Noting that a shared social reality that is constituted, sustained, and modified in symbolic interaction is central to life in an organization, this paper contends that contemporary developments in rhetorical theory make possible careful descriptions of how discourse functions in maintaining and changing that social reality. The paper demonstrates…

A study examined the written communication at the technical/professional and managerial levels in a "Fortune 500" corporation to determine whether managers/executives had different communications purposes and, therefore, used different rhetorical strategies and approaches than did professional/technical staff. Rhetorical analysis was conducted of…

The literature reporting research on message distortion in organizations is reviewed in this paper. Topics covered include: definitions of distortion/fidelity; measures of message display; measures of message interpretation; categories of distortion/fidelity derived from laboratory research; definitions of distortion/fidelity in naturalistic…

A public-relations audit is usually a broad-scale, loosely structured research study exploring a company's public relations both internally and externally. This paper describes the genesis of the public-relations audit, outlines the four major steps involved, and describes circumstances that might make an audit desirable. It lists the types of…

This book consists of more than 400 annotated abstracts representing the literature produced in 1974 relevant to the field of organizational communication. The objectives of this book are to provide a general structure through which students, scholars, and practitioners might obtain comprehensive information on recently published and unpublished…

Uses collection and storage of data in an environmental chemicals data bank to develop an exchange format of hierarchical tree structure between network partners. Rules identify and process the nodes in the tree in such a way that information is neither lost nor degraded upon transfer between network partners. (CWM)

The author presents a practical application of behavioral theory, directed toward faculty motivation, involving organizational change, goal development, inservice education, academic planning, and teacher evaluation. (MJB)

Investigates the effects of power and status on the content characteristics of communicative behavior directed upward in a hierarchy. (MH)

Reports the results of two surveys designed to determine what courses and in what sequence such courses should be offered after the introductory course in organizational communication. (MH)

Indicates that mission statement developers in both corporate and university settings need to improve the readability and the tone of their written statements in order to maximize their organizational image. (NKA)

Describes the experience of a district public relations director who, upon returning from a sabbatical leave, discovered an ambitious high-tech assistant had reprogramed the public relations department. The director was faced with resolving conflicts with his employees and handling his new opponent as well. (CJH)

Presents a content analysis performed on 157 electronic mail files received over the course of several months by a middle level manager in a computer services department of a large organization. Suggests that computer mediated communication changes communication function and context in certain specific ways, which are reflected throughout the…

Identifies and interprets the discursive codes (subsystems of symbols and meanings) at a television station, in order to understand cultural communication and organization. (MS)

Suggests a complex dialectical relationship among (1) the meanings that acculturation encourages workers to attribute to their everyday experiences; (2) the meanings enacted in country music work songs; and (3) the support of hierarchical social and organizational power relationships in workers' identities. (MS)