PRJ5_YCP_Report

Lisette Derksen ICVH5PRJ5 ICV2A
Word Count: 10921 words
Hand In Date: 14 April 2015
Communication Audit
Young Communication Professionals
Yke Braaksma (311800)
Team Leader
Anke Beukema (312795)
Assignment 1
Vinsensa Gerosa Sivinadia (312484)
Assignment 2
Nynke Vermaning (321282)
Assignment 3
Paulius Bakucionis (283490)
Assignment 4

2
Executive Summary
Since 2008, Peperzaken has grown out to be a successful app developing company.
However, this has caused a few internal communication issues. The main issues are
that there is low motivation, the departments work too separated, there is little room
for creativity, overhead makes the company’s services expensive, and engineers do
not feel connected to the final products created for clients. This communication audit
provides Peperzaken with a thorough analysis of the current situation, and an advice
on how to direct their company towards the desired situation in which these issues
are solved.
To improve the lack of motivation employees of Peperzaken are currently
experiencing, YCP advises the organization to implement a board of recognition.
This can contribute to making employees feel more valued. Another tool to increase
the motivation of employees is a forum to improve the involvement and collaboration
of employees of different departments.
Another important aspect of increasing the motivation of the organization’s
employees is to define a clear mission and vision for the company. This is necessary
to give employees a guideline as to what Peperzaken would like to achieve
professionally and what is expected of them.
To change the lack of formal communication, which has proven to be an underlying
issue for the issues that Peperzaken is currently facing, YCP recommends
implementing a new code of conduct to minimize informal communication that can
help Peperzaken to achieve their high quality results. This code of conduct gives
project managers more freedom to give negative feedback without disturbing the
personal relationships in the organization.
Furthermore, YCP recommends doing a facilitation workshop to learn to
communicate face-to-face in an effective and efficient manner. Computer mediated
communication should be decreased, and face-to-face communication should be
stimulated instead. The use of brainstorming sessions is also recommended, to
make room for creative and innovative ideas.

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Table of Contents
Executive
Summary
..........................................................................................................
2

Table
of
Contents
...............................................................................................................
3

1.
Internal
Analysis
...........................................................................................................
4

1.1
Background
information
..................................................................................................
4

1.2
SWOT
Analysis
.....................................................................................................................
4

1.3
Corporate
Structure
...........................................................................................................
7

1.4
Communication
flow
..........................................................................................................
8

1.5
Management
and
Leadership
Style
...............................................................................
9

1.6
Corporate
culture
..............................................................................................................
10

2.
Audit
plan
.....................................................................................................................
12

2.2
Phase
II
.................................................................................................................................
13

2.3
Methodology
.......................................................................................................................
17

2.4
Data
Collection
...................................................................................................................
18

Step
1:
Research
the
organizational
background
.........................................................
18

Step
2:
Ascertain
the
purpose
..............................................................................................
19

Step
3:
Determine
the
proper
instrument
to
use
..........................................................
19

Step
4:
Choose
the
instrument
.............................................................................................
19

Step
5:
Make
appropriate
adaptions
to
the
questionnaire
........................................
19

Administrative
protocol
(Privacy
and
Data
collection)
..............................................
20

How
will
the
data
be
collected
.............................................................................................
20

2.5
Limitation
of
the
Research
Design
..............................................................................
21

3.
Audit
...............................................................................................................................
23

3.1
Limitations
..........................................................................................................................
23

3.2
Questionnaire
Results.
....................................................................................................
23

3.3
Analysis
of
the
Interview
................................................................................................
28

3.4
Questionnaire
and
Interview
Interpretations
........................................................
30

4
Commuication
Advice
and
Communication
Products
....................................
33

4.1
Communication
Advice
...................................................................................................
33

4.2
Communication
Products
...............................................................................................
35

Appendix
...........................................................................................................................
39

1.
SWOT-‐Analysis
.....................................................................................................................
39

2.
Interview
Transcript
..........................................................................................................
40

3.
Questionnaire
.......................................................................................................................
43

Glossary
of
Terms
...........................................................................................................
46

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1. Internal Analysis
1.1 Background information
Since 2008, Peperzaken has quickly grown out to be a very successful app
developing company that has developed great products for several big clients. This
rapid growth, however, has caused some internal communication issues. The main
issues here are that there is low motivation, the teams work too separated, there is
little to no room for creativity, overhead makes the company’s services more
expensive, and engineers do not feel connected to the products that are created.
To be able to understand these issues, an internal analysis has to be made. The
internal analysis provides an extensive analysis of the internal communication of
Peperzaken, which will give an overview of all the matters that have an influence on
communication within the organization.
1.2 SWOT Analysis
1.2.1 Internal Analysis
Strengths:
- Equality of new employees: everybody that works at Peperzaken has a saying in
the process of every project, even the new employees and the interns. Everybody
gets to have a saying at project team stand-ups, monthly company meet-ups and the
occasional brainstorm sessions. Employees are listened and paid attention too as
long as they have good arguments, regardless of how long they have worked at
Peperzaken.
- Team of young professionals: Peperzaken is a company that mainly consists of
young professionals; this has a couple of advantages. Young professionals tend to
have a creative and innovative view on things, which enables Peperzaken to offer
their costumers creative solutions to their issues. Young employees also tend to be
more flexible, which is very important for a company such as Peperzaken. And in
addition to this, young professionals are fresh in the working field, as well as fresh
out of university; therefore, there is a high probability that they have learned to work
with the newest and most popular techniques and that they know their way around
with these in order to contribute to a great product for the costumer.
- Effective working environment: Peperzaken operates with an informal working
environment that, according to Mr. Ruchtie, is appreciated by all of the employees.
The website of Peperzaken states, that: “they find a healthy balance between work
and leisure important” (Over Peperzaken). Every day all of the employees get

5
together for an informal lunch, which stimulates personal contact and gives the
employees the chance to start fresh after the break. Peperzaken operates with
different project teams for every project they work on, and there is an operations
manager who oversees all of the different projects and initiates first contact with
clients. The informal working environment ensures that everyone in the project teams
are seen as equal, but practically; the project leader is seen as an informal leader.
Project leaders are also responsible for the intensive contact with the clients.
Weaknesses:
- Little to no room for creativity or innovation: one of the characteristics of
Peperzaken is that they would like to provide their clients with creative solutions to
their issues. However, due to various reasons; creativity and innovation is not
stimulated. Some steps have been taken to stimulate this, but this did not have the
anticipated results. First of all, the brainstorm sessions to come up with ideas for
projects are only held once in a while, and they are not mandatory; this way of
stimulating creativity could for sure be optimized. Another issue related to creativity
and innovation is the large overhead. As the company continues to grow, it also gets
more expensive to organize and maintain creativity while still staying within the
budget. Mr. Ruchtie explained that it is hard, and also way too expensive, to
schedule for all employees of Peperzaken to be in the same room for an hour or
more; therefore these get-togethers are rarely organized.
- Big gap between different departments of Peperzaken: this is one of the main parts
of the issue in the internal communication that Peperzaken is experiencing, because
this issue is felt in all of the different departments of Peperzaken. First of all, the
project teams are working too separated, this causes issues, like: the engineers do
not feel connected to the product they are working on. This is also caused by the fact
that not everyone is involved in the first information session about a new project and
the fact that meet-ups with all employees are only monthly; this causes that not
everyone is informed about what is going on. In addition, the operations manager
who oversees all projects that Peperzaken is working on; is not informed about
details of the project. Therefore he cannot inform the costumer about everything that
is going on. All of these issues also result in the fact that employees feel a low level
of motivation for their work.
- Missing out on opportunities to “get more business out of one client”. Peperzaken
often operates on new projects with the same clients, but they often miss out on

6
opportunities with them. Peperzaken has their strength that their employees are
trained to be able to work with the newest techniques, but these are rarely sold to
costumers. This issue has two sides; on the one hand this issue arises because
costumers would, according to operations manager Mr. Snippe, “rather work with
solid techniques, nothing experimental and buggy”. But on the other hand, the
costumers are not shown what is possible with new techniques. Therefore the clients
will not very often choose to want to work with these new techniques, because they
are simply not aware of what is possible with these techniques.
- Rapid growth of the company might cause further issues: it is of course a good sign
if a company is able to grow fast; but this growth is what caused the internal
communication issues for Peperzaken. One of the issues within the corporate
structure is that mistakes and problems cannot be traced back to a certain employee,
and therefore it cannot be analyzed what went wrong. The only way for Peperzaken
to change the issues that are occurring, the cause of the issue needs to be found, so
that there can be made a change.
1.2.2 External Analysis:
Opportunities:
- Increasing digital market: the digital market, in which Peperzaken operates, keeps
growing and growing. Therefore there is a bigger market for Peperzaken to operate
in, and a wider variety of companies that they can attract as new costumers.
- New techniques: technological advancements are being developed rapidly in this
era, and it is important that a company such as Peperzaken continues to be up to
date with these newly developed techniques. These new technological developments
are a great way for Peperzaken to get ahead of their competitors.
Threats:
- Competitors: the market that Peperzaken is operating in, there are a lot of similar
companies; therefore it is important that Peperzaken differentiates itself from the
others. This is one of the reasons why it is important to tackle the internal issues they
are currently facing, so that the company can continue to move forward.
- Consumers are not open to use new techniques: when you are operating in a
company such as Peperzaken, which is very up to date with new techniques, it is
important that you also sell these to your costumers.

7
The problem is that the costumers are often not open to use these, because they
would rather choose to use a stable system instead of experimental and possibly
laggy techniques.
1.3 Corporate Structure
Peperzaken consists of four main departments: sales, project managers, engineers
and design and concepting, all of these departments have different tasks and
responsibilities.
The sales department is responsible for bringing in new clients for Peperzaken. This
department consist of someone who is responsible for new business; this is the
person that tries to bring in more clients and is the contact person Peperzaken’s
base of clients. Furthermore, there is a financial manager in the sales department
who is responsible for all of Peperzaken’s financials.
The project managers of Peperzaken are leading the project teams that are
responsible for different projects. In addition to the team’s project managers, there is
an operations manager who oversees all of the on-going projects. The project
managers and operations manger have the responsibility of planning, executing,
controlling and monitoring. In addition to this, the team project managers have the
task of being the client’s contact person during an assignment.
Furthermore, there are departments of engineers and design and concepting. The
people in these departments are referred to as designers, developers and engineers,
and they work together on different projects. Together they are in a project team and
their task is to brainstorm about a concept, design the idea and execute this design.
CEO

Dirk-‐Jan
Huizingh

CTO

Joshua
Peper

Project
Managers

&
Operations

Manager

Engineers

Engineers

Design&Concepting

Designers
and

developers.

Sales

&
New
Business

Finance

8
The organizational structure of Peperzaken is set up according to Likert’s “Linking
Pin” concept, in which “each worker is part of a group, while the leader of this group
is also part of a higher hierarchical group (2005)” (Vos & Schoenmaker, 2005).
Even though it is not clearly visible on the work floor, there is a hierarchical division
within Peperzaken. The project groups in which the employees work are lead by a
project manager. The project managers keep in contact with the other project
managers, the operations manager, but also the sales department and the CEO and
CTO.
1.4 Communication flowi
When looking at the communication flow of Peperzaken, a couple of things can be
said.
First of all, Peperzaken operates mainly through informal communication. This
means that there is an informal network of social relationships between employees,
regardless of any hierarchical division (Vos & Schoenmaker, 2005). However, formal
communication is also used. Even though there is an informal environment in
Peperzaken, meetings and messages about projects are being distributed through a
formal organizational network and structure.
When looking at the communication structure, there could be said that in Peperzaken
there is a wheel structure visible in the project teams. In these project groups, the
project managers are the centre of all communication. According to Vos and
Schoenmaker, the wheel structure leads to low motivation, and also dissatisfaction
among participants, because they do not have an insight into what happens
throughout the whole organization (2005). When we look at the internal weaknesses
of Peperzaken, this is also something we notice. Employees of Peperzaken have
acknowledged that they do not feel motivated about their job, and engineers have
admitted to the fact that they feel uninvolved in the projects that they work on.
Project

Manager

engineers

design
concepting

9
The first type of communication flow that occurs in Peperzaken is verticalii
communication. Vertical communication occurs when communication takes place
between people who are placed in different hierarchical levels, but work in the same
department within the organization (Vos & Schoenmaker, 2005).
Vertical communication is divided into top-downiii
and bottom-upiv
communication,
and both of these types are used in Peperzaken.
Top-down communication occurs when employees receive instructions from their
bosses, or from employees who are on a higher hierarchical level (2005). In
Peperzaken this occurs daily in the project teams, because here the employees
receive instructions and information from the project leaders. Bottom-up
communication means that employees and their leaders communicate openly, and
that employees can give their leaders suggestions and report to them about progress
(2005). In Peperzaken this is something that occurs daily. An open way of
communicating is important in the organization, and employees get the space, and
are stimulated, to give feedback and share their ideas.
In addition to vertical communication, horizontalv
communication is also visible in
Peperzaken. Horizontal communication is communication between employees who
work in the same department, on the same hierarchical level (2005). In Peperzaken
this occurs in project groups, between project managers and in the management.
Finally, diagonal communication takes place among the employees of Peperzaken.
Employees from different levels communicate with each other on a daily basis.
1.5 Management and Leadership Style
1.5.1 Leadership style
The leadership style operated in Peperzaken can be characterized by using
Keuning’s (1993) leadership styles grid. First of all, the leadership in Peperzaken is
human-oriented, in which the focus within the organization is on the personal
relationship of the employees, and less on the tasks. In Peperzaken you can clearly
see this by the way that the management focuses on harmony within the
organization, they try to do this by organizing stand up meetings, for example. This
way, the employees are involved about the progress of projects and the overall
company situation, which keeps harmony. The leadership in Peperzaken is also
consulting, which, according to Keuning, means that the manager supports, listens
and stimulates (1993). Everybody within the organization is treated as an equal,
which is typical for this consulting type of leadership.

10
Additionally, another way to describe the leadership style of Peperzaken is
democratic leadership. This type of leadership is characterized as a leadership style
which creates a group commitment to a certain goal, and which focuses on the
knowledge and skills of employees. Peperzaken operates in project teams, which are
divided by taking every employee’s knowledge and skills into account (Leadership
Styles, 2009)
1.5.2 Management style
The management style operated in Peperzaken is Grunig and Hunt’s human
resource theory (1984). This type of management is developed from the human
relations theory (1984), which is not focussed on how employees should do their job,
but rather on making them feel good. The human resource theory is focussed on
what employees need, based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943). In a company
or organization this type of management style is visible, because the CEO or
manager is not particularly in the most powerful position in the organization, he/she
does not operate as a typical “boss”. Within an organization, which operates in the
human resource management style, there is usually one person who oversees
everything; all project groups, tasks and plans everything. What is special about this
is that this person does not give orders to the employees.
In Peperzaken, this type of management style is clearly visible. The CEO and CTO of
Peperzaken do not have a specific leadership position, and they do not operate as
typical bosses. Instead of this, there is one operations manager who oversees and
plans everything about the projects, and there are project managers who lead a team.
These operations managers and project managers do not give orders to the
employees they lead, but they treat each other like equals.
1.6 Corporate culture
Organizational culture is described as the value and standards in an organization
(Vos & Schoenmaker, 2005). This can be described by the norms and values that
people in an organization share.
Taking Luthan’s guidelines of describing an organizational culture into account
(Luthan, 2010), the culture in Peperzaken could be described as informal,
relationships oriented and laid-back.
Employees value teamwork and their personal relationships with each other, as the
way in which they work in teams is very effective.

11
The employees are relationship oriented, and their every day ritual is to have lunch
together with all employees in an informal environment. According to Mr. Ruchtie this
allows the employees to recharge for the rest of the day, and build their relationships
to enhance their teamwork. The employees of Peperzaken communicate informally,
and mostly through online chats; allowing them to enjoy music while they work. But
when brainstorm sessions are held, every employee is expected to speak up and
give input. Peperzaken does not operate 9 to 5 days, but allows employees to come
in whenever they want to, giving them the freedom to fill in their own time.
To summarize, Peperzaken can be described as a company with a free atmosphere
in which the well being of their employers is an important aspect.
The guidelines of corporate culture discussed by Luthan can be compared with
Hofstede’s dimensions (n.d.) for organizational culture. Below, Peperzaken’s
organizational culture is explained in a chart according to Hofstede’s dimensions
(Hofstede, n.d.).
Process-oriented Result-oriented
Human-oriented Work-oriented
Organization-oriented Professional
Open Closed
Loose Strict
Normative Pragmatic

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2. Audit plan
2.1 Phase I
2.1.1 Initiation
Our client, Peperzaken, is currently facing a few issues in their internal
communication, which causes some problems throughout the organization.
Peperzaken has been facing some issues, such as: a lack of creativity, lack of
motivation, and low involvement among the employees. These issues are caused by,
and have an impact on the internal communication of Peperzaken. The main focus of
YCP is to give advices to solve these internal communication issues, while focusing
on the work of project managers.
The goals that Peperzaken would like to achieve with this advice are:
1. To increase the level of involvement among employees
2. To motivate the employees to be more creative and innovative
By doing research and analysing the current internal communication practices within
Peperzaken, an accurate advice can be given to the organization in order to be able
to tackle the issues that have been mentioned before. The interview and
questionnaire are conducted as the data collection method in the research process.
2.1.2 Objectives
The objectives of this report are based on the main research questions provided by
our client Peperzaken, “How can internal communication help to make Peperzaken
an agile, flexible organization again?” There are also several sub research questions
provided by Peperzaken for this project, which related to the main question and
contribute to answer the main question:
-‐ What are the main goals of this department? How they add up to the main
goals of the organization?
-‐ How do they communicate with other departments? With what mediums,
tools, frequency, etcetera?
-‐ Is the communication satisfactory? What is good, what is missing? Should
extra skills be gained in training or schooling?
-‐ How could this department function better? Should this department
change, or the other departments?
By gaining answers to these research questions, the right information is gained to be
able to structure an adequate advice for Peperzaken to be able to improve their
internal communication. This advice will cover subject like: the communication
strategy between project managers and another departments, communication
channels used in Peperzaken, the types of information used and exchanged in the
organization, and the changes of communication structure in Peperzaken.

13
Some aspects that have already mentioned above will be analysed by focusing on
the internal communication practices done by the project managers in Peperzaken.
Besides, some preferences and opinions from the Project Managers will be highly
investigated through specific methods, which will be further explained in the
methodology section in this report.
The objectives are:
-‐ To examine the communication strategy and structure within Peperzaken
focusing on the project managers team. This includes examining the
communication flow. This will also help to answer research question regarding
the communication channels used in Peperzaken as well as the way
communication works
-‐ To investigate the opinions of project managers regarding communication
practices between project managers and other departments as well as the need
of changes in communication regarding the involvement, motivation, and
creativity of employees.
-‐ To asses the overall level of satisfaction and efficiency of internal communication
in Peperzaken specifically for project managers.
In order to meet all the objectives, YCP will analyse the opinions and preferences of
the project managers through conducting a semi-structured interviewvi
and by using a
questionnaire. The data results will be further elaborated and interpreted in more
specific and detail.
2.2 Phase II
2.2.1 Planning
This communication audit takes place within seven weeks, started from February 9th
,
2015 until March 31st
, 2015. The channels used in order to communicate with our
client Peperzaken, are: electronic mails, phone calls and formal meetings. In terms of
formal meetings, the internal communication audit team conducted face-to-face
meetings with the main designer of Peperzaken, Mr. Ruchtie and the project
managers of Peperzaken. The formal meeting method was chosen in order to help
the YCP to obtain reliable information, which can contribute to the data collection
process for the research. In terms of electronic mails, our team representative, Yke
Braaksma, is the one who have a regular contact with Peperzaken. All the questions
regarding the questionnaire are submitted through Yke, which in the end will be sent
out to Peperzaken via e-mail. In week one until week two, the team designed the
plan and made the objectives of the audit report.

14
The questionnaire and interview questions are designed in week four and five, and
this followed by the distribution of the questionnaire and the implementation of
interview in week six. The data results are interpreted and evaluated also in week six,
and finally, the advice is produced in week seven.
2.2.2 Focal areasvii
There are several areas that have to be well executed during this audit. Particular
focal areas used in this report were based on the communication audit guidelines
written by Downs and Adrian (2004). By executing particular focal areas, the internal
communication instruments within the project managers team in Peperzaken can be
effectively assessed. According to Downs and Adrian (2004), choosing the focal
points during the audit process helps auditors to examine the most important data,
which will be collected.
These focal areas are:
- The adequacy of information exchange
This focal area was chosen because it is important to define what kind of information
that the project managers communicate to both the CEO and employees in other
departments. Good internal communication in the organization requires effective
information dissemination within different departments in the organization itself.
Therefore, the internal communication audit team wanted to analyse the level of
adequacy of information exchange in Peperzaken. By focusing in this area, it enables
auditors to analyse the type of information used in Peperzaken by the project
managers. Information dissemination within organization is essential in order to avoid
misunderstanding, because some people have different capability to absorb
information. According to Downs and Adrian (2004), there are three important
aspects, which need to be executed in this focal area, that are type of information,
timing, and load. In terms of type of information, auditors need to define the content
of information as well as the way employees perceive the information. Secondly, it is
important for auditors to examine the distribution of time when it comes to information
dissemination from the top management to subordinates. In order to be more precise,
auditors need to examine whether the employees tend receive the information in a
right time or not. Finally, auditors need to asses the frequency of communication, that
is load. Downs and Adrian (2004) stated that there are three types of load, which are
optimal load, under load, and overload. Auditors need to examine employees
capability to process information (optimal load), besides, it is also important to know
when the employees are often receive little or limited information (underload),

15
(Downs and Adrian, 2004). The third type as Down and Adrian (2004) stated is
overload, which refers to the situation when the employees are unable to process lot
of information. This focal area helps auditors to answer the research question
regarding the level of satisfaction of communication practices within Peperzaken and
also regarding the communication medium used in Peperzaken focusing on the
project managers. This focal area is also important to our client, Peperzaken,
because the low level of employees’ involvement may relate to the exchange of
information. Employees expect to receive more information both from the top
management and another departments, but if there is inadequate information
dissemination, employees tend to be more sensitive regarding the unintended
information they have received. Therefore, this situation may impede the integrating
process among employees within Peperzaken.
- Employee motivation
This focal area is related to one of the most important aspects that need to be
audited, since Peperzaken is currently facing a problem that is lack of motivation
among the employees. In these focal areas, auditors need to define the level of
satisfaction, because high level of satisfaction encourage employee to produce
effective and efficient work, and therefore, employees have high motivation toward
their task. It is important to examine whether the project managers clearly state and
instil the vision and mission of Peperzaken to the entire employees. The reason is
that employees need to clearly understand the vision and mission of Peperzaken
including Peperzaken’s future achievements and goals, since it will encourage them
to be responsible to achieve the vision and goals, and therefore, this will motivate
them to increase their work productivity. Auditors need to examine the level of
motivation since it affects employees’ behaviour in workplace as well as affects the
innovative culture within Peperzaken. This focal areas is important to our client,
Peperzaken, because, by examining the level of motivation among employees, there
are certain aspects which can be change, such as work environment which can
motivate employees to work efficiently and also the balance between of fulfilment
employees expectations and need regarding the job.
.
- The quality of communication relationships
This focal area was chosen in order to define the relationships between the project
managers and other employees from different departments. The communication
relationship between employees within the organization can affect the way
employees perceive and respond the message, (Downs and Adrian, 2004).

16
Negative relationships impede the effectiveness of internal communication practices;
therefore, it is important to examine the status of the relationships between project
managers and other subordinates in Peperzaken. There are five different
communication relationships provided by Down and Adrian (2004), that are superior-
subordinate relationships, co-worker relationships, Manager relationships, Unit
relationships, and The rules governing relationships. In this audit the, auditors focus
on superior-subordinate relationships and Managers relationships. In terms of
superior-subordinate relationships, YCP team will examine the relationships between
the Project Managers and employees in Peperzaken and analyse the level of trust of
the employees to the project managers. By focusing on superior-subordinate
relationships, auditors can examine particular communication style the project
managers used in Peperzaken to the employees. In terms of manager relationships,
auditors will examine the relationships among the project managers in Peperzaken
since the communication practices among the managers have a tendency to affect
the way they communicate the information to their subordinates. This focal area is
important to our client, Peperzaken, because project managers have particular way
to communicate the messages both to the project managers and to their employees.
The quality of communication relationships may influence the employees to response
the message and also influence employees’ performance in the production process
as well as the motivation and involvement. Therefore, it is quite essential to focus on
the communication relationships among the workers within Peperzaken.
2.2.3. Time sequence
The time sequence demonstrates the schedule for the communication audit started
from week one until week seven. YCP made a plan, decided upon communication
objectives, and started to analyzed the internal communication within Peperzaken
from week one until week three. This followed by the design of the
questionnaire and the interview in week four and week five. YCP made the
questionnaire and interview questions, besides, Yke, the team leader of YCP
contacted one of the representatives of Peperzaken beforehand in order to set the
date for the interview. In week six, the questionnaires are distributed and the
interview is conducted on Thursday 26th
, 2015 at Peperzaken office. YCP also
started to analyses the data results in week six. The advice is produced and the final
report is finished in week seven. Paul is responsible for the communication advice
and in week eight, Yke, the teamleader of YCP, will do the presentation in front of our
client, Peperzaken.

17
Activity
Week1
Week2
Week3
Week4
Week5
Week6
Week7
Week8
Responsible
questionnaire
Creation Creation
Questionnaire
distribution
Yke
Interview
Creation Creation
Interview,
Analysis, &
Implementation
All audit
team
Interview
Creation Creation
Implementation
& Analysis
All audit
team
Audit
product
Finished
All audit
team
Comm.
advice
Finished Paul
Presentation
Pres
entat
ion
Yke
2.3 Methodologyviii
In terms of methods, the internal communication audit team used a semi-structured
interview and a questionnaire for the primary data collection method. These methods
are used in order to attain relevant information about the internal communication
practices within Peperzaken specifically for the project managers. Besides, these
methods helped YCP to clearly understand some aspects regarding the internal
communication, which need to be improved in the future. To be more specific, YCP
used both exploratory and focused interview.

18
2.4 Data Collection
2.4.1 The Questionnaire
According Hargie and Tourish (2000), there are two basic instruments of the
questionnaire, which are a pre-existing instrument and develop instrument. YCP
decided to use pre-existing instrument that is Organizational Communication
Development Audit questionnaire (OCD) as the main instrument for the questionnaire.
Besides, YCP decided to choose Organizational Communication Scale for additional
part of the questionnaire in order to obtain some information about the direction of
communication flow within Peperzaken. The questionnaire questions focused on
other departments within Peperzaken, such as sales, design and concepting, and
engineering concerning the internal communication relationship with the project
managers. The questionnaire consisted of questions that are related to the
perspectives of employees from other departments regarding the communication
practices with the project managers. Besides, the questions also covered information
about their involvement and creativity toward the work. The primary data we received
from the survey will be further collected, analysed, and interpreted using quantitative
data collection method. Hargie and Tourish (2000) mentioned that administered the
survey is important in order to collecting the data. YCP administered the
questionnaire by sending the questionnaire to Peperzaken. The participants filled out
the survey, and then we collected and interpreted the entire results. The data we
received from the questionnaire will be presented in a written form, that is an audit
report and also be presented in an oral form by a presentation.
Step 1: Research the organizational background
Primary research into our client can be found in our assignment 2. Additional
information will be the following point.
- All employees are able to read, write, and speak sufficient Dutch.
- The management style used is the human resource theory. Meaning that the
head of the organisation is not per definition also the most powerful person. All
employees have equal right of speech and are of the same value.
- The organisation works with different project groups, where 1 person oversees all
projects.
- The communication tool frequently used is their intranet-chat.
- For our project, this questionnaire will be part of the first batch of interviews.
- All employees are working from their office in Groningen. There are no home-
workers. However, the organisation does have a flex-working kind of structure.
Employees do not all have the same set working hours.

19
Step 2: Ascertain the purpose
What does our client and our team want to happen when the questionnaire is
conducted? Our objectives include:
- Assessing the quality of organisational relationships
- Assessing the employee satisfaction with communication
- Assessing the effectiveness of the entire communication system
- Using the outcomes of this questionnaire in order to develop the most suitable
internal communication advice to make the organisation agile, motivating, and
flexible again.
Step 3: Determine the proper instrument to use
For this internal communication audit, we have chosen to use a pre-existing tool and
adapt it to make it as effective as possible for our research and of course our client.
Step 4: Choose the instrument
Our main focus instrument for this questionnaire research will be the Organisational
Communication Development audit questionnaire. Besides that, we will use the
additional part of the organisational communication scale, concerning upward
communication, downward communication and lateral or horizontal communication.
Step 5: Make appropriate adaptions to the questionnaire
Regarding the demographic breakdown, we do not particularly have to keep this in
mind. Our client might be an international operating organisation, but their team
currently exists out of only Dutch people. Given this, we can say that there are no
specific demographic factors we should adapt our questionnaire to.
Regarding the departmental breakdown, we have chosen as our primary focus group
the project managers. Our secondary focus group is one group consisting of all the
other departments. However, in order to find whether there might be a improvement
possible within a particular department, we have chosen to do break down the
secondary focus group into the remaining departments (sales, engineers and design
and concepting. The groups will however answer the same questions, because we
want to know what everyone’s opinion to the same thing is.
Finally, we know that the group of people who will receive this questionnaire is busy
and does probably not want to spend a lot of time on answering questions. Besides
that, we know that we are not the only questionnaire they will have to fill out.

20
Therefore, we have chosen to adapt the questionnaire in such a way that it does not
take a lot of time to fill out.
Administrative protocol (Privacy and Data collection)
Participating in this research is completely voluntarily. The participant has the right to
stop the participation in this research at all times, without giving reason, even after
the participant has given written accordance. This decision will not have any negative
consequences whatsoever. All data collected for the purpose of this research will be
treated with utter care and trust. The research data can be checked by overseeing
instances, such as the Hanze Hogeschool School of Communication, Media and IT.
The data collected will be and stay anonymous at all times. The filled out documents
will be collected in a sealed box, reassuring privacy and preventing any leak of
information.
How will the data be collected
For this questionnaire, we will set a deadline for the employees. The questionnaires
will be distributed in such a timeframe, that it will allow the employees to plan
answering within one week.
Description (introduction) of the questionnaire:
This questionnaire is part of an internal communication audit. The purpose of this
audit is to contribute to the creation of an internal communication advice. This
communication advice will be focussing on enhancing the internal communication of
the company, and therewith bringing back the company’s agility, flexibility, innovative
power and motivation amongst employees.
3.4.2 The Interview with project manager
In order to acquire valid data about the internal communication in Peperzaken and to
meet the objectives, a semi-structured interview was conducted with Mr. Snippe, one
of the project managers in Peperzaken. Two representatives from YCP will go to
Peperzaken office to conduct the interview. One will be the interviewer and one will
record the conversation and take notes the whole conversation during the interview.
According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhills (2009), researchers make a set of
questions, which related to the topic for the interview. Our research team made a list
of questions, which focused on the focal areas, which previously mentioned in
this report. Some questions related to the research questions are also asked during
the interview in order to reach the objectives.

21
For instance, “How do you see the other departments’ involvement in the overall
process of product development?” this question is useful for examining the level of
involvement of the employees from Project Manager’s perspective. By conducting
semi-structured interview for the primary data collection method, auditors can
analyse and understand the opinions of the project managers regarding the internal
communication practices, which specifically related to the focal areas. As mentioned
by Hargie and Tourish (2000), there are two forms of interviews, that are exploratory
interview and focused interview. YCP used both of the two forms of interview in the
research. YCP firstly used exploratory interview in order to obtain the basic
information, which related to the issues in Peperzaken. This followed by focused
interview, which consists of factual information and high structured questions,
(Hargie and Tourish, 2000). In the focused interview, specific questions, such as
communication channels used by project managers, type of communication flow,
opinions, and preferences by the project managers are asked. The data results of the
interview will be carefully interpreted, analyzed, and presented in a written form. The
transcripts of the interview will be put in the appendices in this report.
2.5 Limitation of the Research Design
2.5.1 Time Limitations
This communication audit only takes place within seven weeks, and this indicates
that there is time constraints while undertaking the research and conducting interview.
Analysing and examining internal communication practices through interview and
questionnaire takes a lot of time, especially when it comes to interpreting the results.
Therefore a close look should be kept on the planning, in order to assure that the
audit is finished on time.
2.5.2 Accessibility limitations
Since Peperzaken is a formal professional ICT organization, particular information
and documents are inaccessible or unpublicized due to the safety reason. Besides,
there were also limited information regarding the organization especially about the
internal communication practices in Peperzaken. To overcome this limitation,
interviews and questionnaire are used to be able to collect this information, instead of
desk research. However, YCP only interviewed one of the project managers and this
indicate that we do not have enough source of information.
2.5.3 Language limitations
Peperzaken is a Dutch organization, which recently consists of Dutch employees and
operates in Dutch. Since all the employees do not speak English as their first
language, misinterpretation or misunderstanding during the interview might occur.

22
Besides, the internal communication audit team is consisted of people who come
from different countries, which use English as the main language during the research.
Therefore, it is important that a native Dutch speaker of the audit team is present
during the interviews, to be able to solve any occurring issues as soon as they come
up.

23
3. Audit
3.1 Limitations
The main limitation of the internal communication audit was the lack of
representation by several departments of Peperzaken. We received only ten partly
filled in questionnaire. Whereby only one came from the Sales department, one from
the design & concepting department, two from other departments, and the remaining
six came from the engineering department.
Furthermore, some of the questionnaire were only partly filled out. Various
participants stopped filling out the questionnaire at a certain point and some
participants skipped a few questions.
The lack of representation of different departments, and the partly filled out
questionnaires, caused that YCP was not able to give the complete overview needed
to develop a completely accurate advice.
3.2 Questionnaire Results.
3.2.1 General information
The first three questions of the internal communication audit questionnaire were
aimed to find out some general information about the employees. Hereby we found
out that from the ten participants, one employee works in the Sales department, one
employee works in the Design & Concepting department, two employees came from
other departments, whereby one claims to works in Software Development and the
other is left unknown, and the remaining six employees work in the Engineering
department.
Another question asked within the general questions was about the amount of time
the participants have been working for Peperzaken. 40% answered this questions
claiming they have been working for the company for longer than three years. 30%
claimed to be working there for less than one year. 20% stated that they have
worked at Peperzaken for two till three years and 10% did not answer this question.
Furthermore, within the general questions we asked what diploma the participants
received from their previous education. With 60%, the main received diploma was in
HBO. 10% received an MBO diploma, 10% received a WO diploma and 20%
received a diploma in something else. Whereby one claimed to have received a
diploma in HAVO and the other one is remained unknown.

24
3.2.2 Organizational communication relationships
In the next four questions participants were asked to rate how satisfied they are with
their organizational communication relationship with the project managers on a scale
of ranges between one and five. On the scale, one meant they are little satisfied and
five means they are very satisfied. The first question asked was about how satisfying
the relationship is between the employees and the overall management. The
average of this question was a 3,6. The next question was about how satisfying the
relationship is between the employees and the project managers. We have
concluded an average of a 3,1 on this question. The third question was about the
listening skills of the manager in charge. An average of 3,4 claimed that they feel like
the manager in charge listens to them. The final question was about the respondents’
feelings on how much freedom they feel to disagree with their manager. The average
of this question was a 4,2, where five meant they felt very free to disagree with their
manager and one meant they felt no freedom to disagree. In the chart below is
specific data on these questions.
3.2.3 Motivation
The next section of questions from the questionnaire was aimed at investigating how
the motivation of the respondents is currently and how this motivation is desired to be.
These questions were, again, put in a scale where one meant little satisfaction and
five meant very satisfied. The first question asked was about the contentment with
the communication between the respondent and the project manager in charge.
Currently, this segment scored a 2,8 but the respondents desire this to be a 4,5, a
fairly big difference.
1
1

1

2

3

4
4

1

5

4

2

6

1

2

3

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Relationship

with
the
overall

management

Relationship

with
project

managers

Project
manager

listenens
to
me

Free
to
disagree

with
project

manager

Very
Great

Great

Some

Little

Very
Little

Organisa(onal
communica(on
rela(onships

25
The next question asked about if the respondent felt valued as a person in the
organization. An average of 3,8 was rated on this question but the respondents
desire this to be a 4,4. The third question is about how the respondent felt valued for
the work they deliver. This question was answered with a 3,8 and they wish this to be
a 4,4. Furthermore, the questionnaire asked about if the respondent felt like they
received praise for a job well done. This question scored a 2,6 on satisfaction how it
currently is and the respondents desire this to be significant higher, i.e. a 4,3. This is
the same for how the respondent feels connected to a delivered product. Currently,
this scores a 2,6 but the considered necessary score is a 4,4. Next, we asked if the
respondents felt involved in the production process. Currently, this section scored an
average of 3,4 and the respondents desire this to be 4,0. The next question was
about how the participants felt like they have the freedom to be creative or innovative.
Presently, room for creativity scored a 3,6 and innovation scored a 2,9. The
participants desire, both creativity and innovation, to be a 4,5. Lastly we asked about
how much motivation the participants feel to do their job. To this question the
respondents answered with an average score of 2,9 and they want this to be
significant higher, i.e. a 4,8. In the appendix there is a chart with specific data on
these questions.
1
1

3
2

2
2
3

5

3
4

4
4

2

4

5
3

2

4
2

1

3
3

1
2
1
2
1
1
1

2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

N/A

Very
Great

Great

Some

Little

Very
Little

Mo(va(on
Now

26
0%
0%
14%

86%

How
often
do
you

communicate
with
other

departments?
(Desired)

1-‐2
times
a
week

2-‐3
times
a
week

3-‐4
times
a
week

more
than
5
times
a
week

14%

29%

0%

57%

How
often
do
you

communicate
with
othter

departments?

(Now)

1-‐2
times
a
week

2-‐3
times
a
week

3-‐4
times
a
week

more
than
5
times
a
week

3.2.4 Communication channels
The next section in the internal communication audit questionnaire is about
communication channels and how often those channels are used in Peperzaken.
This section aimed to examine what communication channels employees use now
and what channels they would like to use in the future to make the communication
more effective.
First, we asked the employees how often they communicate with other departments.
14,3% answered 1-2 times a week, 28,6% answered 2-3 times a week, and 57,1%
answered more than 5 times a week. However, 85,7% of the participant would like to
communicate more than 5 times a week with other departments. The remaining
14,3% desired to communicate 3-4 times a week with other departments.
1
1
1
2
1

3

1

2
3
3
2
3

2

4
2

2

5
4
4
4
4
3
4
5
6

2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

N/A

Very
Great

Great

Some

Little

Very
Little

Mo(va(on
Desirable

27
Furthermore, we asked what channels employees use to communicate with co-
workers in their own department. We gave them six options and asked them to rank
them in order of frequency. Whereby six means they use the channel most often and
one means they use the channel least often. Again, in this section we asked them
how it is currently and how they would like it to be in the future.
On average, the respondents now use face-to-face communication most often in
situations where they have to communicate with their co-workers from their own
department. They ranked using an intranet on the second place. They desire these
two to switch around. This means they would like to use the intranet most frequently
in the future and face-to-face communication would then be on the second place.
Furthermore, we asked what channels the employees prefer using when
communicating with co-workers from other departments. Here, again, they are now
using face-to-face communication most often and they desire to use the intranet
more often for these purposes. What is different in this scenario is that currently
using the intranet as a communication channel is on the fourth place, while using
email to communicate is listed on the fifth place.
0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Face-‐to-‐face
Email
Intranet
Postal
mail
Telephone

(speech)

Telephone

(message)

now

desirable

What
channels
are
used
t
communicate
with
co-‐workers
in
your
own
department?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Face-‐to-‐face
Email
Intranet
Postal
mail
Telephone

(speech)

Telephone

(message)

now

desirable

What
channels
are
used
to
communicate
with
co-‐workers
in
other
departments?

28
Lastly we asked them what channels employees use to communicate with the project
managers. Once again, currently here is face-to-face communication used most
often. On the fifth place is email and on the fourth place is the intranet. What they
desire to use most is the intranet, on the next place face-to-face communication and
after that email. The remaining channels were postal mail, telephone (speech), and
telephone (message). These three options were in all scenarios listed in the bottom
three. Where postal mail was always the last one.
3.2.5 Awareness of other departments
In the last section of our questionnaire we asked to what extent the respondents are
aware of what the other departments are working on. We asked them to rank this on
a scale from one to five. Where one meant they do not know at all what other
departments are working on and five meant they know in detail what others are
working on. Here we also asked them how they is currently and how they desire this
to be. On average, respondent score their awareness at a 2,5. What they desire this
to be is a 4,0.
3.3 Analysis of the Interview
YCP conducted a semi-structured interview with Mr. Snippe, an Operation Manager
at Peperzaken. Based on this interview, some important aspects regarding the
internal communication within Peperzaken can be made, specifically focussing on
the project managers.
The data contains information about the task of the project managers, types of
information, communication channels, decision-making style, job satisfaction,
involvement, and motivation.
First of all, Mr. Snippe mentioned that the project managers are responsible to
maintain the process and planning of the work done within Peperzaken.
0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Face-‐to-‐face
Email
Intranet
Postal
mail
Telephone

(speech)

Telephone

(message)
now

desirable

What
channels
are
used
to
communicate
with
project
managers?

29
He stated some specific tasks such as monitoring the process management,
delegating tasks, making sure that the entire tasks have been done sufficiently, and
lead the employees to work efficiently..
Second of all, based on the semi-structured interview, Mr. Snippe mentioned that the
project managers often distribute information about planning, such as asking the
employees about the production process and whether they found this sufficient, or
not. Based on this data, concluded can be that the type of information used in
Peperzaken is task information. Vos and Schoenmaker (2005) mentioned about
different types of information in organizations, and Peperzaken often used task
information since it contains the working methods, planning, and instructions of the
task. To be more specific, project managers in Peperzaken often use task
information, such as informing employees about new project from the client, giving
work instructions, and delegating the tasks. As Vos and Schoenmaker (2005) said,
task information is mainly requiring downward communication flow through
intermediaries such as middle management, who, in the case of Peperzaken, would
be the project manger in charge of the project.
Mr. Snippe is one of the intermediaries in the organization, because employees often
send the information to the middle management beforehand, and after that,
intermediaries (middle management) send the information to the top management
(project managers). He finds it difficult to make the entire employee base
communicate on the same level. As Mr. Snippe said: “employees in Peperzaken
barely use formal communication since Peperzaken has an informal work
environment and atmosphere”. He said that he thought it would be better if
employees Peperzaken communicate both formally and informally, since he finds it
difficult to communicate specific information in a professional way without using
formal communication style.
Furthermore, Mr. Snippe stated that employees use specific communication
channels, which are: SLACK, chat rooms, face-to-face communication (direct
approach), and GIARA. To be more specific, he mentioned that SLACK is a chat
program that related to document purpose. Besides, GIARA is a channel related
production process to monitor the process development of the production. This
includes a system where employees can tick the box regarding the development of
production activity as well as the testing phase for the application.

30
In terms of decision-making, Mr. Snippe said that the project managers mostly make
the decision, but try to involve the employees from different departments involved in
the process. In terms of the level of adequacy of information, the project managers
often keep asking the same questions about particular information to make sure that
they receive adequate and valid information from the employees.
The project managers wish to get the employees to be more active by giving them
more information regarding the production process. Mr. Snippe mentioned that the
project managers often ask the employees about the task, but the project managers
also expect the employees to actively convey more information to the project
managers beforehand, because this will increase the speed of the decision-making
process.
3.4 Questionnaire and Interview Interpretations
From the results received about the organizational communication relationship in
Peperzaken, can be concluded that the employees are quite satisfied with
relationship they have with their project managers. All the questions in this area
scored a little above average. This also confirms what Mr. Snippe mentioned in the
interview, namely; that he feels the communication between him and the rest of the
employees from other departments has improved. He mentioned that employees
actively seek information from him and actively convey information about the project
to him. This could also relate to the statement we mentioned in the questionnaire; ‘I
am free to disagree with the project manager in charge’. The employees rated this
statement significant higher with a score of 4,2. This could indicate that employees
are not afraid to share problems or errors with the project manager in charge.
The next nine questions were aimed to investigate how motivated employees are to
do their job and how they would desire this motivation to be in an ideal situation.
Currently, the employees rated their motivation as a 2,9 out of 5,0 and they desire
this to be a 4,8. This is a considerable large difference. Moorcroft (2003) mentions
that having a vision for the company is really important since employees ‘want to
know where their organization is headed, and they want to know how their behaviour
and roles can contribute towards achieving this vision’ (Moorcroft, 2003).
Even though most employees do not feel motivated to their job; Mr. Snippe stated in
the interview that he is very motivated to do his job.

31
In his scenario it is indeed more likely that he has an increased motivation, since he
is in charge of the well being and communication on the work floor and it is his job to
make sure this motivation is going to be increased.
Another question related to motivation is that of the employees feeling they receive
praise for a job well done. This segment currently scored a 2,6 but they want this to
be a 4,4. As Kotter (1995) mentioned in his article ‘Why transformational efforts fail’ it
is really important to create short-term wins when a transformation in a company
occurs (Kotter, 1995). These short-term wins are important to keep the employees
motivated.
In our questionnaire we also asked whether employees had the feeling of freedom to
be innovative. This area scored a 2,9 and they desire this to be a 4,5. Also, in our
interview with Mr. Snippe he mentioned that they would like to have more freedom to
do more product development and be able to create their own products, getting to
know more technologies. The industry Peperzaken is working in limits this
opportunity since their clients feel more comfortable with working with systems that
already exist. Also the increased growth of the company and limitations in the budget
decrease the chance to be more innovative.
The next section of questions was about what communication channels employees’
use. The first question in this section was about how often they communicate with
other departments. Although, almost everyone in the company would like to
communicate more than 5 times a week, currently 42,9% communicates less than 5
times a week. Whereby 14,3% communicates only 1-2 times a week. Mr. Snippe
claimed in the interview that the amount of communication between departments
depends on how many projects there are. He, now, has a meeting with other project
managers once a week and thinks this is sufficient enough.
Part of his job is also being a progress indicator; he is meant to indicate the amount
of progress that is being made and what still needs to be done. When there is too
little progress he can get the team together to discuss this.
Furthermore, a question of the questionnaire asked the employees whether they
were aware of what other departments are working on. They rated this with a 2,5
when they actually would like this to be a 4. The amount of communication between
different departments and the awareness of jobs from other departments could also
be a factor that increases or decreases the motivation for employees to do their job.
In addition, we asked about what channels employees use to communicate with their
own department, other departments and the project managers.

32
From the survey we concluded that for all of them they now use face-to-face
communication most often. This also emphasizes what Mr. Snippe stated in the
interview; that “sometimes the communication between employees can get too
informal which makes it harder for the project managers to criticize their co-workers”.
When communicating face-to-face, communication can become too casual and
relaxed which leads to employees becoming more friends than co-workers. Mr.
Snippe mentioned that it is a good thing that employees get along so well on a
personal level but on a professional level it can become a downfall. According to
Trompenaars & Prud’homme (2008) there is a division between a company that is
people oriented and a company that is result oriented (Trompenaars & Prud’homme,
2008). Even though, in this case Peperzaken would like to be more result-oriented,
right now they are more leaning towards the way of a people-oriented company.
This is the case because instead of the project managers focusing on results they
are now more focused on not ‘hurting the feelings’ of their co-workers. What we also
concluded from our questionnaire is that employees desire to use intranet most often
as a communication channel. In all three cases the employees rated this as their
number one choice. Mr. Snippe explained to us that they are now working with a
program named ‘SLACK’. Which, he believes, is a very effective system to work with
and should be used more often.

33
4 Commuication Advice and Communication Products
4.1 Communication Advice
4.1.2 Organizational Communication relationships
Looking at the organizational communication perspective, our research results
indicate that employees at Peperzaken are satisfied with the current communication
between middle management, top management and employees. However, as Mr.
Snippe pointed-out, a majority of the organization’s communication, which is
concerned with the project management, is done through the “SLACK” chat program.
In particular, it is Computer Mediated Communication (CMCixx
) in which
psychological traits such as: non-verbal, cognition and perception dimensions are not
concerned during the communication event. As the client pointed out, one of the
issues the company is facing is a lack of innovation. According to our experience,
this problem could be linked to the fact that employees are stuck to one
communication channel. During daily operations Peperzaken’s employees need to
incorporate more additional communication tools, which would provide more room for
creativity. This could be achieved through having more face-to-face interaction
diagonallyxi
. This means that employees from different departments will communicate
and share visions of the projects through spoken interaction. In particular, the top
management should communicate more with the other departments and if necessary,
provide some insights about certain matters and provide quick feedback. Additionally,
during the brainstorm sessions, employees should be required to come prepared in a
sense of latest developments on a certain subject area and communicate it through
face-to-face communication in order to ensure that everyone is involved and gets a
clear understanding during the discussion.
As for a specific solution, we recommend our client to organize a facilitation skills
workshop, where both employees and project managers will flourish to be more
efficient in face-to-face interaction. Accordingly, usage of SLACK should be
minimized work-related issues, this will result in employees being more up to date
about current the current state of projects. By minimizing the use of CMC, there is
more room left for face-to-face interaction that is important for Peperzaken to use.
4.1.3 Lack of motivation
To begin with, motivation of the employees is seen as one of the most crucial
aspects in the development of the organization. After collecting data from the
questionnaires and interpreting the results from the semi-structured interview, our
team indicated that there is a clear deficiency of motivation within Peperzaken. More
precisely, after interpreting data gained from the questionnaire, we found out couple
of reasons why the issues within Peperzaken occur.

34
First of all, the data gained from the questionnaires distributed to Peperzaken
indicate that employees feel as if their job is not considered to be of huge importance
within a company and most important, there are no rewards and recognition from the
middle and top management. In order to overcome this, YCP suggests that project
managers; Mr. Van Der Veen and Mr. Snippe would consider the possibilities to
motivate employees by providing task recognition after it is completed and clearly
communicate it to the employees of Peperzaken. This solution will raise the overall
psychological stance of the employees and improve their motivation significantly. In
particular, mutual appreciation communicated through face-to-face communication
should be used as a “tool” as well as the tangible “Board of recognition”, where
nominations for the best performance would be publicized. This particular instrument
will be discussed in the section about communication products.
Furthermore, another huge impact on the low level of motivation is the lack of
relationship and collaboration between different departments. In particular,
application developers feel that as soon as they are finished with their task, they are
no longer involved in the further steps towards the final product implementation. This
is also a cause lack of motivation. As communication professionals, we strongly
recommend to implement the new web-based platform where all employees who
belong to different departments of Peperzaken will have access to the latest
information about current products’ development and also would be able to interact
with each other by providing feedback and suggestions. Additionally, project
managers should act as facilitators and ease the diagonal communication between
departments in order to overcome this feeling of “Lack of Involvement in the overall
development process” during the weekly brainstorm sessions.
Finally, we assume that another factor which influences the level of motivation is that
there is no clear vision and mission for Peperzaken, which would be communicated
through the all departments. According to the theory (Moorcroft, 2003), vision and
mission of the organization impedes the notion about where the organization is
heading, how is the future of organization is perceived and how the certain behaviour
and roles of the employees can contribute achieving company’s desires. Generally
speaking, the issue of the lack of motivation has huge importance for the present and
future situation of Peperzaken and the importance of implementing new
communication instruments in the organization is inevitable.

35
4.1.4 Lack of formal communication
The following issue is the lack of formal rules in regards to communication. Our
research indicated that there are few reasons for this problem. During the interview,
Mr. Snippe indicated that communication at Peperzaken is clearly informal and this is
where a problem arises. In particular, Mr. Snippe pointed out that sometimes it is
hard to criticize employee because of the simple notion as “breaking the friendly
relationship”. When the communication is informal, the orientation of the organization
could be linked to “people oriented rather than result oriented” (Trompenaars &
Prud’homme, 2008). As Peperzaken is operating in a very tough and dynamic
environment it is important that high standards for achievement are maintained. We
suggest that project managers would implement a certain “code of conduct” where
rules about the communication during the project development phase will be cleared
out. This set of communication rules should outline that project managers have the
right to criticize the employees by providing him feedback. It is also very important to
indicate, that all of this criticism is communicated in order to maintain high-end
results. Thus, it is inevitable to impose a new code of conduct where formal
(communication) rules would be introduced to the all employees in Peperzaken. This
action would not only impose the more efficient, task related information but also
would make the project managers able to criticize the employees without “ruining”
the relationship. As soon as there is a separation between a formal working
environment and an informal one, satisfaction will be achieved, as it will be easier to
criticize and concentrate on the end result.
4.2 Communication Products
4.2.1 Rationale for chosen communication products
To overcome issues stated earlier, the communication advice and communication
products need to be implemented. YCP came up with a few particular instruments
and policies, which will lead Peperzaken to improving present internal
communication and employees’ motivation.
To begin with, we strongly recommend that the project managers; Mr. Snippe and Mr.
Van Der Veen would facilitate more face-to-face communication with the employees
and try to incorporate CMC (“SLACK”) mainly for task-related issues. Particularly, it
could be done through a facilitation skills workshop, which would enhance their and
their employees efficiency during brainstorm sessions. Concerning the outcome of
the facilitation workshop; it is the provision of the new insights how the brainstorming
could be improved and in general, how to facilitate an efficient brainstorming session.

36
During the workshop, an additional message has to be communicated as the
employees should come prepared to every brainstorming session about the latest
developments in their subject area and if necessary, share that knowledge during the
facilitation workshop as well as the brainstorm sessions. In order to organize such a
workshop, YCP is willing to provide their service.
Communication product: Facilitation workshop.
Main goal: Enhance the efficiency of brainstorming sessions.
Concerning the improvement of the employees’ motivation, a few different
instruments are required.
Firstly, we recommend that project managers as well as the top management should
incorporate mutual appreciation and task recognition. In order to provide better
understanding how to do that, we recommend to organize a information session
where project managers and top management would share the ideas about
appreciating employees for their job done and providing task recognition. As both
focus groups have an intense working schedule, YCP is willing to organize such a
session and provide some practical as well as theoretical material. As it was
mentioned above, appreciation and task recognition are very important factors for
raising employees overall motivation.
Secondly, according to our advice, mutual appreciation is only the first step towards
raising employees’ motivation. Another efficient communication instrument could be
implementing a “Board of recognition” where once a month, the employee who had
the best performance will be publicized. A board like this should raise the morale of
the employees’ and motivate them to be recognized throughout Peperzaken. For the
implementation of this tool, we recommend that Peperzaken takes this matter into
own hands and simply considers where and how to construct such a board.
Thirdly, in order to overcome “the feeling of a lack of involvement”, we advice to
create a web-based forum, where all the information about the projects Peperzaken
are involved in will be shared and are accessible for all the employees. Furthermore,
a feedback and solution provision function should be enabled as well, so that the
employees would be able to interact with each other and share their ideas. As it was
mentioned, it will raise employee morale and cooperation with each other.
Finally, project managers and top management should consider developing a certain
vision and mission for Peperzaken. It is a very important aspect while raising the
employees’ motivation and could be done only by internal communication.

37
This means, that project managers and top management have to decide what exactly
the vision and mission of Peperzaken are. Then they can communicate it throughout
the other departments through brainstorm sessions, monthly meet-ups as well as via
CMC (Forum). Only when a mission and vision are clear for employees, they can act
upon this.
Communication products: Information session, “Board of recognition”, Web-
based Forum.
Main goal: Provide theoretical and practical insights about mutual appreciation.
Looking at the final issue; the lack of formal communication, the implementation of
the formal code of conduct is recommended. Once again, project managers as well
as top management are required to construct a set of rules, where internal
communication will be differentiated. In particular, feedback for low performance
should be outlined as the important matter for Peperzaken’s development and
considered as formality; not relationship related issue. Reason for this implication is
that as the organization is growing in terms of employees and work-load, it is
essential to incorporate this tool to protect the internal communication from further
development of issues and a decrease in overall productivity.
Communication product: Code of conduct.
Main goal: Differentiate formal and informal communication

38
Works Cited
Downs, C.W.&Adrian, A.D. (2004). Assessing Organizational Communication:
Strategic Communication Audits.
Hargie, O. & Tourish, D. (2000). Handbook of Communication Audits for
Organisations. London: Routledge
Vos, M., & Schoenmaker, H. (2005). Integrated communication: concern,
internal, and marketing communication. Boom Lemma Uitgevers.
Hofstede, G. (n.d.). Organisational Culture Dimensions. From http://geert-
hofstede.com/organisational-culture-dimensions.html
Luthan, F. (2010). Organizational Behavior.
Leadership Styles. (2009). From The Wallstreet Journal:
http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-to-
develop-a-leadership-style/
Over Peperzaken. (n.d.). From Peperzaken: https://www.peperzaken.nl/over-
peperzaken/
Trompenaars, F. & P. Prud’homme (2004). Managing Change Across
Corporate Cultures.West Sussex: Wiley.
Kotter, J.P. (1995). Leading change: why transformation efforts fail. Harvard
Business Review, March/April, 59-67.
Moorcroft, D. 2003. Linking the communication strategy with organizational
goals. SCM 7(6), 24-27.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2009). Research Methods for
Business Students. England: Pearson.

39
Appendix
1. SWOT-AnalysisInternal
Strengths Weaknesses
- Equality new employees.
- Team of young professionals.
- Flexible working environment.
- Daily informal get-together.
- Daily project team stand-ups.
- Monthly company meet-ups.
- Occasional brainstorm sessions.
- Applicability of newest techniques.
- Operations manager oversees
everything.
- Continuous online communication.
- Good contact with clients.
- Effective working environment.
- Meet-ups with all employees are only
monthly.
- Brainstorm sessions are only held
once in a while.
- There is a big gap between different
departments.
- Project-teams are too separated.
- Motivation of employee’s is low.
- Large overhead.
- Little to no room for creativity or
innovation.
- Engineers do not feel connected to the
product.
- Operations manager is not informed
about details of projects.
- Not everyone is involved in first
information session.
- Missing out on opportunities to “get
more business out of one client”.
- Newest techniques are rarely sold to
costumers.
- Rapid growth of the company might
cause further issues.
- Mistakes and problems cannot be
traced.
External
Opportunities Threats
- Increasing digital market.
- New techniques that can be
applied.
- Competitors.
- Consumers not open to new
techniques.

40
2. Interview Transcript
1. How long working for Peperzaken?
Four years ago he did a graduation assignment at Peperzaken. He started
working as a project manager, but he was getting more tasks with processes
and planning and so formed the operations manager. He has been doing this
for 1,5 year now.
2. Previous education?
HBO -> Management, Economics and Law at the Hanze.
3. What are your job duties and functions as a project manager?
He is part of the project management team but he is a operations manager.
project managers manage all the projects. He manages the process, and
planning, and the communication on the work floor.
Specific tasks:
- On the floor well being
- Process management
- Constant reflection of the processes
- Monitoring what goes well/ what can be improved
- Making sure everybody does what they are supposed to do
- He keeps an eye on the division of task (dividing the tasks are done by the
project managers)
- Steer the employees where necessary
4. What information do you receive from other departments? How often?
They are an hour based company. Which means that for each assignment
the employees have several hours to finish that assignment. He plans these
hours so he needs an indication from departments how many hours they think
they need for an assignment. Questions he sends and receives to make this
indication are; What are we going to build? What are the hours needed? How
many hours are we going to sell to the client? Employees should not exceed
those hours! If they do exceed them, they need to get the time back by
shortening on other assignments.
- He is an intermediary within the organization. He gets information from
departments and sends this to other departments.
5. What information do you send to other departments? How often?
Information regarding planning. Getting a constant view of the status of the
project. Ask the development department how they are doing. Do they need
anything from him or other departments? He sends this information to the
project managers again so they can improve the situation -> intermediary
-‐ The amount can be improved. In this industry there is always something
new. They are also dependant on what other companies do (Apple,
Android, etc). Difficult to make a long term planning because they don’t
know what will happen. They have to be dynamic. Which makes it difficult
to make communicate and to get everyone on the same page.
6. What channels do you use to communicate this information?
They use SLACK. Which is a chat program. Use it for document purposes.
Also for face-to-face communication (organizing meetings etc.).

41
Various chat rooms -> for each project a different chat room. So other people
who don’t work on the project don’t get distracted.
They also use GIARA (?) for development purposes. Whenever there is a
scope is ready, they chop it up into small tasks. Get this into GIARA.
Developers can tick a box that says if they are in the testing phase, resolved,
etc. As an operational manager it gives a insight into the process. Also for
maintain overview for the tester to test an application. (?)
7. How do you mostly communicate with employees? Is it in formal way,
informal way or both?
Peperzaken is a very informal company. He is not sure if this is the best way.
In some situations it could be more formal. Them being so informal makes it
harder to say what you want on a professional level. They could improve the
thin line between being friends and criticizing. He thinks they should ticking
that line.
8. How do you deal with the decision making process?
Project manager makes the decisions regarding projects. When there occurs
a conflict between project managers and employees, he is the one who
usually steps in.
- Do you get enough information you need in order to make decisions?
He has to make sure he gets enough information to do so. By keep asking
question, never assume the first answer is the right one.
- Do you also involve employees from other departments? And how?
Everyone has a different opinion. He needs to find the red line and make the
decision. They have a trustful organization, so he also trusts other to make
the right decision. He does involve all the departments.
9. Is there enough freedom for creativity and innovation?
They would like to do more product development -> creating their own
product, getting to know more technologies. The budget and them being a
fast growing company limits this.
10. Does the lack of internal communication effect your motivation to do
your job?
No, not for him. It is his job to improve the internal communication. So he is
motivated to do this.
11. To what extent do concept and design interfere with the whole process
of developing the product?
Normally, they split a project up in 2 parts. Firstly, concept and design phase.
Separately part of the project where Peperzaken and client fix the scope for a
certain version of an application. They strive to make is as complete as they
can. Secondly comes the actual developing phase of the product. Afterwards,
concept and design don’t really interfere anymore. If the client has a problem
then the concept and design comes back.
12. How do you see the other departments involvement in the overall
process of product development?

42
- Do you think this is sufficient enough?
There is a important part from going to the sales phase to the project
manager phase. The sales department has several meeting with the client.
Then the project managers join for 2 meetings with the client and the sales
department. Then there is a meeting between sales and project managers
where all the information is exchanges from sales to the project managers. In
the last year this has improved a lot and he thinks this is sufficient enough.
13. To what extent does the budget limits the brainstorming sessions?
He is not involved with the brainstorm session (or fresh meetings). Every
week he has a stand up meeting with the CTO for the development part of the
company. And he has a meeting with the project managers to get the week
planning straightened out. Question that occur during this meeting are; What
did we do last week? What should we have done last week? What are we
doing this week? Did there any problems occur from the clients?
It is a sum up of the previous week and a planning for this week.
- Should these meetings be done more often? Or should they be
improved?
Depends on how many projects they have. If they have more projects he
would like to have more stand up meetings. During the week he is also a
progress indicator. When he gets information from departments claiming that
they are not getting the progress that they planned, he can get the team
together to discuss more.
14. Are you satisfied with the on the floor information flow?
What he has been working on, and what has been improved, is proactivity in
communication. Him or project managers should not always have to ask
things. He expects other departments to inform him about the work. This
speeds up the process and also improves the decision making earlier in the
process. It has improved but it is not fully there yet.
15. Would you consider a code of conduct to get more formality?
He has stand up meetings with the STOs and other project managers. And
the project managers have meetings with their development team to discuss
the planning for the day (every day). Those meetings are already quite formal.
When someone goes off topic (too much informality) they press a button to
shut them up.

43
3. Questionnaire
Sales, Concepting & Design, Engineers - Peperzaken
Internal Communication Questionnaire
Purpose and Privacy
This questionnaire is part of an internal communication audit. The purpose of
this audit is to contribute to the creation of an internal communication advice.
This communication advice will be focussing on enhancing the internal
communication of the company and therewith bring back the company its
agility, flexibility, innovative power and motivation amongst employees.
Participating in this research is completely voluntarily. The participant has the
right to stop the participation in this research at all times, without giving
reason, even after the participant has given written accordance. This decision
will not have any negative consequences whatsoever.
All data collected for the purpose of this research will be treated with utter
care and trust. The research data can be checked by overseeing instances,
such as the Hanze Hogeschool School of Communication, Media & IT. The
data collected will be and stay anonymous at all times.
The filled out documents will be collected in a sealed box, reassuring privacy
and preventing any leak of information.
General information
Which department are you operating in?
O Sales
O Project Managers
O Design & Concepting
O Engineering
O Other, ……..
How long have you been working for Peperzaken?
O <1 year
O 1-2 years
O 2-3 years
O 3+ years
What previous education have you followed (Diploma received)
O MBO
O HBO
O WO
O Other, ……….

44
Organisational communication relationships
The following questions will be rated on a scale from 1-5.
1 – Very little
2 – Little
3 – Some
4 – Great
5 – Very Great
The relationship I have with the management is satisfying. 1 2 3 4 5
The relationships I have with the project managers are satisfying. 1 2 3 4 5
The project manager in charge listens to me. 1 2 3 4 5
I am free to disagree with the project manager in charge. 1 2 3 4 5
Motivation
How it is now How you would
like it to be
Your contentment with the
communication
between you and the project
manager in charge
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
You feeling valued as a person in
the organisation
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
You feeling valued for the work you
deliver
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
You receiving praise for a job well
done
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
You feeling connected to a
delivered product
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
You feeling involved in the
production process
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Your feeling of freedom to be
creative
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Your feeling of freedom to be
innovative
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
How motivated to you feel to do
your job
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

45
Communication Channels (such as face-to-face, email, intranet,
postal mail, etc.)
Note: All questions about communication are based on BUSINESS
communication (so no private conversations etc.)
How it is now How you would like it
to be
How often to you
communicate with other
departments?
O 1-2 times a week
O 2-3 times a week
O 3-4 times a week
O >5 times a week
O 1-2 times a week
O 2-3 times a week
O 3-4 times a week
O >5 times a week
What channels are
used to communicate
with co-workers in your
own department? (List
them.1 = most
frequently, 6 = least
frequently)
What channels are
used to communicate
with co-workers in the
other departments?
(List them.1 = most
frequently)
…. Face-to-face
…. Email
…. Intranet
…. Postal mail
…. Telephone
(speech)
…. Telephone
(message)
…. Face-to-face
…. Email
…. Intranet
…. Postal mail
…. Telephone
(speech)
…. Telephone
(message)
…. Face-to-face
…. Email
…. Intranet
…. Postal mail
…. Telephone
(speech)
…. Telephone
(message)
…. Face-to-face
…. Email
…. Intranet
…. Postal mail
…. Telephone
(speech)
…. Telephone
(message)
What channels are
used to communicate
with project managers?
(List them.1 = most
frequently)
…. Face-to-face
…. Email
…. Intranet
…. Postal mail
…. Telephone
(speech)
…. Telephone
(message)
…. Face-to-face
…. Email
…. Intranet
…. Postal mail
…. Telephone
(speech)
…. Telephone
(message)
To what extent are you
aware of what the other
departments are
working on? (1= not at
all, 5 = I know in detail).
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

46
Glossary of Terms
i
This concerns the direction of the communication within the organisation.
ii
This concerns communication between people who work at different
hierarchical levels in the same department.
iii
This occurs when subordinates receive instructions from people from higher
hierarchical levels (bosses).
iv
This occurs when subordinates report the progress of the activities to people
from higher hierarchical levels.
v
This concerns communication between people working in the same level of
an organisation.
vi
an interview conducted without a strickt structure, but using pre-set
keywords as a guide
vii
During this report, we have defined focal area’s as being the internal and/or
external area’s on which the audit will focus.
viii
A description of how research, regarding the audit, will be undertaken and a
description of the instruments used in order to conduct the audit.
ix
This concerns all human communication directly using two or more
electronic devices.
xi
This concerns communication between people working on various levels
and in various departments.

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