The widespread use of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in the higher education sector in recent years highlights the importance of forging successful relationships with employers, business, industry and government. This article reports on a large ethnographic study conducted by Victoria University into host organisations' perceptions of WIL.…

The literature reporting research on message distortion in organizations is reviewed in this paper. Topics covered include: definitions of distortion/fidelity; measures of message display; measures of message interpretation; categories of distortion/fidelity derived from laboratory research; definitions of distortion/fidelity in naturalistic…

Asserts that earlier investigations of the organizational communication failures that led to the space shuttle Challenger explosion asked the wrong question. Notes an erroneous focus on why the shuttle was launched despite widespread knowledge of technical problems. Concludes that sociology of technology and new rhetoricians can help form better…

Uses the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident to illustrate the communication problems embedded in a crisis. Describes the reactions created by the stress related to crisis. Suggests business communication strategies for improving communication to the public. (SR)

To assess the communication practices of not-for-profit (NFP) agencies, a study conducted a local survey of 105 NFP organizations in Cleveland, Ohio, in the spring of 1987, specifically examining their public relations activities and campaigns which manage and diffuse information about NFPs to the larger community. First, a focus group sample of…

A study to determine the communication needs and activities of a variety of organizations was conducted by interviewing representatives of ten organizations ranging in size from a staff of two to an international staff of 25,000 persons. The in-depth interviews were designed to gain information about the nature of the organization and the…

Observing that the explosion of the space shuttle "Challenger" had a profound impact upon the American public, this paper argues that its most direct impact was upon the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Specifically, the paper argues that the explosion was a crisis that resulted in loss of legitimacy for the space…

To discover the kinds of conflict encountered by hospital nursing staff members, nurses from several hospitals were asked to report the types of conflict they anticipated meeting during a work week. The answers were categorized into eight loci of conflict topics: (1) physician-nurse conflict, (2) uncooperative working norms, (3)…

Suggests a perspective for understanding stress within an organizational environment by exploring the relationship between both (1) work-related stress and life events, communication, and stress in general; and (2) role, personality, and performance stress and communication in the work-related environment. Outlines methods for productively…

Examines a descriptive model of communication relationships between members of collectives to determine whether perceptions are the result of formal structure, collective interests, or individual interests. Finds structures of perceived communication relationships are similar across organizations, whereas structures in observable communication are…

Arguing that, as a general principle, the most efficient, best organized and managed organization would have little duplication of work or of service to its markets or publics, this paper presents a method for assessing duplication among organizational components of work performed and of services to various publics and for determining the extent…

Considers possible dysfunctions of supportive communication in the workplace and proposes a research agenda to investigate these dysfunctions at the micro and macro levels of analysis. (RS)

Provides a critical ethnographic account of how members of a small design company experienced a work environment riddled with ambiguous communication. States that although management's objective in providing vague goals was to spark creative freedom, employees experienced the environment as paradoxical and constraining. Contends that interplay of…

Three studies were conducted to ascertain the relationship between predisposition for group work climate and the types of procedural messages that group members employ. In the studies, expectations about group work procedures fell into two categories: high procedural order (HPO) and low procedural order (LPO). Each category consisted of four…

This paper offers a plan for increasing communication effectiveness in organizational setting through a team building approach. The first section of the paper provides a scenario that places team building in an organizational development context and presents a detailed description of a team building process used to increase communication…