Workplace Communication for the 21st Century: Tools and Strategies that Impact the Bottom Line
The following are the proposed chapters for the Two Volume Series:
Table of Contents
Table of Contents:
Volume 1, Internal Workplace Communication
Volume 2, External Workplace Communication
Volume 1 – Internal Workplace Communication
1. “Communicating within the Modern Workplace: Challenges and Prospects”
This chapter will be an introduction to the volume and will connect the other chapters, tying them together.
2. “Ethics Matter: Why Ethical Communication Matters Today”
This chapter will focus on the National Communication Association’s Credo for Ethical Communication and how it applies in the workplace communication context.
3. “Creating a Productive Workplace Culture and Climate”
This chapter will explore the nature of organizational cultures and climates and how business managers and executives can utilize this knowledge to make employees more committed and productive.
4. “Communicating Effectively with New Hires to Bring out Their Best”
This chapter will focus on how employees are brought into an organization and socialized to understand an organization’s unique culture and climate. The chapter will provide specific examples and techniques for ensuring effective employee socialization.
5. “Getting Accurate and Timely Information Communicated Around the Workplace”
This chapter will focus on the nuts and bolts aspects of creating an internal communication campaign within an organization. The chapter will cover analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation aspects of communication campaigns.
6. “Diversity Matters: Harnessing the Power of Diversity for your Organization”
This chapter will examine the importance that identity and diversity plays in the modern workplace. Specific attention will be placed on how identity and diversity impacts employee interactions.
7. “Men and Women Communicating in the Workplace: Why Gender Differences Matter and Make Workplaces more Effective”
This chapter will focus on the research examining female and male communication patterns in the workplace.
8. “Leading through our Words and Behaviors”
This chapter will be an overview of the field of leadership and basic strategies individuals can employ to enhance their leadership abilities.
9. “Leading Only Happens when People Follow: Fostering a Culture of Followership”
This chapter will discuss what it means to be a follower in a modern organization and the importance of fostering follower-leader relationships.
10. “Managing Workplace Talent through Mentoring and Coaching: Getting Beyond Buzzwords to Practices that Work”
This chapter will focus on the best practices for mentoring and coaching within the modern workplace. The differences and similarities between mentoring and coaching will be explored along with a discussion of how to implement mentoring and coaching programs within a workplace.
11. “When Coworkers Act Like Kids in a Sandbox: Effectively Getting People to Work Cohesively Effectively as Teams”
This chapter will overview the research surrounding effective group and team decision making in the workplace. Strategies will also be given for how to run both face-to-face and virtual groups and teams.
12. “Don’t LOL at My E-mail: Using Technology to Enhance Workplace Communication, Not Destroy Workplace Communication”
This chapter will focus specifically on how individuals are using technology to interact with one another in the modern workplace. From knowledge management to e-mail, best practices will be discussed for managing mediated workplace communication.
13. “Working with You is Killing Me: Learning how to Effectively Handle Workplace Conflict”
This chapter will focus on how individuals can handle conflict in the modern workplace in a productive manner to ensure harmony and productivity.
14. “Bullies Coming Out of the School Yard and into the Board Room: Combating Abusive Workplace Communication”
This chapter will focus on the darker side of workplace communication including issues related to sexual harassment and workplace bullying.
15. “Making Sure Your Workplace Communication Works: Determining the ROI on Workplace Communication Campaigns”
This chapter will discuss how organizations can go about analyzing their internal communication patterns and search for ways to improve internal communication.
Volume 2 – External Workplace Communication
16. “How Strategic Workplace Communication Can Save Your Organization”
This chapter will be an introduction to the volume and will connect the other chapters, tying them together.
17. “Creating a Public Image: The Strategic Use of Issue Management”
This chapter will focus on the range of activities on the part of the modern organization to shape and manage its environment in a direct fashion.
18. “The Science and Art of Business Presentations: Effectively Communicating Before Various Stakeholders”
This chapter will be an explanation of techniques for effective business presentations. Public, oral communication is still one of the primary tools for the transference of information in the corporate world.
19. “Customer Service with a Smile: Creating a Climate Where Customers Come First”
This chapter will focus on the research of communication and customer service specifically in the area of sociality.
20. “Selling Yourself or Your Product Starts with Communication”
This chapter will discuss how basic communication principles can be utilized when trying to increase sales.
21. “Marketing for the 21st Century: Thinking Through Current Marketing Trends that will Effectively Position your Organization”
This chapter will focus broadly on the purpose of corporate marketing plans and how to think about marketing communication in the 21st Century.
22. “Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Blogs Oh My! Social Media and Web 2.0: Using Today’s Cutting Edge Social Technology to Enhance Your Organization”
This chapter will focus on how modern organizations can utilize Social Media and Web 2.0 technologies to further their interaction with customers and other stakeholders.
23. “You Are What You Brand: Managing Your Image and Reputation”
This chapter will discuss how organizations can manage both how external stakeholders view their brands and an organization’s overall reputation.
24. “Building and Keeping Stakeholder Trust”
This chapter will focus on how organizations can use communication to build relationships with external stakeholders that foster trust. Trust has consistently been found to be one of the most important characteristics to develop in organization-stakeholder interactions.
25. “Every Organization Faces Risk, But Effectively Communicating Risk is a Skill”
This chapter will focus on how organizations can go about communicating potential organizational hazards to the public.
26. “Crises Happen, But How You Respond Can Make or Break You”
This chapter will focus on how to engage various stakeholders when a crisis actually occurs.
27. “I Read it on a Blog: Combating Rumors in the Age of Constant Communication”
This chapter will focus on one specific common crisis organizations face today: rumors. Rumor management is a necessity for corporate communication in the 21st Century.
28. “Strategically Preparing for and Relating with the Media: Why Planning and Training Matter”
This chapter will be designed to help organizational personnel interact with the media. Media training is important for anyone who will talk to a reporter either in a one-on-one capacity or before a bank of television cameras.
29. “When People Outside the Organization Need Information: Strategically Communicating with External Stakeholders”
This chapter will focus on specific needs of particular stakeholder groups. The chapter will discuss specifically the needs of investors and government officials.
30. “Stopping the Island Mentality: Harnessing Communication During an Age of Globalization”
This chapter will be a concluding chapter to the two volumes and look at workplace communication and how it can be viewed on a more global scale.
Many authors have been contacted to work on this project, but have not been signed‐on to this project at this project at this time. As authors sign‐on to this project, their names will be made available. The authors represent a mix of both academics and communication professionals.