Busn20019 Professional Project - Research Assessment Answers

What will not be acceptable as a professional project in this unit?

Strike through sign means these are absolutely unacceptable. It will not matter how much you scored in the early assessments, if you violate any of these instructions after repeated warnings, you will end up failing this unit. Assessment 1.1 success is not a sure indicator of success in assessment 1.2 and high marks in assessment 1.2 is not a sure indicator of marks/ success in assessment 2. Each assessment have its own specific rubric and you will be marked based on that and not the previous one. However, you must pay attention to the feedback provided by the markers in each assessment along with other information provided in moodle to prepare for the next assessment (and even change topic at any point if required).

The following requirements have clearly been stated in all our resources and not following them is not going to be justified by your assessment 

1. Primary Data

Explanation: You cannot collect primary data in this unit. Primary data collection requires ethics approval in Australia which you do not have. Therefore, you are not allowed to collect primary data at all in this unit.

2. Literature review based secondary and or theoretical research

Explanation:

(a) You cannot use literature/published articles as data or sources of data. You must use:

-Data available in raw form (not presented in an already analysed form in that site or other published material for same types of investigations and you do not really have any scope to further analyse it substantially). -Publicly available legitimate/credible sources

-Secondary data

See the week 1 video about data and topic and go through the week 1 lecture and tute slides to understand which types of secondary data is accepted for this unit.

(b) Systematic lit rev (SLR) is not allowed in professional project. You cannot use/select a theoretical line of investigation and answer it with literature review (using literature/articles as data or even source of data-these are not raw data for you).

Example of a theoretical investigation (not acceptable at all):

Is there any impact of human resource strategy on organisational performance?

You cannot possibly answer this RQ without primary data. The secondary data available in the articles/published material is not considered raw secondary data and SLR based research is not allowed at all. Those SLR or theoretical investigations will surely fail in this unit.

This topic also have some other limitations, i.e., this is not focused enough (which industry, organisation/product sector and country are we talking about?). Your topic, aim and RQs must reflect the same focus and be very specific about scope. You may even mention top 10 companies in a certain industry in a certain country if that is what you are doing.

Example of similar but possibly acceptable investigation (could be acceptable if you have raw publicly available secondary data):

Topic: Does direct labour cost have an impact on the financial performance? Evidence from the top 10 banks in Australia

RQ: Is there any impact of the direct labour cost on the organisational performance in the banking industry in Australia?

For example, you may randomly select 10 banks or purposively select top 10 banks and answer this RQ using data from the annual reports of those banks. This could be viable if the direct labour cost and some kind of performance data are available in the annual reports. I am sure we can change the dependent variable to ‘net income’ or just financial performance according to the availability of data.

Depending on your number of observations, a simple correlation analysis can be done. If you have 30 observations at least, you may run a regression.  

This seems like a viable project for this unit in HR or accounting area.

3. Purely economic/government policy level/engineering/scientific line of investigation

Explanation:

Your research has to be a managerial concern/issue/problem and not a national level economic issue, or technical level engineering issue or government policy making issue or pure science issue only R & D scientists need to be concerned about.

For example: If you are looking into ‘Impact of using online marketing and social media on Consumer perception of value’, you cover both IT and marketing track. Is this a managerial topic by default? Yes, it is. As an IT/Marketing manager or even as a strategic decision maker, you need to know this information. Therefore, this topic is acceptable.

However, if you are looking into ‘Cost effectiveness of using High-performance liquid chromatography as a technique to separate, identify, and quantify each component in a chemical mixture’. Is that a managerial topic? The answer is no. This is a pure technical or science topic.

You may be a chemist/scientist working in an industry in R & D division and this is an important research question in your professional track. This will not be an acceptable line of investigation as this is not a managerial issue by default. This is more in line with the scientific enquiry although we are looking into cost-effectiveness. However, this is not directly linked to business literature, rather the scientific outcome/performance takes priority here and commercial application is secondary. Therefore, business literature will not be useful/adequate to explain your findings in this case. Therefore, it is not an acceptable line of research investigation for this unit.

Another example:

‘Impact of tax evasion in Australia’ is not a managerial topic. It does not concern management of any industry or company. Managers want to find ways to legally avoid tax and are not concerned or affected by the tax evasion trend in Australia and it's macro economic or social impact. That is a concern for the policy makers/government agencies (e.g., AOT) but we are studying business management.

If you want to see the effects of corporate tax policy on the net income of a particular Australian industry, it then may be considered a managerial issue. However, the concern is, how will you answer this question? Does raw and publicly available secondary sources give you the required data? Can you actually analyse the tax policy adequately to discuss your finding. You may try to check the variance between one industry to another by using annual report data of the major market players in those industries to make a substantial contribution. This leads us to the next point. You need more customise conversation with the tutor or me to make this tax related topics work. 

4. Obvious or non-substantial investigations/methodology issues

You may still pass if your try to do a great job with other aspects of the report and project even when your RQ itself was a very non-substantial/obvious/non-original. However, a weak research investigation leads to a poor research outcome. Remember that your number of RQs are not important to us (you can only have maximum 3 RQs but one is good too). I would rather prefer if you select one clear question, clear data link that takes us directly to your raw secondary data set and a very clear methodology that tells us exactly how you answered your RQ. You do not need to theoretically define all kinds of research approaches in your methodology. You simply need to make a clear link to your RQs and tell us about the sampling techniques and the statistical or qualitative tools used to analyse the raw data.

5. Do not recycle previous year’s submission or your own submission in other units/terms:

Your assessment will be reported for academic misconduct investigation if you try to recycle previous submissions or net resources. Please remember this can be detected even if the turnitin score seems low (due to clever use of unreadable templates or paraphrasing). Turnitin is just one way to detect academic misconduct and we do have other ways too. We will check the qualitative similarity of contents and ideas and report it duly to the L & T team. You may face serious trouble due to this intentional academic misconduct. Other forms of misconduct is explained in our plagiarism video.

6. Do not share your soft copy with a friend:

 This is an individual assessment and you must not share your document with anyone. If you friend accidentally submit your copy, that will increase similarity score for both of you and you will be subjected to academic misconduct investigations that may jeopardise your future.

As your best friend in this unit for the next 3 months, my team and I will be there in our assigned time to support you. However, you need to engage in independent study in this unit to be successful. I urge you not to treat this as any other unit you have encountered before. Please read through all lecture/tute slides, news forum advice, assessment briefs and other Moodle resources on a regular basis. Visit the unit Moodle site to see what’s new. Do the right thing and you cannot fail.

Chapter 1

Introduction

As an organization, Deloitte Australia has been positioned uniquely in order to help other organizations enhance the management of their regulated communications. It does this through brining on board extensive technology, regulatory, and governance experiences in aiding organizations to device defensive compliance programs that are capable of meeting rigorous “regulatory expectations” around data retention, governance, and surveillance of the communications. Deloitte Australia serves in developing holistic programs which are inclusive of the management of data governance, regulatory expectations, and data quality (Quirke, 2017). Regulatory expectations help in managing evolving landscapes of the global regulatory expectations that include electronic communications which include among others text messages, emails, social media, instant message chats, and voice communication through the use of mobile devices, voicemails, telephone, and electronic media.

On data governance, Deloitte Australia demonstrates to various regulators that different communications are usually managed in a rigorous and consistent fashion globally among the compliance, Information Technology, and legal constituencies. On Data quality, Deloitte Australia assists in the maintenance of compliance through ensuring that there is the identification and provision of covered individuals for the surveillance and achieving, and retention of the messages using appropriate or relevant data quality (Kane et al.2015). The regulated communication management systems offered by Deloitte Australia helps organizations to not only identify gaps in their systems but also develop viable regulated communication systems and enhance the way in which their information lifecycles are managed.   

Communication management at Deloitte Australia is done using structured approaches that are used in the management of regulated communications. This starts through the comprehension of the present governance and technology and the effective identification of gaps that can be used in addressing and handling challenges that arise. This is done through ensuring that there is proper assessment of individuals, technology, process, and technological innovations which affect both the quality of data as well as the compliance requirements (Aula & Heinonen, 2016). Deloitte also develops comprehensive strategies for the management of archives, users, and other sources of communications. It also recommends improvements across the data quality, governance, as well as the effective management and implementation of regulatory expectations.

The Research Aims

The major aim of this research project is to ascertain how effective management of communication by Deloitte Australia has helped it to have a competitive advantage on the market.

Justification of the Project

Most of the companies and organizations across the world have failed to succeed in achieving their goals and objectives due to failure to have effective strategies in communication management. In addition to that, there has been less literature on the issue of communication management and thus this professional project will provide the much needed information that will be used by organizations in order to have effective communication in their respective organizations (Kerzner, 2018). This professional project on communication management in Deloitte in Australia will serve as an eye opener to other organizations having difficulties in communication management. This project will highlight some of the viable strategies have been used by Deloitte Australia in order to communication management.  

Research Questions

• How has effective communication management helped Deloitte Company in Australia to grow its client base?
• How has the establishment and maintenance of acceptable data qualities in retained communications helped Deloitte Company to meet its quality requirements?
• What are the strategies that are used by Deloitte Australia in embracing effective Communication Management?

Research Objectives

• To ascertain how effective communication management has helped Deloitte Company in Australia to grow its client base.
• To ascertain how the establishment and maintenance of acceptable data qualities in retained communications has helped Deloitte Company to meet its quality requirements.
• To analyze the strategies that is used by Deloitte Australia in embracing effective Communication Management. 

Chapter 2

Critical Literature Review

Deloitte Company was ranked by ALM Intelligence as being a global leader in both communications as well as change management consulting. This is attributed to the fact that the company has stood out due to its ability to ensure that there is translation of programs in continuous innovation as well as thought leadership in coherent and multi-dimensional approach. This is important since it helps in the modernization of change management in a digital era. It is prudent to note that while the combination or integration of design, strategy, and digital resources cannot be unique, the Deloitte Company is still ahead in the market. The success of the company has been achieved due to its ability to effectively align the assets to change frameworks. It has also worked effectively towards ensuring that it works from the experiences of clients thus making them work together in an effective manner.

According to the Strategic Change Leader of Deloitte Global Yves Van Durme, there is need for companies to leverage broader discoveries and innovations so as to not only drive their performances but to also develop as well as implement successful agenda of transformation. Deloitte Company embraces Change frameworks through ensuring that there is collaboration with their customers thus helping it convert its vision to value. Change management and communication services are normally anchored in Deloitte Australia’s transformation and talent practice.

The Role of the Customers in Attainment of Communication Management

The client or the customer in an organization is actually the ultimate owner of any strategy in an organization and Deloitte Company in Australia thus acts as an “extended arm” which makes sure that the management of the company focuses on the execution of its strategy.  The core of Deloitte Australia’s project communication management approach is based on a robust communication plan that is capable of identifying the main or primary communication needs of the company thus helping it to build the desired support (Altamony et al.2016). The success of communication management in Deloitte Australia is based on numerous core project management principles which are quite beneficial to the company and these are discussed below:

The Core Project Management Principles and the Benefits attributed to them

Clear Communication channels

This is very important in helping Deloitte Australia to quickly and effectively develop not only a “stakeholder map” but also the relevant communication process. This plays a significant role in enabling for facilitation of timely and rapid sharing of information, effective decision making, and collaboration that are founded on overarching principles (Kane, 2015).

Transparency

Provision of comprehensive and clear views of the project status in Deloitte Australia has played a significant role in attaining effective communication management in the organization. This has enabled stakeholders to become aware of the people who are responsible for various tasks, the appropriate individuals to contact in order to resolve issues and questions, and also become aware of decisions that have been arrived at any of the pending actions (Welford, 2016).

Project Management Collaborations

Deloitte Australia normally establishes strong working partnerships with different departments and vendors in the entire duration of all its projects (Kerzner, 2017).

Measuring of Progress Metrics

Deloitte Australia established meaning Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics which are based on their experiences. The approach of the company is based on Risk, schedule, scope, quality, cost, issue management. These are executed through status meetings and well defined process escalation processes which are used in the handling of dependencies and issues thus helping it attain success (McGUNAGLE, 2015).

The Use of Standard Methods

Deloitte Australia uses standard methods through creation of confidence using both reliability and predictability. The use of Deloitte of proven tools and methods not only support consistent but they also support communication through effective planning and control of its project in its phases. This is done through the customization of the project templates so as to jumpstart both the project tasks as well as deliverables. This ultimately leads to an increase in quality while leading to a decrease in efforts, costs, and time that is required in the achievement of communication management strategies and objectives (Schaltegger & Burritt, 2017). The communication capabilities of Deloitte have played a significant role in enhancement of transparency for its projects to stakeholders.       

Communication Management Aspects at Deloitte Australia

The Communication management approach for Deloitte Australia is known to include numerous processes which help it in facilitation of timely collection, analysis, development, distribution, and even storage of important project information that is based on well established or developed communication plans (Hislop, Bosua & Helms, 2018). This normally places greater emphasis on collaborations and Deloitte thus is known to promote consistency in its project reporting in communication. Deloitte is known to collaborate with numerous departments during initiation of communication programs in order to refine its communication projects and also attain “effective status reporting” which works for all the stakeholders in the organization.

The management of communication projects in any organization ultimately requires that its management ought to define corrective or preventive actions that are aimed at addressing any of the negative delinquencies or trends in the communication process. This is quite important because it helps in the distribution and discussion of the status of communication with the relevant stakeholders in a timely way (Meadows & Meadows, 2016). Deloitte’s communication management has been successfully due to its ability in providing status reports to numerous departments based on its Communication Management Plans on a consistent basis as expected by the numerous departments in the company.    

How Communication Management has helped in Enhancing Performance Management at Deloitte Australia

The issue of performance management is normally concerned with the enhancement of performance so as to achieve not only positive attitudes at the work place but also enhance individual and team effectiveness. Communication management has helped in the attainment of Performance management at Deloitte Australia thus helping in the attainment of continuous development processes in the organization (O'Leary, 2015). Owing to the fact that performance management is usually concerned with ensuring that there is satisfaction of expectations and needs of numerous stakeholders who include the company’s customers, employees, owners, the general public, and suppliers, it is important to ensure that communication management is done effectively in the company. This is attributed to the fact that it will help in ensuring that all the organizational stakeholders communicate effectively and aim at the realization of the set organizational goals and objectives.

Chapter 3

Methodology

Research Design

The chapter is concerned with the method used by the researcher in carrying out the study and includes among others the design, the sampling procedure, the data collection techniques, data analysis and data presentation (Mcgunagle, Button, & Zizka, 2016).

The Research Design

This is a case study of the Deloitte Australia and thus is regarded as quite appropriate because only one firm is involved. It is also deemed to be appropriate since an in-depth as well as comprehensive study and inquiry was carried out.

Data Collection

Data was collected for this research only through secondary data that emanated from the annual board papers of Deloitte Australia, internal company newsletters, and the appropriate documents that were fully utilized in order to complement with all the sources (Fiolleau, Hoang & Pomeroy, 2017).

Chaper 4

Datas Analysis

The “content analysis” technique was applied in the analysis of data. The data was then ultimately edited and vetted for reliability, validity, and consistency (Roberts & Piller, 2016). This method was successfully because it had been successfully used by other researchers as well.

This chapter deals with presentation of results from the data analysis which was collected through secondary data.

Analysis and the Findings

The data collection sought to analyze the impact of effective communication management in the enhancement of operations at the Deloitte Company in Australia. Based on the analysis of the secondary data regarding the issue of communication management in the company, it was quite apparent that the success of Deloitte in Australia was highly based on the ability of the company to effectively manage its communication processes (Jordan-Meier, 2016). According to the information from the secondary data sources, it was pointed out that communication played a significant role in making sure that all the departments in Deloitte Australia operated efficiently. Without effective communication in any organization, then general operations and ultimately its production and profitability is bound to fail. Communication was quite crucial because it enabled discussions to be carried out between all the relevant stakeholders in the organization.  

A Discussion of the findings based on previously reviewed literature

Based on the above information in the literature review, it is quite evident that there is need for organizations to ensure that they have developed or even elevated effective communication programs that is capable of being aligned to its core objectives (Davey et al.2017). Effective communication is quite important because it helps management and staff to get clear communication regarding renewed missions, strategies, and even the brand objectives. In addition to that, communication for a company such as Deloitte Australia and other firms across the world require effective communication since they may have other stakeholders outside the organization whom they may need to have constant communication with. Such stakeholders include but are not limited to customers, bankers, and investors, among others.

It is evident that proactive communication programs are quite essential for the success of an organization and indeed, this is quite evident in the case study of Deloitte Company in Australia whose effective communication management has greatly contributed to its overall success (Waddock & Bodwell, 2017). However, it is unfortunate that some organizations across the world have failed to realize or recognize the importance of communication in the success of their respective firms. As a result, they have failed to embrace access towards sufficient and effective communication support that can help their organizations to enhance their performances.

Owing to the complexity that is associated with the contemporary multinational firms, there is need for managers in such organizations to ensure that they connect and compete for attention in order to execute disciplined communication programs (Newton et al.2015). This is essential and will help in ensuring that critical messages and information is delivered to relevant stakeholders without being lost in the translations or drowned out by noises. It is important for organizational managers to devise simple models that will help them in the creation and execution of disciplined communication programs that will easily align with the core objectives of their specific organizations. 

Chapter 5

Conclusions

Based on the case study of Deloitte in Australia, it is quite evident that the development and implementation of effective communication channels in an organization plays a significant role in guaranteeing its success (Hackett, 2015). It is important for all and sundry to note that effective communication is essential for organizational managers because it enables them to effectively execute basic management functions which include but are not limited to the planning, organization, leading people, and even controlling them. In essence, communication management in an organization is quite important because it also helps organizational managers to carry out their set jobs and responsibilities. That apart, it is also important to note that effective communication management is quite crucial for the basic general management of any organization. Best organizational managers should thus have the ability of comprehending the need for creating alliances as well as communicating in all the organizational levels to ensure the messages are passed across.  

Recommendations

Based on the case study of Deloitte Company in Australia, it is quite evident that there are numerous strategies that organizations need to embrace in order to achieve viable communication management. The following are the recommendations that can help organizations to have good communication which will eventually enhance their productivity and profitability:

Alignment of communication to the priorities of the organization

A good and appropriate starting point for the communication strategy of the organization should be the “core go-forward” priorities for an organization. Having clarities on the priorities of a company will be sensible to the creation of an effective communication strategy that will become a priority to each entity and thus to the general communication program of the organization.

Definition of Critical Audiences

For each of the given priorities, it will be important to define the critical audiences for each communication that occurs in the organization. This will include stating the people who one needs to communicate to and the people that one wants to hear from. An organization can have different audiences to communicate to who include the executive committee, the finance department, direct reports, and the whole organization or company (Wang et al.2016). This implies that the first step in the creation of any communication strategy for a particular priority is actually the definition of the appropriate audiences that one wants to communicate with and the influence that they have on the organization.

Definition of the “audience specific objectives’ for each of the Priority

Definition of audience specific objectives in an organization is quite crucial because it helps in the creation of more accountable organizations that are capable of delivering value and insight to their stakeholders. While setting a communication policy in an organization, it will be prudent to note that each audience can have different goals and each of the priorities can also have different goals and communication intends intents for the different audiences (Aula & Heinonen, 2016).

Definition of Critical Messages

It is prudent to note that for each of the organizational audiences, there will always be different messages that will be dispatched at different intervals. For instance, a company can have different messages for its business peers and staff which can occur at different times. This implies that there may be need to communicate the revised expectations and also communicate the required timelines for any forthcoming actions in the organization.   

Limitations

There are various limitations that are associated with the implementation of communication management in organizations and the major one is the availability of funds. Good and effective communication channels will quite definitely need funds to develop and thus the lack of financial resources to put in place such channels implies that communication in the organization will be hampered by numerous barriers (Kirchherr et al. 2017). Another significant limitation is the notion that an effective communication channel in an organization can only be developed and implemented by the management alone. This is not the case since any good communication channel is not the responsibility of the management alone but rather, it is a collective responsibility of all the concerned stakeholders in an organization.  

References

Altamony, H., Al-Salti, Z., Gharaibeh, A., & Elyas, T. (2016). The relationship between change management strategy and successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations: A theoretical perspective. International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research, 7(4), 690-703.

Aula, P., & Heinonen, J. (2016). Evidence-Based Reputation Management. In The Reputable Firm (pp. 163-199). Springer, Cham.

Aula, P., & Heinonen, J. (2016). Risk of Risks. In The Reputable Firm (pp. 133-162). Springer, Cham.

Davey, J., Alsemgeest, R., O’Reilly-Schwass, S., Davey, H., & FitzPatrick, M. (2017). Visualizing intellectual capital using service-dominant logic: What are hotel companies reporting?. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(6), 1745-1768.

Fiolleau, K., Hoang, K., & Pomeroy, B. (2017). Auditors' Communications with Audit Committees: The Influence of the Audit Committee's Oversight Approach.

Hackett, A. (2015). How Do You Effectively Engage Employees During Times of Change and Uncertainty?.

Hislop, D., Bosua, R., & Helms, R. (2018). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press.

Jordan-Meier, J. (2016). The four stages of highly effective crisis management: How to manage the media in the digital age. CRC press.

Kane, G. C. (2015). Enterprise social media: Current capabilities and future possibilities. MIS Quarterly Executive, 14(1).

Kane, G. C., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., Kiron, D., & Buckley, N. (2015). Strategy, not technology, drives digital transformation. MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte University Press, 14, 1-25.

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Kerzner, H., 2018. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley & Sons.

Kirchherr, J. W., Hekkert, M. P., Bour, R., Huijbrechtse-Truijens, A., Kostense-Smit, E., & Muller, J. (2017). Breaking the barriers to the circular economy.

McGUNAGLE, D. M. (2015). MEETING REAL WORK DEMANDS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. Journal on Management, 10(3).

Mcgunagle, D. M., Button, D., & Zizka, L. (2016). The impact of corporate social responsibility communication on corporate reputation. i-Manager's Journal on Management, 10(4), 37.

Meadows, C. Z., & Meadows, C. W. (2016). Corporate reputation on mass media, public opinion, and YouTube: Examining the factors influencing reputation of Fortune 500 companies. Corporate Reputation Review, 19(4), 345-356.

Newton, J. D., Tsarenko, Y., Ferraro, C., & Sands, S. (2015). Environmental concern and environmental purchase intentions: The mediating role of learning strategy. Journal of Business Research, 68(9), 1974-1981.

O'Leary, D. E. (2015). Knowledge Management and Enterprise Social Networking: Content vs. Collaboration.

Quirke, B. (2017). Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy into action. Routledge.

Roberts, D. L., & Piller, F. T. (2016). Finding the right role for social media in innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(3), 41.

Schaltegger, S., & Burritt, R. (2017). Contemporary environmental accounting: issues, concepts and practice. Routledge.

Waddock, S., & Bodwell, C. (2017). Total responsibility management: The manual. Routledge.

Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E. W., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016). Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, 98-110.

Welford, R. (2016). Corporate environmental management 1: systems and strategies. Routledge.

Links to Data

https://www.inc.com/adam-robinson/according-to-deloitte-this-1-type-of-data-is-critical-to-boosting-your-teams-productivity.html

https://www.anaplan.com/blog/human-capital-trends-series-deloitte-research-part-1/

https://www2.deloitte.com/lu/en/pages/financial-advisory/solutions/deloitte-quantitative-finance-master-classes.html