The process of developing policy for the recent comprehensive retrenchment in the Dutch university system is analyzed from a theoretical perspective on decision making. Focus is on the rationalist view of collective decision making that links social communication and unanimous selection of optimal policy. (Author/MSE)

Argues that, to succeed in the workplace, technical writers must supplement their knowledge of writing and rhetoric with an appreciation of "organizational culture." Explains how to do this and shows how technical writing classes can prepare students for this adjustment to the corporate environment. (FL)

Using a communication rules perspective, the study first describes group cultures of two work groups within a large organization, then reports group members' evaluations of the descriptions based on their groups' operative communication rules. (JW)

Examines elements of labor-management relationships in educational institutions, suggesting that communication on a noncrisis basis is crucial to healthy labor relations which are adversarial rather than confrontational. Describes a mature stage of labor-management relation and stresses the importance of sound grievance procedures. (LAL)

Using Karl Weick's concept of organizing, argues that the information processing systems of administrators and teachers are largely separate. (JW)

The administrative structure of the physics department in a major European technical university is described, particularly with regard to the organization of teaching and research functions. The department is subdivided into an institute of theoretical physics and several institutes of experimental physics, with a more important subdivision into…

Details a five-step approach for making the first-year principal successful: prearrival information gathering, sizing up, positioning, polarizing, and accepting. (MD)

A bibliography is itself a database from which may be extracted useful information about both scientific fields and the practitioners who work in them. How bibliographies store and reveal this information is discussed. For example, one can identify problems being researched by scientists by examining publication titles. (RM)

Found that students cast in the roles of managers in the SIMCORP simulation reported different perceptions about learning than did students cast in the roles of workers. (SIMCORP is an interactive simulated complex organization which specializes in information dissemination.) (PD)

The functions, qualifications, and organization of lay members of community college advisory boards are discussed. (GW)

Continuing the American Indian Policy Review Commission's (AIPRC) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Management Study, this article reviews the divisions of responsibility, Indian preference, recruitment and hiring problems, training, labor relations, and internal communication. (NQ)

Describes a presentation given by one school system's counseling staff for school board members. The presentation was a participatory one with board members role playing in counseling situations. (HMV)

This paper reviews the communicative behavior surrounding the coordination of expert and "semi-expert" groups of scientists and engineers by analyzing several histories of technology that focus on the coordination of research information between a research organization and many development organizations. For the paper's purposes,…

Examined 48 textbooks used in business communication courses. Found that speech and business students are being taught basically the same skills, that the trend toward an oral mode in business communication courses has been only slight, and that little effort to redesign the curriculum with the Hanna study criteria (EJ 207 812) has been shown. (PD)

The bureaucratic and adaptive models of administration are compared, and the adaptive style is found most appropriate for research administration, providing a necessary level of organizational consistency and control while allowing for the unexpected and promoting productivity. Elements of organization, operations, and communications are…