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One category of persuasive communication directed towards customers, clients and other organizations is aimed at collecting overdue accounts. Examines the position of businesses which have overdue accounts and the position of persons holding these accounts. Then, presents guidelines for collection communications ranging from the gently persuasive “friendly reminder” to the strongly persuasive “threat of legal action”.

Examines the role of appraisals as a way of improving productivity and effectiveness within successful organizations. Identifies ways in which appraisals help both employers and employees. Suggests that there is room for improvement in most performance appraisals and discusses various ideas. Computer software is one of the ways in which performance appraisals can be dealt with more proficiently. This article evaluates the three leading software programs available currently and provides a comparison of the features. Concludes that the products do not solve all the problems encountered in performance appraisals, but do give structure to the process and make this sort of appraisal easier to conduct.

This article examines the context of public relations as a communication activity in today’s business organizations. This is one of the most important communication activities carried out by the organization. Maintaining favorable relations with the community is as essential as maintaining favorable relations with other audiences such as customers, clients and employees. An organization will not be successful unless it can relate favorably to the community in which it is located. As a major audience for organizational communication, the community consists of all people in all walks of life who are affected significantly by the organization and who, in turn, affect it. Public opinion is an emerging force in the world today, and public opinion is shaped by communication. Some of the community audiences with which a company will regularly communicate are employees, shareholders, creditors, consumers, the media, the public, and government agencies.

Unofficial communication is the communication that flows throughout an organization without official sanction. This unofficial communication network, the “grapevine”, exists in all organizations no matter what their nature and character, and no doubt always will exist. Therefore, grapevine communication deserves study and attention, just as any other communication network does. Deals with the following three aspects of this unofficial communication: identifying characteristics of the grapevine, dealing with the grapevine, and utilizing the grapevine in business organizations.

Leadership is the heart and soul of an organization. What is really managed in an organization is peoplel Leadership is the ability to inspire people to work together as a team to achieve common objectives. Explores several approaches to leadership, including the trait approach, the style approach, the effectiveness versus efficiency approach, the contingency approach, the power approach, the function approach, the competence approach, and the TQM approach. In addition, looks at the role of leadership in behaviour and attitude modification and the different leadership tasks of upper‐level, middle‐level, and lower‐level leaders.

Organizational communication must not be directed towards individuals alone, but must be carried out effectively with groups – formal and informal – which exist in the organization. Groups have characteristics in and of themselves; some are composites of the characteristics of the individuals who make up the group, and some are unique to the group and may not be represented by anyone within the group. Communication with groups often takes place in meetings. Therefore, organizational communication directed towards groups and transmitted within team meetings deserves study and attention. Deals with the following three aspects of groups: nature of groups; advantages and disadvantages of groups; and applied group communication, i.e. meetings.

Making writers of e‐mail messages aware of appropriate “netiquette” will enhance today’s instant communication process. Researchers determined what the literature recommends as being appropriate “netiquette”, surveyed a university business faculty to determine their knowledge of appropriate “netiquette”, and compared the faculty members’ knowledge with guidelines from the literature.

Strategic planning is a misunderstood and maligned managerial tool. Most organizations have tried it but relatively few actually achieve success in strategic planning.

The experience of Countrywide Financial Corporation demonstrates how strategic planning can be used as a key lever for change and describes the benefits that accrued to it through this process. Stanford Kurland, the Company’s COO, engaged Eric Flamholtz to assist with developing a more sophisticated approach to strategic planning at Countrywide. Flamholtz introduced: a template for organizational assessment and development; and a systematic process for strategic planning that had been applied elsewhere with considerable success. The new planning process s became a corporate priority.

The planning system has also led to a variety of other significant organizational benefits including: a constructive forum for elevating management’s focus from tactical and operational concerns to broader strategic challenges; a shift away from a “silo mentality” to a “Countrywide perspective”; a clear set of priorities to guide operating unit activities and decision‐making; measurable objectives that emphasize linkages across organizational boundaries; and greater understanding and communication of the plan throughout the organization.

Kurland was focused on longer‐range issues for the company, but most of the other members of Countrywide’s senior management were more focused on short‐term competitive success in their own divisions. It led to significant changes and benefits at Countrywide, including a strategic shift in corporate direction.