You will complete a written, critical reflection essay about communication, taken from a ‘communication event’, in which you have been involved, and that could come from one of the following choices:

• within one of the Assignment 2 presentations from other students, or
• within an organisational context [at work or at university], or
• within an 'institutional' context [for example, a family, a relationship, a group of friends].

Your choice of topic or context must relate to ideas and concepts found in all or some parts of the Matryoushka or Russian Doll Analogy related to adult communication management competence, and as presented by Kaye [2014; various dates] in his text. Use the following statements to guide your reflection:

1. Briefly describe your communication event. In your Introduction there should be a clear statement about your topic [for example, topic: communicating within families]; a clear explanation of your focus [for example, looking specifically at the way families set out rules for social interaction with others]; and a clear idea of the scope of the work [for example, looking particularly at the case for establishing boundaries about going out at night].
2. Choose and discuss how this event relates to relevant layers of the Russian Doll Analogy
3. Analyse and critique how this event relates to a minimum of one other concept from this subject (you can include more if appropriate, for example, ethos of scholarship; values; locus of control; types of communication; learning styles)
4. Discuss extra-dimensional communication within this event (for example, presence/absence/how it could be attained or improved for future communication – this is the critical element)
5. Evaluate what you have learnt as a result of reflecting on this communication event (more of the critical element)
   

Please note that an ‘Essay Template’ will be provided in the preparation stages to help guide you to complete the task. This Template will include further details, information, advice and examples of text, to assist in every stage of the essay-writing process. At least two of the paragraphs in your final work can be taken from what you submitted in Assignments 1 & 2 [more information later]

Rationale

This is the third assessment item for HCS102 and is designed to engage students in analysis and reflection of communication events in an organisational context. In this assignment, students can critically reflect on communication theories and activities, subject concepts and ideas, and behavioural expectations of being a human services worker. 

Broadly speaking, for this third assessment item, you are undertaking a 'critically analytical' task in order to make links to what it is you did not know prior to undertaking this subject. Each developmental stage has coincided with the different assessment tasks up to now:

Assignment 3 – Final stage – Analysis and critical reflection, extra-dimensional communication.

 Therefore, this assignment will address the following learning outcomes:

• be able to demonstrate the acquisition of introductory skills in critical thinking, critical reasoning, research and various forms of communicating in an academic environment
• be able to apply knowledge of the different levels of communication competence, including intra-personal, inter-personal, trans-systems, and extra-dimensional layers, to study and work in the Human Services.

Introduction 

Communication is an integral part of any workplace framework. Even as most organizations focuses on the formal interaction, the social context of communication cannot be ignored, owing to its impact on the workplace culture (Sharma, 2015). Effective communication in workplace can create positive workplace environment for an individual. In this context the application of the multi-dimensional concept of communication proposed by Kaye (2010) in the Russian doll analogy is studied. As per this framework, there exists an almost symbiotic relationship between the employees and organization. Here, the communication functions on the inter-relation of the intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, communication within the paradigm of an organized system and a situation (Kaye, 2010). Through this model of communication, one can study the different aspects of communication, and reflect upon measures to improve the flow of information. This reflective paper studies a communication event, and applies the Russian doll analogy and other theoretical frameworks to analyse the extra dimension of the communication.

Communication event 

In this early stage of my organizational journey, I work predominately as an accommodation manager. I am responsible for the management of the overall effective operations of the establishment, and have a fair understanding of the inter-relation of varied aspects of the department to the collective operations. This is a communication event which strengthened my comprehension of the multi-level influences in an organization. 

I was an intern at a local hotel, and was supposed to handle the allocation of the guests in varied rooms. Since, the establishment was booked for a conference, and we were under staffed, the execution of competence and strategic planning was vital. We were a team of five members each who were responsible for the management of the housing arrangement, and together with our leader we came with an innovative solution to house the guests. However, on the day of the presentation the leader was unable to turn up. Even as each member of the team was familiar with the arrangement, and I personally was willing to pitch the arrangement of our team, we were denied this opportunity. It was revealed that the team had to communicate only through their supervisors and group leaders.

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)