Priscilla S. Rogers

CEO Presentations in Conjunction with Earnings Announcements Extending the Construct of Organizational Genre Through Competing Values Profiling and User-Needs Analysis

This study extends genre analysis beyond analysis of text to context and audience response, thus exploring the relevance of user-based analytical tools. Competing values profiling and user information needs analyses were performed on a small sample of CEO presentations delivered at the New York Society of Security Analysts. Analysis produced a typified presentation profile that was highly informational and secondarily relational; none were highly promotional or transformational. User content needs were met to some extent, whereas off-balance sheet information was largely ignored. For research, these analyses suggest the value of studying organizational genre from the perspective of audience response; for management, they provide preliminary data that may facilitate communication planning.

Business E-Mail: Guidelines for Users

medium in business today, many businesspeople and business students take it casually and fail to realize its full potential. It’s easy to assume that since e-mail can be produced quickly and easily, readers can comprehend e-mail messages quickly and easily too. Yet overly speedy e-mail writing can result in much slower e-mail reading and even miscommunication. Moreover, e-mail merits considerable attention because it comprises much of management work today-e.g., &dquo;I no longer meet with my team, I e-mail them.&dquo; Overall, e-mail is work, important work, which requires time and know-how to use effectively. The purpose of these guidelines is to help you become more effective and efficient in the use of e-mail. Since e-mail practices

National Agendas and the English Divide.

While as of February 1998 non-US members comprised only 16% of ABC’s total membership, internationalism is evident on all fronts, including the composition of ABC committees and journal editorial boards; the roster of ABC award recipients, conference presentations, and journal publications; and the introduction of new communication vehicles that invite global networking, for example, BCQ on the Web. One ABC journal devoted an entire issue to international con-

Business and Management Communication Cases: Challenges and Opportunities

cases relevant to business communication in the workplace and functional for a wide range of users in both undergraduate and MBA programs. Instructors may photocopy the cases freely for educational use (see the Permission to Photocopy section on the inside of the BCQ front cover). Issues to facilitate incorporating cases into teaching are discussed in this introduction, and further assistance in integrating the cases into curricula and classrooms is available at the BCQ Web site, which includes teaching notes for most of the cases, as well as student sample communications: http://unix.cc.wmich.edu/rea/bcq

Is Empathy Effective for Customer Service? Evidence From Call Center Interactions:

This study examines the nature and value of empathic communication in call center dyads. Our research site was a multinational financial services call center that we came to know through grounded study techniques, including analyses of 289 stressful calls. Examining calls as communication genre revealed that agents and customers have conflicting organizational, service, and efficiency needs that undermine communication. But three types of empathic expression can mitigate these conflicts in some interactions. Affective expressions, such as “I’m sorry,” were less effectual, but attentive and cognitive responses could engender highly positive responses although customers’ need for them varied tremendously. Thus, customer service agents must use both diagnostic and enactment skills to perform empathic communication effectively, a coupling that we call empathy work.

Analytic Measures for Evaluating Managerial Writing

The recent addition of a writing performance assessment to the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) means that many students now enter business school with a writing assessment score and perhaps even a heightened awareness that writing matters in some way to the successful completion of an MBA degree. This situation presents teachers of business and managerial writing with a new opportunity and pressure to provide students with writing tools that are directly relevant to their business studies and professional careers. The Analysis of Argument Measure and the Persuasive Adaptiveness Measure introduced here are assessment tools that may be used to explain holistic assessment scores (which students receive on the GMAT writing component) and may assist students in understanding and evaluating their writing, both in school and in the workplace. Designed to evaluate managerial documents that are persuasive and directorial in nature, these measures were developed through a series of pilots and used to assess a selected sample of managerial memorandums that were also scored holistically. Correlating the holistic and analytic scores revealed a positive association, and interrater reliability achieved good agreement beyond chance. These results suggest that the measures may be reliably employed to assess characteristics valued in managerial writing. Examples of how these analytic measures may be employed for teaching and research are also described.

Language Options for Managing Dana Corporation’s Philosophy and Policy Document

This historical case study identifies language components managers may use to articulate shifts in their strategy. The authors analyzed the language revisions and substitutions Dana Corporation’s upper management made to their highly significant strategic statement, The Philosophy and Policies of Dana (PPD). A large global vehicle parts supplier, Dana experienced tremendous growth and standing until the late 1990s, when a downturn in the industry necessitated dramatic facility closings and workforce reductions. The authors compared the 1987 and 2004 versions of management’s PPD using two frameworks from strategy to guide textual analyses: Campbell’s Ashridge Mission Model and Eccles and Nohria’s Strategic Triadic, coupled with historical company research and conversations with company officials. Dana’s example suggests language options—thematic devices, modifiers, verbs, and sentence subjects—that managers should consider when formulating messages about the strategic changes they envision.

Preparing New Entrants for Subordinate Reporting A Decision-Making Framework for Writing

This study resulted in a conceptual framework to facilitate decisions about rhetorical and linguistic choices for subordinates reporting to superiors. Soon-to-be new hires graduating from business schools in Singapore and the midwestern United States responded to reporting scenarios. Their responses were scored holistically on overall effectiveness. Analyses of subsamples revealed four issues where these students had difficulties reporting in writing: contribution, deference, ownership, and objectivity. An analytical tool incorporating these issues and textual alternatives was then used to score a large subsample. Correlations between the holistic scores and scores on the analytical tool suggest that the four issues are distinct yet complementary, with contribution on one side of a continuum and deference on the other. The finding that Singaporean respondents scored higher on deference than contribution, whereas the reverse was true for U.S. respondents, suggests the usefulness of the framework when used for cross-cultural teaching and research.

Distinguishing Public and Presentational Speaking

In the November 1987 issue of Management Communication Quarterly, Frank E.X. Dance concludes that behaviors for public and presentational speaking overlap, and any differences between them must be differences not of genre but of situation or setting. In response to Dance, this article examines pedagogical and linguistic literature to recommend the validity and value of adopting “presentational speaking” as a distinct genre or speaking type. In conclusion, the author suggests that treating public, presentational, and conversational speaking as distinct genres may spawn the development of theoretical models and pedagogical approaches more relevant to particular business speaking events.

How Researchers Gain Access to Organizations

a guest scholar and will focus on a single practical issue, often presenting several different perspectives. The Research Committee invites your participation to help make &dquo;Doing Research&dquo; a provocative, helpful column. Please contact me to suggest topics for future columns, offer to edit a column, or recommend editors and writers. (LJntil June 30, phone 310-5454402 ; e-mail: jrymer@agsm.ucla.edu; fax: 310-2062002. After July 1, phone 313-577-4522; e-mail: jrymer@cms.cc.wayne.edu; fax: 313-577-5486.) —JR