Communication Best Practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, and Monsanto

Donald P. Cushman is CEO of The Cushman Group and Professor Emeritus of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York. He is also the coeditor of the SUNY series, Human Communication Processes. Sarah Sanderson King is CFO of The Cushman Group and Professor Emerita of Communication at Central Connecticut State University. Together they have written many books, including Excellence in Communicating Organizational Strategy, also published by SUNY Press.

• Preface 1. The Benchmarking of Organizational Communication Best Practices Part 1: Benchmarking Foundational Communication Processes 2. Best Practices at the Dell Computer Corporation: Benchmarking a High-Speed Management Communication System 3. Best Practices at the General Electric Company: Benchmarking a World-Class Leadership Communication System 4. Best Practices at the Microsoft Corporation: Benchmarking a World-Class Marketing Communication System 5. Best Practices of the Monsanto Company: Benchmarking World-Class Annual ReportsTed Smith III and Williams C. Adams Part 2: Limiting Factors in Implementing Best Practices 6. Organizational Learning as a Limiting Factor: A Case Study of IBM's PC Unit 7. Time as a Limiting Factor: A Case Study of the Danville Bumper Works 8. Culture as a Limiting Factor: A Case Study of ABB Part 3: The Significance of Benchmarking Backbone Communication Processes 9. Backbone Communication Processes in the Benchmarking of Best Practices: The Development of Organizational Communication Theory Index

"The book's greatest strength is its focus on how some of the best corporations communicate. Such an approach is a fruitful way to link theory and practice in the field of organizational communication, a field of study that desperately needs such bridges between theory and practice." — Branislav Kovacic, editor of Emerging Theories of Human Communication"Benchmarking communication is not done very well in our field and this book will make a truly original contribution to the area of organizational communication." — Marshall Scott Poole, coeditor of Perspectives on Organizational Communication: Finding Common Ground"This is an important book that offers concrete evidence of the centrality of communication in business practice and then provides insightful analysis of communication practices." — Anne Maydan Nicotera, editor of Conflict and Organizations: Communicative Processes