#31321
Creating a Culture of Accountability
Most of those who write about corporate social responsibility focus first and foremost on external stakeholders—responsibility-focused investors, workers in the supply chain, local communities, the press, governments or NGOs—and understandably so. These groups can undermine corporate reputations by publicizing perceived instances of social irresponsibility. Reputations may be intangible, but damage to them can cost real dollars.
Mike, Barry and Jeff Grimshaw. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Workplace
#30421
Creating an Orientation Package for Your Organization 
You can create an orientation package to acclimate new personnel and ensure that they receive all the items and information they need in a timely manner. The orientation package can consist of six sections: introduction, maps, organization overview, skills list, other information sources, and checklists. Such an orientation package is currently being used at the IBM(R) Corporation in Cary, North Carolina. Businesses constantly grow and change. People join organizations, transfer between departments and sites, and return after extended absences. The sooner new personnel become skilled in their new positions, the sooner they will be productive and contributing members of the organization.
Flaherty, Erin E. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace
#31230
Creating Leaders: On the Front Lines and Beyond
Companies such as GE, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, McKinsey, IBM, FedEx and others began building their leadership engines by doing what any great team does: putting the right people in the right leadership positions in the first place. They then strengthen the leaders’ skills and knowledge and rigorously hold them accountable for hitting their operating and financial targets. Let’s peek under the hood at these leadership engines to see how these great companies not only create but sustain leadership engines that continuously produce strong leaders.
Shaffer, Jim. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Education>Management>Workplace
#31686
Decaf Resistance: On Misbehavior, Cynicism, and Desire in Liberal Workplaces 
The author reconnects resistance in production to its radical roots. Current literature suggests that resistance in the liberal workplaces of late capitalism has gone underground, becoming mostly evident in unofficial, offstage practices such as cynicism, parody, and humor. The author argues this resistance is too often a decaf resistance. This is a resistance without the cost of radically changing the economy of enjoyment, which ties us to our master. The author argues that resistance, as a real act, which suspends and changes the constellation of power relations, has a cost that cannot be accounted for in advance. To understand this cost, we need an ethics, which the author calls, following Lacan, the Ethics of the Real.
Contu, Alessia. Management Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Management>Workplace
#30846
Developing Policies About Uncivil Workplace Behavior
Workplace incivility, including aggression and bullying, is a troubling phenomenon. Uncivil behaviors not only harm individuals but also diminish employee performance and sometimes result in legal action against companies. Thus, it behooves organizations and management to become vigilant and responsive to such behaviors. Yet the evidence shows that with the recent exception of attempted legislation in Hawaii (Chiem, 2007), few companies or jurisdictions in the United State have policies and procedures aimed at addressing uncivil behavior. This article outlines some points to consider when developing policies to counteract uncivil behavior in the workplace. In the process, we incorporate the views of two corporate representatives (a diversity manager at Georgia Power, a human resource manager at PepsiCo) and an attorney with the U.S. military. Developing a Policy About Uncivil Behavior Any organization wishing to develop a policy about uncivil behavior should establish a task force or committee representing various categories of employees. These members may serve as liaisons to their units. Here are some points for the group to consider in creating the policy: Define Uncivil Behavior There will likely be much discussion as committee members try to develop a definition, but this is necessary to create a policy.
Bandow, Diane and Debra Hunter. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures>Workplace
#30738
Argues that the subdiscipline or community of organizational communication scholars is also imagined, as much organizational communication scholarship conducted within the global context is performed and interpreted from the dominant Euro-American intellectual tradition, privileging those concepts as well as particular voices and traditions and often ignoring inequality and exploitation within the scholarly community. This forgetting and the imagined scholarly community it creates continue to reify and legitimate a particular form of rationality and, in practice, lead to further colonization, subordination, and oppression of native/indigenous/other forms of understanding and organizing within our disciplinary field.
Broadfoot, Kirsten J. and Debeashish Munshi. Management Communication Quarterly (2007). Articles>Workplace>Organizational Communication>Ethnographies
#29435
Documentation is a Profit Center!
Everyone knows that documentation is a cost center, and that downsizing writers and moving documentation online save money. Unfortunately for 'everyone', it's trivial to demonstrate that documentation is actually a profit center--and we don't even have to wrassle with messy stuff like customer satisfaction to prove it.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Documentation>Workplace
#27501
There are four tiers of documentation recommended for satisfying ISO 9000 requirements. These documents are: the Quality Policy Manual, Procedures, Work Instructions, and Records.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2005). Articles>Documentation>Workplace>ISO 9000
#24545
This article looks at how two offices changed their informal work relationships and patterns in response to a major technological innovation in their field. This inductive study involves a cross-case analysis with field studies covering a two-year period. The research applies the models suggested by social action theory to help explain outcomes. By the end of this study, one office had lost its funding and was eliminated, while the other has survived and grown. The article examines whether the differing organizational responses to new core technology were related to each office's ability to survive.
Kahn, Russell L. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2000). Articles>Workplace>Technology>Collaboration
#26684
Email in the Workplace: Employees Perceive Email Differently than Employers
Argues that employees' misunderstanding of email in the workplace has in part stemmed from employers not being direct about the need to monitor it. By being clear and direct, employers can possibly reduce misuse and ultimately the need for such intrusive email monitoring.
Knox, Jessica. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Workplace>Email>Privacy
#26686
Email Overload in the Workplace: A Multi-Dimensional Exploration
This paper is a multidimensional exploration of email overload, incorporating a mixture of studies and opinions presented by various experts.
Pratt, Andrew. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Workplace>Email
#26627
Usability goes beyond the level of individual users interacting with screens. It's also a question of how easy or cumbersome it is for the entire organization to use a system.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Usability>Workplace
#14458
Ethos and Error: How Business People React to Errors 
Errors seem to bother nonacademic readers as well as teachers. But what does it mean to be “bothered” by errors? Questions such as this help transform the study of error from mere textual issues to larger rhetorical matters of constructing meaning. Although this study of fourteen business people indicates a range of reactions to errors, the findings also reveal patterns of qualitative agreement—certain ways in which these readers constructed a negative ethos of the writer.
Beason, Larry. CCC (2001). Articles>Rhetoric>Workplace
#13812
Experiential Learning Prepares Students to Assume Professional Roles
Educators need to prepare their students to assume roles as communicators in the corporate world. By providing experiential education--active learning both inside and outside the classroom--teachers can ensure that students succeed.
Southard, Sherry. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (1988). Articles>Education>Workplace
#14625
In this ethics case, O'Neill presents a fictional scenario in which a technical communicator is asked to modify copyrighted materials from a training program. Readers are asked to forward their opinions concerning the scenario to be published in a later issue of Intercom.
O'Neill, Michael T. Intercom (2000). Articles>Workplace>Ethics
#31688
The Fox and the Hedgehog Go to Work: A Natural History of Workplace Collusion
The author argues that an ironic approach to collusion can help shift the focus of resistance away from the relatively rare events surrounding implacable opposition or total unanimity to the quotidian aspects of workplace politics. Collusion is characterized as an outcome of organizational politics conducted between the traditionally opposed parties of radical industrial sociology (i.e., managers and workers) under the guidance of an ironic mode of cognition. Irony is depicted as a foxlike way of gaining 'a perspective on perspectives,' which provides a means of understanding stalemate, accommodation, and collusion by showing how opposing ideological positions are indebted. It also illuminates the moments when collusion breaks down and resisting parties become implacably opposed hedgehogs (one position prevails over the other), leading to overt conflict and resistance.
Sewell, Graham. Management Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Management>Workplace>Collaboration
#29827
One way to resolve some of the conflict in English studies and technical communication over their diminishing cultural capital is to recognize the place of instrumental discourse in communication studies. Instrumental discourse is individually verified social agreements to coordinate and control physical actions. One purpose of literary works is to voice new concerns about social inequities. A purpose of rhetoric is to persuade others of the validity of those concerns. Instrumental discourse registers agreements about those concerns and brings them to temporary closure in laws, instructions, contracts, and constitutions. Instrumental discourse is the culmination of a process that often begins with a literary monolog, is continued in many rhetorical dialogs, and ends, for a while, in a chorus of approval. Each phase of this communication process--monolog, dialog, and chorus--has a place in English studies. If more English studies faculty would recognize the need to study the communications that promote dissensus and consensus, then they might contribute more to global discussions about social justice, cooperation, and sustainability, and they might gain more cultural capital and social influence.
Moore, Patrick. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>Education>TC>Workplace
#31555
Hard Measures are Key to Gauging the Effectiveness of Communication on the Bottom Line
In conducting its landmark 2003 Communication ROI Study, which focuses on the relationship between an organization's internal communication strategy and practices and its shareholder returns, Watson Wyatt made some surprising findings regarding the relationship between effective external and internal communication.
Vogt, Peter. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Assessment
#30554
Hone Your Professional Skills: Find Your Writer's Voice
When concentrating on your daily tasks, you may lose track of your creative side. Discover four suggestions for how to stretch your creative muscles.
Tremmel, Martina A. Intercom (2007). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#31237
How Employee Publications Missed a Chance to Matter
About 20 years ago, employee publication editors everywhere were under assault from consultants like me who were carping about our colleagues' reluctance to move beyond reporting on employee outings, hobbies and similar fluff. On, we urged, to the serious business of directly helping our organizations win!
Nelson, Barry. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Newsletters
#31532
How to Communicate with Employees During War
On 19 March a war with global implications began between a U.S.-led coalition and Iraq. Although some organizations will be affected by this war more than others, the articles below will help any communicator address certain immediate internal and external organizational war-related communication issues.
Davis, Alison. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>History
#30774
How to Get Out of a Slump, and Handle Pressure Situations Calmly
It turns out that you can get out of a slump or handle pressure situations comfortably by merely changing your facial expressions. I have been trying this over the past several days and have been completely stunned with what happens.
Johnson, Tom H. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Workplace
#29134
Electronic mail (email) has rapidly become one of the most prominent communication media, and a substantial amount of information is processed by it in the contemporary workplace. It is well known that digital technology produces a "digital divide." In addition, it is well examined that the digital divide produces cognitive differences (e.g., knowledge gaps) among users. Yet, little is known about affective disparities. In addition, few studies on the digital divide were undertaken in organizational setting. This study considers the human side of the digital divide in an organizational setting and investigates if the digital divide exists in the workplace by examining multiple dimensions of communication satisfaction. The data from 303 university employees indicates that email experience differentiates communication satisfaction with amount of email and email use for equivocal tasks.
Ishii, Kumi. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Technology>Email>Workplace
#30319
If You Want Something Done Right, Don't Do It Yourself
When you get fed up and do decide to blaze your own trail, don't forget to take some friends along with you. You never know when you're going to run into a wild past participle that you need help taming.
Allen, Jennifer. Boston Broadside (1992). Articles>TC>Collaboration>Workplace
#18758
Improving the Writer-Developer Relationship
Many technical communicators work in environments where their contributions and value-add to business are not well understood. This perpetuates a lack of respect for the technical communication profession on the part of the technologists with whom we work. By improving our overall work processes and practices, we can change the perceptions of those around us for the better, improving our relationships and increasing the quality of our contributions. We can also begin to see technical communication as a practiced profession equal in importance to the professions of the technologists with whom we work.
Colvin, Richard D. and Virginia Beecher. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration
