The purpose of this research project is to answer the question, "How and with what effects does Logan Aluminum, Inc. translate and implement the principles of socio-technical and team management theory into its organizational culture and operational activities?" To answer this question the researcher first examined the literature related to those theories and then conducted on-site interviews and ethnographic research to witness their implementation. The researcher found strong evidence to prove the validity and accuracy of many of those theories when practiced in an organizational setting. Theories particularly proven were those relating to the necessity of constant training, the role of leadership, team and team member capabilities, employee morale and team maturation.

In light of research that suggests that formal needs analysis leads to efficient and productive training programs, managers and a sampling of non-management employees from a mid-size manufacturing company participated in a needs assessment to determine future training needs for the company's mangers. The information was collected through focus group interviews and a Q-sort technique was developed to categorize the issues raised in the interviews. The categories of training issues and related concerns identified as a result of the focus group interview process were compared to a list of training topics generated by managers through an informal survey prior to the needs assessment. The comparison indicated that the training issues generated by managers in the informal survey were not congruent with the issues identified as a result of the needs assessment process. Comparisons were made between the major issues addressed by various departments, management levels, and functional groups. These comparisons indicated that some concerns were identified by all departments, management levels, and functional areas and could be defined as organizational concerns while other concerns were identified by specific departments, management levels, or functional areas.

The purpose of the present study was to examine organizational practices related to exit interviewing techniques. Prior research has neglected the study of the variables which cause the use of the exit interview to fluctuate, focusing rather on the study of the validity and format of the exit interview. The present study, by means of a questionnaire, cross-tabulated certain independent variables with the dependent variables contained in the questionnaire and found that at least three independent variables significantly affected use of the interview: (1) the size of the company (2) unionization of the company and (3) the annual turnover rate of the company. These findings were then interpreted in light of present theory, and the researcher suggested some directions for future investigations. The present study concluded that rather than prescribing use of the exit interview based upon prior research, utilization of the exit interview varied in relation to the independent variables which impinge upon the situation.

Organizations have traditionally accomplished connectivity among their workers by co-locating them in shared organizational workplaces. However, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are offering alternative ways to accomplish this kind of connection. This change raises important questions about what it is possible to accomplish through such mediated communicative connections, and if there are work activities that are best accomplished face-to-face. Practitioners and researchers have historically identified informal communication as a process essential to organizational success that is difficult or impossible to accomplish outside of shared physical environments. This study documents the ways full-time teleworkers are accomplishing informal communication without being in shared work environments. In doing this, this work also identifies for what purposes these participants find shared organizational workplaces important and/or essential for successful informal communication. To complete this study required that two additional questions needed to be addressed: 1) defining full-time telework in the context of modern ICT-mediated corporate work environments, and 2) a re-examination of the parameters of telework to define them for modern workplace environments, so as be able to use effectively to examine past and present telework research efforts. In order to document the context of each of the participants as fully as possible, a narrative case study based research protocol was used. Participants were engaged through two active interviews and a journaling exercise so as to identify and document instances of informal communication and their purposes or roles in their workdays. This study’s key finding is that among this group of full-time teleworkers, all were engaging in informal communication to accomplish bonding and learning, both in ways that paralleled those communicative practices commonly accomplished in shared environments, but also in new ways that were made possible because of emergent sociomaterial practices supported by new information and communication technology affordances. While all the study’s participants indicated that their work processes, including informal communication, could be entirely accomplished virtually, nearly all noted the importance of face-to-face communication for key aspects of bonding and learning. Additionally, the successful work practices of these teleworkers were strongly dependent on the ubiquitous adoption of ICT tools and platforms throughout these participants’ organizations, and by the distribution and mobility of increasing numbers of workers, in these organizations and others, that are using these technologies as a routine part of their daily work practices.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to map out how the communication is organized at the Bällstabergs School in Vallentuna. The purpose with the essay is to illuminate the pros and cons with their system so that a communicationstrategy could be worked out from the basis of the results. The aim is devided into three different questions at issue: What does the organizational structure look like and how does it concide with the communication? What does the present communicative work look like? Which communicative needs can be identified?</p><p>Method: The methodology contains two parts. The first part is an analysis of the present organization. The analysis could be used to map out the communication in an organization convex and see how it coincide with the organizational structure. The material comes from the webpage of the Bällstaberg school, different documents, the schools communication plan and from conversations. To complete the analysis there are interviewes that show the present communicative work and identifyable needs.</p><p>Main results: The structure of the communication is formal and coincides with the structure of the organization. The information goes from the principal to the managementgroup and then through the supervisor to the workgroups. The intranet is mentioned in the communication plan as a channel but hasen´t been applied more than usage of e-mail. The results show that the persons interviewed are pleased with the formal communication system, but point out minor shortages and problems. The system takes time and can not handle information that must reach members quickly. The interviewed persons inquire about an alternative channel that gives a general view and is accessible. The meetings play an essental part in the communicative work but there is a wish for formality and a more distinct structure in these. The management plays a great role and wishes for a more developed cooperation between each other to be able to make their work easier. The intranet is used limited where the only function that is used is the e-mail. All together is a need of a communication plan that works as direction in the communicative work.</p><p>Keywords: communication, organization, organizational communication,research traditions, internal communication, formal and informal systems, qualitative interviews, formal systems</p>

This project focuses on organization members that use communication as their principle tool for carrying out job duties and responsibilities. More specifically, this study examines the factors that impact the communication of inside and outside sales representatives. The goal of this research is to investigate willingness to communicate, communication apprehension, and self-esteem in daily life and in organizational settings. A total of 87 participants completed questionnaires congruent with these three topics. Previous literature concerning willingness to communicate, communication apprehension, and self esteem were examined to explore relevant information concerning each topic. Results suggest that differences in men and women and willingness to communicate in daily life or communication apprehension are not highly significant. Yet, there is a slight significance in differences when comparing sex and willingness to communicate in the workplace. A longitudinal study of self-esteem and goal success proved self-esteem was not a significant variable when discussing goal attainment within an organization. Future research should explore other variables that could affect willingness to communicate, communication apprehension, and self-esteem to better understand communication within the workplace.

In this dissertation, I explicate how scholars implicate themselves in the subfield of organizational communication studies by engaging in antinomic language-games which make the conduct of research (and textwork in particular) possible. My analysis suggests that the studied scholars enact these games to understand a more or less common object of knowledge, but also to constitute a more or less identifiable position in this given social space. Reflection on the ontological complicity between these position and subfield occurs uncommonly, however. I illustrate, in turn, that this lack of reflexivity hinders discussion about the way academic research practices induce breaks with the social realities which these scholars are trying to understand. In light of this argument, and based predominantly on a translation and extension of Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas, this dissertation thus illustrates how the language-games of scholars in organizational communication studies sustain a limited practice of reflexivity and considers its effects on their production of knowledge.

Abstract Purpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to map out how the communication is organized at the Bällstabergs School in Vallentuna. The purpose with the essay is to illuminate the pros and cons with their system so that a communicationstrategy could be worked out from the basis of the results. The aim is devided into three different questions at issue: What does the organizational structure look like and how does it concide with the communication? What does the present communicative work look like? Which communicative needs can be identified? Method: The methodology contains two parts. The first part is an analysis of the present organization. The analysis could be used to map out the communication in an organization convex and see how it coincide with the organizational structure. The material comes from the webpage of the Bällstaberg school, different documents, the schools communication plan and from conversations. To complete the analysis there are interviewes that show the present communicative work and identifyable needs. Main results: The structure of the communication is formal and coincides with the structure of the organization. The information goes from the principal to the managementgroup and then through the supervisor to the workgroups. The intranet is mentioned in the communication plan as a channel but hasen´t been applied more than usage of e-mail. The results show that the persons interviewed are pleased with the formal communication system, but point out minor shortages and problems. The system takes time and can not handle information that must reach members quickly. The interviewed persons inquire about an alternative channel that gives a general view and is accessible. The meetings play an essental part in the communicative work but there is a wish for formality and a more distinct structure in these. The management plays a great role and wishes for a more developed cooperation between each other to be able to make their work easier. The intranet is used limited where the only function that is used is the e-mail. All together is a need of a communication plan that works as direction in the communicative work. Keywords: communication, organization, organizational communication,research traditions, internal communication, formal and informal systems, qualitative interviews, formal systems

The transformation of the United States Army to a combat force capable of operating successfully on future battlefields requires the leveraging of digital communication capabilities to support distributed battle command. The purpose of this study is to investigate collaborative command group planning performance in traditional face-to-face (collocated) and geographically dispersed group (distributed) conditions. The Reactive Planning Strategies Simulation (REPSS) system was developed to provide a realistic group planning task supporting empirical estimates of planning process and performance outcome success, measured in this context as delivery rate of humanitarian supplies. Results indicate that synchronization scores were not significantly different between conditions; however, they were highly correlated with command group humanitarian supply delivery rates when collapsed across both collocated and distributed' conditions. Furthermore, collocated command groups delivered humanitarian supplies at a higher rate than did distributed command groups. This difference was primarily due to the cumulative effect of poor decision making across the multiple decision points required of the command groups during the exercise.

This research explored how memorable messages and formal (official) university messages work together to inform and influence students’ college choices. Recognizing the ways in which university-constructed and other memorable messages influence students’ choice of college could potentially help colleges improve their recruitment messages and distinguish themselves from other institutions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain data from the participants, and the data were analyzed through a thematic, constant comparative method. Within the context of higher education, findings revealed students’ perceptions of memorable college-related messages, the sources of memorable college-related messages, the characteristics that increase the likelihood that students will recall a college-related message, and the extent to which college-related messages influenced students’ choice of college. This study extends the exploration of the memorable message construct and provides practical implications for university admission offices and their student recruitment efforts.