The problem of this study was to determine how well the public information office of the Dallas Police Department performed in three public relations areas: staff consultation, employee communication, and press relations. Interviews were conducted with the command staff of the Dallas Police Department and with nine mass media representatives who had regular contact with both the police department and the public information office. Their answers were compared with public relations principles taken from literature in both the general public relations and the police public relations fields to see if the public information office was succeeding or failing in performing its staff-consultation, employee-communication, and press-relations functions.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how supervisor-employee communication affects the employee engagement on the shop floor of manufacturing organisations. To achieve this purpose, the two below research objectives were developed: To identify how supervisor-employee communication impacts employee engagement To identify any barriers to supervisor-employee communication Method The study had a deductive, qualitative research approach as a conceptual framework was developed from literature and then verified with empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews. The research strategy was holistic and single case as all eight interviews were conducted with respondents from a single organisation. The interviewees were selected using a maximum variation, purposive sampling technique. Lastly, the collected data was analysed using a form of thematic analysis. Findings The main finding was that supervisor-employee communication was proven to have a significant impact on the employee engagement among the shop floor workers in the manufacturing organisation. In addition, supervisor-employee communication was proven to affect the employee engagement in a similar way that literature suggested. Furthermore, the findings supported the definition of employee engagement as a shared responsibility between the employee and the supervisor. Theoretical implications This study provided additional data to the existing literature on supervisor-employee communication and employee engagement while investigating the relationship between these two concepts in a new setting. Not only did this study contribute with rather unique data from the manufacturing industry, but it also adopted the employee perspective of the phenomenon. Previous research has predominantly consisted of studies with the perspective of management rather than the employees. Therefore, this study offers a foundation upon which further, both qualitative and quantitative research within this area can be conducted. Practical implications The main practical implication that this study has offered is highlighting the importance of supervisor-employee communication when it comes to generating and maintaining employee engagement on the shop floor of manufacturing organisations. The supervisor’s role and way of communicating has been identified as crucial for the employees’ level of engagement and this study has provided some guidance for supervisors in this matter.

Audits of organizational communication have been viewed as an efficient means for collecting data and diagnosing common communication problems (Meyer, 2002), and evaluating employee communication satisfaction has proven to be a vital component of the auditor’s overall goal of assessing communication effectiveness. While communication audits have been used for the past 50 years by practitioners and scholars alike to evaluate the effectiveness of both external and internal communications, this particular analysis will explore the internal communications of a business-to-business sales division within a major U.S. credit reporting agency. Using Goldhaber’s (2002) method for administering Web-based communication surveys and a combination of Downs & Hazen’s (1977) Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire and Gayeski’s (2000) Information Systems Analysis, this study will assess how the salesperson’s satisfaction of the company’s electronic sales communications relates to perceived productivity.

It has long been established that “communication is of fundamental importance in the operation of all organizations, and a knowledge of the efficiency of the general communication system is vital to achieve high levels of organizational effectiveness” (Greenbaum, Clampitt, & Willihnganz, 1988, p. 245). With this in mind, over the past forty years many organizations have turned to communication audits to identify strategies to improve their organizations’ communication practices. One such organization is the State Bar of Georgia. Using Downs and Hazen’s (1977) Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, this study assessed the health/effectiveness of the Bar’s formal and informal communication channels, identified problems and made recommendations for improvement. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Bar’s existing communication channels, the audit showed how communication practices at the Bar relate to employee job satisfaction.

abstract: Few studies bridge workplace engagement and employee voice with internal communication. This analysis builds upon both the crucial concept of employee engagement and its implications for communication professionals and leaders. Further, it calls for more strategic integration of upward employee voice in internal communications. By examining factors that support communication (in two directions) and especially upward employee voice, researchers examine a case study of an intranet site at a major academic research institute. Factors that support employee expression are compared with data streams from both user survey and website analytics. The results point to voice-inducing techniques include projecting critical mass, fostering trust, and emphasizing intranet usefulness and rewards. By enriching workplace communications, voice can strengthen the employee’s ability to contribute, connect leaders with a source for direct feedback, and help employers be more responsive and nimbler. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Technical Communication 2020

The communication environment in which organizations operate is changing, not least due to the increasing digitalization. With social media platforms growing importance in a professional context, employees can become potent communicators with strategic relevance for organizations. Communication through these Corporate Influencers poses several challenges to organizations, as the established approaches and methods of strategic communication, as discussed in literature, can only partially be applied for this new form of communicators. Due to the novelty of this field there is a significant gap in academic literature. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the challenges connected to the communication of Corporate Influencers from an organizational perspective, moreover, offering first insights into an emerging field in the discipline of strategic communication. To address the research gap, this study pursued an exploratory, hence qualitative approach. Nine semi-structured interviews with experts in the field from nine different companies were conducted and analyzed using the Gioia method. Through this method, the author was able to identify eleven major challenges on different hierarchical levels, arising for organizations in connection to the communication of Corporate Influencers. The analysis suggested a strong interrelation between the singular challenges, presented in form of a dynamic model. By contrasting these papers findings against preexisting literature from the field of strategic communication, and in particular employee advocacy, this thesis concludes that a holistic view is necessary from an organizational perspective. While an adequate corporate culture is the prerequisite for all further efforts, the challenges on a managerial level are of equal importance to those on the employee level, as well as to the challenges surfacing when moving towards the operationalization. While the challenges need to be addressed individually for a successful Corporate Influencer communication, they should at all times be regarded in an overall organizational context.

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Mergers have become a common feature for South African organisations since the dawn of democracy in 1994. There are several studies completed internationally and locally on how to handle mergers in general. There is limited research however on the role played by communication in this process. In this regard, this study aims to analyse the role of communication during a merger in an information communication technology (ICT) organisation, underpinned by Nudge’s Change Theory, which asserts that employees should be involved in the merger process, thereby making it possible to take their views into consideration. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed in this study to gain insight on the role communication plays before, during, and after a merger. Primary data was collected from employees based at the organisation’s Head Office in Pretoria, through online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Results of the study show that communication with employees before, during and after merger was poor, resulting in high levels of uncertainty among employees. Furthermore, management did not provide adequate feedback to employees during the process. This caused panic among employees and a lack of confidence in the success of the merger. Based on these findings, it is recommended that top management investigates ways of enhancing channels of communication to ensure that communication with employees during mergers is not only meaningful but effective. The findings confirm recommendations made by Nudge’s Change Theory of the need to equip both management and employees during times of uncertainty. In this regard, further research to be conducted with different companies in the sector on the role employee communication plays during mergers to see if similar perceptions are maintained or changed. / Communication Science / M. A. (Communication)

Businesses are increasingly using social media for crisis communication messages, and so do employees. Given the special relationship with employees, organisations should pay attention to understanding employee communication behaviour (ECB) during an organisational crisis. Drawing from the Situation Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and the perspective of employees as active participants in crisis communication, this study proposes an evidence-based employee-focused conceptual framework of the anticipated ECBs on social media during an organisational crisis and in response to crisis type and the crisis response strategy utilized by organisations. This research aims to examine the impact of crisis types and crisis response strategies on employee communication behaviour outcomes in social media. The research employs a 2 (crisis type: victim crisis or preventable crisis) * 2 (crisis response strategy: accommodative or defensive) qualitative experimental design. 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in Kuwait with employees working in different industries in the private sector to investigate: 1) ECB on social media in response to defensive and accommodative crisis response strategies in a preventable crisis type, 2) ECB on social media in response to defensive and accommodative crisis response strategies in a victim crisis type, and 3)Employee-organisation relationship (EOR) influence on ECB on social media during an organisational crisis. This research argues that the anticipated ECB is within four classifications 1) Proactive advocacy ECB, 2) Reactive advocacy ECB, 3) neutral ECB, and 4) Adversary ECB. The findings show that employees are more likely to engage in advocacy ECB if the crisis response is informative, regardless of the crisis type. An adversary ECB is expected when the organisation faces a preventable crisis type and utilizes a defensive response strategy. Additionally, a positive EOR encourages a more advocacy ECB.

In order to engage employees effectively, organisations need to practice two-way communication within a symmetrical worldview. This will encourage employees to feel valued, to participate in decision-making and contribute to obtaining organisational goals. Practising two-way communication will help to build stronger relationships between employees and managers, leading to increased employee engagement. Thus, the better the communication between managers and employees, the more engaged employees will be. Furthermore, the selection of communication channels can impact on the success of the message that is sent. Research has shown that if the inappropriate communication channel is selected when communicating with employees, the message might not be effectively received and understood. New technology, specifically Facebook can be introduced to provide an open and transparent channel for communication. Facebook can also facilitate two-way communication, which can lead to increased employee engagement. The literature study conducted informed the interview schedules that were developed and used to conduct semi-structured interviews with managers and focus group interviews with employees within two organisations in the South African financial sector. This was done in order to understand their expectations regarding the use of Facebook as an internal communication channel to enhance employee engagement. In terms of the conclusions derived from the empirical research, it seems evident that Facebook could be used as an additional internal communication channel to enhance employee engagement. Trust remains a very important factor in that managers should trust employees to use the channel in an ethical manner and employees should trust the organisation and its managers that they may voice their opinion freely, without the fear of victimisation. Facebook can be used to promote engagement on a social level to build relationships inside the organisation. However, managers and employees can together create a contract of understanding that will form the outline for a policy that will govern the use of Facebook. The parties involved can then negotiate the terms of this contract of understanding to ensure that all expectations regarding the use Facebook are met. / MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013