KNS 1472

CIVIL ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT NO. 2
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

LECTURERS NAME : MISS ROHAIDA BINTI AFFANDI

DUE DATE : 29th OCTOBER 2010
GROUP : GROUP 13
GROUP MEMBERS : RASHIDAH BINTI SUREIA @ SURIA
ZAHRAH BINTI ABDUL GHAFAR
EFARINA BINTI ABDUL HAMIT
NURUL AMAL BINTI YUSUH
AFFIDAH BINTI ZAIHARI

(28000)
(28714)
(26201)
(27802)
(25789)

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

1-3

ORAL COMMUNICATION

4-9

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

10 11
12

INTRODUCTION
At workplace, be it at site or at office, employers highlighted three main skills that are
needed by the workers. The three main skills are the teamwork, flexibility and also the
communication. Without any of these skills, the organization itself will not function
effectively and less productive. By looking at the meaning, the word teamwork here means
the actions of individuals where they have one purpose goal to achieve. In a group, each
member of the group or team must put aside their needs to work towards the groups main
objective or purpose. The interaction among the group member is called teamwork.
Meanwhile, flexibility can be defined as how and when the work can be done and how the
careers can be organized.
According to Hall & Ritcher (2008), "Flexibility is the degree to which the spatial
and temporal boundaries are pliable". On the other hand, the communication means the
interaction between two or more parties where exchanging of information, thoughts or
messages are involved by writing, speech or behaviour.
Communication is vital as it is can be used to implement organizational strategies as
well as to manage day to day activities through people. There are many types of
communications. One of the types of communication is oral communication. Oral
communication here can be defined as the information is transferred from a sender to a
receiver. On top of that, oral communication can be in the form of meetings, discussion
groups, announcements and conversation, both face to face and through telephone.
In engineering, especially the construction stakeholders, who are the engineers,
architect, quantity surveyor, and construction manager of contractor, subcontractor and
including the client, skills of communication are what they need. The reason is, during the
construction project, they need to communicate with each other in order to ensure the
progression of the project is following the flow. As the oral communication can be done in
the form of meeting, there will be held weekly meeting, monthly meeting and even annual
meeting between the stakeholders where they talk about the progression of the construction.
Without a doubt, there is always a thing called miscommunication. It can occur
either one of the parties tell or send the wrong information to other party. Needless to say, this
kind of situation also occurs in engineering scope and the construction area. Engineers must
know how to communicate with non-engineers as they may control the fate of the company.
Apart from that, if miscommunication occurs, it will affect the image of the company itself.
As a result, it will only ruin the chance of the company to get a bigger project as the client
has lost the faith towards the company.

The workers in construction area must know how to communicate as this is to ensure
that they can inform the upper level of the organization about anything that related to the
construction. Good communication skills take a long time to develop as communication is the
most important function of a human being performs in his or her social life. Communication
helps to build strong relationship and better understanding which are so vital in our personal
and professional life. Lack of communication skills will certainly make an engineering
professional short of resources. It has been revealed that engineering professionals face
several tough challenges in the global job market if their communication skills are not up to
mark.
Since there are many types of oral communication in the construction management, it
is wise to have a certain standards of ethics in communicating to one another. It is common
knowledge to identify the one role that needs to have great communication skills is the
project manager. As a project manager, he or she needs to be able to deliver any type of
communication be it to the employees as a leader or other stakeholders as partners. Important
communication skills that a project manager has to have is active listening, good
companionship either with employees or stakeholders, have solid principles in conveying the
organization vision and able to do a great teamwork with anyone from the management. In
truth, not only the project manager needs to have good communication skills but other
expertise such as clients, architect and quantity surveyor also need these skills. Oral
communication such as meeting and group discussion rely on the messages that are correctly
delivered to be able to do work and to keep the flow of construction smoothly.
Communication is indeed the key to success for any project since it holds so much
power in a single word. Therefore there are types of information that need to be received and
information that needs to be given during oral communication. Take as an example, a project
manager needs to make sure that his or her employees are well-informed on the respective
roles in the management be it from its engineering department to its labourers and architects
needs to be informed on how the onsite construction is going on, either there are any changes
to the design and clients needs to know if the project is facing any difficulties. For the
examples of received information, architect need to get the idea of design for the clients and
in turn, engineers need to know the design itself to be able to draw a more detailed design.
This is where oral communication comes to the rescue since stakeholders can hold monthly
meetings or a weekly meeting for management itself so that every part of the team knows
where or how far along is the project going on. If any error is occurring, oral communication
can be a problem solver as here is the time to make critical decision changes.

It would be a lie to say there no project in history that never experiences

miscommunication especially if it is done orally. Though different stakeholders may prefer
different ways of receiving information, oral communication is a more open and engaging
way as it is mostly done face to face. It is also a priority to keep the team engaged and
informed on the progress of a project, without a doubt. Therefore meeting or any other oral
communication should be done frequently so that everyone has a long term vision for the
same objectives. As there is many types of communication in construction management, two
groups categorized these types which is the pull communication and push
communication.
Oral communication is more of a push communication as it requires you to push the
information onto the recipient as the name would suggest meaning that the information is
handed during the meeting. Having a schedule does not hurt too if it will smooth out the
meetings time for examples between management team and other expertise for the project.
But it is also advisable to be able to loosen up the timetable because if an error occurs, brainstorming meeting should be held to solve the problem. It is an upmost importance that the
information throughout the project received and given in the right way as it can improve the
workability of a project itself.
Therefore, having good skills in workplace is not enough, but also the communication
skills. This is to ensure everyone in the organization is connected to each other and nobody
will lack of information that related to work. Besides, having good communication also vital
to ensure good relationship between the stakeholders and the also between the companies.

ORAL COMMUNICATION
MEETINGS AND DISCUSSION GROUPS
Oral communication is one type of communication skill that using mouth to
communicate and usually apply when meeting occurs since oral is a proper communications
skill compared to other skill. Communicating properly in a group of people improves an
individuals all around skills. Oral is the most successful way of distribute information and
giving procedure accurately. The more effective communication functions during meeting the
better. Thus enables employees to perform jobs better.
Meeting is like a group discussion where people do conference and pointing their
opinion by face-to-face. Meeting conferences in construction is participant by stakeholders
involved. During meeting, all stakeholders will communicate regarding new agenda that
might happened and discuss the progress of the project whether it run smoothly or the other
way round.
There are a few type of meeting conducted during construction and according to its
purpose. The first type is partnering meeting. It required all the stakeholders to participant
this meeting as it create agreement between them regarding the projects objective. The
second one is the pre-conduction planning and organisation meeting. Third one is the subcontractor coordination meeting. This type only refers to the contractor and the subcontractor.
General site meeting is also a kind of meeting conducted in construction and this
usually conducted once a month. These all type of meeting required a good communication
skill for it to run smoothly.

Partnering meeting
Partnering is refers to a number or people usually more than two work together as a
team. Engineer, contractor, sub-contractor, architect and owners representative as well are
the one who involved in partnering meeting. This is one of the processes that build a
relationship and trust between stakeholders. They work together and shared a same goal and
objective in a project. The objectives have to be realistic and measurable to become
achievable in order to fulfil the clients requirement. It is easier for them to talk to each other
about how far the progress of the project going. Besides that, partnering meeting able to
avoid any dispute from occur. If there any misunderstanding take places, the best way to
solve it is through communicate.
Pre-construction planning and organisation meeting
Pre-construction meeting is a first type of meeting what will be conducted by
stakeholders. This type of meeting emphasis on planning before they started theirs project.
Before this meeting run, introduction will be conduct first. The stakeholder will be introduced
to an organisation according to their role in an organisation chart. Furthermore, in an
organisation, interaction between stakeholders is essential as they can solve problem together
professionally.
Subcontractor coordination meeting
A subcontractor coordination meeting is conducted between main contractor and subcontractor only. The purpose it to discuss what is happened on the construction site. In spite
of that, any dispute will be fixed during this meeting before the site meeting.
Site meeting
Site meeting is not much different from pre-construction meeting. Site meeting is
frequently conducted as it gathered all the stakeholders. The firm is to identify the overcome
site problems and covered the issues instead of the progress of the project.

Techniques of oral communication

There a few techniques of oral communication that may be apply during

circumstances. The first one is by oral presentation. Presentations are important form of oral
communication in which the stakeholders have an opportunity to talk or brief others on a
particular topic and their work sheet. When making a presentation, it is better to keep the
number of words low in each slide. Participants easily get boring when they have read a lot of
words in the slide. Plus, a presenter must have a good skill to deliver their point. Giving a
presentation reduced the time for the stakeholders to deliver their massage rather than using
written script.
Second technique is through negotiations. Negotiation is the process where the
agreement is reached between the parties which different view. The purpose is to achieve an
agreement and must be acceptable by parties involved. Quantity surveyor is one of the
stakeholders that always involved in a negotiation confrontation. Since they are responsible
to confirm the clients regarding to the final cost of the construction, negotiation is important
between them so that any short in cost can be avoided.
Besides that, by using telephone is also one of the techniques of oral communication.
Telephone is a device that can connect a stakeholder. Some people always think that
communicate through telephone is useless. The fact is through telephone is more important
instead of normal conversation. For instance, if an engineer received a phone call, they are for
sure will answer the ringing phone even they are busy because the information that they are
going to received may be more important than the task in hand.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CONVERSATIONS

Without a doubt, in engineering area, announcement is one important thing in oral
communication. This is because when there is new information about the project, for
example, there will be held a meeting about the project, announcement is one way to tell
everyone in the team of construction project or the company. Through announcements, each
and every one of the professional or the unprofessional people will get involved in the current
issue in the project or in the company itself.
In having a good announcement, correct and clear information must be prepared
earlier. This is to ensure everybody will not get the wrong information. Needless to say, every
team of construction project or the organizational in the company may get wrong information
in some announcements that have been done as the way of presenting the announcement is
not proper or not clear. Announcement can be done in many ways. One of the ways is through
meeting. The representative present during the meeting will tell other under he or she about
that announcement. This is faster way to spread announcement to others.
On the other hand, conversation also includes in the oral communication.
Conversation here means the act or an instance of talking together. There will be exchanged
of facts, thoughts, ideas and opinions during the process of conversation. Usually, in a
conversation, two or more persons will involve. Many agree that through conversation, more
correct details or information can we get. Besides that, conversation also can defined as the
two or more people communicate. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in
some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each
other.
For civil engineering and construction area, the engineers or the stakeholders need to
have a good communication when it comes to conversation. This is because some may get
wrong interpretation about the information that he or she gets from the other party. This kind
of situation should be avoided to keep the faith of client to the company itself or to avoid
miscommunication. Through conversation, the stakeholders can sit together to discuss about
the obstacles that may occur during construction project. These problems can be overcome by
brainstorming during the conversation. Apart from that, this kind of conversation can be done
anytime and anywhere as long as it is suitable.

Conversation not only us to communicate with others but it also allow us to share or
exchange information with other person or people. As a result, we will not miss anything that
can be current issues nowadays. Good conversation with others will make people respect us.
Conversation here consists of four categories. One of them is the conversation about
subjective ideas which often serve to many to extend many understanding and awareness.
Next conversation will be the conversation about the objective facts which may serve to
consolidate a widely-high view. Conversation about other people falls into the third category.
It is the conversation where it may be critical, competitive or supportive which includes
gossip. Lastly would be the conversation about oneself which sometimes indicate attentionseeking behaviour.

BOTH FACE TO FACE AND OVER THE TELEPHONE

According to Herta A.Murphy and Herbert W. Hildebrandt wrote in their book
Effective Business Communications, The ability to communicate effectively through
speaking as well as in writing is highly valued, and demanded, in business. It shows that oral
communication plays very important role in business context where it may be in civil
engineering area and construction area.
Another type of oral communication is where two people or more are both face to
face when they communicate to each other. Most of people enjoy the both face to face
conversation because it is easy, feels warm, natural and promote friendships. Nearly everyone
agrees that the best way to communicate is orally in face-to-face conversations. Through
face-to face conversation, miscommunication can be avoided. Apart from that, this kind of
conversation is free and need no money.
As mentioned before, by communicating face-to-face, problems or obstacles in a
construction project can be discussed and ways to solve the problems can be discussed
together. Even if the construction stakeholders, may it be the engineers, architect, quantity
surveyor, construction manager of contractor, subcontractor and also the client, they have to
find time to see each other or in other words, sit down and have a conversation with each
other or meeting, in order to discuss about the progression of the project.
Next will be the communication through telephone. Telephone is a point-to-point
communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large
distances to talk to each other. Today, the fastest way to contact another person at another
place is by using telephone or mobile phone. In civil engineering and construction area, if
there are any changes in the construction project, the construction stakeholders must contact
to anyone of them to inform about the changes.
Communication through telephone is not only between the construction stakeholders
but also between the stakeholders with the company involved. Apart from that, it is a good
way to communicate even it is only telephone as every party can keep in track about the
progression of the project. Needless to say, in civil engineering area, the engineer tend to
receive many calls that related to the construction project and need them to be there at that
particular time.

9
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

ADVANTAGES
Oral communication has many advantages. One thing for sure, oral communication
can minimize the misunderstanding because the communicators can immediately ask any
questions to clarify the uncertainties. Besides that, it provides the communicators to respond
to each other which is a good way to polish the skill of communication or interaction. Oral
communication also can build up the self-esteem of both speaker and the audience apart from
building up the interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships by allowing the speaker to
interact with the audience directly. Another advantage, it enables the communicators to see
each others facial expression and hear voice inflections, further improving the process.
Unlike other types of communications, such as the written communication and the
electronic communication, communicate orally is one fast and useful for obtaining very
recent unpublished information.
Besides, the transmission of the information between the people working in different
sectors can be transmit easily and efficiently especially in the civil engineering and
construction area. Not many aware that oral communication also helps in bringing a
responsive and supportive morale among the employees in an organization. On top of that,
oral communication also facilitates close contact and thus promotes mutual exchange of
thoughts, information, understanding and support.

10
DISADVANTGES

Oral communication not only has advantages but it also has its own disadvantages.
The main disadvantage of oral communication is it produces no written record which
sometimes it can be wasting of time and may be inconvenient. Moreover, when individuals
meet face-to-face or speak on the telephone, someones work has to be interrupted.
As we know, through oral communication, some information can lead to
misconceptions because the information is sometimes incomplete or lack of detail. This will
lead to misunderstanding between the communicators and can lead to many problems. Next,
oral communication is not easy to maintain the communication and thus they are unsteady.
For better communication, the information gained must be jot down on a paper or document
the information for reference or evidence. Sometimes, it is difficult to find the words to
convey the meaning correctly in a short period of time.
Moreover, the speech also included in the oral communication, it also brings
disadvantages where it consumes a lot of time if it is a long speech. Oral communication is
less authentic than written communication as they are informal and not as organized as
written communication. Besides, it requires attentiveness and great receptivity on part of the
receivers or audience.

11
CONCLUSION

In conclusion, every types of communications, which are the oral communication, written
communication and electronic communication have their own pros and cons. For oral
communication, nearly everyone agrees that this type of communication is the best way to
share, exchange the information. In civil engineering and construction area, each construction
stakeholders and even the people in the companys organization must have good skill in
communication. It is very vital to ensure the construction project is doing well. Good
communication also improves the good relationship between the construction stakeholders
and even the organization in the company itself.
Since the inception of mankind known, human beings have an innate need to communicate
with each other. We have come a long way from prehistoric men communicating using
pictures, sounds or gestures to now having more than 1000s of languages. Oral
communication perhaps is one of the most effective and common type of communication
channel we use in our day to day life. There are a lot of advantages that oral communication
possesses over others are that it is faster; direct; can have more impact; one can seek
clarification almost instantly by recognizing the tone of the speaker.
Let us first try to understand what makes oral communication so important. According to
some studies, listening constitutes only 7% of the information received by a person. It means
that I have got a very slim shot of orally conveying my thoughts to other persons effectively.
As the saying goes, you need to tell what the listener wants to hear. In the corporate world
too, studies have shown that communication is the one of the biggest problem faced by the
management
So, for what all do we use oral communication. The most common answer to this
question is share information/knowledge. A deeper introspection will show that we use oral
communication not just to share but also to inform, persuade and last but not the least to
cause action. In an official set up, I believe that any conversation should end with a plan of
action, if the conversation is to be of any help.
In conclusion, oral communication has its advantages and disadvantages. It can vary
from being the most apt way to convey information or the most difficult approach to get ones
idea across.

12

REFERENCES
1) http://www.answers.com/topic/oral-communication
2) http://books.google.com.my/books
3) http://wikipedia.com