The increasing costs of higher education and doubts about its importance, and the decreasing marketability of a college degree have made those responsible for appropriating public funds and the consumers of higher education services demand greater accountability from public institutions. These demands, as well as internal demands for greater…

The conference described in these proceedings was designed to bring regional parent education program (PEP) personnel from six states together to plan and improve networks and linkages among PEP workers. Twenty-nine persons from four levels of parent education/involvement attended the two day conference and worked in four groups on specified…

This paper presents an analysis of the "adjacent curriculum," a term defined as that knowledge that is organizational in origin and that is transmitted to the organization's members for the purpose of maintaining the organization as an abstract but functional entity. This "curriculum" consists of such material as conduct codes, evaluation forms,…

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…

A field study was conducted to examine the communication behaviors by which seven bank executives identified problems. Data on the subjects' communication behaviors were obtained through observations, the written documents pertaining to the identification of problems by the subjects, and postobservational surveys and interviews of the subjects.…

The purpose of this study was to learn something about information-transmission procedures in offices. It was hypothesized that certain kinds of information and communication activities have particular properties, and that some of these activities are best pursued in face-to-face communication situations. Natural conversations involving an…

A study examined the effects of gender on social interaction under numerically imbalanced conditions. Specifically, the study tested R. M. Kanter's assumption that all tokens (individuals who enter a work environment where their gender is numerically scarce) respond in a similar manner to token conditions, although evidence exists that males and…

Although "whistle blowing" (public protest by employees of management decisions) is being reported with increasing frequency, this paper points out that organizational communication researchers have not examined the phenomenon. The paper offers a review of current literature on the topic and presents a model, drawn from an examination of…

After an initial discussion of public relations in the schools, this booklet moves on to examine methods for identifying publics to focus a public relations program on, to list 120 low- or no-cost ideas to use in improving the school's public relations program in five minutes a day, and to outline a process that involves groups of school employees…

The communicative skills of listening and nondefensive negotiation for understanding rather than persuasive tactics for coercion are emphasized in this discussion as crucial in helping people deal with the tremendous amount of information received daily. The paper describes some conceptual interconnections between information, communication, and…

Corporate advocacy is the study and practice of communication efforts to advance the policies of business, education, governmental, and nonprofit institutions. The functions of the advocate include gathering information, providing advice based on the information, conducting advocacy programing, and evaluating results. Advocacy research is…

The findings of Profile/79, the third biennial survey by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) of fact and opinion culled from questionnaires completed and returned by 2,742 members, make up this journal issue. Tabular data presented covers such information as a profile of a typical communicator, comparisons of business…

The General Systems Theory paradigm, which has been criticized for its emphasis on consensus, hierarchy, and growth while failing to appreciate diversity or alternative structural possibilities, is examined in this paper. A review of the literature in management and administrative science revealed these criticisms to have merit, but it also showed…

Future research on mass media and mass communication organizations might profitably emphasize phenomenological methods (phenomenology being an interpersonal, subjective reality construction as contrasted to an objective, rationalistic, institutional reality construction). Some major phenomenological concepts important to such research were…

This booklet offers a common-sense approach to school public relations that stresses the involvement of everyone on the school team. The emphasis is on identifying simple, low-cost ways educators can communicate effectively with their many publics. The author briefly outlines the basic principles of organizational communication and public…