BSCOM 480 UP Working as Executive Administrative Assistant Discussion

BSCOM/480: Applied Communication Capstone
Week 1 Discussion – Problem-Solving Skills
Materials
Textbook
Shires, J. (2021). Applied communication capstone. MyEducator.
Course Tools
MyEducator™
You have probably been asked to use your research and analytical skills in school and at work—
you will be asked to use these skills in the future. Think back to a time when you were
presented with a problem you needed to help solve with data you needed to interpret.
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
•
•
•
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What was the situation? Briefly describe the situation and the first step you took to solve
the problem or interpret the data.
How did you solve it? Identify what you feel was your strongest skill to help you solve
the problem or interpret the data.
Which skills do you feel require improvement based on the challenges you
experienced?
How are these skills useful in your career field? ( I am an Executive Administrative
Assistant)
Chapter 1: When Communication Plans Fail
Introduction
Topic 1 Introduction Transcript
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Explain the reasons why companies, organizations, and nonprofits build strategic communication plans (SCP).
2. Describe the different parts of the SCP.
3. List the groups that should be represented in developing the SCP.
4. Explain why the groups should have representation.
5. Describe the timeline for creating the SCP.
6. Define poor research as it relates to the SCP.
7. Describe what a poor goal and objective looks like.
8. Describe failures of measurement.
1.1Overview of the Strategic Communication Plan
Topic 1.1 Transcript
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What Is the Purpose of the Strategic Communication Plan?
The strategic communication plan is part of an organization’s overall strategic planning. Strategic planning is a
systematic process that uses an organization’s mission and priorities to develop a plan through a consensus among
stakeholders. Strategic planning takes into account the current social, political, regulatory, cultural, and organizational
climates and develops strategies to adapt to changes in these environments. By doing this, strategic planning helps to
address challenges as they arise.
Once strategic planning is complete, a strategic communication plan is developed to help implement all or part of the plan.
A strategic communication plan
•
uses communication strategies to achieve an organization’s mission and core functions;
•
uses planning and research to identify priority audiences or audience segments and design strategies, tactics,
and messages to effectively bring about an attitudinal or a behavioral change;
•
helps public relations and communication officers focus efforts and resources on needed areas and get the
largest return on the investment; and
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allows the organization to proactively seize opportunities rather than simply react to issues that arise in the
environment.
The Structure of the Strategic Communication Plan
Strategic communication plans can have many different sections, depending on the need of the organization or nonprofit.
The most common sections are listed below:
Introduction
The introduction should give an overview of the organization, a brief discussion of the organization’s strategic plans, and
the organization’s overall mission and goal statements. The introduction should also broadly discuss the problem, issue,
or aim to be addressed by the strategic communication plan.
Analysis and Research
The analysis and research section should briefly discuss the findings of the research conducted concerning the problem.
In general, there are three types of studies that need to be completed so a comprehensive strategic communication plan
can be developed (all three types of studies will be discussed in more detail in Topic 2).
Situational Analysis
A situational analysis looks at external conditions that could create opportunities or challenges and need to be addressed
by the organization or agency.
Audience Analysis
An audience analysis identifies key or priority audiences and then collects demographic and psychographic information,
information needs, and message type preferences, along with other information about the priority audiences.
Program Analysis
A program analysis looks at the organization to determine how well it is currently positioned to address problems or
issues. We will discuss three types of studies that will help to identify organizational readiness (SWOT, Force Field, and
Constraint Analysis) in Topic 2.
Goal/Vision Statement
Goal statement and vision statement are interchangeable terms. Both indicate what the strategic communication plan is
designed to accomplish. To avoid confusion with an organization’s “mission and vision statements,” we will refer to this as
a goal statement.
Identification of Internal and External Partners and Stakeholders
A stakeholder is a person, group, or organization that is connected to your organization. Internal stakeholders are
people or offices that have some function within your organization. If your organization is successful or unsuccessful,
internal stakeholders will directly feel the effects. External stakeholders are people and organizations that are not
directly affected by your organization’s success or failure but are affected by what the organization does. The public
relations and media office within your organization is an internal stakeholder. A client that uses your organization’s
services is an external stakeholder. Partners are organizations that share an aim or goal with your organization and work
with your organization to better serve a population. A church food bank may partner with a local supermarket so that the
church has food to distribute and the supermarket has a way to donate produce and canned goods to help the community.
Your priority audiences and priority audience segments are external stakeholders who can be defined as the groups who
are your target audience. These are the groups you will design strategies, tactics, and messages to reach in an attempt to
create an attitudinal or a behavioral change.
A Guiding Communication Theory
A theory is used to explain what has happened and to predict what will happen. Adopting a theory will give you a way to
predict what strategies and tactics will be effective and how your audience will interpret the messages you send. A good
theory will help you to make decisions about what you can expect and how well you will fulfill your objectives.
Objectives
There are two types of objectives: (1) global objectives, which indicate where you want to be at the end of the process,
and (2) intermediate objectives, which are objectives or markers you will achieve as you work toward your global
objectives. Meeting intermediate goals can show that you are on track to meet the global objectives. Objectives include
considerations for the audience, the change needed, the amount of change needed, and the time frame in which the
change takes place. Objectives are guided by the theory, and they also should be SMART—Specific, Measurable,
Appropriate, Realistic, and Time-bound. Remember, you are creating a strategic communication plan, so your objectives
need to deal with the use of communication to affect attitude or behavioral change.
Strategies and Tactics
A strategy answers the how question—how should we go about achieving an objective? In other words, what themes and
approaches, suggested by the theory selected, will we use in order to reach the goal of each objective? Strategies lead
to tactics, the actual tasks that need to be executed to achieve the objective.
Figure 1.1: Achieving Objectives
Messages and Messaging Strategy
Messages and messaging strategy focus on two things: (1) the key points to be communicated across all of the messages
that are developed and (2) the messages that deliver the key points to priority audience segments.
Media Placement
Messages need to be placed in the correct vehicles or media to reach the targeted priority audience segments. The
vehicle has to be justified by the audience analysis because that research will uncover the individual channel preference
of the priority audience.
Measurement and Evaluation
You need to have ways to measure the effects of the messages. First, baseline data is gathered to measure the current
attitudes and behaviors of the priority audience. The research is repeated during and after the plan in order to assess
changes in attitudes and behaviors. Secondary measures can be used to determine if there has been a change in attitude
or behavior. For example, if you are trying to increase traffic to a particular store, changes in the number of customers can
help to determine if the messaging is successful.
Who Are the People Involved in Developing the Plan?
Many people will be involved in developing the strategic communication plan. You should include everyone directly
affected by the issue or problem, starting with the external stakeholders. Getting their input will help you better define the
problem, identify who else may be affected by the problem, and design and place messages to address the problem.
For example, if a social service agency is attempting to solve problems with school truancy, its internal stakeholders will
include teachers, parents, principals, superintendents, and students. The internal stakeholders within the agency will be
the people and departments who are dealing with the problem and who will be tasked with designing messages,
strategies, and tactics to address the problem. These stakeholders will include agency counselors, caseworkers, and
external communication offices (public relations, marketing, and communication). These groups either have firsthand
knowledge of the situation, are experiencing the situation, or are working to ease the situation. External stakeholders
include community members and community leaders, such as members of the clergy, activity center directors, and local
business leaders. These groups will work with the affected population and may be able to make suggestions to solve the
problem. The agency will want to identify potential partner organizations, such as the Parent-Teacher Association and the
teachers’ union, who are working to solve the same problem. All of these parties will bring something different to the
process that will help to develop a complete strategic communication plan.
An organization attempting to deal with a morale problem provides a second example. The internal stakeholders would be
the senior leadership team, human resources, the employees, and the marketing and communication office. These parties
are either experiencing the problem of low morale or trying to find ways of raising morale. The external stakeholders might
include mediators, counselors, and consulting firms brought in because of their experience in addressing similar
problems. Potential partners might include the Society for Human Resource Management and other companies in the
industry who might have predesigned programs and training to find the best practices to address the morale issues in the
organization.
How Is the Timeline for the Plan Developed?
A strategic communication plan can take weeks or months to create, depending on issues such as the depth of research
needed, the difficulty of the problem or issue, and the complexity of the strategy. It is important that the process is not
rushed to meet an artificial deadline. Cutting off the research before it is complete or failing to bring all the necessary
stakeholders together will make it difficult to develop a coherent and effective strategic communication plan. Make realistic
estimates of the time needed to complete each task.
1.2How Do Plans Fail?
Poor Research
Not spending enough time to get necessary research or not drawing the correct conclusions from the research will kill a
strategic communication plan before it is written. Every element of a strategic communication plan develops from the
situational, audience, and program analyses.
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Poor situational research will give an insufficient understanding of the magnitude of the problem, a poor
understanding of who is affected by the problem, and a poor understanding of where to allocate resources. Ask
yourself if the situational research helps you understand the scope of the problem, the effects of the problem, the
individuals affected by the problem, the roots of the problem, and the environment in which the problem exists.
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Poor audience analysis will give insufficient information on the knowledge needs of priority audience segments,
the preferred channels of communication, and the preferred message style. Ask yourself if the audience analysis
helps you identify and understand priority audience segments, the behaviors and traits of the priority audience
segments, the habits of the priority audience segments, the media diet of the priority audience segments, and
the concerns of the priority audience segments.
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Poor program analysis will prevent the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization or
agency, the constraints on the program, and the opportunities for and threats to the organization or agency. Ask
yourself if the program analysis gives concrete instances of the strengths and weaknesses of your organization
or agency, the forces for change and resistance to your program, or the constraints in the organization.
Lack of Audience Definition
Not properly identifying priority audience segments will lead to developing bad objectives, building poor strategies,
creating bad tactics, and crafting poor messages. Without careful consideration of the priority audience segments (their
channel and message preferences and their needs and concerns), the strategic communication plan will be misaligned
and targeted incorrectly. To avoid this pitfall, do the following:
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Use situational data to determine what groups are most affected by the problem or issue at hand. Identify those
groups who are the most vulnerable so that you can have the greatest effect.
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Make sure that the audience analysis is thoroughly completed. If you do not have enough information on priority
audience segments, you will not be able to generate effective objectives or strategies.
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Understand the knowledge needs of your priority audience segments. Know where the knowledge gaps are in
the segments you are trying to reach.
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Identify the influencers and influences on the priority audience segments. Understand who might help to change
the attitudes and behaviors of members of the segments.
Lack of a Clear, Measurable Goal
Strategic communication plans must have a clear goal. That goal statement, however, must adhere to the SMART
standard by lending itself to measurement. Key terms must be operationalized or developed into concepts that can be
operationalized. The terms of the goal statement must be measurable to get baseline data—what individuals already
believe or how they behave. Without this baseline data, the amount of change cannot be measured and the effect of the
program cannot be determined. We will discuss how to create a goal statement and how to operationalize it effectively
in Topic 3.
Poorly Designed Objectives
Like the goal statement, the objectives must adhere to the SMART standard, be clear, relate back to the goal statement,
and cover only one outcome. If the objective is too complex, vague, or unmeasurable, you will not be able to develop
strategies and tactics and the plan will flounder. We will discuss how to develop clear and measurable objectives and
cover the key elements for effective objectives in Topic 6.
Lack of Measurement
It is not enough to operationalize the goal statement and objectives; research is dependent upon creating effective
surveys and instruments that have been piloted and statistically tested to gather the data. These instruments need to be
focused upon the research, the goal statement, and the objectives. You should ask who is to be surveyed, how often are
they to be surveyed, what statistical measures should be used, and how to interpret that data. To understand the plan’s
effectiveness, you must decide how often data needs to be collected. Measurement is not a one-time-only process.
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As mentioned above, information about baseline attitudes and behaviors needs to be collected before the plan is
implemented. This data will be used to see how much change occurs as a result of the plan.
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Data needs to be collected on the intermediate objectives throughout the implementation of the plan. By
developing intermediate objectives, you can examine trends and revise the strategies and tactics.
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Data needs to be collected on the objectives at the end of the plan’s implementation to make sure that the plan
was effective. If the plan is not effective, the data should give information on what changes are needed. If the
plan is effective, it may be beneficial to resurvey or recheck the data months after the plan’s implementation
ends to see if gains have been maintained.
Measuring data or outcomes at only one point will not offer evidence of behavioral or attitudinal change. Data must be
collected and monitored throughout the run of the program.
Lack of Oversight
One person or committee needs to oversee the implementation of the plan. All the research in the world will not matter if
there is no one receiving it, interpreting it, and reacting to it. The person or committee will need to have the power to make
changes to implementation based upon data that is received. If no one is in charge, the plan’s implementation may falter
and ultimately fail. Giving too many people power over the ongoing implementation can also strangle the plan by creating
either inertia (the inability to change) or conflicting lines of responsibility and ownership.
Chapter 2: Analysis and Research
Introduction
Topic 2 Introduction Transcript
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Describe what a situational analysis is.
2. Evaluate the type and quality of data that a situational analysis produces.
3. Describe the characteristics and differences between demographic audience information and psychographic audience
information.
4. Define survey methodologies and focus group methodologies.
5. Describe the different types of data retrieved by survey methods and focus groups.
6. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of using surveys and focus groups to gather data about the audience.
7. Describe what an audience analysis is.
8. Evaluate the type and quality of data that an audience analysis produces.
9. Identify the priority audience segments from the audience analysis.
10. Describe what a program analysis is.
11. Evaluate the type and quality of data that a program analysis produces.
12. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of data gained from a SWOT, force field, and constraint analysis.
13. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using a SWOT, force field, and constraint analysis.
You are inundated with data every day. Health studies show that eating certain fruits can extend your life by five
percent. Traffic reports tell you the amount of time it will take to go from downtown to the airport. Sports reports bury you
in statistics. Most of these you simply interpret in the moment. If you understand the rules of baseball, the statistics you
hear or read fit within categories that allow you to tell if a batter is doing well this season or if the pitcher is not as
effective as in previous years. You know how long it should take to get to the airport, so if the travel time given is greater
than usual, you know that traffic is heavier than usual. The information on the benefits of eating certain fruits will
probably be filed away in the back of your mind until the information is needed. Most of this information is processed by
your mind in the background—you know the rules to interpret the information, and you know how to apply the rules
without consciously thinking about it too much. Market data, however, requires active processing. If you are not careful,
you can become lost in the sea of numbers and tossed by the waves of trends. How should you, carefully and
thoughtfully, process and interpret the data collected to create the strategic communication plan?
2.1Research Data Overview
What Kind of Data Do I Have?
Topic 2.1 Transcript
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In general, you will come across two types of data: quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative Data
Quantitative data is numeric data that tells you about a population (through descriptive statistics) or makes predictions
about a population (through inferential statistics). Descriptive statistics are counts, percentages, or averages within a
population. Generally, descriptive data deals with concepts like the mean (or the average), the median (the middle score
or value), and the mode (the score or value that appears most).
Table 2.1
Population
Sex/Gender
Total Population
Percent
Female
14,905
51.8%
Male
13,889
48.2%
Populations can be broken down and cross-tabulated by some trait or characteristic. The chart below shows educational
attainment by race or ethnicity. If you add the percentages in each row, the total percentage should be around 100
(rounding the percentages may make it total a little more or a little less than 100):
Table 2.2
Educational Attainment by Race or Ethnicity (in percentages)
(United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019)
Bachelor’s degree
and higher
Associate’s
degree
Some college
High school
graduates, no
college
Hispanic or Latino
21
9
15
31
24
Asian
63
7
8
16
5
Black or African American
31
12
20
31
6
White
41
11
15
25
7
Race or ethnicity
Less than a high
school diploma
The above chart describes the traits of the people surveyed but does not make any predictions about individuals within a
race or ethnicity. There is no claim that if someone is of Asian descent, he or she is 63% likely to obtain a bachelor’s
degree or higher. This data simply shows a picture of a population.
Descriptive data give us information about a group of people, but they do not allow us to decide if the difference is
significant. For example, we can probably guess that the percentage of Asians who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher
(63%) is significantly different from the percentage of Hispanic/Latinos who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher (21%). But
can we draw the same conclusion about the difference in the percentages of Asian (7%) and Hispanic/Latino (9%)
associate’s degree holders just by looking at the data? Descriptive data also do not allow us to generalize to different
populations. The data on educational attainment describes the situation in the United States. We cannot assume that if we
went to England, Germany, China, India, or any other country that the attainment data would look the same. Descriptive
data simply describes a given group of people.
Tips for Judging Descriptive Statistics
When you are looking at descriptive statistics, you should ask yourself about the sample and the population.
The population is the entire group of something. A population could be a neighborhood, a city, a country, a political party,
or a school district. You should always make sure that you understand what population the data is gathered from.
A sample is a subset of a population. Generally, researchers do not try and poll everyone (unless it is for something like a
census, where everyone needs to be counted). Researchers sample from the population and try to make the sample
match the population in terms of demographics. If we know the population consists of 50% women and 50% men, then
researchers try to get 50% women and 50% men in their sample. You should always ask if the demographic makeup of
the sample matches the demographic makeup of the population.
Inferential Statistics
To determine if two (or more) groups are significantly different or to make predictions about future behaviors requires a
different type of statistical testing. Inferential statistics allow us to test for difference, relationship, and prediction.
Inferential statistics, depending on the type of population sample you have, also allow us to generalize about a larger
population. We will touch briefly on three common statistics you may see: t-test, correlation, and regression.
A t-test is a test of difference. For example, if you wanted to find out if income levels are significantly different between
men and women in the same profession, you could collect the data and run a t-test. The key word here is significantly. A
statistical finding is significant if the finding is not attributable to chance. For example, if we find that the difference
between men’s and women’s pay in the garment industry is significant, it means that the difference we found is real and
not due to some sort of data or sampling error. We can trust that we have found an actual difference.
A correlation is a test of relationship. Correlation tests how two variables are related to each other. For example, if we
think that the amount of time students spend studying is related to the grades they receive on a math exam, we can
collect the number of hours each student studied for the exam and the percentage grade that each student received. If the
correlation is positive, it means that as the number of hours studied increased, the percentage the student received on the
math exam also increased; in a positive correlation, the two variables move in the same direction. Again, we will need to
determine if the relationship between the two variables is significant. If it is, we can apply or generalize that relationship
between studying and other exam subjects (e.g., increasing time spent studying should lead to a higher score on a history
exam).
A regression is a test of prediction. It looks at how different variables work together to account for behavior. It is like a
correlation in that it tests relationships between variables. However, it also allows us to predict the variables that are likely
to affect an outcome. For example, we are interested in how someone’s level of trust in overall authority affects their trust
in groups of people and professions. We might find that a high level of trust in overall authority relates to high levels of
trust in religious leaders, law enforcement, and the judicial system, whereas a low level of trust in overall authority relates
to high levels of trust in family members and close friends. With these findings, we are able to predict who an individual
with high or low levels of overall trust in authority will be willing to trust. If we know this, we know that a message from a
religious leader will be believed by a high-trust person and that a message from a family member will be believed by a
low-trust person. We can predict a person’s reaction because of the data we get from the regression.
Tips for Judging Inferential Statistics
Population and sampling are also important in inferential statistics. Again, you want to make sure your sample represents
the larger population—does the demographic makeup of the sample match the demographic makeup of the population?
But you also need to know if the sample is a random sample or a non-random sample. In a random sample, everyone in a
population has an equal chance to be surveyed. The participants are chosen randomly through a number of different
processes. When you have a random sample, you can generalize the data to the larger population. Sometimes samples
are non-random. People are chosen to be surveyed because they are available to the researchers, such as students in a
college class. Because non-random samples are non-representative, they cannot be generalized to the larger population.
Random samples are preferred because the sample will be more representative of the population at large.
It is also important to differentiate between correlation and causation. As discussed above, correlation looks at how two
variables act in relation to one another. Causation, on the other hand, claims that one variable causes the other variable
to change. Never mistake correlation for causation—just because a person’s income and shoe size may show a positive
correlation does not mean that having bigger feet leads to a higher paying job.
Collecting Quantitative Data
There are two main ways that quantitative data is collected. The first, and far more common, is through the survey. A
researcher may create a questionnaire to gather both descriptive data and inferential data. The questionnaire is
distributed to a sample of people whose population, hopefully, resembles the population of the country. Once the surveys
are returned, the researcher will run the appropriate statistics to draw conclusions. The second way data is collected is
through an experiment. The researchers recruit test subjects to come into a lab setting where the researchers can
carefully control the environment. Subjects undergo test conditions and the researchers collect the data. After all the test
subjects have undergone the experiment, the researchers run the appropriate statistics and draw conclusions. The
advantage to survey data is it allows us to generalize to larger populations and it allows us, relatively inexpensively, to get
data from a large number of people. The disadvantage to survey data is that it does not answer the “why” questions—why
do people believe what they believe or behave how they behave. It can be useful in looking at a large aggregate of
people.
Qualitative Data
Inferential statistics allow you to generalize to a larger population while descriptive statistics only tell the characteristics of
a particular population. Both statistics convert experience or characteristics into numbers. Qualitative data does not
reduce experience to a number. It attempts to gather individuals’ experiences through stories and narratives by either
letting the individuals tell their own stories or examining the individuals in their everyday settings. Three main methods for
collecting qualitative data are the focus group, the interview, and the ethnography.
Focus Groups
Focus group research involves assembling a small group of people in order to gather information about a product or a
situation. A moderator helps to direct discussion, but individuals are encouraged to interact with each other and expand or
elaborate on their explanations. This discussion can help researchers understand sense-making—how individuals make
sense of their world. Focus groups ask participants open-ended questions or have them participate in activities. The
sessions are recorded and transcribed. Researchers may gather a lot of information from focus groups, but the
researchers try to summarize the findings while maintaining each individual’s voice. Focus groups can be helpful when a
company is trying to launch a new product or when a community group is trying to determine what local services are
needed. The research report from the focus groups may contain an overview of the sessions, along with quotes and
possibly video and audio clips from participants.
Interviews
Interviews are in-depth conversations with individuals. Like with focus groups, the researcher attempts to understand the
participant’s point-of-view and sense-making of experience. The researcher may start with a schedule of questions to ask
all of the participants but is free to ask probing and follow-up questions to gain a clearer vision of the participant’s
experience and understanding. Interviews are generally recorded, either by video or audio, so that a transcript can be
produced. The report you will get will have the answers to the questions, either grouped by question or by participant, and
answers to any pertinent follow-ups or probes. Video or audio clips may be included.
Ethnography
Ethnography is an observation of individuals in their environment. This may be in shopping centers, workplaces, streets,
and other public and private locales. Researchers take notes about how people act, how they talk, and what words they
use. A researcher doing an extended ethnography may negotiate access to move into the community and interact with the
local population. In extended ethnographies, interviews may be conducted and may or may not be recorded. If the
researcher is just observing interactions in a public place, interviews are generally not conducted. The report you will get
from ethnographic research will be the conclusions drawn from the researcher’s field notes, interviews, and snippets of
the notes themselves.
Tips for Using Qualitative Data
The downside to using qualitative data is you are not able to generalize from a specific group to a larger population.
Qualitative data is interested in each particular case and will give information about an individual’s thoughts, feelings,
reasons, understandings, and actions. However, that individual’s view cannot be extended to a larger population. The
other downside to using qualitative data is the cost of gathering it. It can be expensive to run numerous focus groups and
transcribe the recordings. Looking through the data to evaluate and draw conclusions can also be very time-consuming.
Quantitative data produce a series of statistical tests that are done by computer; qualitative data generally are reviewed
by a team of researchers looking for themes and commonalities. The advantage to using qualitative data is that they may
help to fill in the gaps of quantitative data because qualitative data asks the “why” questions. Researchers can employ
both types of data in the same study. A researcher may start by collecting quantitative data to figure out what questions to
ask during focus groups and interviews, or a researcher may start with qualitative data to find out what questions to ask
on survey data.
2.2How to Interpret Research
How Do I Determine the Relevant Data?
You have the research; now, how do you find the important takeaways from the data? It depends on the type of analysis
you are doing.
Types of Analyses
There are three types of analysis that need to be done to gather the research required for the strategic communication
plan: (1) a situational analysis, (2) an audience analysis, and (3) a program analysis. A situational analysis looks at
external conditions that need to be understood and accounted for by the organization or agency. An audience analysis
identifies priority audience segments and gives key information about those segments. A program analysis examines the
organization or agency itself, identifying key issues that need to be addressed by the organization or agency. Sometimes
the situational and program analyses are combined into a larger situational analysis. For our discussion, we will keep
them separate.
Situational Analysis
As stated above, a situational analysis looks at the social, cultural, and political environment to determine what problems
exist that need to be addressed. The first step is to call in the stakeholders—people who are being affected by the
problem and community and area leaders—and internal personnel to discuss the issue. This will give you insight into what
data you will need and how best to define the problem.
Defining the Problem
A key issue in conducting the situational analysis is deciding what to measure. Without a clear focus, the situational
analysis can try to measure too many issues and variables and quickly become unworkable. The stakeholders need to
develop a clear problem statement that details what the issue is, who is affected, where the problem is located, and how
large the problem is. Here are a few examples:
“Both male and female teens in the Garfield Park region of the city do not have access to recreational facilities, and this lack of
access causes them to create mischief and increases their run-ins with the police.”
“Morale in the sales department has decreased and turn-over has increased over the past three quarters.”
“Children under 10 years old in Barrytown are not receiving preventative medical care due to high costs, and this lack of care is
causing a resurgence of preventable diseases in the community.”
The problem statement tightly defines the issue and narrows the focus of the research.
Conducting the Situational Analysis
Researchers will gather the available data based on a problem statement:
Children under 10 years old in Barrytown are not receiving preventative medical care due to high costs, and this lack of care is
causing a resurgence of preventable diseases in the community.
What types of data might the researchers gather?
Table 2.3
Research Data
Questions
Who are we going to
talk to or survey?
Data
Families with children under the age of 10
Hospital and clinic administrators
Doctors
Social workers
School nurses
Clinic workers
What data will we need? Demographic data (number of families with children under 10 years old, sex or gender, family income levels,
educational attainment of parents, employment/unemployment rates)
Medical treatments needed by children under 10 years old
Costs for these treatments
Number of insured/uninsured 10-year-olds
Parents’ attitudes about treatments, doctors, clinics, and insurance
Information about community support for uninsured
Health statistics (number of cases of preventable disease in Barrytown, percentage increase from year-to-year, and
number of children under 10 years old)
Questions
Data
How will we gather the
data?
Surveys (demographic data, needed treatments, cost of treatment, number of insured/uninsured children, parents’
attitudes, and community support)
Focus groups (parents’ attitudes)
Interviews (parents’ attitudes, treatments needed, cost of treatments, and community support)
Researchers may also complete a PESTLE analysis of external factors. PESTLE stands for political, economic, social,
technological, legal, and environmental factors.
Political factors include how the government sets policy that might affect the economy, the regulation of an industry, and
the tax policy. You should think about how a policy change might change your industry and business, how it might affect
funding, and what the stability of the current political environment is (e.g., are you in an election year and is control of the
government likely to switch parties).
Economic factors include the economy’s performance, long-term growth, unemployment rates, and inflation. You should
think about how a shift in the economic outlook (e.g., rising unemployment, falling interest rates, and slow growth) will
affect your industry, company, community, or agency.
Social factors include demographic characteristics, cultural barriers, and cultural norms. You should think about your
customer’s or client’s values, beliefs, and behaviors as well as the community’s mores.
Technological factors include technological innovation, job automation, and technological awareness. You should think
about how technology will affect your customer or client in general, access (and barriers) to information and services, and
technological awareness and knowledge.
Legal factors include laws and potential legislation that pertain to your business or agency. You should think about what
laws directly pertain to you and what challenges complying with those laws will pose.
Environmental factors include ecological concerns, pollution, and sustainability. You should think about your business’s
carbon footprint, scarcity of needed materials, and health concerns related to global warming.
Demographics and Psychographics
Once the stakeholders have decided on the problem statement and conducted a PESTLE, it is time to gather data. There
are two types of data we can gather: demographic and psychographic. Demographic data is a picture of the population,
including age, sex or gender, income, and religion. Demographic data can either be gathered by a survey or through
widely available governmental and propriety databases. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census, the
Commerce Department, the National Institute of Health, and the Education Department are readily available and easily
obtained, and these sources can help you get demographic data, employment data, household income, and employment
trends. Psychographic data is information about the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of a population. Psychographic
data is best obtained either through surveys (if you want an overall picture of what people believe) or focus groups,
interviews, and observations (if you want individual answers to the “why” questions). Organizations such as the Pew
Charitable Trust can also provide a wide range of national survey and opinion data that may be helpful.
Once the research is done and the data are collected, you will receive a report detailing the situational analysis from the
researchers. There are several components of a good situational analysis.
•
It addresses the problem statement: The situational analysis should explain the what, who, where, and how of
the problem statement using evidence from the research.
•
It is practical: The situational analysis should give useful, data-supported insights for the problem and the
environment. The recommendations should be clear and actionable.
•
It is understandable: The situational analysis will have a wide audience, so it needs to be clearly and accessibly
written. It should be free of jargon and should explain its findings in straightforward language.
•
It is enlightening: The situational analysis should identify concerns and barriers to a solution and give an
overview of the attitudes and opinions of the people surveyed or interviewed. It should accurately represent the
viewpoints of those individuals without judgment or bias.
•
It is educational: The situational analysis should provide information not already known about the community,
organization, or problem. It may provide information about barriers to action or illuminate communication
avenues previously undiscovered.
•
It guides strategic choices: The situational analysis should provide the necessary information to create objectives
and plan strategies and tactics. When combined with the audience and program analyses, it should lead to the
creation of a strong strategic communication plan.
Conducting a Literature Review
Either before or during the situational analysis, you should conduct a literature review. A literature review is a systematic
review and synthesis of what has been written on the issue you are examining. Let’s see how that might look with our
problem statement:
Children under 10 years old in Barrytown are not receiving preventative medical care due to high costs, and this lack of care is
causing a resurgence of preventable diseases in the community.
There are a number of themes that can be pulled from the statement:
1. Medical costs of preventable diseases for children
2. Costs of medical procedures
3. Recurrence of preventable diseases in children
4. Costs of the recurrence of preventable diseases
5. Ways to increase participation in disease prevention
Next, identify services and databases that will help you get to this information. Google Scholar is a good search service
with extensive links to articles. Some articles are free to access and others require a subscription or a connection to a
university library. PubMed and CINAHL both cover public health topics. PubMed is free to search and has links to many
free articles. CINAHL can be accessed through a university library and has indexed a wide variety of medical topics. For
our discussion, we will stick with Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com).
A search for “Ways to increase participation in disease prevention” on Google Scholar returns over 2.2 million hits. As you
scroll through the hits, look for articles that directly relate back to our problem statement. After you find an article that
looks helpful, abstract it. Abstracting is pulling out the important information that relates to your issue. An abstract may
look like this:
Table 2.4
Abstracting Example
Study Investigators Déglise, Suggs, and Odermatt
Title
Short Message Service (SMS) Applications for Disease Prevention in Developing Countries
Year of Study
2012
Country of Study
African countries, Nepal, India, Philippines, China, Pakistan, Mexico, Indonesia
Study Objective
Describe the characteristics and outcomes of SMS interventions for disease prevention in developing countries and
provide recommendations for future work.
Study Population
N/A
Method(s) Used
Gathered peer-reviewed and gray literature for papers published in English, French, and German before May 2011
describing SMS applications for disease prevention in developing countries.
Intervention(s)
34 different SMS services in developing countries
Key Findings
Only five studies had evaluation. SMS services in these targeted toward HIV and Breast Cancer.
Social/Behavioral
N/A
Outcomes
N/A
Limitations/Barriers Only five studies had evaluations of services.
Implications for
Our Project
Two SMS applications, UNICEF and Mobilink, targeted parents of young children to remind them about vaccinations and
give health tips.
Full Citation
Déglise C, Suggs LS, Odermatt P
Short Message Service (SMS) Applications for Disease
Prevention in Developing Countries
J Med Internet Res 2012;14(1):e3
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2012/1/e3
DOI: 10.2196/jmir.1823
PMID: 22262730
PMCID: 3846341
Table 2.5
Abstracting Example 2
Study Investigators Hutchins, Rosenthal, Eason, Swint, Guerrero, and Hadler
Title
Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Linking the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
and Immunization Activities
Year of Study
1999
Country of Study
Chicago, IL United States
Study Objective
Test to see if incentives to parents increased vaccination rates in young children.
Study Population
27,596 children under five, WIC enrollees, primarily African American or Hispanic.
Method(s) Used
Sample of children selected for tracking. Interviewed parents and doctors to determine vaccination status and WIC
appointment compliance. Measured how rapidly and completely interventions were implemented.
Intervention(s)
Screened children under five at WIC visits for vaccination status, referred eligible children for vaccination, offered parents
food vouchers to encourage quick vaccination.
Key Findings
Vaccination coverage increased for a short period of time. Active participants had most access to intervention and
benefited the most. Highest risk and lowest risk children benefited from interventions.
Social/Behavioral
Reminders, incentives, access to services, and screening activities are more predictive of participation than personal
characteristics. Monitoring is key.
Outcomes
Cost-effective program.
Limitations/Barriers Unable to divide children into experimental and control groups.
Implications for
Our Project
Incentives, reminders, and monitoring are important to compliance.
Full Citation
Hutchins, Sonja S., Jorge Rosenthal, Pamela Eason, Emmett Swint, Herminia Guerrero, and Stephen Hadler. “Effectiveness
and cost-effectiveness of linking the special supplemental program for women, infants, and children (WIC) and
immunization activities.” Journal of public health policy 20, no. 4 (1999): 408–426.
The goal of an abstract is not to include information from every section of the articles. Instead, abstracts should focus on
the most important aspects of the articles and those that relate directly to your problem statement. A thorough literature
review can help you to see how others have employed strategies, tactics, and messaging and to judge their effectiveness
with a given population. You should keep reviewing literature until you start finding the same information repeated with no
new information found.
Audience Analysis
Once the situational analysis is completed, it is time to complete an audience analysis. As stated above, audience
analysis identifies key or priority audiences and collects demographic and psychographic data, information needs, and
message type preferences, along with other information about the priority audiences. The situational analysis should give
you enough information to determine who your priority audiences and priority audience segments are. You already
collected demographic data, which gives you a picture of the population. Now you want to explore subgroups of that
population; it is time to delve deeper and find out how to reach those audiences.
Gathering Information
Let’s stay with the problem statement we have been using:
Children under 10 years old in Barrytown are not receiving preventative medical care due to high costs, and that lack of care is
causing a resurgence of preventable diseases in the community.
Our situational analysis told us which groups are likely to seek preventative medical care and which groups are likely to
avoid it. Let us assume this is what our situational analysis told us:
Table 2.6
Situational Analysis Results
Seek
preventative
care
Not seek
preventative care
Under 30
82%
18%
Over 30
25%
75%
1 child
89%
11%
Categories
Age
Number of Children
Parental Demographic/Psychographic Traits
Seek
preventative
care
Not seek
preventative care
2 children
84%
16%
3 children
70%
30%
4 or more children
35%
65%
Insured through work
92%
8%
Insured by federal/state
84%
16%
No insurance
22%
78%
$100,000
33%
67%
Employment Status (by Part-Time
Group)
5%
9%
Full-Time
72%
50%
Two or More Jobs
10%
18%
Unemployed
7%
15%
Voluntarily Unemployed
2%
3%
Unable to Work
4%
5%
No Diploma/GED
51%
49%
Diploma
54%
46%
Categories
Mother’s Educational
Level
Parental Demographic/Psychographic Traits
Seek
preventative
care
Not seek
preventative care
Some college
52%
48%
Bachelor’s Degree
51%
49%
Master’s Degree
73%
27%
PhD, MD, JD
94%
6%
No Diploma/GED
48%
52%
Diploma
51%
49%
Some college
53%
47%
Bachelor’s Degree
70%
30%
Master’s Degree
75%
25%
PhD, MD, JD
91%
9%
Categories
Father’s Educational
Level
Parental Demographic/Psychographic Traits
Seek
preventative
care
Not seek
preventative care
Average number of close friends
6.2
4.8
Average size of extended family
14.3
9.4
Access to a smartphone
94%
90%
Access to the internet
96%
92%
23%
8%
Television/Cable
34%
25%
Radio
12%
14%
Social media
31%
53%
I feel like I have enough information to make an informed decision about
preventative care for my children.
6.4
6.1
I trust my family members to help me make an informed decision about
preventative care for my children.
5.9
6.2
Categories
General Information
Parental Demographic/Psychographic Traits
Primary Source of News Newspaper
Likert Scale Items (1 is
low, 7 is high)
Categories
Seek
preventative
care
Not seek
preventative care
I trust my friends to help me make an informed decision about
preventative care for my children.
5.5
6.1
I trust my children’s doctor to help me make an informed decision about
preventative care for my children.
6.8
4.2
I trust my children’s teachers to help me make an informed decision about
preventative care for my children.
4.9
5.9
I trust my neighbors to help me make an informed decision about
preventative care for my children.
4.8
5.5
I trust newspapers to give me information about preventative care for my
children.
5.4
3.2
I trust newspapers to give me information about preventative care for my
children.
5.4
3.2
I trust television to give me information about preventative care for my
children.
4.1
3.4
Parental Demographic/Psychographic Traits
Seek
preventative
care
Not seek
preventative care
I trust radio to give me information about preventative care for my
children.
3.3
3.1
I trust social media to give me information about preventative care for my
children.
3.5
5.8
Categories
Parental Demographic/Psychographic Traits
Given the above data, let’s note the characteristics of parents who do not seek preventative care for their children. This
will be our priority audience.
•
Over 30 years old
•
Four or more children
•
Uninsured (no insurance + no federal/state programs)
•
Household income of $60,000 or less
•
Some college, a high school diploma, or no diploma
•
Smaller network (close friends and extended family)
•
Good access to technology
•
Access news primarily from social media
•
Trust their children’s doctor the least and family members, friends, and their children’s teacher the most for
medical advice
•
Feel like they have enough information to make an informed decision about their children’s preventative care
•
Trust social media to give them information about preventative care
•
Do not trust the traditional media for information about preventative care
What conclusions can we draw?
•
They may have a knowledge gap when it comes to federal and state programs for health insurance and social
services.
•
They feel that they have enough knowledge about preventative care for their children.
•
The best means of reaching them with messages is via social media platforms.
•
Their influencers are friends, family, and their children’s teachers.
•
Their influences are their children’s schools.
We can create a profile of the audience segment by writing a short biography of an “average” audience segment member.
Tanya is a 34-year-old mother of four: Timmy is eleven, Jenny is nine, Samuel is six, and Sissy is two. She and her
husband, David (35), are both employed, and their household income is around $35,000 before taxes. Tanya works in a
small office with three other people. David does home repair in a small company with six total employees. Neither Tanya
nor David is offered insurance through their employers. David and Tanya do not have health insurance for themselves or
their children. While they would qualify for heavily discounted insurance through a state program, they are not sure where
they would go to sign up. Both David and Tanya are high school graduates with no further education. Tanya took Timmy
to a doctor when he was seven. Tanya thought the doctor was condescending to her and “hurt her son,” so she never
went back. Tanya did receive assistance while she was pregnant and during each of her children’s first two years; she
went to the mandated appointments, but the children were healthy. She has refused to get immunizations for her children
due to things she has read on Facebook. Tanya and David are close to their parents and their siblings. Tanya has one
sister and Dave has a brother and a sister. The siblings live some distance away. Tanya and David have a few friends but
do not have a lot of spare time to spend with them because of the children. Tanya has always been impressed with her
children’s teachers. She thought that they were kind, highly intelligent, and caring. She feels that she has been lucky
because Timmy, Jenny, and Samuel have had the same teachers as they have gone through the school system. She
hopes that trend continues with Sissy.
By working through this process, we can get a picture of who it is we are targeting, what channels we need to go through
to effectively reach them, who influences them, what knowledge they need, and what attitudes or behaviors need to be
modified. The picture helps us to identify with the priority audience.
A good audience analysis should help determine what priority audience segment or segments you need to target and how
you can best target them. Once you look at the characteristics that the research returns, you should be able to create a
picture of your priority audience segment. A poor audience analysis does not give a clear target audience, identifies a
large number of priority audience segments, or misidentifies the priority audience segment by not basing it on research. A
good audience analysis gives you information about potential knowledge gaps within the priority audience segments and
about who helps the priority audience members make decisions.
2.3Program Analysis
A program analysis looks at the organization or agency itself to determine what resources or capabilities are needed to
execute the program. There are several types of program analyses that can be done, including a SWOT, Force Field, and
Constraint Analysis.
SWOT
A SWOT analysis creates a list of your organization’s or agency’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Organizations and agencies will arrange for brainstorming sessions. Representatives of all of the stakeholder groups
come together to build four lists: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths are those places where
your organization or agency excels or exceeds the competition. Weaknesses, on the other hand, are those areas where
your organization falls short or is weak. When noting both strengths and weaknesses, it is important to be honest and
open. You want to get as accurate a picture of your organization as possible. Opportunities are those elements, both
inside and outside of the organization or agency, that represent areas of growth or expanded business. Threats are those
elements, both inside and outside the organization or agency, that can negatively affect you.
It is generally best to break the larger stakeholder group into smaller groups to encourage discussion and exploration.
Since it is a brainstorming session, the facilitator sets a time limit for each of the four lists. When the total time has
expired, the lists are brought together and combined. Items on each of the four lists need to be prioritized so that the focus
is on the top four or five ranked items on each list.
Table 2.7
Prioritized Items
Strengths
Strong community support
Dedicated staff
Satisfactory external funding
Strong reputation
Large number of community partners
Media contacts
Weaknesses
Mostly volunteer workforce
Unknown to residents of Barrytown
Board of Directors skeptical of project
Little chance of extended funding
Opportunities
To make a difference in children’s lives
To expand services in Barrytown
To build more community partners
Threats
Reluctance from parents
Reluctance from physicians and clinics
Funding running out
Resistance of community members
Being blocked by other agencies
A good SWOT, one that encourages the free and open expression of ideas and explores all four areas honestly, can help
you identify areas that may need improvement before you begin a campaign or program. It should show areas that need
to be strengthened to increase the likelihood of success. Prioritization is the key. Focus only on the top areas of concern
that will directly affect the program being discussed. Opportunities or threats should identify areas where you can partner
with other organizations and agencies dealing with similar concerns and point out what constraints may exist or develop.
A SWOT analysis should be able to provide concrete information that is actionable. A SWOT that stifles expression or is
not honest about the organization or agency can cause a campaign or program to fail.
Force Field
A force field analysis looks at those forces, external and internal to an organization or agency, that promote change
(driving forces) and prohibit change (resisting forces). The first step is to describe the proposed change. In our Barrytown
example, that description might be as follows:
In ten years, all children under 10 years old will receive low- to no-cost preventative treatment so that preventable diseases are
eliminated from Barrytown.
Next, brainstorm two lists. List one is the forces for change. Ask yourself the following types of questions:
•
What assets does the organization or agency have that will help facilitate the change?
•
Who champions the change both inside and outside of the organization or agency?
•
What other programs already exist inside and outside of the organization or agency that can help make the
change?
•
What governmental, societal, and cultural factors are working to support the change?
•
What are the advantages of the change over the current situation?
List two is the forces against change. Ask yourself the following types of questions:
•
Who resists the change both inside and outside of the organization or agency?
•
What risks are inherent in making the change?
•
What other programs already exist inside and outside of the organization or agency that can cause resistance to
the change?
•
What governmental, societal, and cultural factors are working to resist the change?
•
What are the disadvantages of the change over the current situation?
Once you have the two lists, rate each item with a score based on the effect each item will have on the change. Give each
item a score from 1 (weak effect) to 5 (strong effect). Add up the scores for the forces for change and forces against
change. This will give you a rough estimation of the success or failure of the program. By lining the forces for change up
with the forces against change, you can attempt to account for any issues that might arise ahead of program
implementation.
Table 2.8
Force Field Analysis
10-year-olds will receive low- to no-cost preventative treatment.
Forces for Change
5. Doctors and clinics
Forces against Change
5. Parents
Forces for Change
Forces against Change
4. Social Service agencies
5. Facebook groups
4. Volunteer staff
1. Board of Directors
3. Funding sources
3. Fear of vaccines
2. Insurance companies/programs
2. Vaccine reactions
4. Health educators
2. Friends and family of parents
5. Create healthier children
3. Social media influencers
5. Eliminate preventable disease
2. Phobias
2. Friends and family of parents
5. Cost
3. School programs
4. Navigating social services
Constraint Analysis
Constraint analysis starts with the concept of throughput. A throughput is defined as the goal of an organization or
agency. The goal could be as simple as making money through increased sales. In our case, the goal is much more
specific. Working off of the Barrytown example, our goal would be as follows:
To increase the number of children under 10 years old receiving treatment for preventable diseases to 100%.
Constraints are those things that hinder throughput; for our example, the internal or external conditions that prevent
children from getting treated for preventable diseases. There are several constraints we have previously identified:
•
Cost of treatment (market constraint)
•
Parental attitudes (behavioral constraint)
•
Lack of insurance (policy constraint)
The constraints are then prioritized and worked on one at a time. As one constraint is removed, other constraints may
appear. It is a systematic process to move through the constraints one by one, trying to open them up and remove them.
We might prioritize the constraints in this way:
•
Parental attitudes (behavioral constraint)
•
Cost of treatment (market constraint)
•
Lack of insurance (policy constraint)
Once parental resistance to the treatments and immunizations is reduced—a change in attitude and behavior—you can
move to the next constraint. You then work through all of the constraints in order of priority, reducing or eliminating each
of them while staying alert for any new constraint that might develop.
A good constraint analysis will allow you to identify trouble spots before or as they happen, so you can develop plans to
reduce or remove them. Once again, participants need to be honest and encourage the open expression of ideas for this
to be successful. Bringing stakeholders together to discuss the nature of the constraints in an open forum will return the
best information. If the discussion is not open and honest, unidentified constraints will grow and hinder progress,
potentially dooming the program.