This study addresses the issue of whether trust among members of an educational institution is related to: (1) accurate information flow; (2) upward, downward, or lateral information flow; or (3) completeness of information. The study also considered whether a low level of trust is associated with inaccurate, incomplete information. A…

The potential for being asked to supply information that is not legally useable in the employment decision-making process is a factor that can dramatically increase stress during the selection interview. Research suggests that both employers and students are often unaware of what constitutes an illegal question. Treatment of illegal questioning in…

Research indicates that the role of information can be ambiguous in the decision-making process. Because relevance can be a problem with respect to information used in decision making, organizations should strive to achieve a linkage between flows of information and the making of specific decisions. Information flow between organizations and their…

A communication audit (questionnaire) of the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh was undertaken to help discern the attitudes and beliefs of the congregation about a number of issues and church practices. The goal of the audit team was to: (1) identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Sunday morning worship service; (2) assess the performance of…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between management communication style and communication satisfaction during performance appraisal interviews. Generating a 50% response rate, 83 staff employees (47 supervisors and 36 subordinates) at a large midwestern university returned a questionnaire survey assessing communication during…

A study examined the relationship between participation and performance in groups to determine whether increased communicative activity brought about through participation in groups resulted in the acquisition of specific types of organizational knowledge and increased motivation which positively affected performance. Subjects for the study were…

Teachers, superintendents, principals, and school board members in a number of Pennsylvania districts have come up with positive solutions to deal with challenges facing public schools. Although the problems they were faced with differed, educators found that by working together for a common goal in school cooperation committees, they could arrive…

A course at California State University, Northridge, titled Applied Organizational Communication, allows students to apply their understanding of group and organizational communication theory to an actual situation and then in turn to analyze the observations in the organization in terms of those theories. The class forms a simulated organization…

An exploratory study of horizontal organizational structure investigated how the tasks in a public relations department are apportioned and why the structure is as it is. J. E. Grunig and T. Hunt's taxonomy of horizontal structures, which served as the framework for the research, suggests that the following structures are typical: by public, by…

A study was conducted to determine (1) which actions municipal employees consider important to a city's overall public relations effort, (2) the attitudes of city employees toward public service activities, (3) the relationship between attitude and job satisfaction, and (4) ways to improve employee attitudes and, perhaps, public service…

Followers attribute authority to charismatic leaders through their faith and belief in them and in their mission. Charismatic authority in organizations involves an interaction of leader, followers, and moral order; in the eyes of the followers, the leader personifies that order. Authority must come from below because the ultimate decision to…

A study used M. Cuffe and J. F. Cragan's three-dimensional model for understanding corporate culture within an organization to describe the managerial styles of chairpersons at Illinois State University. Case studies were completed for 18 chairpersons, who then sorted 60 statements on leadership style on a forced choice continuum from most…

This paper describes several electronic mail systems in use in Alaska. The University of Alaska Computer Network has had an electronic mail system since 1976 that connects its campuses throughout the state. The Department of Education also has had a mail system since the late 1970s that links the 53 school districts as well as the support and…

The overall structure of the proposed Master of Arts Degree in Applied Communication at Indiana University (Indianapolis) is interdisciplinary, in order to meet the many applied duties and functions of communication specialists, with special attention to be given to organizational communication and telecommunications. Each student will be required…

Some organizational activities can be understood in anthropological terms as "rites" affecting and reinforcing the organizational culture. Six specific rites are described and a case study is reported in which a change in a school committee's culture was attempted through a change in its rites. The first three rites examined relate to the…