Presents a case study for use in management communication classes that focuses on employee feedback and performance appraisals in a company that merged with a smaller company one year ago. (SR)

Responds to a case study for management communication classes (presented in this same issue) that focuses on issues of performance appraisals and employee feedback after a merger. Notes cultural differences between the companies; examines the supervisor's differential evaluations of his employees and his communicative dynamics; examines the…

Investigates impact of national culture on interorganizational relationships among organizations. Matches 35 Japanese and American companies by their business types. Reveals that the network of shared public relations firms was loosely connected--American companies were more central. Indicates the network structure of shared public relations firms…

People in an organization have explicit (codifiable) and tacit (noncodifiable) knowledge about customers, products, processes, programs, mistakes, and successes. The process of knowledge management within camp organizations includes creating and collecting internal and external information sources, knowledge exchange among staff, and supportive…

Explains the basics of seeking free publicity through the news media. The target audience is smaller organizations that are seeking to build public awareness about programs but do not already have a professional public relations operation. Topics addressed include establishing a working relationship with media professionals, fine-tuning topics,…

Examines how corporate entities use the Web to present themselves as socially responsible citizens and to advance policy positions. Samples randomly "Fortune 500" companies, revealing that, although 90% had Web pages and 82% of the sites addressed a corporate social responsibility issue, few corporations used their pages to monitor…

Presents data from an ethnographic case study that describes how an administrator in a theater organization manipulated language by using the minutes from a board of directors meeting to influence board members to vote to disband the organization. Discusses implications for teachers, researchers, and practitioners of business communication. (SG)

Offers a case study examining what happened when a production worker tried to improve manufacturing documentation, and how her success depended upon both her craft knowledge and the rhetorical skills she attributes to a Writing Across the Curriculum program she experienced in college. (SR)

Discusses the role of an organization's leadership to create an environment where employees can develop a sense of control. Topics include keeping employees informed; clear organizational direction; motivation, that is driven by goals and effort; dealing with success and failure; consistency; group influence; values, incentives, and rewards; and…

Provides a critical ethnographic account of how members of a small design company experienced a work environment riddled with ambiguous communication. States that although management's objective in providing vague goals was to spark creative freedom, employees experienced the environment as paradoxical and constraining. Contends that interplay of…

Discusses how managers and subordinates in three banks provided information on the frequency, form, and effects of informal upward feedback in their organizations. Finds that managers perceived informal negative upward feedback as more frequent than their subordinates, and that they perceived both positive and negative upward feedback as producing…

Finds that coworker conversations regarding differential treatment serve two primary functions: they create perceptions of differential treatment, and they reinforce preexisting perceptions of differential treatment. Shows that members tend to emphasize the subordinate's role in the incident over the supervisor's and rely heavily on equity…

Colleges and universities should critically review their publications periodically to save money and also as a way to present a more cohesive institutional identity. Ten recommendations are made for conducting a productive publications audit; they include choosing an evaluation method, selecting participants, making the experience pleasant, and…

Explores the extent to which the five basic impression management strategies of ingratiation, self-promotion, intimidation, exemplification, and supplication were associated with transformational leadership by undergraduate students who read biographies of world-class leaders. Finds exemplification and ingratiation were positively related (and…

Uses data over a seven-month period from three teams' use of a collaborative electronic technology ("Team Room") to illustrate that genre systems--sequences of interrelated communicative actions--are a means of structuring (deliberately or habitually) six dimensions of communicative interaction: purpose (why), content (what),…