开放系统、负熵与界限沟通者——组织传播视野中的中海油竞购优尼科事件

本文运用系统学派的组织理论,考察中国海洋石油总公司竞购优尼科事件中的传播行为,分析其成败得失,探讨企业传播这一组织传播方式的特点和规律。     

The evolution of the operational earthquake forecasting community of practice: the L’Aquila communication crisis as a triggering event for organizational renewal

The scientific community of earthquake experts has long grappled with how to communicate earthquake probabilities successfully to non-scientific publics. Perhaps most central to their concern is the widely held belief that scientists can actually predict earthquakes when, in fact, they cannot. The potential consequences of this miscommunication problem were appallingly realized as a result of the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. Failed risk communication among scientists, a public official, and L’Aquila residents prior to the earthquake resulted in 309 deaths, 1500 injuries, and 65,000 people displaced from their homes, as well as the sentencing of six scientists and one public official to six years in prison for manslaughter. This paper examines how and why the L’Aquila Earthquake communication crisis ultimately redefined the international scientific earthquake community of practice and its discourse beyond that of community resilience to organizational learning and renewal.     

对当前传播现象的观察与思考

进入知识经济时代,以电子传媒为首的大众传播媒介大规模侵入公众生活,成为公众生活的直接背景和现实,面对大众传播的传媒角色呈现出新的特点和现象,我们应该如何看待这些问题?     

The Emerging Library: Structure,Culture, and Lessons Learned from the Dissolution of a Combined Libraries–IT Organization

ABSTRACT

In 1997 the University of Southern California merged campus technology operations and the libraries into the USC Information Services Division (ISD). When the university dissolved ISD in 2006, the USC Libraries became a stand-alone entity for the first time in a decade. This article describes the USC Libraries’ approach to rebuilding an identity as an active partner in teaching, learning, and research at USC. It outlines the planning process used to develop a new organizational structure, highlights practical and cultural challenges that followed the dissolution, and describes several significant lessons learned.     

企业内部的战略信息资源传播

本文基于企业战略信息资源的特殊性 ,重点论述了企业内部战略信息资源传播的三个层面 ,并进一步探讨了相关的模式和特征     

Supporting Mexican immigrants’ resettlement in the United States: an ethnography of communication approach to building allies’ communication competence

This research explores interactions among Mexican immigrants and their U.S.- and Mexican-born allies at an immigrant support center (ISC) in the U.S. Southwest. I propose that to support Mexican immigrants in resettling, allies who work at this ISC must apply cultural knowledge about competent communication for Mexican speakers to structure their strategic actions (Sprain & Boromisza-Habashi, 2013). Taking an ethnography of communication (EOC) approach, I investigate the means and meanings of communication (Hymes, 1972) for speakers that point to cultural knowledge about competent communication. Data for this study include 7 months of observation, interviews with 37 community and staff members, and public documents collected during fieldwork. Findings reveal five means of communication that are meaningful for speakers at ISC. This research demonstrates the practical utility of the EOC in understanding how cultural expectations for communication may both assist and limit ISC’s efforts to support resettlement.     

数字时代图书馆管理危机

在数字环境下,现代信息技术与网络技术的发展对我国各类图书馆的管理和发展带来新的要求和挑战。目前,我国图书馆管理中还存在着许多危机因素,尤其体现在图书馆领导者、组织结构、战略规划、制度建设等方面。因此,图书馆机构及其领导者需要提高管理能力、准确制定并实施发展战略、培育自身文化,并采取积极措施应对竞争,才能更好地适应数字化环境下图书馆的发展。     

Reconceptualizing interorganizational collaborations as tensile structures: Implications of conveners’ proactive tension management

Conveners, as the main organizers of complex inter-organizational collaborations (IOCs), experience tensions as they make decisions based on collaborators’ competing interests and ideas. This paper theorizes conveners’ tension management as their proactive efforts to shape the IOC processes – as opposed to reactive responses to emergent tensions – and examines how they are related to IOCs’ collaborative capacity. A comparative case analysis of two IOCs in regional planning reveals that conveners’ organizing practices that actively promoted tensions contributed to creating a more dynamic and tension-resistant collaborative environment, compared to those of conveners who tried to prevent tensions. Using tensile structure as a metaphor, the author theorizes about when and how proactively promoting tensions can enhance collaborative capacity.     

Spokespersons and Message Control: How the CDC Lost Credibility during the Anthrax Crisis This paper was presented to the Red River Communication Conference April 22, 2004.

This study evaluates the role of spokespersons and message control in complex organizations facing ambiguous crises. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) response to the anthrax crisis in 2001 is offered as a case study. A textual analysis of CDC telebriefings and corresponding print media coverage of the anthrax crisis reveals the use of multiple spokespersons and poor message control resulted in a seemingly fragmented CDC message and apparent loss of CDC credibility. The study concludes that limiting the number of spokespersons and appropriate use of strategic ambiguity may afford organizations an opportunity to make sense of the situation, avoid confusing and contradictory messages and protect organizational credibility. Recommendations include (1) limiting the number of spokespersons, which allows for greater message control while reducing contradictory and inconsistent messages, (2) maintaining an organizational willingness to revise publicly stated positions as more accurate information becomes available, and (3) actively using strategic ambiguity as a mechanism to protect organizational credibility.     

Faculty Status

No abstract available for this article.     

Organizational Change and Renewal: Can Strategic Communication Methods Ease the Pain? A Case Study from the University of Southern Queensland

ABSTRACT

Strategic communication is not solely the remit of library managers and directors, but is the product of internal culture and engagement with the organization's brand. Libraries need to communicate strategically, in order to demonstrate to individuals across the organization that their message is on point, and that they understand, are committed to, and actively support the university's goals. Much of this work happens via the myriad of interactions library staff at all levels have with students and staff (and indeed community members) of all kinds. When the attitude and behavior of library staff does not truly reflect the library's and the university's branding or goals, this undermines more explicit measures of value. It is important for the leadership of academic libraries to understand and influence how every library staff member views his or her role in the organization, so that their communication is reflective of a confidence in themselves and their profession, and a solid understanding of their institution and the higher education landscape. In large-scale organizational change, both intellectual and emotional buy-in to the organization can wane. We seek to show how a people-centered change process, rather than adversely affecting staff buy-in, could instead increase buy-in to the organizational change.