#14749
In this hypothetical dilemma, a senior technical writer at a pharmaceuticals firm must choose between honoring his company's nondisclosure policy or publishing the results of a usability study that could greatly improve patient compliance with written instructions for prescription drugs, thereby saving lives.
Bryan, John G. Intercom (2002). Articles>Workplace>Ethics
#14661
A fictional account of an in-house newsletter editor pressured to serve his bosses' interests raises important questions about the ethics of office politics.
Bryan, John G. Intercom (2000). Articles>Workplace>Ethics
#19515
Increasing Visibility: Building Demand for Technical Communication Services 
Good technical communication is critical to the success of products and ultimately to the success of companies. But even the most perfect manuals may go unread, and the most elegant help systems may go unnoticed unless you take the time to promote the quality and necessity of your work. You need to showcase your talents and to encourage people throughout your company--and the community--to value and understand the work that you do. This will ideally lead to more respect, better pay, and more interesting work.
Huettner, Brenda P. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>TC>Workplace
#14637
#30704
This study examines the processes by which workers in a particular Indian call center located in Kolkata expanded on, negotiated, and chose among an array of possible, especially new, identities and identifications and the ways that these choices affected changing social discourses. Our case study depicted a workplace that was simultaneously casual and urgent, temporal and spatially free and constrained, situated in both Indian and U.S. cultures, and oriented toward business and night-club ambiances. Within this particular workplace, call center employees (re)constructed and negotiated among an array of discourses that bracketed opportunities for particular identities and identifications. Through these negotiation processes, they (a) engaged in strategic identity(ies) invocations and (b) reframed work, career, and family discourses and practices.
Pal, Mahuya and Patrice Buzzanell. JBC (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>India
#23713
Industry Takes Up The Challenge Of Sustainability 
Around the world, especially in Europe, companies are discovering that they have much to gain by employing the techniques of environmental management. They find that they are helping themselves, while improving the world we live in at the same time. By reviewing the effect on the environment caused by products and production methods, companies save money, improve their image, motivate employees and expand their influence, while often gaining new market shares because of better and more sustainable products. The stories of some of these companies are followed by guidelines for involving employees in environmental management to improve results and motivation.
Yelverton, Bonnie. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Management>Workplace
#29060
The Influence of E-Mail as an Interoffice Communication Tool in Small Organizations 
E-mail has significantly impacted the way we communicate in business, possibly going so far as to affect the social structure of organizations. One under-explored effect of e-mail is how it impacts communication in smaller organizations. Given the ability of regular face-to-face interaction, is e-mail necessary to boost communication? A report of employee attitudes in one small business did provide an opportunity to observe the impact of e-mail on communications and employee attitudes. As a result, it is suspected that interoffice e-mail may serve to link formal and informal communication channels, particularly in terms of including managers to the informal communications network.
Adrian, C. Mitchell. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration>Email
#21651
Instant Messaging in the Workplace
Proposes six guidelines for employee use of instant messaging.
Hoffman, Jeff. Intercom (2004). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration>Instant Messaging
#23714
Integrated Strategic Communication: More than the Sum of Its Parts
Adopting a hybrid organizational structure over 40 years ago has permitted the Communications Department of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando to evolve new capabilities and undertake new missions. The result has been an independent organization that proactively responds to business opportunities, strategically applies numerous resources, and adds new skill sets that help Missiles and Fire Control capture and retain military contracts.
Voss, Daniel W. and William C. Wiese. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>TC>Workplace
#31336
Internal and External Brand: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Internal branding is alive and well, and continues to evolve as more people realize how powerful it is as a business tool. You may hear it called by different names, such as employer branding, employee branding or employee value propositioning, but whatever the term, it is an important and useful concept.
Covill, Simon. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Workplace
#31326
Internal Blogging and the Rules of Disclosure: An IR-Reconciliable Difference?
We are hearing and reading a lot these days about the new age of transparency, in which organizations must go beyond traditional, tightly controlled communication and engage in a "naked conversation" with their customers, communities, employees and other stakeholders.
Shewchuk, Ron. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Blogging
#31334
Internal Branding: Communicating and Measuring the Impact
A recent Gallup poll showed that 69 percent of employees are disengaged at work. A survey of human resources managers by PricewaterhouseCoopers in the U.K. found that only 26 percent of employees demonstrated brand values in their day-to-day behavior. These figures suggest that internal branding efforts are perhaps not producing the desired effect. "Living the brand" initiatives cannot work when the majority of employees are not tuned in at work. Great brands are built by consistently delivering on the brand promise, which requires employee engagement with that brand.
Venkat, Ramesh. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Workplace
#31335
Internal Marketing vs. Internal Branding: It's All About Connections
Employee engagement, getting employees to "live the brand," gaining employee buy-in—today's managers are trying to wrap their minds around these critical practices through internal marketing and internal branding. But not everyone understands these concepts. You even hear people use the terms interchangeably, even though there are a number of differences between these concepts.
Stershic, Sybil F. and Debra Semans. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Workplace
#26805
International Corporations and Cross-Border Knowledge Transfer in the Semiconductor Industry
Are international corporations superior to markets and alliances in facilitating the flow of knowledge between countries? Despite widespread acknowledgement of the superior efficiency of the firm in international knowledge transfer, the theory remains underdeveloped, and empirical support is conspicuous by its absence. This paper has two primary goals. First, to use patent citation data to compare the relative performances of firms, alliances, and markets in the transfer of technological knowledge between countries. Second, to investigate the reasons for the superior capability of the international corporation in facilitating cross-border knowledge flows by examining the mechanisms through which international firms manage international technology transfer. Our findings confirm the superior performance of firms over both alliances and markets as conduits for the flow of knowledge between countries. A more detailed examination of the experiences of five large semiconductor firms suggests that this superiority is the result of its ability to utilize a wide range of knowledge transfer mechanisms flexibly and in combinations with one another, and to embed these transfer mechanisms within a social context that enhances their effectiveness.
Carnegie Bosch Institute (1998). Articles>Knowledge Management>Workplace
#14790
Smith presents a hypothetical dilemma in which a technical writer discovers that a product she's documenting falls short of the extravagant claims published in her company's marketing materials.
Smith, Charlsye J. Intercom (2002). Articles>Workplace>Ethics
#31400
Is the Employee Publication Dead?
Over the past decade, hundreds of employee magazines and newsletters have gone by the wayside as corporate communicators rushed to embrace digital communication. Today, many large organizations do not publish any regular print vehicles for employees. But did they eliminate their publications for the right reasons? And has the rush away from print strengthened or weakened organizations' connection with employees?
Shewchuk, Ron. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Newsletters
#18433
It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know: Work in the Information Age
We discuss our ethnographic research on personal social networks in the workplace, arguing that traditional institutional resources are being replaced by resources that workers mine from their own networks. Social networks are key sources of labor and information in a rapidly transforming economy characterized by less institutional stability and fewer reliable corporate resources. The personal social network is fast becoming the only sensible alternative to the traditional 'org chart' for many everyday transactions in today's economy.
Nardi, Bonnie A., Steve Whittaker and Heinrich Schwarz. First Monday (2000). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration
#26507
Knowledge Management in the Workplace: the Librarian as Knowledge Broker
The role of knowledge brokers as the gatekeepers of information is vital for successful knowledge management. In this context, the role of librarians who act as knowledge brokers in creating a market for both buyers and sellers often goes unnoticed. Librarians with their access to information and people, bridge the gap between knowledge seekers and knowledge.
Thaneerkulam, Chitra. STC NJIT Student Chapter (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>User Centered Design>Workplace
#28577
Knowledge Management--Issues and Challenges in the Corporate World
The first of those challenges is merely getting individuals within the company to communicate with each other, wherever they are located. Many organizations have trouble getting people to share information who aren't on the same floor, so adding remote workers or those in other geographical locations can prove difficult. Corporations are realizing how important it is to 'know what they know' and to be able to make maximum use of the knowledge. This knowledge resides in many different places, such as, databases, knowledge bases, filing cabinets, and people's heads, and it is impossible to keep track of and make use of this distributed knowledge. Knowledge Management (KM) needs careful planning and analysis. While technology can support KM, it is not the be all and end all of KM. Knowledge Management decisions should be based on who (people), what (knowledge), and why (business objectives). Critical success factors for KM can be broadly categorized into four classes: people, processes, technology, and sustained strategic commitment. The four pillars of the model are also used to explain the critical success factors in Knowledge Management.
Kumar, Pankaj and Jaya Kalra. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Information Design>Knowledge Management>Workplace
#19514
Learning at Work: The Role of Technical Communication in Organizational Learning
Concludes that technical support is an important audience for customer documentation and a source of knowledge. Proposes that technical communicators produce documentation that meets the needs of technical support and taps into that knowledge.
Wahl, Scott. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Workplace
#19879
Learning Discourse Conventions: The Socialization of Technical Writers
Newcomers learn about the practices and values of an organization through a process called socialization. Organizational socialization research provides useful information on the resources (such as mentors and written materials) that are available to these newcomers within organizations and the strategies (such as indirect questioning and disguised conversation) that new employees can use as they move into unfamiliar settings. At a time when there is a great deal of movement and uncertainty within industry, an awareness of socialization resources and strategies can be critically important in helping technical communicators make the transition to new assignments, divisions, or organizations.
Katz, Susan M. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration
#24554
Learning to Do Knowledge Work in Systems of Distributed Cognition
Within work sites that engage in knowledge work, newcomers have particular difficulty acquiring knowledge because knowledge keeps changing. Newcomers have to assimilate currently accepted knowledge while remaining open to learning and even generating new knowledge. Such acquisition and generation of communal knowledge are examples of distributed cognition. In workplaces engaging in knowledge work (where knowledge is the primary product), distributed cognition aims at a less stable goal than the one that Hutchins describes for ship navigation. A study of six summer interns in an engineering development center shows that, for them and their more experienced colleagues, learning did not precede activity but rather was the means by which they remained attuned to activity and able to function. Cognition was distributed not only among people but also among people and their tools. Communication tools were particularly important because communication was the means by which the system functioned as a unified whole.
Winsor, Dorothy A. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Workplace>Knowledge Management
#30703
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
#31486
Make Your Internal Communications Memorable with Strategic Storytelling
Jean-Paul Sartre said, “We understand everything in human life through stories.” I believe that is true. We comprehend better when a message is related in story form, and we also feel a stronger rapport with the person telling the story. Why not use these memorable stories in your internal communications? When you cram too much information into a communication, training session or presentation, you’re doing a data dump on your listener. Nothing sticks. Yet, if you’ve ever had a supervisor tell a story to illustrate a point, you learned the lesson and probably enjoyed the learning process, too.
Stevenson, Doug. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Rhetoric
#31718
Conflict is characteristic in any situation that brings diverse groups together to manage tasks and obstacles. Nowhere is that more apparent than in business environments based on hierarchical structures where teams are inherited and divergent objectives create barriers to effective teamwork. Conflict resolution is among the many tasks delegated to managers, yet it is often the most difficult to master.
Harris, Kerri. Writing Assistance (2007). Articles>Management>Collaboration>Workplace
