Addresses five questions that must be considered by business communication researchers if the results of surveys are to be significant and useful: What do the researches want to know? About whom do they want to know it? How should the questions be worded? How should appropriate and adequate responses be elicited? and How are the results to be…

Presents a dialog between two communication scholars on communication as an academic discipline. Discusses whether communication is a discipline, the legacy of Wilbur Schramm, and specialization and diversity within the field. (SR)

Notes important discrepancies between the metaphor of relationship management and how public relations models are conceptualized and measured. Argues that public relations models need to be measured at the relational level, rather than being aggregated across publics and relational stages. Argues that an adequate normative theory of organizational…

Determines the level of importance of communication skills for academic and civil service administrators in an academic setting. Finds that communication activities dominate the "world of work" of academic and civil service administrators in academic settings. (SR)

Finds that concern for following social rules induces self-deprecation when college undergraduates experienced conflict in roommate relationships. Reveals that the relationship between concern for following social rules and wanting to appear rational in a conflict-related discussion does not depend on intended partner. (SR)

Postulates that the philosophy of dialogue developed by Martin Buber provides a coherent grounding for a dialogical/ontological rhetoric. Contrasts, respectively, instrumental and dialogical conceptions of the rhetorical situation and instrumental and dialogical characterizations of the rhetor, the rhetor's purposes and modes of influence.…

Contributes to scholarship advancing understanding communication by identifying theoretically coherent and empirically robust dimensions (separation, concurrency, and flexibility) underlying work group members' perception of time. Finds that work groups differ in theoretically meaningful ways with regard to time orientation and that their varied…

Presents a study of the business communication connecting an organization with others in its environment. Links boundary spanning with network theory and proposes the concept of an extended network of communication. Studies the relationship between boundary-spanning communication and individual influence in a network with 108 organizational…

Demonstrates that the concept of rhetorical vision yields insight into the creation, rise, and potential demise of a special theory--the critical autoethnography special theory (CAST). Explicates the Symbolic Convergence Theory's ability to explain how special communication theories come into being as the product of rhetorical visions containing…

Surveys scientific and technical communicators to determine their perceptions of their role as interviewees in the performance appraisal interview. Reveals that interviewees think the appraisal process is unreliable and invalid, and that managers do not stimulate growth and development in the appraisal interview. Discusses other results. (PA)

States that the term "management communication" has not been defined, and the discipline has no focus. Calls for research within the managerial context--difficult for professors to understand because managers and academics operate in different environments. Finds that obstacles exist to conducting valuable management communication…

Finds that, of the disciplines under discussion in this special issue, corporate communication is the newest, least understood, and the only one specifically related to a functional area within organizations. Defines corporate communication as a discipline. Examines how it relates to other subdisciplines under consideration (management…

Discusses the results of a study concerning the relationship between agent, author, and matters of fact in the doctrine and practice of classical empiricism in the late 17th century. States that the historical study of empiricism provides a critical perspective on positivism and on social constructivism. (PA)

Explores the essentialist influences on the public sphere from a feminist perspective, suggesting that an essentialist ideology informs the public/private distinction. Argues that the public sphere is not strictly a result of historical changes or economic influences but is also dependent on an essentialist view of women and men. (PA)

States that conversation analysis has enjoyed recent acceptance in mainstream communication research. Points out that one criticism is that conversation analysts have not felt obligated to demonstrate "intertranscriber" reliability for the use of transcription notation. Finds that multiple transcribers are capable of producing similar…