Thesis (MPhil (Afrikaans and Dutch))University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of bureaucratese in government institutions‟ external communication and the effect that it has on the institution‟s image. Furthermore the impact that this communication has on the institution‟s relationship with it‟s audience should also be explored and the notion that it creates a power distance relationship should be examined. Firstly the Communication Model for Image Formation and Projection (De Stadler, s.a.1) is discussed to explain the connection between communication and institutional image. Then relevant concepts, for example, image, communication, bureaucratese and power distance are explained. Secondly, bureaucratese is explained as a register and is then divided into it‟s different aspects. These aspects relate to style choices as informed by the literature on the Plain Language Movement. This set of aspects or dimensions then creates the criteria for the analysis of 16 texts. This study does not only use qualitative data, but also quantitative data and therefore a questionaire was sent out to 80 respondents. The purpose of the questionaire was to retrieve data that couldn‟t be obtained from the qualitative data. These aspects were the image of the institution and also the relationship between the institution and it‟s audience. The results show that bureacratese does have a negative impact on an institution‟s image. It also shows that the use of burocratic language creates a power distance relationship between an institution and it‟s audience. Language (in this case burocratic language) becomes an instrument through which the culture of an institutions is transferred from inside the institution onto it‟s audience. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om uit te vind of die gebruik van burokratees in regeringsinstansies se eksterne kommunikasie die betrokke instansie se beeld beïnvloed. Daar word ook gekyk na die effek van dié kommunikasie op ‟n instansie se verhouding met sy teikengroep en of ‟n magsafstandverhouding op hierdie wyse bewerkstellig word. Die invloed van die verhouding tussen die instansie en die instansie se teikengroep word dan ondersoek. Daardeur word vasgestel hoe die instansie se beeld by die teikengroep beïnvloed word. Eerstens word die Communication Model for Image Formation and Projection (De Stadler, s.a.1) bespreek om sodoende die verbande tussen beeld en kommunikasie te verduidelik. Daarna word gekyk na konsepte soos beeld, kommunikasie, burokratees en magsafstand. Tweedens word burokratees as register beskryf en die verskillende aspekte van hierdie register uitgelê. Die bespreking van die verskillende aspekte van burokratees word gesteun deur die literatuur oor die Plain Language Movement. Laasgenoemde aspekte van die register bepaal dan die kriteria waarvolgens 16 tekste geanaliseer word. Omdat hierdie studie van kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe data gebruik maak, word ook ʼn vraelys uitgestuur aan 80 respondente. Die doel van die vraelys is om dit wat nie deur die kwalitatiewe studie gemeet kan word nie, te bepaal. Hier word met ander woorde verwys na die beeld van die instansie asook die verhouding tussen die instansie en sy teikengroep. Die resultate dui wel daarop dat burokratees ‟n negatiewe impak op ʼn instansie se beeld het. Dit wys verder uit dat ‟n bepaalde verhouding geskep word tussen ‟n instansie en sy teikengroep indien daar op ‟n burokratiese wyse gekommunikeer word. „n Magsafstandverhouding ontstaan as „n gevolg van hierdie kommunikasie, omdat taal die instrument is wat die kultuur van binne die instansie na buite dra.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The assessment of internal communication at PetroSA was conducted with the view to obtaining guidance on how to improve communication within the organisation. The study looked at both upward and downward communication content and flow. A representative sample was selected from the core groups of highly-trained professional employees in Levels 2, 3 and 4 (of nine levels). Employees in this sample were asked to respond electronically to a questionnaire designed by the researcher with input from colleagues. The questionnaire had 60 statements in seven concept areas. The statements were wide enough to capture the most important aspects of internal communication. It used a Likert-type scale. Responses were averaged and the averages were tested by t-tests to see whether employees agreed or disagreed with the statements. The sample of employees could also respond if they wished to a qualitative question. Results were analysed, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made about ways the company can improve its internal communication. The timing of the study is important for the organisation as the company plans to grow by more than 30 000 employees after the building of a new refinery in Port Elizabeth. What became clear in the study was that much satisfactory downward communication is happening in the company through CEO road shows, the in-house Yiza Sithethe magazine and the daily newsletter PetroSA Today, but employees want more. They want more specific information on where the company is going as well as on its financial status. Despite some disengagement, they would like to be free to engage with management on issues without running a huge risk (more upward communication). They indicate strongly that management does not listen to their ideas and suggestions. They want more explanation for some of management’s decisions, more discussions over causes and prevention of breakdowns in production, and clearer ideas of how they fit into the larger company. Despite some lack of alignment with the company goals, they do want to work for the larger good. More efficient budgeting processes, clearer career paths, and better understanding of their capabilities by their own managers seem to be needed. The company management needs to deal with some mistrust by employees, and this will not be achieved overnight. Immediate actions include a communication management plan to achieve better alignment of its workforce, as well as communication skills development for its levels of managers. Communication keeps any organisation together. There is good potential for PetroSA to attain its vision to be a leading petrochemical company in Africa. But first, it has to improve its internal communication.

This study analyzes the apologies presented by Intel Corporation as a response to the Pentium™ microprocessor controversy. Dr. Andrew Grove's November 27,1994, Internet posting to the comp.sys.intel usegroup and Intel's December 20,1994, press release are analyzed using the methods of genre criticism. Further, a situational analysis is presented of the exigence and the audience. The exigence is represented by the relationship of society to technology while the audience is Internet users. This analysis attempts to demonstrate how situational factors constrain discourse related to technological flaws.

This research conducted an interdisciplinary field experiment to identify relationships between productivity, user satisfaction and IS Helpdesk USP's use of effective communication behavior. An experimental group of Helpdesk USPs of a large retail organization were trained by communication professionals in communication effectiveness, with emphasis on the needs of the telephone environment.

Technologists predict that electronic information dissemination will create a paperless work environment. In spite of such predictions, paper-based internal communication will remain the primary medium for disseminating information in organizations for decades to come. However, electronic technology will have an impact on paper information production that may be more profound than changes following word processing's introduction. Previously unavailable for everyday production to enhance word meaning, certain graphic techniques now can be used to access readers' preconditioned symbol meanings to increase comprehension of routine correspondence and information internalization. This quasi-experimental field study examines interactions among laser-printer graphic treatment and communication variables as contributors to explaining variance in comprehension. Set Multiple Regression/Correlation analysis identifies significant variance explained by conditional relationships between near-typeset quality text and readers' self-interest and between near-typeset quality text and text's readability. The conditional relationship of near-typeset quality and self-interest shows increase in reader comprehension at a greater rate than the comprehension increase rate attributed to the reader's self-interest increase alone. This suggests that conditional relationships may be accessing an internal judgment process interpreting greater self-interest in near-typeset printed text. The conditional relationship between near-typeset quality and readability reveals that at more difficult reading levels comprehension is greater for near-typeset text. The significance of this relationship indicates that an internal judgment process is involved rather than the difference being attributed to legibility treatment. The strength of these conditional relationships suggests that planning for communication policies and practices should be a part of organizational strategic planning in the same ways as are financial analysis, operations planning, or human resource management.

This thesis examined how receivers who vary in Interaction Involvement and Locus of Control (LOC) might differ in their interpretations of service complaints. Locus of control was measured using Rotter's (1966) LOC scale, while Interaction Involvement was measured with Cegala's (1984) Interaction Involvement measure, including a separate assessment of the effects for each sub-scale. Individuals were assigned to four groups based on their Interaction Involvement and LOC scores. The groups were compared with one-another for differences in how complaints were interpreted. Four complaint categories and a corresponding scale were developed to measure these differences. The categories were Subject, Goal, Opportunity, and Accountability. Interaction Involvement was expected to affect how receivers interpret the subject and goal of a complaint, while LOC was predicted to affect understanding of the opportunity and accountability aspects. Two research questions explored possible relationships between the complaint categories and the independent variables for individuals within each group. The study's four hypotheses were not supported, although some evidence was found for a significant relationship between receiver Interaction Involvement and perceived complainant Opportunity, for External LOC individuals only.

[pt] A sustentabilidade é um conceito complexo, ainda repleto de dúvidas, que vai demandar necessariamente num maior diálogo entre diferentes atores sociais para sua construção. Nessa perspectiva, o presente trabalho busca ampliar as reflexões sobre os comunicadores para a sociedade sustentável. A partir do estudo de relatório de uma empresa global de petróleo e gás, descrevendo sua gestão sustentável após um acidente ambiental, ocorrido em 2010, nossa análise busca identificar novas trilhas entre a prática da comunicação empresarial e sua relação com uma sociedade que se deseja sustentável. / [en] Sustainability is a complex concept, still full of questions, which will necessarily require a greater dialogue between different social actors for it achievement. From this perspective, this work aims to broaden the discussions on the communicators for a sustainable society. From the study reporting an oil and gas global company, describing its sustainable management after an environmental accident, which occurred in 2010, our analysis seeks to identify new pathways between the practice of corporate communication and their relationship to a society that seeks sustainability.

This research explores the attitudes held by marketing managers about building their company's corporate reputation, and about the impact of their actions on performance. In an environment of costly brand building, declining customer loyalty, and increasing scrutiny from stakeholders who demand corporate responsibility and transparency, a concern for corporate reputation is increasingly important for everyone in the company, including marketing managers. The marketing literature, however, has not explored how managers who are concerned about the reputation of their companies can effectively adapt marketing strategy for reputation enhancement. The theoretical justification for this research is grounded in stakeholder theory, dynamic capabilities theory, and strategic choice theory. The study contributes to the marketing strategy literature and the nascent field of stakeholder marketing. It makes a theoretical connection between the corporate-level construct of reputation orientation, and its impact on functional-level decisions about marketing strategy. Reputation orientation is the concern that top management and employees share about their company's commitment to nurturing a positive corporate reputation among key stakeholders. A scale for reputation was conceptually defined and empirically tested (Churchill, 1979). It consists of three dimensions: consciously created corporate identity, internal identity dissemination, and external stakeholder impact. Reputation orientation was found to be a valid and reliable construct that was further tested within the framework of how marketing managers formulate, implement, and evaluate their strategic marketing decisions. This research also tested the impact of stakeholder-conscious marketing strategy on corporate reputation and marketing performance. / The results from the empirical research indicate that organizations with a reputation orientation devise and select marketing strategies that focus on the needs and concerns of customers and other key stakeholders. Reputation orientation guides a stakeholder-conscious marketing strategy, such that marketing strategy decisions take into consideration both the impacts on corporate reputation and marketing performance without sacrificing either. The implications for marketing practice is that marketing managers can deliberately choose marketing strategies that build a strong corporate reputation by considering the concerns of customers and other key stakeholders at the earliest stages of marketing strategy formulation. / by Deborah Goldring. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web. FboU

Orientador: Maria Eugênia Porém / Banca: Raquel Cabral / Banca: Ivone de Loudes Oliveira / Resumo: Diante do cenário midiatizado atual e de relações sociais cada vez mais complexas, as organizações são desafiadas a repensar sobre seus processos, a exemplo da comunicação e da estratégia, que se constituem como foco deste estudo. Frente às instabilidades e fluidez desse cenário marcado pela intensa presença das mídias na dinâmica social, muitas organizações passam a transpor a esse novo panorama antigas lógicas herdadas de pensamentos e modelos de gestão que se consolidaram durante a Revolução Industrial. Nesse período, prevalecia uma abordagem simplificadora no modo de desenvolver ações e de estruturar os processos organizacionais. Na tentativa de aproximarem-se de seus interlocutores, elas tendem a desenvolver estratégias de comunicação, por exemplo, a partir de modelos e modismos que limitam-se a escolhas de canais de comunicação para emitir mensagens de um emissor - a organização -, evidenciando a lógica funcionalista, sem refletirem sobre a complexidade estratégica e comunicacional que envolve todo o processo e sobre a necessidade de pensar para além dos aspectos técnicos ao interagirem com os sujeitos. Por este motivo apresenta-se, neste trabalho, a comunicação estratégica como uma proposta integradora que pode nortear as ações organizacionais, incluindo as ações estratégicas de comunicação. Entende-se que a comunicação estratégica pode ser compreendida a partir de uma essência comunicacional para além de sua espontaneidade, sendo voltada e direcionada à ação. Parte-se... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In view of the current mediated scenario and increasingly complex social relations, organizations are challenged to rethink their processes, such as communications and strategy, which are the focus of this study. In the face of the instabilities and fluidity of this scenario marked by the intense presence of the media in the social dynamics, many organizations begin to transpose to this new panorama old logics inherited from thoughts and management models that were consolidated during the Industrial Revolution. During this period, a simplifying approach prevailed in the way of developing actions and structuring organizational processes. As an attempt to get closer to their interlocutors, they tend to develop communication strategies, for example, from models and fads that are limited to the choices of communication channels to emit messages from a source - the organization, evidencing the functional logic, without reflecting on the strategic and communicational complexity that involves the whole process and the need to think beyond the technical aspects when interacting with the subjects. For this reason, strategic communication is presented as an integrative proposal that can guide organizational actions, including strategic communication actions. It is understood that strategic communication can be comprehended from a communicational essence beyond its spontaneity, being directed to action. It is based on the hypothesis that communication strategies predominate in organizat... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The following Chapters present an account and evidence that development direction, a previously unexplored characteristic of performance feedback, reveals asymmetries in the transmission and acceptance of feedback. In short, I argue that feedback advising development in the direction of a decrease (e.g., “be less assertive,” “stop overanalyzing decisions”) is less likely to be transmitted by feedback providers, and less likely to be acted upon by feedback recipients, than feedback advising development in the direction of an increase (e.g., “be more assertive,” “analyze decisions more”). In a series of studies concerning roleplay negotiations, leadership effectiveness, and workplace behavior, I find people are more likely to transmit and embrace feedback to “do more” rather than “do less.” The first Chapter focuses on the behavioral dimension of assertiveness. Especially in workplace and negotiation contexts, assertiveness can lead to harmful consequences if over-or under-exhibited. Thus, breakdowns in the transmission and acceptance of assertiveness feedback, whether it directs the target to “be more assertive” or “be less assertive”, are consequential and merit special attention. The scope of the second Chapter is broadened beyond assertiveness, gauging feedback of opposing development directions that pertains to a wider set of behavioral dimensions. Here, the account in Chapter I is revisited and two processes that may underlie the asymmetric effect are tested. In short, Chapters I and II present evidence that not all “bad news” in feedback is treated equally. Instead, “do less” (vs. “do more”) feedback is especially susceptible to communication failures. Chapter III contains an overarching discussion of the findings as well as theoretical implications for the feedback and assertiveness literatures and practical suggestions for improving workplace development dynamics. Finally, additional questions are addressed in the Appendix with further analyses of data presented in Chapters I and II as well as examination of additional data.