Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The city of Austin is a small community in Southern Indiana that experienced a large HIV/AIDS outbreak which infected over 180 people. Due to rapid spread of the disease from shared needles during intravenous drug use, a public health emergency was declared in March 2015. This epidemic was a symptom of the overall communal health issues within the area related to drugs, crime, prostitution and poverty. These problems affect residents’ physical and mental health, however, often go unaddressed due to limited resources, healthcare and education. Organizations within the area were affected by the epidemic, and many provided a response to help combat the issue. The purpose of this study is to examine how organizations respond to a health crisis from a communication perspective. Research question one is, what was the level of coordination between the seven organizations during the HIV/AIDS epidemic? Research question two is, what was the public’s response to the effort made by the seven organizations? This study interviewed seven participants and a thematic analysis was conducted that discovered four themes: coordinated response, uncoordinated activities, response time, and inadequate response. In response to research question one, the levels of coordination were infrequent with the seven agencies. Research question two found multiple areas that indicated the agencies approach ineffective in adequately informing the public. The agencies’ efforts displayed a lack of coordination and poor timely response to the crisis. These issues show it is imperative that we develop a resilient health system to operate systemically. By implementing communication for whole health, it would provide a resilient system for agencies to understand and develop coordination and collaboration between each other. With a sense of coordination, they would then be able to execute ways of promoting and living out better physical and mental health (Parrish-Sprowl and Parrish-Sprowl, 2016).

Rapid expansion, globalization and companies always wanting bigger market shares are just a few of the reasons why digital internal communication is a must in organisations today. In parallel, digital development has increased rapidly during the last decades and organisations that keep up with technological innovations can gain competitive advantages. But how does digital technology affect organisational members? The COVID-19 pandemic has forced digital communication and remote work to many organisations. Making sense of digital communication and maintaining employee engagement are new challenges that organisations need to manage in the digital format. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how to make sense of digital internal communication and how this affects employee engagement. A case study of Organisation X digital communication consisting of four qualitative interviews and secondary data has been conducted to investigate this. A theoretical framework consisting of theories about sensemaking and employee engagement are combined to construct an analysis model that explains this relationship. The results show that digital communication through video-calls and informal communication channels are effective for sensemaking in the digital environment. The results also show that social interactions decrease in digital communication due to more planned communication, which affects employee engagement.

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The aim of the study is to study how the employees at a public sector organization have perceived the implementation of mediated communications during remote work, due to Covid-19. This studies the current situation of the transition in time which made it possible to include both the remote work and current state in which restrictions regarding remote work are lifted. This in relation to organizational culture and organizational communication. To study this, the theoretical framework of communicative figurations by Hepp and Hasebrink (2018) and organizational culture by Schein and Schein (2017) was used. Data from interviews with six employees at a public sector organization in Sweden and organizational documents was collected and analyzed with a qualitative content analysis. The main result of the study is based on employees' perception. The results show that organizational culture has changed in terms of changing norms and behaviors in the organization. The implementation of digital tools and mediated communication in the organization have been perceived to increase availability and a change in how to communicate in an acceptable way. This includes both employees and leaders. Employees have perceived remote work and the technological switch in some aspect’s problematic, although to a large extent interviewees have expressed a willingness to continue working from home in the future.

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Denna kvantitativa studie undersöker faktorer som kan ha påverkat resultatet på Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions medarbetarundersökning relaterat till påståendet "There is open and honest two-way communication at our company” och varför. Studien tillämpade en enkät som distribuerades på Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions intranät och via e-post och fanns att tillgå för cirka 1900 medarbetare. Totalt besvarade 34 medarbetare på studiens enkät.  Sara von Platens avhandling “Internkommunikation och meningsskapande vid strategisk organisationsförändring: En studie av Sveriges Television” och Mats Heides avhandling “Intranät - En ny arena för kommunikation och lärande” används för perspektiv med relevans för denna studies forskning. Vidare utgår studiens teoretiska ramverk från tvåvägskommunikation, organisationskommunikation och organisationskultur. Studien berör och diskuterar utöver dessa teorier även internkommunikation i relation till studiens resultat.  Inhämtad empiri tyder på att brist på återkoppling, dålig kommunikation och information mellan Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions olika divisioner, utebliven information och brist på att alla får ta del av information kan vara faktorer som påverkat att Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions fått ett lägre resultat på deras senaste medarbetarundersökning kopplat till påståendet "There is open and honest two-way communication at our company”. Upplevd kultur inom organisationen, brist på engagemang från medarbetare och brist på att involvera medarbetare i kommunikationen kan även ha bidragit till att medarbetarundersökningen fick ett lägre resultat kopplat till påståendet som nämnts. / This qualitative study examines factors that may have influenced the results of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions employee survey related to the statement “There is open and honest two-way communication at our company” and why.  The study applied a survey that was distributed on Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions intranet and was sent out by their internet and e-mail. The survey was available to about 1,900 employees. A total of 34 employees responded to the study’s questionnaire. Sara von Platen’s thesis “Internal communication and meaning-making in strategic organizational change: A study of Swedish Television” and Mats Heide’s thesis “Intranet – A new arena for communication and learning” intended for perspectives with relevance for this study. The study's theoretical framework is based on two-way communication, organizational communication, and organizational culture. In addition to these theories, the study also addresses and discusses internal communication. Collected empirical evidence indicates that lack of feedback, poor communication and information sharing among Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions different divisions and lack of information and failure to provide information to all employees may have affected the results of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions employee survey related to the statement “There is open and honest two-way communication at our company”. The study further interprets that the culture perceived within the organization, as well as lack of engagement and involvement of employees in communication may also contributed to the lower result.

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Parmi les relations qui traversent l’univers de l’entreprise, celles entre gestionnaires et fournisseurs occupent une place de premier ordre, dans la mesure où ils permettent d’obtenir les produits et services dont l’entrepreneur se servira pour faire de l’argent. Mais dans un contexte de relations humaines, il est inévitable que d’autres liens, affectifs ou émotifs, se nouent au fil des communications. Ces liens, ou attachements, se tissent par l’entremise de conversations, de documents et de pratiques et, par la dimension performative de la communication, deviennent un aspect constitutif de l’identité des parties prenantes, individuelle et collective. À partir d’une étude qualitative réalisée auprès d’un entrepreneur propriétaire d’un café montréalais, ce mémoire tente de comprendre, au moyen d’une entrevue, de conversations avec l’entrepreneur et d’enregistrements de certaines interactions, la manière dont les attachements se manifestent dans les relations entre lui et ses fournisseurs, le rôle que ces derniers jouent dans lesdites relations et l’impact qu’ils peuvent avoir dans l’entreprise et sa trajectoire. Suite à une analyse ventriloque de six interactions, les résultats de cette recherche dévoilent que les attachements jouent effectivement plusieurs rôles dans les relations entre entrepreneur et fournisseur, notamment en permettant de garder le contact en période de tension, en protégeant certaines relations et en agissant comme garde-fou relationnel. Ces rôles ont, par ailleurs, des effets sur l’entreprise elle-même, car ils peuvent agir sur l’identité même du café et sur la manière dont les décisions importantes sont prises. / Among the relationships that permeate the world of business, those between managers and suppliers are of the utmost importance, as they are essential to provide the products and services that the entrepreneur will use to make money. But, in a context of human relations, it is inevitable that other bonds, affective or emotional, get enacted in the course of interaction. These bonds, or attachments, are forged through conversations, documents, and practices and, through the performative dimension of communication, become a constitutive aspect of the stakeholders’ individual and collective identities. Based on a qualitative study conducted with the owner of a Montreal café, this dissertation seeks to understand, through an interview, conversations with the entrepreneur and recordings of certain interactions with some suppliers, how attachments manifest themselves in these relationships, the role these attachments play in these same relationships and the impact they can have on the company and its trajectory. Through a ventriloquial analysis of six interactions, the results of this research reveal that attachments do indeed play several roles in the relationship between entrepreneur and supplier, including maintaining the bond in times of tension, protecting certain relationships, and acting as a relational safeguard. These roles also have an impact on the company itself, as they can influence the very identity of the business and the way in which important decisions are made.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In recent years, there has been an increase in special education complaints filed against school corporations for noncompliance with the terms of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) established in a Case Conference Committee meeting. Case Conference Committees include parents/guardians, Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) students, and educators. Parents/guardians are equal partners to the school corporation when developing the IEP. Disagreements within Case Conference Committee (CCC) meetings can lead to strained relationships. During Case Conference Committee Meetings, parents/guardians may disagree with educators related to managing the student’s IEP (Indiana Department of Education, 2021). Consequently, a parent/guardian of a SLD student may file a complaint or due process hearing resulting from poor communication between parties during or after a Case Conference Meeting (McQuerrey, 2019). The Critical Organizational Communication Theory was applied in exploring if parents/guardians experienced the Indiana IEP Resource Center’s common issues in CCC meetings including: the lack of (1) Communication, (2) Preparation, (3) Clarity, (4) Respect, and (5) Transparency. A narrative approach was used to tell the stories of parents/guardians and SLD students’ experience in CCC meetings.