Karen E. Mishra

Driving Employee Engagement The Expanded Role of Internal Communications

Increasingly, organizations and their public relations professionals are recognizing the importance of strengthening internal communication with employees. Internal communication is important for building a culture of transparency between management and employees, and it can engage employees in the organization’s priorities. This exploratory study uses findings from interviews with public relations executives to explore the growing role that internal communication plays in employee engagement. Executives employ a variety of communication methods, including face-to-face communication, to communicate with employees. The executives’ chosen communication strategies aim to build trust and engagement with employees. In doing so, public relations executives find themselves in an expanded role of fostering employee engagement.

Relationship Marketing in Fortune 500 U.S. and Chinese Web Sites

ABSTRACT Relationship marketing has been successful for firms at building trust and commitment with stakeholders. As more marketing communication is moving online, this study seeks to understand how U.S. and Chinese firms use online communication methods, such as blogs or forums, to build those relationships. The sample included 56 web sites from the Global Fortune 500 firms that have web sites in both English and Chinese. Only 22.8% of the total sample used blogs or forums for symmetrical communication efforts. United States web sites use blogs primarily authored by company employees, whereas the forums on the Chinese web sites are mostly created by the companies themselves.

The research on trust in leadership: The need for context

To date, theoretical and empirical research has largely focused on interpersonal forms of trust and trust building at the expense of institutional forms, despite a rich conceptual trust foundation for the latter. Indeed, in order to understand and address widespread failures of trust, not only in business institutions, but also in other central institutions such as healthcare, government, education and religion, we argue that research must begin to integrate institutional factors with interpersonal ones. Moreover, most research to date has neither explicitly nor fully considered the salient role of context, especially those contexts involving high degrees of uncertainty, vulnerability and/or stress that are particularly germane to trust. Utilising a cross-level case study, we discuss how both interpersonal factors and institutional influences, shaped by context, develop both organisational trust and trust in leadership. We also provide several recommendations for future research, and make the case for studying trust by building trust with research subjects. By examining the interplay among interpersonal trust factors and trust-building efforts with institutional factors, we can develop a more complete picture of how trust within organisations (and even across organisations) is developed, sustained, and even rebuilt.

J. Walter Thompson: building trust in troubled times

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how J. Walter Thompson (JWT) utilized its private forums for its executives over the period 1936‐1938 to build trust both within its own organization as well as with the public in the 1930s. This was a time when the advertising industry was under public scrutiny resulting from using what consumers considered emotional and irrational appeals in their advertising practices.Design/methodology/approach – This archival research examines the meeting minutes of these forums to discover what topics were most important to the leaders of JWT at this time. The archives are located at the Hartman Center at Duke University.Findings – This paper highlights the importance of these forums that were led by the top management team and attended by the creative staff of JWT. These forums played an important role in strengthening the culture of JWT, by building organizational trust and fostering organizational communication with a new generation of JWT leadership.Originalit...

Digital literacy in the marketing curriculum: Are female college students prepared for digital jobs?

Employers seeking to capitalize on current marketing graduates’ technological savvy may find a disappointing gap between their expectations and students’ digital preparedness. This study examines these issues by investigating female students’ attitudes and expectations with regard to using digital tools in marketing coursework and in a future career. Although students often claim they are confident about using technology, many actually feel discomfort about their preparedness for using technology in career contexts. Females in particular struggle to feel confident about their technological competence. This presents a challenge for marketing instruction, because employers have indicated that digital tools are critical for new marketing careers. Thus, it is incumbent upon marketing faculty to help prepare students for the job market not only by offering instruction on marketing’s theoretical foundations but also by providing hands-on opportunities for students to improve their digital skills and confidence.