal of the Association for Communication Administration,
29,
103-119.
Wiemann, J. M., Takai, J., Ota, H., and Wiemann, M. (1997). A
relational model of communication competence. In B. Kovac
(Ed.),
Emerging theories of human communication
(pp. 25-44)
.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.