Organisational communication

Instituting effective organisational communication is imminent for organisations if they want to be relevant in the business world, going forward. Severally, breaches in communication ethics result in conflicts between top management and the labour force. This work examine such a case with a fictitious company name, in order to address  the issue, by proffering a way forward using psychological theories and models.

This study identifies attributes that are perceived by online communicators as contributing to the effectiveness of corporate online communication. A marketing public relations (MPR) perspective is applied to assess the contribution of credibility, trust and long-term relationships to ...

Notre recherche se base sur une approche foucaldienne dévelop­ pée par Thomas et Hardy (2014) afin de proposer une analyse cri­ tique et longitudinale des discours, comme moyen d'appréhender les tensions entre logiques institutionnelles ainsi que leurs effets sur les organisations hybrides. Inspirée du cadre théorique sur l'intensification des effets pouvoir des auteurs précités, la métho­ dologie proposée permet de saisir au niveau micro de l'organisa­ tion (Orlikowski & Yates, 2006), la dynamique discursive et les interactions qui accompagnent les acteurs, ainsi que les enjeux de pouvoir conduisant à la mise en place de stratégies organisa­ tionnelles. C'est à travers le cas d'une ONG de développement, comprenant deux logiques institutionnelles sujettes à des fric­ tions, que nous étudions les effets des discours sur l'évolution des tensions.

La métaphore du dark side ou du côté obscur des organisations fait référence aux travaux académiques, qui s'intéressent aux aspects organisationnels problématiques, négatifs ou contreproductifs, du point de vue du management, ou encore aux pratiques organisationnelles éthiquement condamnables, le plus souvent cachées et tues. Ce sont, dans cet ouvrage, les pratiques de communication organisationnelle qui sont passées au crible de l'analyse.
Quelles sont les pratiques problématiques que l'on essaie souvent de passer sous silence ? Comment les analyser et les comprendre ? Que disent-elles des pratiques, normes et idéologies professionnelles ? Manipulation, mensonge, violence, harcèlement, conflit larvé ou incivilité, ambiguïté et dissimulation, c'est à ces différents phénomènes que se sont intéressés les auteurs des textes rassemblés dans ce livre qui fait suite à un colloque organisé par le laboratoire bordelais MICA (Université Bordeaux Montaigne) et le réseau Org&Co de la Société française des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication.

Organizations’ internal publics, which generally comprises two categories of personnel, namely management staff and employees constitute some of the key elements that contribute toward realizing the goals and objectives of the organization. However, unlike non-academic organizations, institutions of higher (academic) learning have two additional categories of internal publics — academic staff and students. This makes such institutions a bit unique. Public relations (PR) as a management function and tool is utilized by the management between itself and all categories of internal publics to facilitate smooth information dissemination and communication for enhanced job performance. Hence, a unique type of PR practice capable of addressing the characteristic needs of the academic staff (who are directly involved with the students) in addition to those of the non-academic staff will be required. A critically review of extant literature surrounding the impacts of the practice of PR on job...

We address the question of how dialogue appears in the context of organizational communication and which parameters determine the concept of organizational dialogue. Applying two approaches to dialogue (linguistics and pedagogy/psychology), we conceptualize, first, the structural parameters and, second, the functional parameters that determine the concept of dialogue. We also delineate the potential of our framework by applying it on two dialogues conducted in a private and a public organization in the context of organizational communication. One of our case studies can be characterized as a change management and communication case addressing both complexity and multiplicity inasmuch as the dialogue is on how to develop and implement a Corporate Social Responsibility model in a private company.

Abstract
The project work examines the changing functions of the office manager in modern organisation. The main purpose of the study is to examine the traditional functions of an office manager in the modern organisation. Four research questions guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted. The entire population of (100) employees of the selected institutions, out of which forty (60) was derived as sample size. A five point rating scale questionnaire containing (16) items was used for data collection Pearson Product Correlation was used to establish the reliability of the instrument which yielded and overall coefficient of 0.87. The researcher administered the instrument with the help of two research assistants. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and determined the homogeneity or otherwise of the respondents meaning rating, Z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding shows that modern office technology/equipment contributes to the rise in productivity levels of the modern organization. Also it was found that modern business organizations have computers and other modern office technological gadgets. The researcher therefore recommended amongst others that, organizations should procure adequate modern office technology/equipment to enhance the productivity of their office managers and organizations should involve the office managers in deciding the kind of technological device they wish to procure since the latter are going to use them.

Les technologies de l’information et de la communication ont essaimé dans notre vie publique, sociale, familiale et professionnelle à une vitesse phénoménale en moins de 20 ans. Elles engendrent des risques pour la santé physique mais aussi psychosociale, en modifiant notre rapport au monde, aux autres et à soi. Ce mode de communication interactif fait fi de l’espace et du temps. Le numérique engendre de grandes mutations dans le monde du travail. L’hyperconnexion, dans la vie personnelle ou professionnelle, est un phénomène grandissant, souvent révélateur d’un problème d’ordre psychosocial déjà existant.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

Organizations’ internal publics, which generally comprises two categories of personnel,
namely management staff and employees constitute some of the key elements that
contribute toward realizing the goals and objectives of the organization. However,
unlike non-academic organizations, institutions of higher (academic) learning have
two additional categories of internal publics — academic staff and students. This makes
such institutions a bit unique. Public relations (PR) as a management function and
tool is utilized by the management between itself and all categories of internal publics
to facilitate smooth information dissemination and communication for enhanced job
performance. Hence, a unique type of PR practice capable of addressing the characteristic
needs of the academic staff (who are directly involved with the students) in addition to
those of the non-academic staff will be required. A critically review of extant literature
surrounding the impacts of the practice of PR on job performance among employees
of Nigerian institutions of higher learning was performed. Additionally, critical
intra-organizational PR media capable of addressing the characteristic and specific
needs of the overall and specific internal publics were underscored and some policy
recommendations offered. This article concludes that effective PR (a PR practice that
addresses both the comprehensive and specific needs of the various classifications of
internal publics) enhances job performance and productivity.

Cette partie du séminaire "Ingénierie de projets de communication dans le secteur de la communication des organisations" présente les différentes étapes d'un projet événementiel (i.e. d'un projet visant la conception et la réalisation d'un événement): brief, audit, scénario, équipe, plan d'actions, besoins, ...

Female employees in the banking sector in Nigeria are burdened with societal imposed family demands and the demands of their job as competition in the sector makes employees struggle through the challenges posed by the demands. Poor economic situation in the nation is affecting most families negatively so the women try to cope with the demands to contribute to the economy of their families. Using two financial institutions in Akure, Nigeria as case study, this study examined the effects of family demands on job performance and intention to quit of female employees. One hundred and forty respondents were randomly selected as sample population. Structured questionnaire which was divided into two sections was used to elicit information from the respondents. Section one elicited information from the respondents on their demographic characteristics, section two elicited information from them on the relationships between family demands and employee job performance; family demands and employee's intention to quit. One hundred and thirty five properly filled questionnaires were analysed. Frequencies and percentages were used to test listed items. Two hypotheses were generated and tested. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the significance of the relationship at 0.05 levels of significance. The results of the hypotheses tested established that family demands do not have significant relationship with female employees' job performance; that family demands have significant relationship with female employees' intention to quit their job. It is recommended that flexible working hours and supportive work environment be provided for female workers with family demands.

This study investigated how ICTs have influenced broadcasting in three broadcast stations in Edo state, Nigeria. Anchored on the diffusion of innovation theory, the study adopted the survey research design and used the questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. Findings from the study reveal that ICTs have greatly influenced broadcast operations in the stations, especially in the areas of gathering information, production and editing of programmes, relay of programmes, display of programmes, and storage of aired programmes. Findings also show that ICTs have a positive influence on broadcasting in the stations and that the lack of in-depth training, erratic power supply, high cost of ICTs, poor Internet facilities, authenticity of news sources and inadequate supply constitute some of the challenges faced by the stations' broadcast practitioners. The study recommends that the government of Edo State should make efforts to ensure the provision of stable power supply while the owners of broadcast stations should adequately supply ICTs so that broadcast practitioners can effectively use them for enhanced communication.

This research was funded by, and implemented within, a UK national research organisation, while the author was the KE and Impact Evaluation Manager responsible for assessing impact on a £15m UK government-funded research programme.

This work was also submitted as the authors MBA dissertation which was accepted and awarded in 2009.

ABSTRACT: A methodology and methods ‘toolbox’ is proposed for conducting impact research and assessment from within research programmes. The emphasis is upon how to clarify and assess the wider impacts from the early stages onwards.

The approach explicitly acknowledges, and attempts to address, the known issues and challenges of impact assessment while drawing upon the resources and opportunities available to research managers and researchers within such programmes.

The study has two triangulating foundations. Firstly, it examines the academic literature to help identify and design the pilot methodology and methods. Secondly it trials these in a real programme to both test and improve them.

The study was conducted over one year within one leading UK research organisation, where two research programmes (and around 60 research projects of £15m total value) were being assessed for their impacts. The study draws upon actual impact management experience and reflection, prospective (ex ante) and retrospective (ex post) assessments, participatory contributions from leading researchers undergoing assessment, and consultation with external users. The findings of this study outline the pilot and its first iteration. Recommendations are made for improvement to the methodology and methods.

A subsequent follow-on bid to UK government incorporating the impacts identified from implementing this methodology, successfully led to a further £15m of government funding.

It is expected the pilot methodology and methods will be applicable to other organisations, conducting and funding such research programmes, required to research and assess the wider research impacts.

Although primary focus of implemetation trials was upon research in physical sciences, technology, high-tech engineering, computing/IT, and environment, the wider literature study, the methodology design and justification, the methods proposed and used, and the resulting general recommendations and lessons are expected to apply more broadly to many other research areas, where the impact is to be found more widely in the society, economy, government or public sector or within organizations, policies, professions or the public.

Interest in this work is expected from research programme managers, impact managers and assessors, management consultants advising in this area, and government funding managers, all seeking to embed a developing approach to understand, capture, and enhance wider impact.

This paper reports research on the role of communication in knowledge management, examined through the lens of communication climate. The research is being undertaken in a major public sector organisation. The organisation wishes to shift its culture to one characterised by internal information sharing and, to this end, it has undertaken a 3-year knowledge management initiative that comprises an integrated

A tanulmány célja a vállalati kommunikáció egy újszerű megközelítésének bemutatása. A szalutogenezis fogalmának megjelenése az orvoslás és a pszichológia tudományterületéhez kapcsolható. Első publikálására 1988-ban került sor. A fogalom értelmezése és az általa kínált értelmezési lehetőségek napjainkra már több tudományterületen megjelentek, lehetőséget kínálva a megszokott szemléletmód felülvizsgálatára. Jelen cikk célja, hogy bemutassa a fogalom kialakulását, értelmezésének meghatározó pilléreit és áttekintse a szalutogén szervezet értelmezését. A gondolatmenet zárásaként bemutatott kommunikációs helyzetfelfogás felhívja a figyelmet a kommunikációs interakcióban tetten érhető szempontokra, melyek figyelembevétele elősegíti a szalutogén kommunikációs folyamatok felépítését. A tanulmány amellett foglal álláspontot, hogy a szalutogén kommunikáció kialakításának egyik lehetséges iránya a szervezeti tagok érzelmi intelligenciájának fejlesztése. Emellett a vállalatvezetés repertoárját újabb technikákkal, szempontokkal gazdagítja, amelyek elősegítik a szalutogén szervezet kialakulását

Engaging and motivating employees is at the centre of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices. It is therefore important to identify the organisational practices that can be used to foster the cognitive, emotional and behavioral qualities that will positively impact on employees and enhance their motivation.

The exponential growth of social media usage and the integration of digital natives in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have been posing new challenges to both traditional and technology-mediated learning environments. Nowadays social media plays an important, if not central, role in society, for professional and personal purposes. However, it’s important to highlight that in the mind of a digital native, social media is not just a tool, it is a place that is as real and as natural as any real-life world place where formal/informal social interactions happen.
Formal higher education contexts are still mostly imprisoned in safe, controlled platforms, while a new world of social connections grows and develops itself outside schools. Social media has been redefining how we relate to each other as humans and how we as humans relate to the organizations that serve us. It is a two-way dialog that brings people together to discover and share information, share ideas and build communities of people that share the same interests.
In this paper we give a first insight and discuss the concept of Social Student Relationship Management (Social SRM), as a result of an analogy to the marketing concept of Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM), applied to an educational context. Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation.
Social SRM propels HEI to engage in dialogical conversations and collaborative relationships, through the use of social media platforms, allowing to reshape the HEI-student formal relationship, strengthening educational bonds through the development of dialogues that provide mutually beneficial value and that, ultimately, allow for the growth of social and educational communities. It places the HEI, teachers and staff in student’s digital natural environment, engaging them in personalized conversations that reinforce student’s role as empowered participatory individuals in the school strategic development and also in the management of their learning opportunities.
We discuss the double dimension communication concept associated to Social CRM, which encompasses the educational dimension that comprehends the extension of classroom’s teacher-student communication and educational workflows into social media platforms and the HEI´s organizational communication needs, intimately related to its image, reputation and sustainability.
This paper presents a preliminary study, carried out during two semesters, in three different subjects from the first, second and third year from two different higher education courses, during which the educational dimension of the Social SRM concept is put into perspective. We present the extension of the traditional classroom teacher-student formal and informal relationship into social media and discuss its impacts on student accommodation, motivation and academic achievement and added value. We also discuss the teacher’s perspective in terms of relational and educational benefits related to the implementation of a Social SRM based educational strategy and put forward some educational and technological concerns that might present some obstacles/opportunities to a broader adoption of the concept.

This article describes the development and subsequent testing of scales representing functions and features of school communication among staff in Australian primary schools using the Organisational Communication in Primary Schools Questionnaire (OCPSQ). The OCPSQ was developed to measure aspects of communication occurring vertically between school leadership and staff members and horizontally among staff members. Elements of classical, human relations, and cultural theories were used to guide questionnaire development. Items were developed to represent theorised communication constructs derived from previous literature. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the underlying structure of aspects of communication. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed as a validation of the OCPSQ and its constructs. An interpretable ten-factor solution, representing salient functions and features of organisational communication, was established. Scales generated by the OCPSQ were found to have high reliabilities. The scales represented supportive, directive, cultural, and democratic functions, as well as features of communication relating to openness and load.

This profound article is a largely a review Maulana Karenga’s book, Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt, also drawing from other philosophical writings cited in the reference. This paper attempted a demonstration of how Maat, a fundamental African relational idea can function to create a human society that is non-dominative and non-combative. This review, however, critiques the article within the context of national communication systems and personal ideological framework. More discourse on African values and ethics that can impact intercultural communication positively are necessary as rumours of World war 3 brew. Intercultural communication has been a challenge in the past and even now, in all continents. Effective Human communication is fundamental for societal and national survival.

The primary aim of this research was to explore whether the conceptual framework for intentional positioning in public relations proposed by James in 2010–11, which is underpinned by positioning theory, could be used to guide a discourse analysis of strategic positioning tactics. Positioning discourse analysis is designed to examine how discourse is being used to strategically position something in order to gain an advantage, or to achieve a goal in a public relations context. In this study, a sample of speeches by the two leading politicians in Australia on the topic of carbon pricing was analysed. Both politicians worked to position a carbon price/tax as good and bad for Australia respectively. Guided by James’s framework, the positioning goal, positioning type and positioning purpose were identified along with the discursive strategies used. However, one of the positions was not as strongly held in the public debate as the other. Applying positioning theory, it could be seen that...

This article presents an overview of central issues in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with a special focus on its application in studies of institutional communication. Although CDA does not represent a monolithic or internally homogeneous academic discipline, the discussion highlights central aspects that commonly surface in CDA-related research. In the theoretical section (Section 2), notions such as " discourse " , " critical " and " power " and their common uses in CDA are outlined. The section on basic methodological issues (Section 3) highlights CDA as an eclectic and methodologically open research programme that is driven by the goal of uncovering hidden agendas in written and spoken language use. Section 4 illustrates a range of linguistic features that have figured prominently in CDA. Finally , section 5 sketches out how CDA has been applied in the study of various discursive phenomena in institutional contexts.

The survival of the printed newspaper in the internet age: to be or not to be? This is a debate permeating the media spectrum now. A school of thought believes the end of printed newspapers is near; another believes the internet will rather complement printed newspaper. But the reality staring at us is that the acceptance and readership of printed newspaper is daily decreasing. What does that portend for the future of printed newspaper?

ABSTRACT In 2017, (former) Google employee James Damore shared with colleagues a 10-page memo which ruminated over and rearticulated normative assumptions about gender equity in the technology sector. The memo contested Google’s pro-diversity narrative with ‘fragmented speculations’ – or antenarratives – about alternative organizational futures (Boje, Haley, and Saylors 2016, 391). The memo was subsequently leaked to an online news site and a ‘new media event’ formed from the reflexive circulation of discourse of the ensuing controversy Fu (2018). We analyse this corpus of texts in terms of ‘antestories’ being told about Google and we consider how these storytelling episodes align with or challenge the company’s preferred pro-diversity future. We consider the material-discursive conditions which influenced the storytelling episodes and the stories which were ultimately heard (Jorgensen, Strand, and Boje 2013). We argue that ‘Damoregate’ serves as a cautionary tale for organizational communication, particularly the implications of alternative progress narratives in employee ‘antestories’ and the limitations of relying on organizational (ante)narratives in a digital era.