Communication Best Practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, and Monsanto

by Donald P. Cushman, Sarah Sanderson King

Overview

Highlights successful communication practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, and Monsanto.

Through case studies of communication best practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, and Monsanto, this book provides specific and powerful theories for leadership, marketing, and stockholder communication. Best practice limitations are also revealed in the cases of IBM, the Bumper Works, and Asea Brown and Boveri, where organizational learning, a firm's timeline, and corporate culture made implementation difficult. Taken collectively, these case studies suggest several ways in which benchmarking can become an important research methodology and theorist tool for understanding excellence in organizational practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791486788
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series, Human Communication Processes
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	163
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Donald P. Cushman is CEO of The Cushman Group and Professor Emeritus of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York. He is also the coeditor of the SUNY series, Human Communication Processes. Sarah Sanderson King is CFO of The Cushman Group and Professor Emerita of Communication at Central Connecticut State University. Together they have written many books, including Excellence in Communicating Organizational Strategy, also published by SUNY Press.

Sarah Sanderson King is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at Central Connecticut State University.

Table of Contents

Preface


1. The Benchmarking of Organizational Communication Best Practices


Part 1: Benchmarking Foundational Communication Processes


2. Best Practices at the Dell Computer Corporation: Benchmarking a High-Speed Management Communication System


3. Best Practices at the General Electric Company: Benchmarking a World-Class Leadership Communication System


4. Best Practices at the Microsoft Corporation: Benchmarking a World-Class Marketing Communication System


5. Best Practices of the Monsanto Company: Benchmarking World-Class Annual Reports
Ted Smith III and Williams C. Adams


Part 2: Limiting Factors in Implementing Best Practices


6. Organizational Learning as a Limiting Factor: A Case Study of IBM's PC Unit


7. Time as a Limiting Factor: A Case Study of the Danville Bumper Works


8. Culture as a Limiting Factor: A Case Study of ABB


Part 3: The Significance of Benchmarking Backbone Communication Processes


9. Backbone Communication Processes in the Benchmarking of Best Practices: The Development of Organizational Communication Theory


Index

Editorial Reviews

"The book's greatest strength is its focus on how some of the best corporations communicate. Such an approach is a fruitful way to link theory and practice in the field of organizational communication, a field of study that desperately needs such bridges between theory and practice." — Branislav Kovacic, editor of Emerging Theories of Human Communication

"Benchmarking communication is not done very well in our field and this book will make a truly original contribution to the area of organizational communication." — Marshall Scott Poole, coeditor of Perspectives on Organizational Communication: Finding Common Ground

"This is an important book that offers concrete evidence of the centrality of communication in business practice and then provides insightful analysis of communication practices." — Anne Maydan Nicotera, editor of Conflict and Organizations: Communicative Processes

From the Publisher