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To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

The importance of hospital board engagement in the work of governing healthcare quality has been demonstrated in the literature. Research into influences on effective corporate governance has traditionally focused on board architecture. Emerging research is bringing to light the importance of governance dynamics. This paper contributes to emerging research through highlighting how communication and leadership underpin effective engagement in governing healthcare quality.

A comparative case study of eight Australian public hospitals was undertaken involving document review, interviews and observations. Case studies were allocated into high- or low-engagement categories based on evidence of governance processes being undertaken, in order to compare and contrast influencing factors. Thematic analysis was undertaken to explore how communication and leadership influence healthcare governance.

Several key components of communication and leadership are shown to influence healthcare quality governance. Clear logical narratives in reporting, open communication, effective questioning and challenge from board members are important elements of communication found to influence engagement. Leadership that has a focus on healthcare excellence and quality improvement are aligned and promote effective meeting processes is also found to foster governance engagement. Effective engagement in these communication and leadership processes facilitate valuable reflexivity at the governance level.

The findings highlight the way in which boards and senior managers can strengthen governance effectiveness through attention to key aspects of communication and leadership.

The case study approach allows the exploration of communication and leadership in greater depth than previously undertaken at the corporate governance level in the healthcare setting.

Building information modeling (BIM) is a growing technology and methodology for project design in the construction industry. However, when the project design team designs with BIM in a free-form manner (without a qualified instructor), it is not clear how behavior or trust might develop among project team members, nor if there are variables that might influence the improvement of such collaboration.

A sample of 92 responses was obtained from managers of project design firms in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector. The questionnaire data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

This paper provides an explanation, from a happiness management perspective, to reflect on the importance of establishing policies to enhance effective communication between project team members in BIM design, as it improves trust between team members and their collaborators, developing the overall satisfaction of all the agents involved in the project.

The researchers suggest that there is a gap in the literature on how effective communication influences the implementation of BIM methodology.

This study examines the link of effective change implementation (CIE) with select human resource (HR) practices and employees' resistance to change (RTC) amidst ongoing mergers in Indian public sector banks (PSBs). It also intends to highlight the role of RTC as a mediator in this mechanism.

The authors used a structured questionnaire administered through a survey of employees of select PSBs that have undergone mergers. The hypothesized relationships were tested on 220 responses with structural equation modelling.

Training and communication of change as HR practices were found to have significant effects in implementing change. RTC fully mediated the relationship of training and CIE, and partially mediated the association of communication and CIE. Communication had a stronger influence on RTC than training. This finding upholds the importance of communication but also implies that training can reinforce effective communication of change and may not affect the implementation if not directed towards handling resistance.

The significance of communication as a finding supports the theory of planned behaviour. The authors’ results also align with the social exchange theory and can be extended to the job demands-resources model. PSBs may plan for phase-wise training initiatives starting from the announcement till the end of a merger. PSBs also need to effectively communicate all relevant HR issues to employees, thus being transparent and fair. Both online and offline modes of communication can be explored. Overall, the senior management has to imbibe the handholding of employees in the short term and a sense of empathy in the longer term.

Research on HR in Indian banking mergers seems to take a back seat vis-à-vis strategic issues and financial performance. There also is a limited empirical examination of the role of HR practices in effective change implementation. This paper addresses both these issues by proposing a conceptual model and empirically validating it amidst the merger of PSBs. The authors also highlight how training and communication are effective in handling resistance to change.

The growth of the “patient‐centred” approach to health care has highlighted the importance of quality communication practices. One area that remains problematic, however, is the process of breaking bad news to patients and/or relatives. Hence, there have been calls for more research and training in this domain. Reports the findings of a study that used the critical incident technique to explore the breaking bad news encounter from the perspective of the health care practitioner. In total 33 senior medical and nursing staff reported on situations in which they described specific, vividly recalled, experiences of both “effective” and “ineffective” bad news delivery. These reported incidents were content analysed and a range of key dimensions was identified for both effective and ineffective experiences. Interpersonal communication skills emerged as particularly salient factors and these are discussed in detail, together with implications for future research and training.

Effective communication is the channel by which any industry survives. Communication can be through several convenient means in respect to nature of the information sent. In an effective communication, a well-defined information is passed from the sender to the receiver whether by physical contact in close proximity or distance enabled through a designed medium (traditional or contemporary). Whichever way information is transferred, the importance of communication in construction activities cannot be neglected. In fact, with many barriers experienced before and during the construction process, a structured platform should always be available without hindrance for ease of flow from the project manager to the least member of the construction team.

The main purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for effective crisis communication in public emergencies including the relevance of planning and training and rehearsal; to explore the role of different stakeholders and how social media influence effective crisis communication.

A qualitative research design was employed. Two events were analysed, via the synthesis model for handling crisis communication in the public sector, as cases. First, via post-crisis semi-structured interviews, a gas explosion in the city of Antwerp was analysed. Second, via participant observation of a training and rehearsal exercise, more insight was gained on the role of training and social media for crisis communication.

The findings of this paper provide empirical evidence that (1) effective crisis communication is communication that is diversified across different crisis stages and diverse stakeholders; (2) that different internal social media tools and external social media tools are necessary to be monitored for effective crisis communication; (3) that training and rehearsal are of great importance for effective crisis communication.

This paper contributes to three current crisis communication research calls. First, the call for more research focusing on public sector crisis management, using public sector crisis communication models. Second, the call for the implementation of a more multiple-actor approach instead of an organisation-centred approach; and, third, the call for gaining insight into how specific communication channels are used before, during and after a crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural relationship model to study the relationship between causes and effects of poor communication and information exchange in construction projects using Smart-PLS.

The first method of this research is to identify the causes and effects factors of poor communication in construction projects from the extant of literature. The data used to develop the model was collected using a questionnaire survey, which targeted construction practitioners in the Malaysian construction industry. A five-point Likert type scale was used to rate the significance of the factors. The factors were classified under their relevant construct/group using exploratory factor analysis. A hypothetical model was developed and then transformed into Smart-PLS in which the hypothetical model suggested that each group of the cause factors has a direct impact on the effect groups. The hypothesis was tested using t-values and p-values. The model was assessed for its inner and outer components and achieved the threshold criterion. Further, the model was verified by engaging 14 construction experts to verify its applicability in the construction project setting.

The study developed a structural equation model to clarify the relationships between causes and effects of poor communication in construction projects. The model explained the degree of relationships among causes and effects of poor communication in construction projects.

The published academic and non-academic literature introduced many studies on the issue of communication including the definitions, importance, barriers to effective communication and means of poor communication. However, these studies ended up only on the general issue of communication lacking an in-depth investigation of the causes and effects of poor communication in the construction industry. The study implemented advanced structural modeling to study the causes and effects. The questionnaire, the data and concluding results fill the identified research gap of this study. The addressed issue is also of interest because communication is considered one of the main knowledge areas in construction management.

Studies on communication in the construction industry have generally concentrated on the briefing process and the construction process. However, studies on communication problems experienced by building clients' and maintenance contractors' representatives in the field of facilities management are less common. Thus, there is a need for studies of effective communication in facilities management, particularly between building clients' and maintenance contractors' representatives as these provide a valuable contribution to the area. Aims to fultil this need.

A maintenance contracting organization and four of its clients were selected for this research. A total of 44 project participants from the building clients and a maintenance contractor were interviewed in Singapore.

The findings suggested that, for effective communication, project participants have to be continuously proactive, even though communication may initially be ineffective. Reactive responses will result in ineffective communication at a later stage, even though communication may initially be effective.

The study identified two additional areas for further research that are mainly related to facilities management. These are modes of communication and communication distance between building users and craftsmen.

The research documented in this paper investigates the factors affecting effective communication between building clients and maintenance contractors. A better understanding of these factors would help to reduce miscommunication and enhance productivity and working relationships.

The study showed that advanced information communication technology helped to overcome some of the communication barriers between the stakeholders in different stages of the lifecycle of a building. However, with building maintenance, proactive responses were encouraged to improve communication between facilities managers and other stakeholders, such as end users.