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Abstract:
What rhetorical tools are critical for managers seeking to communicate strategy? What textual features matter when developing a language of change? To explore these questions we compare Dana Corporation's 1987 strategic definitional statement, The Philosophy and Policies of Dana, with its 2004 revision, our framework being Eccles and Nohria's triadic of rhetoric, action, and identity. In a newly competitive environment, Dana evolved from recognition as an exemplary company into reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Concurrently, their 2004 statement marks a significant rhetorical shift. Dana's example suggests the usefulness of thematic rearrangement, language adjustments, and opening sentence subjects to articulate revisions in purpose, values, and behavioral expectations and illustrates the usefulness of Eccles and Nohria's framework for understanding rhetoric as a strategic organizational activity.

strategic change, organizational rhetoric, corporate mission

Abstract:
Reviewing intercultural research since the publication of Halls (1959) The Silent Language, this study identifies five different perspectivesuniversal, national, organizational, interpersonal, and intrapersonaland key scholars associated with them. Three approaches for integrating these perspectives for intercultural studies are proposed: selected lens, sequential hierarchy, and dialogic identity.

intercultural business communication, intercultural research & teaching

Abstract:
Polite self-presentation is expected of call center agents even through they must convey complex and unfavorable information speedily via the telephone. This study identified and evaluated the use of response strategies that are strongly associated with courtesy. Data were drawn from 587 stressful calls in a corpus of 3000 calls recorded at a large Singaporean insurance company call center. We adopted a grounded theory methodology together with a rich triangulation of qualitative (linguistic and rhetorical) and quantitative (scalar and correlational) methods. Tools for coding response strategies (independent variables)and courtesy (dependent variables) were developed via analyses of calls, interviews with call center agents and management, and a series of evaluations involving blind coding and subsequent consensus. We identified four categories of response strategies that are tightly related to each other and to courtesy: shows solidarity, anticipates needs, shows attentiveness, and asks for direction. Correlations and analysis of their enactment in stressful calls led us to propose solidarity expression - responses that engage the caller in search of meaning to work on the task as a team. We argue that solidarity expression challenges traditional views of politeness and is less about the presentation of self and more about enabling collaboration with the other.

Call centers, customer service, politeness, courtesy, solidarity

Abstract:
This study suggests that analytical tools to assess writing across genre can be meaningfully used across different countries. However, evaluators' "national perspectives" are likely to impact the assessment of content, particularly as it relates to completing the writing task. We compared Singaporean and American evaluators' assessment of written responses to workplace scenarios, requiring critiquing a superior's ideas. Two responses were collected from upper-level business school students at a major university in the Republic of Singapore: one response prior to and another at the end of a business communication course. Holistic scores of this corpus were used as a basis for selection of a core sample of 468 responses, which Singaporean and US evaluators independently scored on four analytical tools: task, reasoning units, coherence, and error interference. US evaluators gave significantly higher scores on task fulfillment and reasoning units than did Singaporean evaluators, and only the US evaluators found improvement in the post-assessment compared with the pre-assessment. Subsequent textual analyses suggested that these differences stemmed from content preferences we characterize as national perspectives - US evaluators favored an external "proactive" focus based on potential gains, whereas Singaporeans preferred an internal focus based on avoidance of potential losses. This finding has implications for cross-national education, assessment and training.

Singapore, business communication, standardized testing, business school