PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA IN

Professional Diploma in Industrial Technology

MODULE

Engineering Communication

NAME: Muhammad Zubair Bin Mydin Abdul Gany

I.C. NO.: 890917075459

LEARNING CENTRE: MUTIARA BIRU EHSAN

INTAKE JANUARY 2023

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT PAGE

Assignment Question 3

Introduction 4

Discussion 5-17

Conclusion 18

References 19

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INTRODUCTION

Communication is an essential part of business. Students in a business degree program

take courses in communication to gain skills they will need to succeed in their careers. For

managers tasked with leading projects or overseeing teams of people, communication

becomes even more important, with effective communication skills considered a must-have.

Both written and verbal communication skills are of the utmost importance in business,

especially in engineering. Communication skills boost you or your teams' performance

because they provide clear information and expectations to help manage and deliver

excellent work. Communications engineers design and modify electrical communications

systems for scientific, military, industrial or commercial use. The level of in-depth technical

and design work varies; after a few years of experience many communications engineers will

start to move into managerial and consultancy roles. Although the “overworked student”

stereotype is still accurate, what most people don’t realize is just how prominent and vital

communication skills have become in the field of engineering. We can define

“communication skills,” as anything that has to do with communication. This broad definition

includes writing, speaking and listening skills. Studies have shown that most graduates felt

they had gained analytical and problem-solving skills, subject-specific knowledge and

improved decision-making abilities through their engineering degrees. Much fewer felt that

their communication skills had improved due to their engineering education. Employers want

engineers with strong communication skills. They assume most people who graduate with an

engineering degree have the technical expertise to do their jobs; what employers are looking

for in a candidate is the ability to communicate their findings with others in a productive,

efficient manner. In today’s world, it is essential for an engineer to possess strong

communication skills; it is the biggest determiner of success in the modern engineer’s

professional career. Today’s engineering students need engaging, contextually-positioned

technical communications, project management, entrepreneurial thinking, and teamwork

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instruction and practice in order to perform well in advanced discipline-specific engineering

classes, internships, capstone, and in their entry level engineering positions.

BASE FOR ACTION

Communication is essential for decision-making and planning. It enables the management to

secure information without which it may not be possible to take any decision. The quality of

managerial decisions depends upon the quality of communication. Further, the decisions and

plans of the management need to be communicated to the subordinates. Without effective

communication, it may not be possible to issue instructions to others. Effective

communication helps in proper implementation of plans and policies of the management.

Communication is a source of information to the organizational members for

decisionmaking process as it helps identifying and assessing alternative course of actions.

The manager explains to the employees the organizational goals, modes of their

achievement and also the interpersonal relationships amongst them. This provides

coordination between various employees and also departments. Thus, communications act

as a basis for coordination in the organization. Building trust is essential to gain the

legitimacy that leaders need to mobilize their followers. Expressing a moral conviction about

their goals, convincingly telling the truth, admitting mistakes, and acknowledging

shortcomings serve to establish credibility and get followers to identify with the leader and

his or her mission. In addition, these messages need to be accompanied by the right facial

expressions.

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PLANNING BECOME EASY

Proper communication provides information to the manager that is useful for decision

making. No decisions could be taken in the absence of information. Thus, communication is

the basis for taking the right decisions. When you want to introduce a new service or product

or launch an initiative within your company, you’ll need to communicate this new information

to your target audiences. You need a communication plan. A communication plan is your

road map for getting your message delivered to your audience. It’s an essential tool for

ensuring your organization sends a clear, specific message with measurable results. Writing

a communication plan can be time-consuming (What Is Communication Planning and Why Is

It Important?, 25, 2022). Here are six steps that will help you create an effective

communication plan for your business.

1. Perform a situation analysis.

Conduct an audit to evaluate where you currently stand in terms of communications. You

need to gather and analyse all relevant information within your company. To conduct your

own communications audit, you may need to do the following:

• Brainstorm with communication staff.

• Conduct surveys and focus groups.

• Talk to other departments in your company.

2. Define your objectives.

After you collect and evaluate all information, define your overall communications objectives.

What are the results you want to achieve? What do you want to accomplish by implementing

this communication plan? Your objectives should be SMART:

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 • Specific

• Measurable.

• Achievable.

• Realistic.

• Time-focused.

3. Define your key audiences.

You need to know to whom you are delivering your messages. List all the key audiences of

your organization. These may include the following:

• Members/non-members.

• Clients.

• Related associations.

• Educators.

• Local government officials.

• Media representatives.

4. Identify media channels.

Plan to deliver your messages to your key recipients through multiple media channels.

Decide which media channels would be the most effective to get your message delivered to

your target audiences.

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5. Establish a timetable.

In order to achieve your communications objectives, you need to plan and time your steps

for the best results. Based on your research and your resources, develop a solid timing

strategy to execute the steps of your communication plan.

6. Evaluate the results.

It’s always important to measure your results to understand whether you achieved your

objectives. If you aren’t satisfied with the results, make necessary adjustments in order to

perform better next time. Your evaluation might take the form of the following:

• Annual reports.

• Monthly reports.

• Progress reports.

• Reports from other departments.

Project success depends on effective communication and this is the importance of

communication in any project. Improving communication maximizes success and minimizes

risk. In addition, if a project manager can develop effective communication with its

stakeholder, this may mean more projects for him and the team.

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MEANS OF COORDINATION

Communication and coordination are key issues for successful project management.

Coordination is specifically a challenging task for industrial projects where a number of

interdependent role players are needed to achieve the desired project outcomes. In this

context, a two-stage case study of construction phase delay control for an oil and gas

industrial project is presented. A process improvement methodology was carried out in the

first stage and the root causes for the delays were identified. The investigation results

revealed that the scope of one item of work, piping, dominated a large portion of delays. It

was found that piping packages were not processed smoothly due to four main causes:

incomplete testing, frequent piping modifications, incomplete as-built drawings, and

incomplete punch listing. Seventy percent of the delays were caused by incomplete testing

activities and incomplete as-built drawings. The improvement study suggested establishing a

new unit for piping test package control and coordination The communication system plays a

vital role in coordination of efforts and activities within single work units are between the

various subsystems of the organization. Only through communication, coordination between

various individuals and activities can be brought out. Management is the art of getting things

done through others and this objective of management cannot be achieved unless there is

unity of purpose and harmony of effort. Communication through exchange of ideas and

information helps to bring about unity of action in the pursuit of common purpose. It binds the

people together and facilitates coordination. As discussed earlier, communication also

assists in controlling process. It helps controlling organizational member’s behaviour in

various ways. There are various levels of hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines that

employees must follow in an organization. They must comply with organizational policies,

perform their job role efficiently and communicate any work problem and grievance to their

superiors. Thus, communication helps in controlling function of management.

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Communication Flows in an Organization

In an organization, communication flows in 5 main directions:

1. Downward

2. Upward

3. Lateral

4. Diagonal

5. External

1. Downward Flow of Communication:

Communication that flows from a higher level in an organization to a lower level is a

downward communication. In other words, communication from superiors to

subordinates in a chain of command is a downward communication. This

communication flow is used by the managers to transmit workrelated information to

the employees at lower levels. Employees require this information for performing

their jobs and for meeting the expectations of their managers. Downward

communication is used by the managers for the following purposes –

Providing feedback on employee’s performance

Giving job instructions

Providing a complete understanding of the employee’s job as well as to

communicate them how their job is related to other jobs in the organization.

Communicating the organizations mission and vision to the employees.

Highlighting the areas of attention.

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 Organizational publications, circulars, letter to employees, group meetings etc are all

examples of downward communication. In order to have effective and error-free

downward communication, managers must:

• Specify communication objective

• Ensure that the message is ac

• Utilize the best communication technique to convey the message to the receiver in

right form curate, specific and unambiguous.

2. Upward Flow of Communication:

Communication that flows to a higher level in an organization is called upward

communication. It provides feedback on how well the organization is functioning. The

subordinates use upward communication to convey their problems and performances

to their superiors. The subordinates also use upward communication to tell how well

they have understood the downward communication. It can also be used by the

employees to share their views and ideas and to participate in the decision-making

process. Upward communication leads to a more committed and loyal workforce in

an organization because the employees are given a chance to raise and speak

dissatisfaction issues to the higher levels. The managers get to know about the

employee’s feelings towards their jobs, peers, supervisor and organization in general.

Managers can thus accordingly take actions for improving things. Grievance

Redressed System, Complaint and Suggestion Box, Job Satisfaction surveys etc. all

help in improving upward communication. Other examples of Upward

Communication are -performance reports made by low level management for

reviewing by higher level management, employee attitude surveys, letters from

employees, employee-manager discussions etc.

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3. Lateral / Horizontal Communication:

Communication that takes place at same levels of hierarchy in an organization is

called lateral communication, i.e., communication between peers, between managers

at same levels or between any horizontally equivalent organizational member. The

advantages of horizontal communication are as follows:

It is time saving.

It facilitates co-ordination of the task.

It facilitates co-operation among team members.

It provides emotional and social assistance to the organizational members.

It helps in solving various organizational problems.

It is a means of information sharing

It can also be used for resolving conflicts of a department with other department or

conflicts within a department.

4. Diagonal Communication:

Communication that takes place between a manager and employees of other

workgroups is called diagonal communication. It generally does not appear on

organizational chart. For instance - To design a training module a training manager

interacts with some Operations personnel to enquire about the way they perform their

task.

5. External Communication:

Communication that takes place between a manager and external groups such as -

suppliers, vendors, banks, financial institutes etc. For instance - To raise capital the

Managing director would interact with the Bank Manager.

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AIDS IN DECISION MAKING

Communication also aids in reducing employee resistance which might during the decision-

making process. This may result into conflicts within the organization. Communication also

aids in the process of a firm undertaking decisions regarding research and development

which is vital for a firm's success. In the process of executing their duties, managers are

charged with a number of roles. Some of these roles relate to interpersonal roles,

informational roles and decisional roles. The success of an organization is dependent on the

effectiveness and efficiency with which the managers undertake their functions. One of the

most important roles which managers are supposed to undertake is making decisions to

guide the organization’s operations. In an organizational setting, there are a number of

groups which help the organization in conducting various tasks. The basis of these groups

may be the various departments. Despite the fact that managers should be independent in

making decisions, consideration of the various groups is paramount. There is a strong

correlation between communication and decision. Explicitly stated, communication has an

influence on the decision made. Communication is defined as the dissemination of

information from sender to the receiver. For communication to occur, information must be

communicated via effective decoding by the receiver. Communication in an organization can

be viewed in a number of perspectives one of them being a medium via which group

interaction in an organization occurs. Alternatively, communication can be considered to be

the essence of decision making. This makes communication to be an essential element in

the success of an organization. Managers need information, reports, statements from

various sources for formulating plans and taking various decisions. Further, the managerial

decisions and plans are to be communicated to the subordinates. However, intelligent the

personnel maybe it would be of no benefit if the higher-level management cannot effectively

communicate policies and decisions to them. The effective implementation of plans and

decisions depends upon the nature of communication. It is said that communication acts as

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a driving force which keeps all the individuals working as per the expectations of the top

management.

PROVIDES EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

Effective communication is THE key to leadership, according to Tom Peters. Bill Gates said

that if he was down to his last dollar, he will spend it on communication with his

stakeholders. Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor, May 2014, identified

communication at the top-ranking attribute for effective leadership. 74% of the respondents

viewed it as very important to great leadership – yet only 29% felt leaders communicated

effectively. Communication is the basis of effective leadership. There cannot be any

leadership action without the effective communication between the leader and the led.

Communication is absolutely necessary for maintaining man to man relationship in

leadership. It brings the manager (leader) and the subordinates (led) in close contact with

each other and helps in establishing effective leadership. Communication system is used by

the managers to clarify organizational and departmental objectives, policies and

programmes, issues instructions, assignment of job to their subordinates, to advise, guide

and assist the subordinates on which, how, when and where jobs so assigned are to be

performed, to motivate, praise their subordinates and so on. Thus, managers perform their

direction and leadership function through the communication system. Effective

communication increases managerial efficiency (Luthra, 2015). It is rightly said that nothing

happens in management until communication takes place. The efficiency of manager

depends upon his ability to communicate effectively with the members of his organisation. It

is only through communication that management conveys its goals and desires, issues

instructions and orders, allocates jobs and responsibility and evaluates performance of

subordinates. Effective communication increases managerial capacity too. A manager is a

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human being and has limitations as to time and energy that he can devote to his activities.

He has to assign duties and responsibilities to his subordinates. Through communication, a

manager can effectively delegate his authority and responsibility to others and thus,

increases his managerial capacity. As a project manager, you need to ensure that the team

members and the stakeholders are informed of what you expect of them – their roles and

responsibilities and other time constraints that prevent them from accomplishing the task on

time. As the project manager, it is also your task to keep them informed of project details and

progress. In order to relay information, it is a must that project managers regularly access

the information for a given project. At any time, there may be stakeholders who need

information about the project such as the objectives, plan, risks, customer needs, and time

constraints. Adherence to a system of regular and focused communication can prevent

misunderstandings and delays that can cause failure in any project.

The Role of the Communication Professional in Leadership Communication

Communication professionals play a key role in the success of the leader’s communication

efforts. Leaders have limited time to attend to all the demands made on them – that includes

communicating with the stakeholders. Skilled communication professionals with business

acumen will not only enhance the reputation of the leader in the way they profile the person,

they will also add value to his strategic success in the way they created and distribute

messages in support of the vision. The CEO Study, conducted by the IABC, identified four

ways CEOs felt communication professionals should assist them in the challenges they were

facing with communication.

1. Dealing with the demand for information

The increased demand for information about the direction of the business by their

internal and external stakeholders, was cited as the biggest challenge CEOs was

facing. They expected communication professionals to have a depth of business

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 knowledge and understanding that will enable them to create and package the

required information.

2. Social media

The fast pace at which information can travel was a daunting reality business

leaders expected communication professionals to assist them with. An Australian

study, including 1,700 CEOs, found that CEOs expected social media to become

the second most-used organisational engagement method after face-to-face

communication. Research conducted by BRAND fog revealed that customers

trust companies more if the CEO used social media. CEOs clearly understand

the benefits of connecting with customers, employees and other stakeholders via

social media and they are looking at communication professionals to provide

assistance. What leaders expect is that communication professionals should

assist them to look beyond the hype of social media successes and disasters and

make a well-informed business decision on how to engage on these platforms.

Communication professionals need to educate the leaders on the nature and the

typical audience of the different media e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer or Jive.

They should format their messages for the different social platforms, watch trends

and measure the impact of the messages for them. The communication team

needs to demonstrate depth of understanding of these platforms by putting in

place policies, strategies and processes to protect and guide the organisation’s

leaders.

3. Authenticity and credibility

CEOs expect communication professionals to assist them with authenticity and

credibility. The study revealed that many CEOs no longer prefer prepared

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 speeches from their communication professionals but a set of well researched

and well-structured talking points dealing with the topic that had to be addressed.

They felt that talking to points were more authentic and credible than reading a

prepared speech.

4. Shape the corporate conversation

Communication professionals must to be able to sit at the boardroom table and

participate in the corporate conversation, providing guidance and information and

content with regard to the different stakeholders. They must be able to be

proactive strategic partners and have an in-depth understanding of the industry,

the business and its stakeholders. The communication must ensure consistency

of messaging to the different stakeholders and in the diverse range of

communication platforms. The communication strategy, aligned with the business

strategy, was regarded by the CEOs as the blue print for facilitating the

implementation of the corporate strategy.

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CONCLUSION

The success of every organization depends on the effectiveness of the decisions made by

the firm’s management team. From the analysis, it is evident that the quality of decision

made is dependent on the effectiveness of communication within the organization. These

sentiments are underscored by Aaron (2006, p. 32) who asserts that despite the vision

statement that a firm has, lack of effective communication can result into failure in their

attainment. The decisions to be implemented may affect the employees’ negatively thus

limiting their productivity. Imposing a decision on the employees which they are not aware of

may result into resistance. Through effective organizational communication, the employees

become aware of the decision prior to the change. This increases the probability of them

cooperating during the implementation process. In addition, communication helps in effective

decision making via identification of the existing problem. Problem identification is the first

step in the decision-making process within an organization. Effective communication

increases the degree of certainty with regard to the problem being solved. For example, the

existing problem may relate to conflicts between the firm’s employees. Without effective

identification of the problem, there is a high probability of the decision made not solving the

existing problem. This means that the entire decision-making process was a mere waste of

time. Through communication, it is possible for the management team to determine the

complexity of the intended decision with regard to its effect on the employees. The

management team may consider involving the employees in finding a more optimal solution

by communicating the intended decision. The resultant effect is that the firm is able to

identify the appropriateness of the decision via identification of various alternatives.

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References

Luthra, D. A. (2015, September). Effective Leadership is all about Communicating Effectively:

Moor, A. d. (July, 2003). Coordination through Communication. Retrieved from

What Is Communication Planning and Why Is It Important? (25, 2022, June 25). Retrieved from
[Link]: [Link]
communication-planning

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