<p> Dialogue is a useful organizational strategy that supports a shared understanding that is useful in the solving complex problems. A community hospital challenged with publicly transparent quality metrics and the associated financial and reputation penalties developed a culture supportive of dialogue and participation and was the setting for this research. </p><p> The purpose of the research was to explore the decisions and messages an executive leadership team implemented that support the practice of dialogue and facilitated a culture of participation. This retrospective, qualitative study reviewed documents and artifacts over a seven-year time span from 2007-2014. two sources, 1) the Operation Committee meetings and 2) The all- employee forums provided by the senior leadership were reviewed. These source were coded utilizing a predetermined coding scheme based upon information from 3 theories, 1) Isaac&rsquo;s dimensions of dialogue, 2) Isaac&rsquo;s action theory of dialogue and 3) Fischer&rsquo;s levels of participation. These three theories when integrated provide a three dimensional perspective that supports the practice of dialogue. </p><p> The conclusions of this study are that 1) A single theory of dialogue is not sufficient. 2. An effective model for communication must include, at a minimum, contain an aspect of action theory, a dimension of dialogue, and a level of participation. 3. Delaying decision-making in order to obtain feedback allows for the prolongation of deliberation and for the emergence of dialogue and deliberation and 4. Expansion of the deliberation time is a mechanism that helps the group to suspend assumptions and is a methodology supportive of dialogue. This research recommends a three step, <i>how to</i> approach to supporting dialogue and a culture of participation. The recommended pattern is to 1) ask for feedback thus 2) delaying the decision, and 3) listening to the feedback.</p>

<p> This dissertation advances a novel approach that I refer to as the structure of strategic communication. Leveraging theory on how people naturally structure their arguments, this approach contends that organizational actors deploy arguments to influence others at two structurally distinct levels&mdash;<i> within</i> the rules of the game or <i>about</i> the rules of the game. This dissertation&rsquo;s primary claim is that talking more about the rules of the game, which exposes the assumptions underlying our social institutions to direct examination, may have profound implications. I build evidence for this claim in two ways. First, I develop a new measurement called the <i>argument structure ratio</i> (<i>ASR</i>) that conceptually and empirically captures how explicit a speaker makes these assumptions in their communication. I outline a three-step methodology for measuring the ASR of any collection of written texts. Second, I theorize and empirically demonstrate how the ASR impacts an audience&rsquo;s reaction. Using all public speeches made by the Chairperson of the United States Federal Reserve from 1998 to 2014, I show that the more they expose the assumptions underlying the Federal Reserve System, the more their speeches produce market uncertainty. I argue that these findings fundamentally change how we think about the role of strategic communication in market contexts. More generally, this work provides a new way to conceptualize and study strategic communication that extends well beyond financial markets to a variety of different organizational contexts and across multiple levels of analysis. Taken together, this dissertation provides a theoretical and methodological foundation upon which to conduct research on the structure of strategic communication.</p><p>

<p> Expatriate knowledge transfer is often disrupted, which creates a loss of learning for the sending organization. Lack of knowledge transfer also causes a loss of competitive advantage for corporations. This study investigates barriers to knowledge transfer for expatriates in a US-based defense company. This research examines knowledge transfer through the lived experiences of expatriates, focusing on the characteristics of &ldquo;ability to transfer&rdquo; and &ldquo;motivation to transfer&rdquo; and their representation as &ldquo;noise&rdquo; in the communication system. This research uses qualitative methods to explore whether barriers to knowledge transfer exist within a corporation. This phenomenological case study provides a way to understand the social interaction between expatriates and their organization from the expatriates&rsquo; perspective. This research contributes to the understanding of the phenomenon around knowledge transfer. The data collected from the expatriates showed many different themes, but the most prevalent was their reliance on their social networks. The most common barrier for knowledge transfer dealt with supervisory interactions and the lack of formal knowledge documentation processes. There were also many other barriers noted by the expatriates, but these barriers were overcome through an expatriate&rsquo;s focus on personal responsibility.</p>

<p> Professional speech coaches, executive coaches, human resources professionals, industry and organizational psychologists, and others may work with managers and leaders to help them improve the quality of the feedback they provide during performance reviews. The presented research interviewed 11 people from 10 different organizations to learn how they experience feedback. The intent of this research is not to show how feedback works, how it is good or bad, or to correlate it with a specific approach. Instead, the results of this research will help a coach play the role of a direct report more accurately during a practice session with a manager. In addition, the results of this research show that direct reports experience feedback reviews in ways that relate to their emotions, attitudes, and expectations (EAE). Speech coaches working with managers on their management communication skills can use EAE to help the manager better understand the state of mind that the direct report has, which in turn may help in the framing of the conversation and choosing the most effective approach.</p>

<p> An increased number of widespread disasters ranging from storm surge flooding to sprawling wildfires, has increased the pressure on emergency communication. Social Media, through mobile technology combined with volunteer geographic information (VGI), has the potential to enable disaster impacted populations to send and receive crucial information thereby reducing the impact and loss associated with widespread disasters. This study examines how social media impacts emergency and disaster communication by analyzing the results of thirty-three case studies where social media had an impact on communication. Thematic synthesis conducted through the identification of themes derived from study findings indicates that while there are many challenges to implementing a social media enhanced emergency communication strategy, when authorities adopt such a strategy, stakeholders affected by the emergency have more actionable information and situational awareness. Additionally, awareness of the emergency by non-affected stakeholders, such as disaster relief agencies and fundraisers increases exponentially when social media is included in the communication strategy. Findings also suggest that challenges such as information overload, and the dissemination of false information can be overcome when authorities cooperate with affected stakeholders to moderate social media posts.</p><p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 28, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University, 2007. / Adviser: Yoonhyeung Choi. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

<p> The introduction includes the present quantitative study that addressed the potential benefits verbal argumentativeness could relate to the retail industry and determined the perception of verbal argumentativeness by retail store managers. The data collection method was a survey of retail store managers within San Diego County. A chi-square univariate analysis was conducted of these participants. The results of the study indicated verbal argumentativeness was somewhat of a healthy strategy to incorporate into business acumen as a new approach to contribute to the body of research for possible behaviors and plans retail store managers could adopt in relationships with employees. The discussion section shows an untapped source from the retail industry and how this industry can use this study to further research within the retail industry.</p>