An Assessment of the Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication Program in Meeting the Job Responsibilities of Its Graduates Working in Knowledge-Based Organizations

Abstract

Societies around the world are now in the transitional stage from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Era, where societies and organizations place premium on knowledge held by an organization, instead of the financial and physical assets. This shift in the economic trend puts employees in different roles— from mere machine-operating workers of the Industrial Age to knowledge-generating employees of the Knowledge Era. In this current setup, an employee’s educational background plays a big role in assuring that all job responsibilities assigned him or her are met. This is because it is through school, particularly through college, that one gets to enhance the knowledge and skills one has in relation to work. With this, as an institution whose main responsibility ts to provide its students with the right training that would enable the students to fit to the demands in the workplace, colleges and universities, must then also adapt to the societal changes brought about by the shift to the knowledge age. One way to do this is through reviewing course programs, which dictate what is taught to students, and how these subjects are to be taught. By seeing if current program is in line with the demands in knowledge-based organizations, which has been steadily growing in number, universities and colleges will become more effective as a training ground for future employees. In order to assess whether the program of the Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication is in line with the demands of knowledge-based organizations, this study, An Assessment of the Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication Program in Meeting the Job Responsibilities of its Graduates Working in Knowledge-based Organizations, was conducted. The study aimed to see if the current Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication (BA OrCom) program of the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) meets the job responsibilities of its graduates working in knowledge-based organizations. As an assessment of the BA OrCom program, this does not present a thorough evaluation of the program in knowledge-based organizations for it only focused on the knowledge-based organizations for it only focused on the knowledge and skills taught in the course and the styles and strategies used by OrCom professors and instructors and did not tackle the values that the OrCom program and its teachers want to instill in their students. No work observations were also made, therefore the data gathered for the study is limited to the perspective of the OrCom graduates working in knowledgebased organizations. This thesis is anchored on the Systems Theory, which sees people and organizations not as self-contained and self-sufficient machines but as complex organisms that must interact with their environment to survive. Among the different theories adhering to the Systems Approach, the study is based on the Cybernetic Systems Theory, which sees organizations as cybernetic systems with interrelated components, namely, system goal, system mechanisms, system behavior, and system feedback. Adapting the cybernetic systems theory, the BA OrCom degree program of UPM, which seeks to address the demand for expertise in modern communication as related to organizations in the Philippines, becomes the system goal of the control center. To be able to maintain and achieve this particular system goal, the OrCom degree program employs the specific system mechanism of teaching its students many different knowledge and skills through the 4-year OrCom curriculum. With such learning, the system or the OrCom program expects to achieve its system’s target goal of having graduates whose knowledge and skills are relevant and applicable to their job responsibilities in knowledge-based organizations. To enable the OrCom program to know whether or not its target is reached, a system feedback is made available to them through an assessment of the BA OrCom program, in meeting the job responsibilities of its graduates working in knowledge-based organizations. To fulfill the objectives of the study, the researcher made use of a retrospective descriptive qualitative approach with a checklist and an interview schedule as its tools for data gathering. The research approach and the data gathering tools enabled the researcher to gather pertinent data on the job responsibilities of the respondents, the knowledge and skills needed for their work, and whether the different knowledge taught in BA OrCom are relevant to their work and whether the skills taught in BA OrCom are applicable to their job responsibilities. The study focused on the 2001 March graduates of Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication of the University of the Philippines Manila. In the said year, the BA OrCom program produced a total of 41 graduates. Out of these 41 OrCom graduates, the researcher was able to reach 32 of them for this study. Using the checklist based on the Self-Assessment Toolkit found in the book of Nicholas Bahra entitled Competitive Knowledge Management, 17 out of the 32 or 53% of the respondents were identified to be working in knowledge-based organizations. Ten out of these 17 were interviewed for the study using the interview schedule. Their responses were audio-recorded and transcribed for reference and analysis. The findings of the study, based on the ten interviews, reveals that the BA OrCom program is able to meet the job or work responsibilities of its graduates working in knowledge-based organizations, which are all related to communication in organizational settings. This study was also able to determine that the subjects taught in OrCom are relevant in the workplaces of the graduates working in knowledge-based organizations, as the subjects have taught the graduates the top knowledge and skills that they need to be able to perform their job responsibilities, such as writing skills, good oral communication skills, interpersonal communication skills and knowledge of strategic communication. Another implication that the subjects are relevant is that no current subject was suggested by the graduates to be removed. Another finding of the study is that the knowledge and skills taught in OrCom are applicable to the jobs in knowledge-based organizations. This has been shown by the fact that the four top needed knowledge and skills by the graduates to be able to do their work responsibilities are identified by them to have been taught and honed in OrCom. It can also be inferred that for the graduates, conducting a more participative class where in the students are given a chance to apply what they are taught, and not being spoon fed are the most helpful strategies of teaching used by OrCom professors and instructors. This study was also able to identify that some new subjects can be added to the curriculum, that some present subjects can be merged, and that the students should be given hands-on application of their learning and more exposure to real corporate world settings to make the OrCom program more relevant and applicable to the job responsibilities of its graduates in knowledge-based organizations. For further studies, the researcher recommends that a similar study be made, this time, including not only knowledge and skills taught in the course but also the values that the teachers would want to instill to their students. Future researchers of this study could also include a validation of the response of the graduates through their supervisors. Another study that can be made related to this thesis is an assessment of the BA OrCom degree program in meeting the job responsibilities of its graduates working in non knowledgebased organizations, for a more encompassing evaluation of the program.