A study examined public perceptions of unethical employee acts as a function of variations in a corporation's cultural image, with emphasis upon the effect of congruent and incongruent organizational messages upon the perception of the degree of unethicality. Subjects, 200 adults approached at public locations, were asked to: (1) read one of three…

A study was conducted to review and organize existing literature on the evaluation of communication skills training programs. When setting training objectives, four levels of evaluation should be considered: (1) reaction (how did participants feel about the training?); (2) learning (what did the participants learn from the training?); (3) behavior…

Recent communication research on argumentativeness has taken the following six directions: (1) investigating factors associated with individuals who differ or vary in the motivational tendency of their argumentativeness; (2) examining the influence of gender on argumentativeness; (3) exploring argumentativeness in marriage; (4) examining the…

Several things should be taken into account when establishing an internship program in speech communication at the college level. Internships begin by being either agency generated or student generated. Objectives of the program include understanding, developing, and applying communication skills necessary for effective performance within an…

To explore the specific types of power that emerge in the communication messages chief executive officers (CEOs) use when interacting with others--particularly superiors, peers, and subordinates--15 CEOs were asked to respond to three hypothetical situations. During 60-minute tape-recorded interviews, they were asked what they would say to…

A content analysis of the photographs included in four employee magazines was conducted for the period of 1978 to 1983 to investigate the manner in which the publications used photographs to carry messages about people, their relationship to the organization, and the work environment. The publications selected for analysis were all employee…

The expectations and plans of the Alliance for Environmental Education (AEE) for the years 1985-1990 are contained in this report. Discussion focuses on: (1) a description of the Alliance (including questions and answers based on what AEE's previous presidents expressed about the organization's accomplishments and activities); (2) AEE's five-year…

A study tested a model of organizational variables that earlier research had identified as important in influencing what model(s) of public relations an organization selects. Models of public relations (as outlined by J. Grunig and Hunt in 1984) are defined as either press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, or two-way symmetrical.…

Designed to improve internal communications at Michigan's Macomb Community College (MCC), this plan identifies strategies, goals, objectives, and activities which are consistent with established policy and an organizational assessment. After section I provides introductory comments, section II considers the policy implications of the…

Reality shock within organizations can be defined as the discrepancy between an individual's expectations established prior to joining an organization and the individual's perceptions after becoming a member of the organization. To investigate the effects of reality shock on organizational commitment, 109 bank tellers were monitored for 10 months…

To better understand the complexity of organizational life as a cultural system whose members share particular values, attitudes, and ways of knowing, and to understand the role of women in this culture, a study was conducted using female managers at 12 high technology companies in California's "Silicon Valley." Informants were selected…

Theorists have named environmental forces, organizational structure, group interaction, individual needs, or some combination of these factors in accounting for organizational behavior. Phenomenology argues that organizations do not exist apart from the people of whom they are composed; in this view their private perceptions and personal…

Defining organizational culture as the amalgam of beliefs, mythology, values, and rituals that, even more than its products, differentiates it from other organizations, this paper demonstrates its utility as a synthesizing focus on current ideas about communication in organizations. Modes of thought, dominant paradigms, perspectives on…

To help secondary school principals make meetings more effective and personally satisfying, this pocket-size pamphlet contains guidelines in the form of 40 rules. Each page contains a rule, a paragraph elaborating on the rule, and a key self-evaluation question. For example, "Better Meeting Rule No. 12 'Stay on Task'" concludes with the question…

Noting that networks of relationships between individuals and groups form organization-wide patterns that provide both the structure and the means of sustaining an organization, this paper argues that a complete understanding of organizations requires a basic understanding of these networks. Following a brief discussion of the nature of…