Friday, December 12, 2008

Teaming up or Crisis Communications

Teaming up: Making the Transition to a Self-Directed Team-Based Organization

Author: Darrell W W Ray

Plenty of books will tell you why self-directed teams are good for businesses and the people in them. But very few also show how to set teamwork into motion, day by day and year by year. If you're seeking that "second-generation" level of guidance - how-to, detailed, based on struggles and successes at organizations just like yours - look no further than Teaming Up. Dr. Darrel Ray has front-line experience in helping teams grow at manufacturing and service companies, government and social service agencies, Fortune 500 giants, and small firms. His approach has been proven to work in union and non-union environments, and the payoffs have been measurable: higher morale, better use of resources, and dramatic positive impact on bottomline profit.



New interesting textbook: Construction Project Management or Strategic Communication in Business and the Professions

Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach

Author: Kathleen Fearn Banks

A casebook approach to studying crisis communications means learning from the actions of those who have experienced crises. What did they expect? What actually happened? Were they prepared? What were their strategies? What were their challenges, pressures, and problems? Were the news media adversarial or supportive? If they had to do it again, what would they do differently? These and other questions are answered in the case studies of this second edition.

Presenting organizational and individual problems that may become crises and the communication responses to these situations, this revision of Fearn-Banks' very successful text:
* presents crisis communication theory, including a critique of the communications of White Star Lines after its Titanic sank on its maiden voyage;
* describes ways of determining the most likely and most damaging crises that may strike an organization;
* centers on causes of crisis--rumor, "gotcha" television news and the non-expert expert, andcrises caused by the news media;
* gets into the 21st century and cyberspace-caused crises, including mini-cases of rogue Web sites and e-mail rumors;
* explains how to communicate with the news media, lawyers, internal publics or audiences, and external publics; and
* includes narrated case studies illustrating how spokespersons and managers used communication in several kinds of crises.

The text is supplemented by a workbook, enabling students to test their knowledge and develop their skills. Written as a primer for crisis communications, public relations, and communications management, Crisis Communications serves as an essential resource in the practice ofpublic relations and corporate communications.



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