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The International Communication Association
is a professional society composed of communication researchers,
practitioners, and teachers from several countries. The ICA
Communication Audit was developed under the auspices of its
Organizational Communication Division, from 1971-1978. Although
more than one hundred ICA members participated in ICA Communication
Audit Project, the ICA Communication Audit instruments and procedures
were developed primarily by Gerald Goldhaber, Gary Richetto, Harry
Dennis, Raymond Falcione, and Donald Rogers. |
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The ICA Communication Audit was designed to
provide organizations with reliable, factual data about their internal
communication, and to do so in a way that permitted comparability with
similar organizations. Its strength lies in the expertise, effort,
time, and care that have gone into the creation and validation of its
instruments and procedures. A set of five standardized instruments and
procedures were developed (questionnaire survey, interview,
communication experience, diary, and network analysis). The ICA
Communication Audit uses both computerized analysis and feedback
procedures. |
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The ICA Communication Audit instruments and
procedures were made available for widespread use on a not-for-profit
basis, to support and encourage research into organizational
communication. The ICA developed and maintained a normed
data bank to enable comparisons among organizations’ communication
systems. |
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In 1976 the ICA implemented procedures which
would train and credential those who would use the ICA Communication
Audit instruments and procedures to conduct research. The first
ICA Communication Audit Workshop was offered in October 1976* on the
campus of Kent State University; several other workshops were offered
during the next two years. |
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In 1978 the ICA Board of Directors decided
that the audit project, as a research and development project of the
ICA, had achieved its goals, and that it was in the best interest of the
ICA to end its sponsorship of the audit program. The resolution
eliminated the authority of any group to employ the ICA organization
name in reference to auditing communication, and the audit programs
became public property. In the future, communication audits would
not be done by “ICA auditors,” but by independent professionals in the
field of communication. |
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The primary purpose of this resolution was
to eliminate the ICA’s role in “credentialing” auditors, so that the ICA
could not be held legally responsible if a dissatisfied client chose to
file legal action against a communication auditor. |
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The ICA Communication Audit procedures and
instruments remain in use, sometimes in modified forms, through today.
The ICA Communication Audit data bank is still administered by Gerald M.
Goldhaber, Department of Communication, State University of New York at
Buffalo. |
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Key Sources |
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DeWine, S, (1994). "International
Communication Association Audit," In R. R. Rubin, H. E. Sypher, & P.
Palmgreen (Eds.). Communication research measures: A
sourcebook. New York: Guilford. Valuable and concise
review of ICA Communication Audit with information about the development
of the SOC; lists items of the ICA Communication Audit Survey
Questionnaire, |
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Downs, C, W, (1988).
Communication audits. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Chapter six offers an overview of the ICA survey, guidelines for
analysis and interpretation of data, and a discussion of advantages and
vulnerabilities. ICA Communication Audit Survey Questionnaire is
included. |
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Goldhaber, G. M. (2002).
"Communication Audits in the Age of the Internet," Management
Communication Quarterly. 15, 451-457. |
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Goldhaber, G. M. & Rogers, D.
(1979). Auditing organizational communication systems: The ICA
Communication Audit, Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt.
Complete discussion of development of the ICA Communication Audit,
includes the ICA Questionnaire Survey, Communication Diary,
Communication Experience (Critical Incident) forms, Interview Guides,
Network Analysis, |
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*W. Robert Sampson, Ph.D., received his
training in the use of ICA Communication Audit instruments and
procedures at this workshop. |
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