Argues that scholars who wish to produce substantive research in management communication ethics would be helped by a clear vision of what the term designates. States that management communication ethics should designate concerns that lie at the intersection of management, communication, and ethics. Concludes that this approach could help to…

States that the term "management communication" has not been defined, and the discipline has no focus. Calls for research within the managerial context--difficult for professors to understand because managers and academics operate in different environments. Finds that obstacles exist to conducting valuable management communication…

Provides a conceptual overview of the four studies on management writing included in this issue. Relates research on written management communication to evolving conceptions of workplace literacy. Argues that stronger emphasis should be placed upon innovative methods of creating organizational attention to managers' writing as both process and…

Describes the new GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), including its evaluation and the results schools receive. Reviews uses of the AWA scores and essays that have ramifications for management communication. Suggests why it is vital for communication instructors to become involved in decisions about how…

Finds that, of the disciplines under discussion in this special issue, corporate communication is the newest, least understood, and the only one specifically related to a functional area within organizations. Defines corporate communication as a discipline. Examines how it relates to other subdisciplines under consideration (management…

Critiques three essays published in the July 1996 issue of this journal. Argues that the identity of the field of business communication should be determined by the conceptual problematic underlying its intellectual inquiry rather than by its vocabulary or instructional practices. Argues that business communication, management communication, and…

Claims organizational or management communication finds itself in a difficult rhetorical dilemma. Suggests that even evolving and outward-looking networks have a tendency toward closure, self-affirmation and self-legitimation. Claims repeated and conscious decisions--affirmative action as understood in its older sense--are needed to push beyond…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal which defends the applied value of laboratory studies to managers. Agrees that external validity is often irrelevant, and maintains that the problem of making inferences from any subject sample in management communication is one that demands internal, not external, validity. (SR)

For several years, the "systems" metaphor has guided organizational communication research. Recently, however, a sizable number of management and organizational communication scholars have explored another guiding metaphor--that of organizational culture. Present notions of organizational culture tend to focus on static, structural…

The development of skills for group evaluation and facilitation in today's team environment is an essential component of the learning process for the student of communication. Until recently there has been no integrated model for the consideration of small groups and teams that incorporated findings from psychology, social psychology, management…

The boundary metaphor has been used successfully over the past two decades to explain and predict how individuals manage the tensions between the need to self-disclose and the need for privacy within interpersonal relationships. This paper explores the history of Communication Boundary Management Theories and presents suggestions for modifying the…

Although a large body of research exists regarding the construct of "socialization," scholars have no universally accepted definition of this construct. Additionally, scholars have used the term to describe several different components of both structural and communication dynamics without agreeing upon a metaphor or general acceptance of…

Based on multidisciplinary research findings, this report proposes an information processing model of employees' response to highly stressful information environments arising during organizational crises. The introduction stresses the importance of management's handling crisis communication with employees skillfully. The second section points out…

Interviews 25 managers on the nature of managerial communication, including questions about how they would describe their jobs and some of the communication problems their organizations have had. (DF)

Suggests the fundamental challenge for refining theories of communication and uncertainty is to abandon the assumption that uncertainty will produce anxiety. Outlines and extends a theory of uncertainty management and reviews current theory and research. Concludes that people want to reduce uncertainty because it is threatening, but uncertainty…