Forget ROI, Let's Show How We're Making Money

Throw a stone in a room full of communication professionals and there's a good chance you'll hit one that will back up this statement: senior management loves to see ROI measurements, but seeing how communication initiatives create sales trumps all other measurements. From a marketing communication perspective, simply receiving feedback from a sales team can help your team answer most senior-level frustrations. From the perspective of a sales force, understanding marketing efforts (and how those efforts actually work) aids in everyone's ultimate objective: securing sales.

Cohen, Ephraim. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Management>Communication>Assessment

Frontline Managers and Human Resources: Partnering for Effective Communication

In my human resources consulting practice, when I ask employees about their major concerns, their primary complaint is how poorly their managers communicate with them about human resources issues, especially compensation and job performance objectives. Ensuring that effective employee communication is embedded in the company’s culture is everyone’s responsibility—from senior executives on down. However, the primary players in effective employee communication are human resources professionals and frontline managers.

Rubino, John A. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Management>Business Communication

Getting the Ear of Your CEO

Communication professionals can and should have frequent, direct access to and influence on executive leadership. Your CEO needs you, but are you ready? It is a misperception that CEOs are too busy, uninterested or unreceptive. While some communicators have close contact with executives, many other communication professionals rarely see the CEO and may have many layers of management between themselves and that "C-level" suite. But you don't have to report directly to the CEO to get his or her ear.

Gayeski, Diane. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Collaboration

History of the Vision

The goal of having a comprehensive collection of science information easily available to researchers and students has been expressed repeatedly for decades. These reports reiterate that our concept of a comprehensive collection of information has been attractive to the physical science community for decades.

OSTI (1999). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication

In Search of Subtlety    

What is the role of contradiction in organizational rhetoric? This article argues that existing research tends to focus on contradiction at an institutional level and then develop a distinct but complementary perspective that views contradictory rhetoric at an interactional level and as a practical concern, especially when routine is disrupted and repair tactics are required. Drawing on data from a study of a quality improvement initiative in the United Kingdom, the authors examine the contradictions that were constructed when a 'change champion' attempted to deal with resistance to change. They conclude by depicting how contradiction can emerge when actors reflexively shift their identifications to portray themselves and their actions in a contextually appropriate manner.

Whittle, Andrea, Frank Mueller and Anita Mangan. Management Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Management>Organizational Communication>Rhetoric

Is the New CEO Allowed to Care?

The brand experts and advertising gurus tell us that "caring is commercial," but this has not changed the behavior or profile of many chief executives. One new chief immediately canceled the daily VIP lunch delivered to his office and instead went down to the staff canteen, sitting among his workforce. In another case, a tough CEO confronts an aggressive media at an annual meeting and declares, "Our task it to manage the business to provide maximum return for our shareholders -- end of story." In these cases, communicators provide support and advice, yet in many instances, the decision about profile is made before they are called in.

Manallack, Stephen. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Marketing

It's Not What You Know: A Transactive Memory Analysis of Knowledge Networks at NASA    

Much of America was stunned into mourning on February 1, 2003 as the space shuttle Columbia was reported to have broken up over Texas. The ensuing investigation revealed that debris at liftoff was the cause of the crash, but the official report suggested that NASA's organizational communication was just as much to blame. This article uses transactive memory theory to argue that there were significant gaps in the knowledge network of NASA organizational members, and those gaps impeded information flow regarding potential disaster. E-mails to and from NASA employees were examined (the 'To' and 'From' fields) to map a network of communication related to Columbia's damage and risk. Although NASA personnel were connected with each other in this incident-based network, the right information did not get to the people who needed it. The article concludes with extensions of theory and practical implications for organizations, including NASA.

Garner, Johnny T. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Government

Knowledge Management and Life Long Education in Science    

In 1998 ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment, launched an e-learning platform with the mission of sharing scientific knowledge among everyone, not just workers but also students and the unemployed, in order to use its research results to support competitiveness and sustainable development. In 6 years, more than 20.000 users have followed one or more of the 46 on line courses. Many agreements with schools, universities, private and public training organisation are now under way to improve the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to build an open data base of scientific learning objects that anyone can use.

Moreno, Anna and Sergio Grande. Data Science Journal (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Education>Scientific Communication

Knowledge Management and Pharmaceutical Development Teams: Using Writing to Guide Science    

This article introduces a way of working with drug development teams that relies on writing as a key development activity. The work of cross-functional teams in pharmaceutical research and development can be guided by the use of tools normally thought of as 'writing' tools. Writing can be used intentionally to help teams develop their thinking, identify and respond to troublesome issues, and develop project documentation efficiently. The article introduces the use of a 'seed document' (one step in a systematic, wholly collaborative, document development process) to establish a conceptual knowledge bank for a development team, and demonstrates how complex documentation can flow naturally out of the evolving seed document. The authors argue that structured writing can help team members, who have varying perspectives and expertise, engage in substantive conflict and reach consensus on team responses to difficult issues.

Bernhardt, Stephen A. and George A. McCulley. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Knowledge Management: Refining Roles in Scientific Communication

Libraries historically have been identified with the functions of storage and retrieval. In recent years, they have expanded their role to include information transfer and the creation of the networked, digital library for information access and dissemination. More recently, the William H. Welch Medical Library (WML) of the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has been exploring strategies to integrate the library more fully into the scholarly and scientific communication process. The result is a new role we call knowledge management.

Lucier, Richard E. University of California San Francisco (1990). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication

Labor Costs can Make or Break the Case: Which Way Should This Manager Go?

When your business case deals with a project or program, labor costs may be the largest single cost category, by far. Labor costs can even loom large in in a major capital expenditure (CAPEX) business case, if the acquisition comes with a serious need for operating and maintenance support (as in many IT CAPEX requests, for instance). How well you handle the labor costs can make or break the case.

Solution Matrix (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Business Case

Learning to Love Whistleblowers

Darren Dahl explains why some businesses that once feared whistleblowers are now giving workers new ways to report wrongdoing.

Dahl, Darren. Inc. Magazine (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Management

Lessons from Y2K for Strategic Management of Information and Communication Technology  

Y2K was a unique event, particularly for any organization that relies on information and communication technology to accomplish its mission and adhieve its strategic goals. There were various impacts on the design, development, and maintenance of systems and applications throughout the organization, as well as various impacts on the roles and responsibilites of people who deal with them. The fact that Y2K did not result in widespread catastrophic failures actually makes it a richer potential source of critical lessons for longterm strategic management of information and communication technology. We are now in a position to learn from this 'test' and apply those lessons to evolving organizational strategies for managing information and communications. This presentation explores issues and initial progress in the following five areas: (1) organizational roles and responses; (2) information gathering, use, and value; (3) life cycle management of systems and software; (4) information assurance and critical infrastructure protection; and (5) understanding the relationship between risk and response.

Haselkorn, Mark P. International Society for the Systems Sciences (2000). Articles>Management>Communication

Lessons Learned in the Corporate Blogosphere

As the publisher of CEO Blog Watch, I pay close attention the evolution of corporate communication, especially as it pertains to blogging. In fact, the mission of CEO Blog Watch is to chronicle the continued rise of corporate and CEO blogs. As someone who monitors CEO blogging, I can tell you that the most commonly asked question on the subject is, "Should a CEO blog?" Here's my take on the subject.

Cornett, Brandon. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Blogging

The Link Between Leadership Style, Communicator Competence, and Employee Satisfaction    

The current study examined the influence of supervisor communicator competence and leadership style on employee job and communication satisfaction. Participants were 220 individuals (116 men and 104 women) working full-time for a variety of companies in the Midwest. The findings indicated a strong relationship between supervisors' communicator competence and their task and relational leadership styles, with supervisor communicator competence being a stronger predictor of employee job and communication satisfaction. More specifically, the findings indicated that supervisor communicator competence accounted for 68% of the variance in subordinate communication satisfaction and nearly 18% of the variance in subordinate job satisfaction. More important, these findings provide an association between communication, leadership, and employee job and communication satisfaction.

Madlock, Paul E. JBC (2008). Articles>Management>Business Communication>Workplace

The Making of a Successful Entrepreneur: Tapping into Drive, Direction, and Common Sense

When Christopher Gergen talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, he speaks as someone who's been there, done that, and is still doing it today. In 1994, he left the security of a burgeoning career as a writer for CNN Headline News to move to Santiago, Chile, where he opened a restaurant and bar. That proved to be the first of many business ventures.

Steigman, Daria. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Management

Making the Business Case for Single Sourcing  

Discusses ways to communicate the financial benefits, customer value, learning and growth opportunities, and internal process improvements made possible by single sourcing.

Hackos, JoAnn T. and Tina Hedlund. ComTech Services (2004). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Business Communication

Managing Life Sciences Content

Life sciences have been called the least automated industry in the world, but some pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and healthcare-related organizations are working to dispel that image by implementing targeted content management solutions aimed at shortening the amount of time it takes to get new products to market.

Rockley Group, The (2004). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication>Workflow

Managing Project Risk  

Risk management is as much art as science. Being aware of what risks are and how they can affect a project can be the difference between success and failure. Three elements of risk management—regardless of project size or scope—will influence success: understanding what risks are; developing and detailing categories of risk; and building a mitigation plan into the project plan. This approach to risk management benefits the project manager by bringing into focus—as early as possible in the project life cycle—many potential detriments to project success. When folded into a repeatable project management methodology, these processes can translate into dollars as the probability of meeting calendar and budget goals increases.

Bierbower, James G. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Project Management>Risk Communication

New Media Answers Old Questions for CEOs

How do you scare a CEO? Whisper the words "new media" and wait for the trembling to begin. But new media can also help CEOs address old issues in their role as chief communicators for their organizations.

Furiga, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Management>Business Communication>Social Networking

Our Stake in Struggle (Or Is Resistance Something Only Others Do?)    

Encourages critical organization scholars to develop our stake in struggle in at least three ways: (a) by examining how the structure and practice of our own work enacts relations of power and resistance (i.e., reflexive, empirical study of organizational dynamics in higher education), (b) by considering how our experience of knowledge labor implicitly shapes our representations of organization (i.e., reflexive analyses of the relation between the process and products of scholarly production), and (c) by more explicitly accounting for our role as cultural agents in representing organizational life and inducting students into it (i.e., reflexive analyses of the relations among the labors of teaching, researching, and theorizing power and resistance).

Lee Ashcraft, Karen. Management Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Management>Organizational Communication>Workplace

The Pitfalls of Financial Benchmarking

Recently I spent two hours with a management consultant trying to help her identify appropriate metrics for benchmarking a client's communication function. Some of the initial financial measurements that were being considered raised some concerns.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (1999). Articles>Management>Communication>Assessment

A Polythematic Real-Time Synergistic Hybrid Data Telecommunication System for Scientific Research with Bidirectional Fuzzy Feedback Peer Review by Expert Referees    

Heterogeneous research environments, interests and locations do not necessarily coincide, thus hitherto the primary method of communication amongst researchers has been email. In this article a novel unified polythematic, real-time, synergistic, data telecommunication system is proposed with peer-reviewed, bidirectional fuzzy feedback for research scientists, to facilitate scientific information exchange via the extensible markup language (XML) on multiple scientific topics, e.g. in mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry.

Petratos, Panagiotis. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Collaboration

Preparing Your Organization for Pandemic Flu

In the past few weeks, articles appeared on the inside pages of The New York Times and other news sources, with reports from Indonesia of human-to-human infection by avian flu, such as Elisabeth Rosenthal's article "Human-to-Human Infection by Bird Flu Virus Is Confirmed." Another article by Donald McNeil in the Times reported that mortality rates for avian flu are higher in young people, which was also the case in the devastating Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

Matalucci, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Management>Risk Communication>Biomedical