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Communicating with employees is an aspect of management which is today being subjected to new pressures and ideas. Trade unions have new disclosure rights. A growing number of managers believe that employees have a right to know about company matters, or see employee communications as an essential adjunct to involving employees in managerial decisions through consultation or participation.

Describes the results of a research project to determine the use of technology in employee communication. Finds that e‐mail is the most widely used technology. Covers the links between technology and communications, changes linked to technology, and the concerns of communicators. Concludes with a brief examination of implications for employee communications.

This study aims to examine how a manager’s learning goal orientation (LGO) influences frontline service employees’ (FSEs’) engagement in cross-selling activities. Such engagements must exist before they can achieve service–sales ambidexterity. Drawing on achievement goal theory and the meaning-making perspective, this study predicts that learning-oriented managers encourage and foster FSEs’ cross-selling behaviors by facilitating their ability to derive positive meaning from the cross-selling initiative. They do so by conveying high-quality information about the initiative and related changes to individual employees, as well as by encouraging the formation of a collective perception of open communications within the work unit.

Hierarchical (nested) data from 39 managers and 357 FSEs of a major logistic service company are used to test the hypotheses.

As predicted, a manager’s LGO relates positively to FSEs’ cross-selling activities, through sequential mediations of the hypothesized communication mechanisms and employees’ benefits-finding.

A manager’s LGO is an important antecedent of FSEs’ cross-selling behaviors. This study establishes this influence and clarifies the processes by which it occurs. This study also extends previous research by specifying the important role of employees’ meaning-making, which prompts them to adopt cross-selling, as a mediator of the multilevel communication influences that result from their managers’ LGO.

Improving the flow of information from management to employees has become a matter of increasing concern in recent years. This has been partly motivated by a belief on the part of managements that improving communications will lead to better industrial relations, and hopefully also more commitment and effort from employees. There is also a growing view on all sides of industry, and reflected in legislation, that employees have a right to information about their employing organisation.

In many countries today there is a debate on how to improve accounting to recognise also the non‐material value of companies. As a contribution to this debate, the Swedish Public Relations Association has initiated a project to develop the know‐how of how a company's profits and value can increase through investments in information, communications and relationships. The project applies also to the public sector and other organisations.

Whether organizational change results from a merger, acquisition, new venture, new process improvement approach, or any number of flavors‐of‐the‐day management fads, employee communications can mean the success or failure of any major change program. The Strategic Employee Communication Model with the best practice definitions, which are composites of effective employee communication examples collected from researching selected Fortune 500 companies, help management understand the strategic role of employee communication in a high‐performing company. The model functions as an analytical tool to diagnose a company’s strengths and weaknesses in employee communication so that the company can structure the change communication program and position communication to facilitate the overall change program. In this paper, I explain the Strategic Employee Communication Model and best practice definitions, demonstrate a change communication approach to improving employee communications using the Strategic Employee Communication Model, and provide a case study of the successful use of the model and approach during a major change program.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which changes in communication media are associated with changes in the nature of manager-expatriate employee communications. Using an affordance lens, the authors explore how hierarchical level and communication medium interact to influence status dynamics manifested in communication attributes.

The hypothesis was tested with a 2 (hierarchical level)×3 (communication media) multivariate analysis of covariance (experience level) in a sample of 1,193 messages that were transmitted between managers and field employees in a global organization over a ten year period.

The authors found significant interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes such that changes in communication media intensified status differences between managers and their employees.

Communications media may be appropriated differently depending on one’s hierarchical level.

Managers should adopt new communication media more consciously given their potential influence of how people communicate.

Unlike many computer-mediated communications (CMC) effects studies that compare face-to-face communications with CMC or employ self-report questionnaires or laboratory designs with student samples, this study examines a complete set of manager-employee communications over an extended period of time.

The chapter presents a senior management view on the role of new and technologically advanced tools, such as social media in internal communications.

We conducted 23 in-depth interviews with senior managers of large- and medium-sized companies in Slovenia.

The results obtained in the research confirmed that the senior management possess a strong awareness of the importance of internal communications in managing their organizations. Moreover, many top managers even pointed out that internal communications play a crucial role, and add value to the business performance through more motivated employees and that social media in the context of internal communications are vivid and growing in importance.

The study provides a starting point for further research in this area. However, the core policy recommendation would mainly be focused on internal communication experts, who must no longer underestimate the urgency of developing communication programs that help employees and senior management start working with social media successfully.

The research presents a new — senior management view on the role of social media in internal communications.

The time is right for renewed and updated attention to the relationship between public relations (PR) and human resources (HR) departments in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. For too long, conflict between the two practice areas has obscured opportunities for collaboration which benefits organizations and stakeholders. This chapter offers theoretical underpinnings for examining an interdepartmental, cross-unit working relationship between HR and PR – and advances a vision for why it is needed now.

Reassesses the role of the grapevine in employee communications. Argues that it has a role to play in socializing employees to a company, initiating behavioural change, disciplining employees and providing information. Discusses the implementation of the grapevine as a part of the employee communications mix, through management by walking about (MBWA) and electronic communications. Concludes that it can enhance corporate culture and increases allegiance to corporate goals.