Immigration Health - 2925 Words

IMMIGRATION AND HEALTHCARE: ISSUES, CONCERNS, AND CHALLENGES FACING THE NATION. Martin Kwesi Hinneh-Luther Instructor: Professor Neil Mathur HC 491: Senior Seminar in Healthcare Management May 8, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT---------------------------------------------------------3 I. Introduction-------------------------------------------------------5 II. Statement of the Problem---------------------------------------6 III. Significance of the Study----------------------------------------6 IV. Definition of Terms-----------------------------------------------7 V. Review of Related Literature-----------------------------------8 VI. Analysis of†¦show more content†¦5. What impact does the new healthcare reform have on immigrants? 6. What are the challenges in healthcare reform for immigrants? 7. Would healthcare reform encourage or discourage the influx of immigrants? My intent is to try and investigate these issues with an independent mindset and let readers draw their own conclusions. Significance of the Topic This topic has generated long and serious debates across the country. Even after it was recently passed into law, many are still contemplation on it. I believe this topic has been on the dining table of most Americans. This is because it is very vital not only to the sustenance of the economy but also to the well being of the citizens of this great nation as a whole. Many have received death threats, etc when this bill was passed. According to an article by Huffington post dated March 25, 2010, Colorado Senator Mark Udall on Thursday became the latest member of the Colorado Congressional delegation to receive a threat of violence this week for supporting health care reform. The arrest of a California man accused of making criminal threats against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has triggered a heated debate about whether America s conservative media — particularly Fox News — is fomenting potential violence against high-profile Democrats. Brooksville, Florida - Capitol Police and the Hernando County Sheriff s Office is investigating a deathShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Illegal Immigration On Health Care Cost1438 Words   |  6 PagesEffect of illegal immigration on health care cost There are several arguments spotlighting the effect of illegal immigration on current rising health care cost. To this point, illegal immigrants and elected representatives across the country are unable to deny the increased costs placed upon the backs of American taxpayers due to the rise in health care and health care insurance cost. A bill initiated in Indiana will demand local hospitals create a report regarding the costs associated with treatingRead MoreLanguage, Integration, Education, Mental Health, And Immigration1437 Words   |  6 PagesCHALLENGES: LANGUAGE, ACCULTURATION, EDUCATION, MENTAL HEALTH, AND IMMIGRATION Latinos constitute the single largest minority in this country with a population of over 55 million. There is not, however, a prototypical Latino individual due to that community’s extensive diversity in terms of culture, economics, education, ethnicity, and religion. Latinos and their families must confront numerous challenges. While an assumption might be that immigration would be a prime concern, a majority of Latinos insteadRead MoreCanada s Immigration System Lacks Heart879 Words   |  4 PagesCanada’s immigration system lacks heart, critics say, is an article filled with professional opinions and debates. These debates and opinions are regarding the humanitarian and compassionate side of immigration and refugee law in Canada. The article’s main purpose is to expose how Canada has changed its compassion for acceptance of refugees in recent years. Canada has always been recognized as an accepting and â€Å"go-to† country in crisis. However, in recent years, there have been changes. RefugeeRead MoreThe Problem Of Unemployment Among Immigrants1294 Words   |  6 Pagesstances to immigration and diversity. From 1867-1960 is considered as the period of building a white, British, Christian Canada. From 1960-2000, is the period of building a multicultural Canada with an emphasis given mainly for family reunification and labour force requirements. From 2000 till to date is the period of building a vibrant and flexible workforce (Garcia, p. 225). Over the past 30 years, immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and Africa comprised over two-thirds of total immigration. EightyRead MoreThe Treatment Of The Uk892 Words   |  4 Pagestheir usage of health services (Steventon and Bardsley, 2011). A study written by Osea Giuntella from the University of Oxford explained that there is no solid evidence or statistics to support that imm igration has an affects on waiting times within GP surgeries or AEs. The Home Secretary and some of the U.K. citizens believe that immigrants who come over to the U.K. have an impact on the availability of the NHS services that are provided. Evidence has shown that in a study immigration essentiallyRead MoreInternational Monetary System Of The European Economies1164 Words   |  5 Pages ECON310-1603B-08 Instructor: Janet Hunter Unit 4- International Monetary System Amanda Kranning September, 2016 International monetary system Immigration of refugees into other economies has been an issue in the affected countries that play a vital role in the harboring of refugees. It goes without saying that the influx of refugees comes with some standing effects that may influence the financial system of the recipient countries positively or negatively. Having beenRead MoreMexican American And Mexican Americans1731 Words   |  7 Pagestranquility once again. Supplemental to those that journeyed to American, most hoped to find higher pay, job security; and freedom that was unheard of in their country. Therefore, forcing these immigrants to go searching for what they were lacking, job’s, health, medical, and housing; away from violence and what they knew as home. Nonetheless, when these newcomers first came to America most of them settle in California and others in Texas, which are among what is known as â€Å"traditional† designation states;Read MoreAccomplishments of The Justicia for Migrant Workers Essa y935 Words   |  4 Pagesfarmers, helps them raise the awareness of legal issues. A more active action they connect migrant worker with immigration office and humanrights organizations both in Canada and in their homeland (J4MW website, What We Do). They worlk with Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples and ELACE to connect Caribbean and Mexican workers in a community. Also, their analysis include not only immigration issues but also gender and class conflict in the work (J4MW Website, Principles and Goals). The central goalRead MoreDomestic Violence Against Immigrant And Refugee Women1050 Words   |  5 Pagesrequires that all new and existing legislation and policies related to violence prevention undergo a gender analysis to ensure that women’s needs are understood and addressed in program design and delivery. â€Æ' 6. What are the impact of changes in immigration system and policies on immigrant refugee and non-status women experiencing violence? Legislation and Policies that impact immigrant, refugee and non-status women experiencing violence are: Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015: Increasing powerRead MoreThe And Its Effects On Society Essay1432 Words   |  6 Pagesin which uncertainty about immigration is expanded; consequently, remorse about fleeing their countries is represented through an incapability to absorb the dialect of the host nation since it characterized by a rejection of the native tongue (Hollander, 2013). Language in the counseling situation develops as a manifestation of faith and hope in the healing association (Hollander, 2013). As the United States (US) political wellbeing battles to repair a damaged immigration arrangement, teenage migrants

The Undisputed Truth About Need Help Writing a Term Paper That the Experts Dont Want You to Hear

The Undisputed Truth About Need Help Writing a Term Paper That the Experts Don't Want You to Hear Need Help Writing a Term Paper and Need Help Writing a Term Paper - The Perfect Combination When writers work with urgent deadlines, they need to work more hours since they are not able to miss deadlines for different orders. When you place your purchase, they begin working on it immediately. All you need to do is to place your purchase on the internet or call us. When placing the order, you are going to have a choice to select spacing. Formulating a thesis, can help you stay concentrated on the principal points. One of the primary explanations for why students are continuously stressed out is they always get too many writing assignments. Contrary to other sorts of homework, essays are sometimes an authentic problem for just about any student. Writing essay could be true headache including all of the research and meeting academic standards. 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Realities of homelessness Essay Example For Students

Realities of homelessness Essay For many, the term homeless conjures up an image of middle-aged alcoholic and unemployable males sleeping on park benches, in doorways, and on sidewalks. The reality, however, is homelessness affects all of our humanity. Families are homeless. Many babies go from the hospital into the shelter system, never knowing what it is like to go home. Women are another subgroup of the homeless. Individuals with mental illness, alcohol or drug addictions are homeless. The elderly are homeless. The disabled are homeless. The number of homeless Americans is large and growing larger. The exact number is unknown, but estimates range from 250,000 to over 3 million people. One factor that contributes to homelessness is lack of affordable and decent housing. In the late 1970s, Phoenix demolished 4000 inexpensive hotel rooms in the downtown area that were occupied by people who could not affort other housing. What happened to those people? Where did they go to live? A guess would be, on the street. An estimated 25 to 50% of the homeless are thought to suffer from serious and chronic forms of mental illness. Social Issues .

The Sweet Hereafter Essay Example

The Sweet Hereafter Essay The Sweet Hereafter – Essay Outline Losing a loved one is hard for any and every one, and coping with the loss is a big mission. In the Sweet Hereafter- a novel by Russell Banks- after a terrible bus crash occurs, resulting in the death of 14 children, many of the town’s people isolate themselves due to their loss and grief. Through the many different narrators, the author of this book shows how grief affects different people in different ways. One of the people affected by this tragic accident, Billy Ansel (also one of the narrators), copes with the loss by becoming an alcoholic.He doesn’t take anyone’s sympathy and stays in his home. Tragedy is inevitable; it affects all human beings at one point or another. Russell Banks illustrates this universal truth brilliantly in The Sweet Hereafter. Bank’s characters, Billy Ansel, Nicole Burnell and Dolores Driscoll all face tragedy, and all gain insight into themselves. However, not all characters react to tragedy consistently. To some this is beneficial, although to others this is the greatest tragedy of all.Billy Ansel deals with tragedy consistently throughout the entirety of the novel. However, his consistent coping methods leave him hopeless and alone. We will write a custom essay sample on The Sweet Hereafter specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Sweet Hereafter specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Sweet Hereafter specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Ansel experiences death and terror at the age of nineteen while fighting in Vietnam. He believes that because terrible things had happened to him while at war, it was impossible for terrible things to happen to him now. Unfortunately, Billy is quite mistaken, as he loses his wife, Lydia to cancer, and then eventually his children to a tragic bus accident.

Australian Gold Rush Immigrants

Australian Gold Rush Immigrants Prior to Edward Hargraves 1851 discovery of gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, Great Britain regarded the distant colony of Australia as little more than a penal settlement. The promise of gold, however, attracted thousands of voluntary settlers in search of their fortunes- and ultimately ended the practice of transporting British convicts to the colonies. The Dawn of the Australian Gold Rush Within weeks of Hargraves discovery, thousands of laborers were already frantically digging at Bathurst, with hundreds more arriving daily. This prompted the Governor of Victoria, Charles J. La Trobe, to offer a  £200 reward to anyone who found gold within 200 miles of Melbourne. Diggers immediately took up the challenge and gold was quickly found in abundance by James Dunlop at Ballarat, by Thomas Hiscock at Buninyong, and by Henry Frenchman at Bendigo Creek. By the end of 1851, the Australian gold rush was in full force. Hundreds of thousands of new settlers descended on Australia during the 1850s. Many of the immigrants whod originally come to try their hand at gold-digging, chose to stay on and settle in the colonies, ultimately quadrupling the population of Australia between 1851 (430,000) and 1871 (1.7 million). Did Your Ancestors Arrive During the Gold Rush? If you suspect that your Australian ancestor might have originally been a digger, begin your search in traditional records from that time period, such as census, marriage,  and death records that generally list an individuals occupation. If you find something that indicates your ancestor was likely- or even possibly- a digger, passenger lists can help pinpoint the date of their arrival in the Australian colonies. Outbound passenger lists from the United Kingdom arent available prior to 1890, nor are they readily available for America or Canada (the Australia gold rush attracted people from all over the world), so your best bet is to search arrival manifests in Australia. Unassisted Immigrants to NSW, 1842-1855: This is an index of unassisted (or free) passengers who came to Australia at their own expense, including ships crewmembers.Unassisted Passenger and Crew Arrivals, 1854-1900: The Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters website has transcribed passenger listings and links to digital scans of original Shipping Inward lists from the Shipping Masters Office.Victoria Passenger Lists: Immigration records for Victoria 1852–1899 are online from the Public Record Office Victoria, including the Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852- 1923 and the Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839- 1871. Researching Ancestors Who Predate the Gold Rush Of course, your Australian gold rush ancestors may have actually arrived in Australia in the years preceding the gold rush- as an assisted or unassisted immigrant, or even as a convict. So, if you dont find them in the passenger arrivals from 1851 on, keep looking. There was also a second sizeable gold rush in Western Australia during the 1890s. Start by checking the outbound passenger lists from that time period. Once youve determined that your ancestors were likely involved in the gold rush in some way, you may be able to locate them in a gold-digger database or learn more from newspapers, diaries, memoirs, photos, or other records. Gold Diggers from South Australia: This free searchable database includes gold diggers from South Australia (1852- 1853) who brought or sent their gold home from the Victorian goldfields, including those who deposited gold at the SA Gold Assay Office in February 1852; the consignors and consignees associated with the first three mounted police escorts; and those who lost their receipts or failed to claim their gold by 29 October 1853.SBS Gold!: Explore the impact of the Australian gold rushes and uncover stories of the diggers through newspaper accounts, diaries,  and memoirs.The Goldminers Database: Search information on some 34,000 gold miners who participated in the gold rushes of New Zealand between 1861 and 1872, many of whom were Australians who went to New Zealand for only a short period of time.Fortune Hunters in Australia: This online database, available to members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, includes names and other information extracted from the pub lished CD titled American Fever Australian Gold, American and Canadian involvement in Australia’s Gold Rush by Australian authors Denise McMahon and Christine Wild. In addition to data compiled from official records, archives, contemporary newspapers, and diaries, there is also material from correspondence written to or from fortune seekers, both from the goldfields of Australia, as well as communications penned during ocean crossings. The National Library of Australia: Search the digital collections database for the term gold photos, maps, and manuscripts related to the Australian gold rushes and those who participated in them.

Press Release Reedsy opens to authors on Monday October 13th 2014

Press Release Reedsy opens to authors on Monday October 13th 2014 Press Release: Reedsy opens to authors on Monday October 13th 2014 â€Å"The best editors, designers, and marketers no longer work for big publishing companies. Instead, they are striking out on their own and working as freelancers,† says trader, investor, writer and entrepreneur, James Altucher.The richness of the freelancer landscape is no secret, but many don’t understand the true impact of having so much talent, so easily accessible: authors can now achieve the same level of quality they would get with a traditional publisher, without sacrificing royalties or creative control. Navigating such a wealth of freelancer talent can be daunting; how can authors meet the quality demands of their audiences and bring their work to a level of professional polish previously unseen in the realm of independent publication?Enter Reedsy. Or rather, enter the freelancers featured on the new platform, launching this month.â€Å"Our freelancers define the difference between vanity publishing and being an independent author,† says Reedsy co-fou nd Ricardo Fayet. â€Å"They are the ones who have turned self-publishing into something serious, professional- a real alternative to finding a publisher.†Reedsy is based on the idea that great authors telling great stories must be joined by equally talented editors and designers in order to produce professional-caliber books. This is why the London-based (though global-minded) startup launched two weeks ago by privately inviting a select group of professional editors and designers to set up their profiles.â€Å"On Monday October 13th, Reedsy will make these profiles public†, Ricardo explains, â€Å"regrouping them on a marketplace. Authors will be able to browse Reedsy, filter their search according to their needs and genre, and instantly message the freelancers they want to reach out to.†Reedsy has been vetting all the freelancers invited to the site, checking their profiles and displaying only those with experience, certifications, and good recommendations.Th e â€Å"streamlined self-publishing solution† can proudly count on the support of the Alliance of Independent Authors, who recognises the work Reedsy has been doing and the value it will add to the publishing ecosystem. Reedsy’s intentions have also been approved by the Society of Authors and The Literary Consultancy.Reedsy will not stop there. CEO Emmanuel Nataf reveals that the company plans to release project management tools that aid collaboration between authors and freelancers. â€Å"Emailing manuscripts and chapter revisions is a thing of the past,† Emmanuel says. â€Å"Reedsy will provide a place to gather these documents and allow for effortless collaboration.†In the meantime, Reedsy aims at becoming what Emmanuel describes as "the trusted network independent authors automatically turn to when looking for a quality editor or designer.†Reminder: Reedsy was founded in January 2014 by Emmanuel Nataf, Richard Fayet, Matthew Cobb and Vincent Dur and, and has been financially backed by Seedcamp and DC Thomson. It has been featured in The Bookseller,  Techcrunch  and Words With JAM.

Ethylene Oxide is a Carcinogen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Ethylene Oxide is a Carcinogen - Essay Example 4.2 Technical Adequacy Analysis 15-16 4.3 Data Collection Process 16 4.4 Research Design 16-17 5. Conclusion 17 7. References 18-20 Introduction: Ethylene oxide is a sterilant gas, an important industrial chemical.(14) It is used as an intermediate in the production of ethylene oxide and is toxic, when inhaled. There are reports of large health implications including respiratory disorders, dizziness, headache, and increase in exposure may also lead to convulsions, seizure and coma. It is rapidly taken up via lungs and can also be absorbed through the skin from the gas phase or from the aqueous solutions and is uniformly distributed in to the body as it is soluble in blood. Based on studies in occupationally exposed populations, ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic via inhalation route of exposure. Ethylene oxide causes leukemia, lymphoma, brain, hematopoietic and breast cancer. It is classified as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.(14) Extensive research have been done to determine the toxicity of ethylene oxide through epidemiological studies, by exposing a cohort group of animals to ethylene oxide or on group of workers who have been...Ethylene oxide causes leukemia, lymphoma, brain, hematopoietic and breast cancer. It is classified as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.(14) Extensive research have been done to determine the toxicity of ethylene oxide through epidemiological studies, by exposing a cohort group of animals to ethylene oxide or on group of workers who have been working in environment containing ethylene oxide.(REF) This gas releases in to the atmosphere while handing, storage and transportation. The present contribution discusses the health hazards of EtO in humans and environment. The physical and the chemical properties are also discussed. The potential exposures of this toxic gas in the environment (air, earth and water) and the occupational exposure and the routes of exposure (inhalation, skin and eye exposure and ingestion) are also discussed. The research methodologies pertaining to the occurrence of EtO is also described. Ethylene Oxide (C2H4O, EtO) is used as a sterilant in the pharmaceuticals and food industry(4). It is used as a sterilant since its biocidal, both bactericidal and fungicidal.

Description of the Business Report Parts Assignment

Description of the Business Report Parts - Assignment Example This entails the problem that is going to be solved, how the problem will be solved, what exactly will be provided in solving the problem, whether the project can deliver the stipulated promises, the benefits of the project when it will be completed and the cost to be involved in the entire work. The sections that need to be included in a proposal for a student report include the problem identified in the problem, the feasibility, the audience the project targets, topics the project investigates, the method to be utilized, the resources and facilities available, the work schedule of the project and the action plan of the project proposal. Progress reports should essentially tell what you’ve done, why it’s important, and what the next steps are i.e. the chronology, task, and recommendation. They can also be used to enhance your image, float trial balloons and minimize potential problems. Make your progress report as positive as you honestly can. Using capitalization when searching for web pages is a major issue. It is always important to uncapitalize words when searching for information, use quotations marks for exact terms and use root words in finding variations of information. A survey is a study that is conducted on a large group of people referred to as subjects or respondents. A questionnaire is a list of questions that people fill and an interview is a structured conversation with someone who will be able to provide useful information for a study. In a random sample, each person in the population of the study theoretically has an equal chance of being chosen to take part in the study. Inconvenience sample only a group of respondents are targeted and will be easy to get. Judgmental sample entails a group of people whose views seem useful. The mean is the average figure you get when you add up all the numbers and then divide by the number of numbers. The median is the middle value in the list of numbers and

Western Australia Essay Example for Free

Western Australia Essay While the Australian Warlpiri people of Western Australia need to live within the laws and values of the Australian Government, as do all citizens living in Australia, preliminary conclusions show their lives also relate strongly to their community values, which are based on ngurra-kurlu, the ‘five pillars of society’. The Warlpiri people first made contact with non-Aboriginal Australians in the late nineteenth century. By the time they were finally extracted from the bush, the missionaries were being replaced by communities. (Wikipedia) Most of the Warlpiri people were placed in an Aboriginal settlement called Yuendumu, about 290 km north west of Alice Springs, but because the settlement was becoming overcrowded, in 1948 the Australian Federal Government decided to erect an Aboriginal Reserve at a waterhole 600 km north at Catfish. (Ozoutback. com) Once the road to Catfish was finished, the Welfare ordered 25 Warlpiri people into a truck and took them as far as Hooker Creek where they camped. Because there was a bore and the water was flowing they decided to stay there instead of at Catfish, which was about 30 km further on and another 400 Warlpiri were transported there. Later, the Hooker Creek dried up, but by then the settlement was already established and a further 150 Warlpiri people were transported there in 1951. (Ozoutback. com) The people were not happy to be taken away from their relatives, their country (land) and its sacred sites, so they all walked the 600 km back to Yuendumu, whereupon they were driven back to Hooker Creek in trucks; they walked back to Yuendumu again and again they were taken back. This time people stayed and children were born, and they started to call the place home. In the late seventies the Gurindji tribe â€Å"handed over† the country and the ‘The Dreaming’ to the Warlpiri and it terminated as a welfare state and renamed Lajamanu. (Ozoutback. com) My friend Pam and I wanted to find out first hand, how life has changed for these people, and how they balance colonial values with their own. So we organized a field trip to outback Western Australia, where we spent a month living within a community of Warlpiri people in a place called Lajamanu. We engaged in participant observation, in an effort to understand as much as possible about the way in which they lived and gain an emic perspective of the values to which they lived by. Using this method, we were able to maintain detailed fieldnotes and conduct interviews based on open-ended questions. We hired a four wheel drive vehicle in Alice Springs and set out on the Tanami track, which crosses the Tanami desert and seemed to head for the horizon and evaporate into the sky. The road was not sealed – just dirt – red dirt – bellowing behind us like rust colored clouds. Although travelling in beating heat we were vigilant in our perusal of what was around us: large areas of ‘spinifex’ and ‘mulga’. 3 A number of enormous hawks and eagles were swooping around the carcass of a red kangaroo, a meter long snake slithered into one of the mulga trees, and masses of bits of rubber, stripped from the tyres of cars and trucks were strewn along the side of the track. We could only drive slowly and only able to drive about 80 kilometers a day, camping by the road at night. On the third day we drove into harsh and rough ground with more vegetation, and although still exceedingly hot the rain started to fall heavily. The car became more difficult to manouvre as water was accumulating in various parts unable to sink into the ground quick enough. Around midday on the fourth day we stopped the car near a small water hole to have something to eat and a cold drink from our ice box, and just as we were about to move on a dark figure with a mop of unruly black and curly hair, wearing nothing but a piece of cloth around his waist came out of nowhere, seemingly from the sky in the distance and walked towards us. He seemed very friendly but spoke in a strange language that we could not understand. He seemed to be asking or directing us to some place and he appeared to want to jump on board. With the use of gestures, arms and hands, we were able to ascertain that he wanted to ride with us, which was fine with us. The track fell into a dry creek and the sun was glaring all colors of reds and oranges into the sky; brightly colored parrots fluttered up from scrub, and as the sun became lower the rocks and boulders seemed to be on fire, glowing red from the heat. Flies were everywhere, buzzing around our heads, settling on our arms and legs and crawling into our eyes. It wasn’t long before he started to make directions off on a smaller track and we understood that this must be where he came from. We turned off and it was not too long before we came across a small community. We stopped the car and our new found friend directed us to his house. As we meandered along, we saw nothing but parts of cars left rusting in the heat, houses in disrepair, potholed streets strewn with rubbish and everything covered in red dirt. It was dusk and people were sitting around open fires; children were running around wearing very little if anything but happily playing in the dirt with the fire lighting up their faces; women were sitting around the fire openly breast feeding their babies or nursing them in their laps, lulling them to sleep. An extremely tall and thin man stood up from the circle around the fire and with open arms, smiled and much to our surprise said â€Å"How yer going whitefellas? Me Benny Jangala. † After setting up camp we were invited to eat and one of the women produced what seemed like a small crocodile but we were told it was a ‘goanna. ’ She placed it on the fire and kept turning it with a stick until it was cooked. She then broke the animal in pieces with her hands and handed some to us. Other delicacies, such as witchety grubs, snake and kangaroo were thrown onto the fire and cooked. These were served with an assortment of different berries and leaves. We later found out that they know over a hundred different species of flora and fauna, all of which are used for either food, medicine or in ceremonies. They keep everything they think they could use, such as animal sinews for binding weapons, bones for implements and feathers for ceremonial use. (Broom, 1983, p. 12) As night progressed we were shown to a small humpy that was to be our home for the next few weeks. We were impatient to start fieldwork and the very next day we started getting accustomed with our new surroundings and lifestyle, and observing how these aboriginals lived. We hired Benny as our guide and interpreter and he was very willing to assist us whenever needed. We found out that we were living with a small community of Warlpiri people in a place called Lajamanu. They spoke the Warlpiri language and tracked their ancestry to the country around the ‘granites’4 or had bonds to that same country through different family dreamings. These linkages by ancestry and dreamings entitled them to hunt in that area and required them to take care of its sacred places. Children often liked to visit us and they would usually come in to our humpy unannounced, rummage among our supplies and survey the room. They seemed to have no concept of privacy and seemed to consider our humpy open and available to all. One time two older girls were looking through each other’s hair for lice and invited Pam to sit with them so that they could search her hair. After a few days Pam was given the name Napangardi and I was given the name Jungarrayi, because Napangardi is normally married to Jungarrayi. After we were given these new names the children would call us by those names. At first, one small girl started laughing and flapping her arms around in the air, then she ran over to Pam and put her arms around her waist, screaming â€Å"Napangardi! you are my daughter! † The girl’s skin name was Nangala, which made her Pam’s mother, because Nangalas were mothers of Napangardis. This also made her my mother-in-law, to whom I was not allowed to talk to, according to Warlpiri taboo. (Ways of Thinking, p. 3 and 8) Later we were able to find out more about skin names. A group of Aboriginal people were sitting together talking as one mother was pointing to various people in the group; she was teaching her little girl their skin names. She told us that every Warlpiri person has a skin name and that name ordains how that person relates to every other person in the community. Everyone is born into the skin group related to their parents. There are eight skin groups and men’s skin names begin with J and women’s with N. The skin system is part of a more intricate kin system and they both relate the Warlpiri people to the sky, desert, trees, rocks, animals, plants and to the law, the dreaming, the rituals and a body of knowledge. (Ways of thinking, p. 4) One morning Benny introduced us to one of the tribe elders and we asked him about the different names they used; he told us that a Warlpiri person can have several names which include the relevant skin name, a bush name and a ‘whitefella’ first name. A Warlpiri person may be referred to as â€Å"X’s son/daughter†, which can sometimes cause confusion if â€Å"X† has more than one son or daughter, because each one could be referred to in the same way. As a child grows older they may also be given a nickname derived from a physical characteristic or some specific incident or mishap. (Smith, 2008, p3. 5) He also told us about a tribal law that does not allow a woman to speak directly to her son-in-law, nor the son-in-law to her. They must ask another person in the Warlpiri kin system, to speak for them. There is also what is referred to as ‘mother-in-law’ language, which is a kind of secret language which son-in-laws can use when speaking in ear-shot of their mother-in-law. (Ways of thinking, p. 4)

Tragedy in Sophocles Oedipus The King and Antigone Essay -- Sophocle

Tragedy in Sophocles' Oedipus The King and Antigone The Greeks considered tragedy the greatest form for literature.   However, the tragic ends for the characters were not ordained or set by fate, but rather caused by certain characteristics belonging to that person.   Such is the case with the characters of Sophocles' plays Oedipus the King and Antigone.   Oedipus from King Oedipus, and Antigone and Creon from Antigone posses characteristics, especially pride, that caused their tragic ends.   As the play progress, other characteristics appear and further add to the problem to such a point that it is inevitable that it will end in tragedy.   Therefore the tragedies were not a result of a plot by the fates, but rather a result of the characteristics that the characters possessed. The characters posses a multitude of traits, some of them common to all of them.   Pride is especially prevalent.   This characteristic seems to be the major tragic flaw or hamartia that eventually causes the downfall.   Oedipus exhibits a vast amount of pride, which seems to border on sheer arrogance.   This is demonstrated in the beginning of the play where he states, "I, Oedipus, whose name is known afar."(p. 25).   This is reinforced by the priest's replies of, "Oedipus great and glorious,"(p.26) and, "O greatest of men."(p.26).  Ã‚   Therefore it may be concluded that Oedipus obviously posses a large amount of pride.   Antigone, daughter and sister of Oedipus also posses the same trait.   Creon acknowledges this when he says, "This girl's proud spirit,"(p.139) and Antigone confirms this with her grand speech to Creon, where she states, "I knew that I should have to die... living in daily torment as I do, who would not be glad to die?" (p.138).   Thus the pri... ...in both King Oedipus and Antigone there were characters whose lives ended in tragedy.   However these falls from grace were no the deeds of fate, but rather that of the character themselves.   The characteristics, especially pride, of the people set them on the path.   Therefore the faults of the characters were the cause of their ill-fated end. Works Cited Dodds, E. R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 17-29. Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 1997. Sophocles. Antigone. Exploring Literature: Writing and thinking About Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc, 2001.

Carrie Chapter Eighteen

‘I came to kill you, Momma. And you were waiting here to kill me. Momma, I †¦ it's not right, Momma. It's not †¦ ‘ ‘Let's pray,' Momma said softly. Her eyes fixed on Carrie's and there was a crazed, awful compassion in them. The fire light was brighter now, dancing on the walls Up dervishes. ‘For the last time, let us pray.' ‘Oh Momma help me!' Carrie cried out. She fell forward on her knees, head down, hands raised in supplication. Momma leaned forward, and the knife came down in a shining arc. Carrie, perhaps seeing out of the tail of her eye, jerked back, and instead of penetrating her back, the knife went into her shoulder to the hilt. Momma's feet tangled in the legs of her chair, and she collapsed in a sitting sprawl. They stared at each other in silent tableau. Blood began to ooze from around the handle of the knife and to splash on to the floor. Then Carrie said softly: ‘I'm going to give you a present, Momma.' Margaret tried to get up, staggered, and fell back on her hands and knees. ‘What are you doing?' she croaked hoarsely. ‘I'm picturing your heart, Momma,' Carrie said. ‘It's easier when you see things in your mind. Your heart is a big red muscle. Mine goes faster when I use my power. But your is going a little slower now. A little slower.' Margaret tried to get up again, failed, and forked the sign of the evil eye at her daughter. ‘A little slower, Momma. Do you know what the present is, Momma? What you always wanted. Darkness. And whatever God lives there.' Margaret White whispered: ‘Our father, Who art in heaven-‘ ‘Slower, Momma. Slower.' ‘-hallowed be Thy name-‘ ‘I can see the blood draining back into you. Slower.' ‘-Thy Kingdom come-‘ ‘Your feet and hands like marble, like alabaster. White.' ‘-Thy will be done-‘ ‘My will, Momma. Slower!' ‘-on earth-‘ ‘Slower.' ‘-as †¦ as †¦ as it†¦' She collapsed forward, hands twitching. ‘-as it is in heaven.' Carrie whispered: ‘Full stop.' She looked down at herself, and put her hands weakly around the haft of the knife. (no o no that hurts that's too much hurt) She tried to get up, failed, then pulled herself up by Momma's stool. Dizziness and nausea washed over her. She could taste blood, bright and slick, on the back of her throat. Smoke, acrid and choking, was drifting in through the windows now. The flames had reached next door; even now sparks would be lighting softly on the roof that rocks had punched brutally through a thousand years before. Carrie went out the back door, staggered across the lawn, and rested (where's my momma) against a tree. There was something she was supposed to do. Something about (roadhouses parking lots) the Angel with the Sword. The Fiery Sword. Never mind. It would come to her. She crossed by back yards to Willow Street and then crawled up the embankment to Route 6. It was 1: 15 A.M. It was 11:20 P.M. when Christine Hargensen and Billy Nolan got back to The Cavalier. They went up the back stairs, down the hall, and before she could do more than turn on the lights, he was yanking at her blouse. ‘For God's sake let me unbutton it-‘ ‘To hell with that.' He ripped it suddenly down the back. The cloth tore with a sudden hard sound. One button popped free and winked on the bare wood floor. Honky-tonkin' music came faintly up to them, and the building vibrated subtly with the clumsy-enthusiastic dancing of farmers and truckers and millworkers and waitresses and hairdressers, of the greasers and their townie girl friends from Westover and Motton. ‘Hey-‘ ‘Be quiet.' He slapped her, rocking her head back. Her eyes took on a flat and deadly shine. ‘This is the end, Billy.' She backed away from him, breasts swelling into her bra, flat stomach pumping, legs long and tapering in her jeans; but she backed toward the bed. ‘It's over.' ‘Sure,' he said. He lunged for her and she punched him, a surprising hard punch that landed on his cheek. He straightened and twitched his head a little. ‘You gave me a shiner, you bitch.' ‘I'll give you more.' ‘You're goddam right you will.' They stared at each other, panting, glaring. Then he began to unbutton his shirt, a little grin beginning on his face. ‘We got it on, Charlie. We really got it on.' He called her Charlie whenever he was pleased with her. It seemed to be, she thought with a cold blink of humour, a generic term for good cunt. She felt a little smile come to her own face, relaxed a little, and that was when he whipped his shirt across her face and came in low, butting her in the stomach like a goat, tipping her on to the bed. The springs screamed. She pounded her fists helplessly on his back. ‘Get off me! Get off me! Get off me! You fucking greaseball, get off me!' He was grinning at her, and with one quick, hard yank her zipper was broken, her hips free. ‘Call your daddy?' he was grunting. ‘That what you gonna do? Huh? Huh? That it, ole Chuckie? Call big ole legal beagle daddy? Huh? I woulda done it to you, you know that? I woulda dumped it all over your fuckin squash. You know it? Huh? Know it? Pig blood for pigs, right? Right on your motherfucking squash. You-‘ She had suddenly ceased to resist. He paused, staring down at her, and she had an odd smile on her face. ‘You wanted it this way all along, didn't you? You miserable little scumbag. That's right, isn't it? You creepy little onenut low-cock dinkless wonder.' His grin was slow, crazed. ‘It doesn't matter.' ‘No,' she said. ‘It doesn't.' Her smile suddenly vanished, the cords on her neck stood out as she hawked back – and spat in his face. They descended into a red, thrashing unconsciousness. Downstairs the music thumped and wheezed (‘I'm poppin little white pills an my eyes are open wide/Six days on the road and I'm gonna make it home tonight!'), c/w, full throttle, very loud, very bad, five-man band wearing sequined cowboy shirts and new pegged jeans with bright rivets, occasionally wiping mixed sweat and Vitalis from their brows, lead guitar, rhythm, steel, dobro guitar, drums; no one heard the town whistle, or the first explosion, or the second; and when the gas main blew and the music stopped and someone drove into the parking lot and began to yell the news, Chris and Billy were asleep. Chris woke suddenly and the clock on the night table said five minutes of one. Someone was pounding on the door. ‘Billy!' the voice was yelling. ‘Get up! Hey! Hey!' Billy stirred, rolled over, and knocked the cheap alarm clock on to the floor. ‘What the Christ?' he said thickly, and sat up. His back stung. The bitch had covered it with long scratches. He'd barely noticed it at the time, but now decided he was going to have to send her home bowlegged. Just to show her who was boss.. Silence struck him. Silence. The Cavalier did not close until two; as a matter of fact, he could still see the neon twinkling and flicking through the dusty garret window. Except for the steady pounding (something happened) the place was a graveyard. ‘Billy, you in there? Hey!' ‘Who is it?' Chris whispered. Her eyes were glittering and watchful in the intermittent neon. ‘Jackie Talbot,' he said absently, then raised his voice. ‘What?' ‘Lemme in, Billy. I got to talk to you!' Billy got up and padded to the door, naked. He unlocked the old-fashioned hook-and-eye and opened it. Jackie Talbot burst in. His eyes were wild and his face was smeared with soot. He had been drinking it up with Steve and Henry when the news came at ten minutes of twelve. They had gone back to town in Henry's elderly Dodge convertible, and had seen the Jackson Avenue gas main explode from the vantage point of Brickyard Hill. When Jackie had borrowed the Dodge and started to drive back at 12:30, the town was a panicky shambles. ‘Chamberlain's burning up,' he said to Billy. ‘Whole fuckin town. The school's gone. The Centre's gone. West End blew up – gas. And Carlin Street's on fire. And they're saying Carrie White did it!' ‘Oh God,' Chris said. She started to get out of bed and grope for her clothes. ‘What did-‘ ‘Shut up,' Billy said mildly, ‘or I'll kick your ass.' He looked at Jackie again and nodded for him to go on. ‘They seen her. Lots of people seen her. Billy, they say she's all covered with blood. She was at that fuckin prom tonight†¦ Steve and Henry didn't get it but †¦ Billy, did you †¦ that pig blood †¦ was it-‘ ‘Yeah,' Billy said. ‘Oh, no.' Jackie stumbled back against the doorframe. His face was a sickly yellow in the light of the one hall lightbulb. ‘Oh Jesus, Billy, the whole town-.' ‘Carrie trashed the whole town? Carrie White? You're full of shit.' He said it calmly, almost serenely. Behind him, Chris was dressing rapidly. ‘Go and look out the window,' Jackie said. Billy went over and looked out. The entire eastern horizon had gone crimson, and the sky was alight with it. Even as he looked, three fire trucks screamed by. He could make out the names on them in the glow of the street light that marked The Cavalier's parking lot. ‘Son of a whore,' he said. ‘Those trucks are from Brunswick.' ‘Brunswick?' Chris said. ‘That's forty miles away. That can't be . . .' Billy turned back to Jackie Talbot. ‘All right. What happened?' Jackie shook his head. ‘Nobody knows, not yet. It started at the high school. Carrie and Tommy Ross got the King and Queen, and then somebody dumped a couple of buckets of blood on them and she ran out. Then the school caught on fire, and they say nobody got out. Then Teddy's Amoco blew up, then that Mobil station on Summer Street-!' ‘Citgo.' Billy corrected. ‘It's a Citgo.' ‘Who the fuck cares?' Jackie screamed. ‘It was her, every place something happened it was her! And those buckets †¦ none of us wore gloves†¦' ‘I'll take care of it,' Billy said. ‘You don't get it, Billy. Carrie ‘Get out.' ‘Billy-‘ ‘Get out or I'll break your arm and feed it to you.' Jackie backed out of the door warily. ‘Go home. Don't talk to nobody. I'm going to take care of everything.' ‘All right,' Jackie said. ‘Okay. Billy, I just thought-‘ Billy slammed the door. Chris was on him in a second. ‘Billy what are we going to do that bitch Carrie oh my Lord what are we going to-‘ Billy slapped her, getting his whole arm into it, and knocked her on to the floor. Chris sat sprawled in stunned silence for a moment, and then held her face and began to sob. Billy put on his pants, his tee shirt, his boots. Then he went to the chipped porcelain washstand in the corner, clicked on the light, wet his head, and began to comb his hair, bending down to see his reflection in the spotted, ancient mirror. Behind him, wavy and distorted, Chris Hargensen sat on the floor, wiping blood from her split lip. ‘I'll tell you what we're going to do,' he said. ‘We're going into town and watch the fires. Then we're coming home. You're going to tell your dear old daddy that we were out to The Cavalier drinking beers when it happened. I'm gonna tell my dear ole mummy the same thing. Dig.' ‘Billy, your fingerprints,' she said. Her voice was muffled, but respectful. ‘Their fingerprints,' he said. ‘I wore gloves.' ‘Would they tell?' she asked. ‘If the police took them in and questioned them-‘ ‘Sure,' he said. ‘They'd tell.' The loops and swirls were almost right. They glistened in the light of the dun, flyspecked globe like eddies on deep water. His face was calm, reposeful. The comb he used was a battered old Ace, clotted with grease. His father had given it to him on -his eleventh birthday, and not one tooth was broken in it. Not one. ‘Maybe they'll never find the buckets,' he said. ‘If they do, maybe the fingerprints will all be burnt of. I don't know. But if Doyle takes any of 'em in, I'm heading for California. You do what you want.' ‘Would you take me with you?' she asked. She looked at him from the floor, her lip puffed to negroid size, her eyes pleading.

PR Research Final Project Essay

CHAPTER 1 Introduction There is a widespread belief in the professional world that in today’s society the future of any one company depends critically on how it is viewed by key stakeholders such as shareholders and investors, customers and consumers, employees, and members of the community in which the company resides. Public activism, globalization and recent accounting scandals have further strengthened this belief; and have also brought the importance of strategic communications management into closer orbit. Not surprisingly, therefore, both the academic and professional worlds have been suggesting frameworks and models that prescribe steps towards the ‘strategic’ use of communications including such ideas as ‘integrated marketing communications’ (Kitchen and Schultz, 1999), ‘corporate identity management’ (Van Riel and Balmer, 1997), ‘reputation management’ (Fombrun, 1996), ‘stakeholder communications’ (Christensen and Cheney, 1994) and ‘excellent public relations’ (Grunig and Grunig, 1998). Much of this work has been prescriptive in suggesting frameworks for managing communications and for managing firm-stakeholder interactions, as opposed to a more grounded and detailed understanding of the practices of branding and communications professionals and how these may make a difference in the management of firm-stakeholder relationships. Such an understanding is, we suggest, particularly important given the rift between the importance placed by CEO’s and senior executives upon strategic corporate communications, that is, linking communications activities with the overall corporate strategy and objectives of the firm, and their views that there is a huge under-performance in the communications profession in the US, the UK and continental Europe because of a lack of qualified personnel and a limited understanding of what communication practices actually make a difference (Argenti et al. , 2005; Murray and White, 2004; Van der Jagt, 2005). Against this background, I conducted primary research into practices (responsibilities, roles and activities) of communications professionals in four corporations (Siemens, Nokia, Shell and Philips) that have had consistently strong and glowing reputations over the past years, despite market setbacks and negative coverage in the media. The overall aim here was to elicit and conceptualize in more detail the activities and issues that define CC as a public relation function in practice. This extended conceptualization is based upon a view of CC as a ‘practice’, which focuses upon how practitioners engage in the doing the ‘real work’ (Cook and Brown, 1999, p. 387) – a view that, I hope, will stimulate conceptual debate and empirical research and offer a more informed basis for practitioners to make sense of their professional realities and act upon it. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND CRITIQUE According to writers Ewen (1996) and Cutlip (1995) the professional discipline of public relations (PR) – communication activities undertaken by an organization to inform, persuade or otherwise relate to individuals and groups in its outside environment – developed itself, expanding in its scope and activities, because of public skepticism, political reform, turmoil and activism throughout the 20th century. In PR’s early days as a discipline, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, power was largely concentrated with big businesses, although the balance has since then shifted towards powerful groups in society including governments, trade unions, investors and stockholders (Broom et al. , 1991). In response to the increased saliency and power of such groups, new areas of expertise such as investor relations, public affairs, issues management and employee communications were added to the existing specialties of media relations and publicity, and PR gradually developed into a full-fledged ‘managerial discipline’ in the early 1970s (Olasky, 1987). The ‘managerial discipline’ of PR has since then, as writers Van Riel (1995) and Cornelissen (2004) have documented, evolved into the ‘managerial function’ of CC. The fundamental contrast being that under CC communications activities and specialties (eg media relations, government relations, employee communications, community relations, advertising, investor relations, corporate design and issues management) have been increasingly taken together and consolidated into one or a few units or departments and, importantly, these activities are increasingly given shape and coordinated from the strategi c interests of the organization as a whole. Van Riel (1995: 26) for example suggests in this regard that CC as a managerial function is ‘an instrument of management by means of which all consciously used forms of internal and external communication are harmonized as effectively and efficiently as possible’, with the overall objective of creating ‘a favorable basis for relationships with groups upon which the company is dependent’. The evolution of PR into CC and its recognition as a managerial function is furthermore documented in the relatively high position of communications managers and departments (e.g. ‘Corporate communications’, ‘Public Affairs’ or ‘Corporate affairs’) within organizations’ hierarchical structures (Cornelissen, 2004), the rise of a new ‘style’ more business savvy ‘corporate communications’ manager (Freeman, 1984; Harris and Bryant, 1986; Marion, 1998), and the widespread adoption of the CC vocabulary of ‘stakeholders’, ‘identity’ and ‘reputation’ (Argenti, 1996; Van Riel, 1997). For example, a recent survey of Fortune 500 companies found that rather than using PR terminology around publics (ie people who mobilize themselves against an organization on the basis of some common issue or concern to them), managing ‘reputations’ with stakeholders is nowadays considered the lead philosophy among communication departments (Hutton et al. , 2001). In reviewing these literatures that have dealt with the function and process of communications between firms and groups in their respective environments, we observed two key points about the current conceptualization of CC and its embodiment as a managerial function in firms around the globe. First, theories and theoretical frameworks in these literatures implicate the importance of communications in firm-stakeholder interactions – and in that sense are coming together (cf Schultz et al. , 2000: 3) – but only focus on the process of communicating between a firm and stakeholders in its environment. These theories have been particularly focused on stakeholder effects and outcomes (e.g. images, reputations, relationships) established, but have paid very little attention to the managerial activities, professional issues and organizational contexts that characterize CC as a managerial function (cf Vercic and Grunig, 2000). Some work to this effect has emerged in recent years (Cornelissen, 2004; Scholes and Clutterbuck, 1998, 1997), but is still a long way off from fully conceptualizing and describing CC as a management function and practice – at least in comparison with other management functions and practices as for instance strategy (Whittington, 2003) and accounting (Hopwood and Miller, 1994). Second, there has been little actual empirical research into CC as a management function, despite the recognized importance of the function and a proliferating stream of literatures that directly or indirectly refer to it. Thus, there is a gap between theoretical deliberations on the relevance and importance of CC, and descriptive accounts of its actual use and embodiment in practice. We argue that a practice-based conceptualization of CC accounts for these limitations and provides not only a framework for extended theorizing and empirical research but also a means for practitioners to attain a fuller and richer understanding of this critical management function. The Organization of Communication Work The way in which communication practitioners and functional areas are organized is important as it not only determines to a large extent whether the communications function is enabled to provide strategic input into decision-making at the corporate level, but also whether the communication activities that are carried out at various places within the organization are streamlined and coordinated. In other words, the way in which communications is organized carries important strategic and political dimensions and is also crucial for the effective support and integration of communication activities. Ever since the 1970s, academic and practitioner writings have emphasized that firms should consolidate rather than fragment their communications by bringing practitioners and functional areas together into central organizational departments, with the purpose of pooling and enhancing communication expertise and increasing the organizational autonomy and visibility of communications within the organization (e.g. Cook, 1973; Dozier and Grunig, 1992; Grunig and Grunig, 1998; Schultz et al. , 1993; Van Riel, 1995). Siemens, for example, has consolidated all of its communications staff and their responsibilities into a ‘corporate brand and design’ department responsible for the strategic development and policing of the Siemens umbrella brand values, brand design and brand portfolio management, a ‘corporate communications’ department which includes advertising, internal communications and media relations, and a central ‘corporate messages’ unit encompassing both senior communications professionals responsible for developing and guarding the overall corporate story of Siemens and copy writers for speeches of senior managers. Such consolidation is according to a number of research surveys (eg Cornelissen and Thorpe, 2001) now commonplace, with the exception of a few large corporations like General Motors which rather than bringing functional areas together into a few central communications departments have devolved them as stand-alone units (eg a governmental affairs unit) or subordinated to other functions such as human resources or finance. Generally, then, there app-ears to be a greater consolidation of communications into a few departments, yet still in separate ‘corporate communications’ and ‘marketing’ or ‘corporate branding’ departments. Within large firms, such as multidivisional firms and multinational corporations like Siemens, Nokia, Philips and Shell, the relationship between the corporate center or group headquarters and the various business-units is usually a major strategic issue. One key structural consideration here, is as Argenti (1998: 5) suggests, to have ‘all communications focused by centralizing the activity under one senior officer at a corporation’s headquarters or to decentralize activities and allow individual business units to decide how best to handle communications’. Most large multinationals like Siemens, Shell, Nokia and Philips have a combination of centralized ‘global’ departments at the corporate center and decentralized ‘local’ departments, teams and professionals in business-units around the world. Within both Philips and Siemens, the ‘corporate branding’ and ‘corporate communications’ departments have defined a brand charter and a number of work processes to assist professionals within the business with their specific communication programs. The obvious reasoning behind these examples is that although bringing communications specialists together vertically into one or a few departments may lead to enhanced efficiency, to the ability to develop specialized, distinctive capabilities, and to ease of management through the centralization and consolidation of communication activities, it may not lead to coordination between communication-related departments and with other functional areas (eg human resources) outside those departments, and it risks ‘turf wars’, functional myopia, and over specialization. A horizontal structure overlaying the vertical structure, therefore, is often seen as necessary for coordinating disparate communications tasks and activities, which also recognizes that communications with key stakeholders might emerge from various places within the organization and that the process of developing and executing communication programs is therefore essentially cross-functional or cross-disciplinary (Heath, 1994). Horizontal structure can take various forms including multidisciplinary task or project teams, formal lines of communication, standardized work processes (Philips), council meetings (Shell, Siemens), communication guidelines (Siemens, Philips) a corporative vision and communications strategy (Nokia) or the use of ‘czars’ (senior practitioners working as integrators between departments). Large organizations in both the private and public sectors generally need at least some of these horizontal structures. Particularly in multidivisional firms operating across geographical borders, horizontal structures do not appear to be a luxury but an absolute necessity. In recent years there has been a lot of discussion around the departmental arrangement of communications and the reporting relationship of the central corporate affairs department (see Cornelissen, 2004). Ultimately, the stakes of this discussion are about the professional status of corporate communications (vis-à  -vis other established functions as human resources and finance) and its strategic involvement in decision-making at the highest corporate level. Claims that have been made to this effect include the arguments that different communications disciplines should be consolidated in a single department, and that the head of this department should report directly to the CEO or the senior management team (or be a member of this team) to bolster and secure the functional expertise as well as the strategic involvement of corporate communications in decision-making. Broom and Dozier (1986) and Grunig and Grunig (1998) characterized this involvement in organizational decision-making as perhaps most important to the communications practitioner than any other measure of professional growth. The guiding idea in this regard is that a direct reporting relationship to the CEO may be seen as an indication that there is indeed a broad, growing recognition among corporate executives and corporate boards that the ability to succeed will depend upon the firm’s ability to effectively communicate with its stakeholders; and that therefore the communications function is recognized as an absolute, integral part of the top management function. White and Mazur (1995) have added that such a direct reporting relationship is also important as it leads to excellent communications management as senior management is counseled on issues, and stakeholder and identity considerations may more easily get factored into the process of organizational decision-making. The results from a number of studies indicate that in the large majority of cases, there is indeed such a direct reporting relationship from the staff communications department to the CEO and/or executive team (e.g. Argenti and Forman, 2000; Cornelissen and Thorpe, 2001; Grunig and Grunig, 1998; Grunig et al. , 2002; Van Ruler and De Lange, 2003). In most large firms, such a direct reporting relationships consist of counseling and advising the CEO and senior executive team on stakeholder and reputation issues, rather than having a direct involvement (through a seat on the executive team) in corporate decision-making. In a recent study in the UK, Moss et al. (2000) found that within the sample of companies studied communications directors report directly to the CEO or chairperson of the senior management team, but were not formal members of the senior management team responsible for determining corporate strategy and strategic decision-making. In other words, all of the directors in the study indicated that ‘they were often consulted on important issues likely to affect their organizations, [but] their involvement in key operational decision-making was often limited to advising on how best to present policies to the outside world or to internal stakeholders’ (Moss et al. , 2000: 299). Similarly, within companies such as Shell, Siemens and Nokia, the senior vice-president in the area of CC sits on the second-tier management team (one level below the senior executive team), and in that capacity advises and counsels the CEO and senior executive team regarding corporate decision-making. Political and Cultural Issues This is not to say, of course, that the communications director should not have a seat on the executive board and should remain in this advisory capacity, but the UK study did show the current impediments to such a move. On the one hand, there is still a considerable lack of understanding and a lack of commitment to communications among senior managers. On the other hand, many senior communication practitioners often do not meet the needs of senior managers to provide communications advice and an input into corporate strategy in ways that contribute to the accomplishment of organizational objectives and that affect the bottom line. In other words, strategic corporate communications stands or falls with highly qualified input from the communication practitioner at the decision-making table; and only then will there be such a receptive environment for that contribution. The practitioner therefore needs to produce strategically focused recommendations for strategic corporate action; bringing to the attention of top managers a broad understanding of the strategic management process and of those issues that may affect and impact upon a company’s reputation (Cornelissen, 2004; Cropp and Pincus, 2001). Otherwise, communications will be seen as a largely tactical or ‘functionary’ activity; in which practitioners are considered ‘communications technicians’. Grunig et al. (2002) have argued that for many firms, the strategic potential of CC in its boundary-spanning role appears to go largely unrealized. This is the case, Grunig et al. (2002) argue, as senior management equally tends to treat communications largely as a tactical function, concerned primarily with the technical gathering of information and with carrying out publicity and promotion campaigns to external audiences. Contribution of Work and Activities The contribution and consumption of work and activities carried out by communication practitioners takes place at three levels within large firms: the corporate, market (or business-unit), and operational levels. Strategies and activities at the corporate level are concerned with the overall purpose (mission and vision) and scope of the firm to meet its various stakeholder expectations and needs. Strategies and activities at the market level are concerned with determining how the firm will compete successfully in particular markets. Strategies and activities at the operational level concern the way in which CC manages its own resources, processes and people to help deliver corporate and market-level strategic goals. Central to the question of what type of contribution CC makes and whether this is located at the corporate, business-unit or strictly operational level, is the definition and enactment of the function as either strategic or tactical. As a strategic function, there is likely to be strategic involvement of communications practitioners in managerial decision-making at the corporate and business-unit levels. Such a strategic view of communications, which in part has already been realized within the business world but in part is also still aspirational (Cornelissen, 2004), means that communications strategy is not just seen as a set of goals and tactics at the operational level – at the level of the CC function – but that its scope and involvement in fact stretches to corporate and business-unit-wide decisions and activities. At the corporate level, where strategy and activities are concerned with the corporate mission and vision as well as corporate positioning, communication practitioners can aid managers in developing strategies for interaction with the environment. In this sense, communication practitioners are directly involved or support strategic decision-making through their ‘environmental scanning’ activities which may assist corporate strategy-makers in analyzing the organization’s position and identifying emerging issues which may have significant implications for the firm and for future strategy development. Communication practitioners can at this corporate level also bring identity questions and a stakeholder perspective into the strategic management process, representing the likely reaction of stakeholders to alternative strategy options, and thereby giving senior management a more balanced consideration to the attractiveness and feasibility of the strategic options open to them. This happened in each of the four firms (Shell, Nokia, Philips, Siemens) in our case studies. In addition, communications practitioners in these four companies also implemented the corporate strategy by helping to communicate the firm’s strategic intentions to both internal and external stakeholders, which may help avoid misunderstandings that might otherwise get in the way of the smooth implementation of the firm’s strategy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   METHODOLOGY This research uses a case study approach to assess to asses the improved internal corporate communications in four firms.   Gerald R. Adams and Jay D. Schvaneveldt (1997) define the case study approach as â€Å"an in-depth study of one or a limited number of cases in which each case is treated as a whole†. The authors further added, â€Å"The case study approach is particularly helpful when deeper understanding is needed and when there is little concern about generalizing to a large population† (Adams & Schvaneveldt, 1997). These case studies were conducted with four European corporations with strong reputations with their stakeholders and the marketplace: Nokia, Shell, Phillips and Siemens. These four corporations were selected chiefly for two reasons. Firstly, each of these four corporations is a multi-divisional firm operating under the same corporate umbrella. As such, they are typical of other large firms with a corporate communications (CC) presence – as opposed to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where communications responsibilities and activities may not have evolved into one or more full-fl edged functional areas, let alone into a managerial function (cf Kotler and Mindak, 1978 ). Secondly, each of the four corporations has an excellent reputation in the eyes of their stakeholders and the general public according to ToMAC (Top of Mind Awareness of Corporate Brands) scores and reputation rankings published in recent years. The inclusion of these corporations therefore allows us to examine not only the range and kind of activities carried out within CC, but also to what extent these make a difference (given the strong reputations enjoyed by these four corporations). An analytical case-study approach was chosen as most appropriate for our theory-building purposes (Yin, 2003). It allowed us to examine CC holistically and address each of the ‘practice’ dimensions mentioned above. Interviews were conducted with up to four senior managers of each organization, for example, president of corporate communication and marketing communication, communication managers within divisions, and if possible, a board member who is responsible for (corporate) brand communication. Here, a topic guide was used with topics that are relevant in the context of the practice of CC. However, the guide left enough room for the respondent to communicate his or her particular views on in what way activities and dimensions (structure, political and cultural issues, professionals) are linked and it prevented us from pre-structuring the concept of ‘ practice ’ in any way. The topic guide consisted of the following themes: communication organization (How are communications activities and the staff responsible for them departmentalized and structured within the corporation? What organizational processes and facilities exist to support communications? What is the professional ethos and culture of communications staff and of people in other departments of the corporation?), communications work (What is the general view of people within the corporation (ie the CEO and senior managers, marketing staff, communications staff, and others) of communications and its role and contribution to the corporation? How is decision-making concerning communications strategy organized? What does the process of communications strategy formation look like, in both corporate and market-led communications? What general activities does your job involve?) and communications professionals (What is the general profile of communications practitioners working in the corporation? How are communications staff recruited and selected? What training and development initiatives and trajectories exist for communications staff?). We analyzed the data by looking for common themes across the interviewees and four corporations and by identifying links between the dimensions of CC practice. MAIN ARGUMENT The practice of CC was conceptualized   by circumscribing in very broad terms four dimensions: (1) the roles, skills and activities of practitioners, (2) the organization of these practitioners and their work, (3) political and cultural issues that contextualize and mediate these activities, and (4) the communication and consumption of the process and products of activities performed. Throughout discussion, and in the course of the primary research with Shell, Phillips, Siemens and Nokia, I identified two central processes in the practice of CC that cut across these four dimensions, and appear to be central to the field. The first process labeled as strategic positioning describes the ongoing efforts of communication practitioners to position themselves as credible communications managers to senior executives within the executive team and in other functions by developing staff, by finding appropriate mechanisms for coordinating work, by developing value-added activities and by communicating the contribution of CC. Underlying this process is perhaps the realization that communication practitioners need to enact managerial roles through management activities like environmental scanning, counseling and strategic planning that demonstrably add value to the corporation, and that they need to vie for an organizational arrangement that gives them a central, recognizable place in the firm from where to counsel and support senior management as well as managers in other functional areas. To illustrate, within Siemens the emphasis on corporate branding and the development of a corporate brand architecture was presented as central to the corporate strategy of the firm: We have to influence decisions about what businesses do we invest in and brand as Siemens and what businesses we do not want to be in †¦ We have a clear business strategy ‘ go for profit and growth ’ , which sounds really general but behind this is an intensive and very detailed program, the Siemens management system, which our branding architecture and systems tie into. The overall corporate target is to attain worldwide leadership in each of the businesses that we are active in. Business success is the most important thing and that is driving the brand values and the brand strategy’ (Director of Brand Architecture). There is a constant concern with the strategic positioning of corporate branding and corporate communications, not just to increase and communicate the current performance but also to secure a receptive environment at the senior management table. The head of corporate communication worldwide is a close advisor of our CEO. In fact, the incoming CEO, Kleinfeld, has a doctorate on the topic of corporate identity, and has a deep understanding of branding and communications’ (Vice President Corporate Brand and Design). A second process that we identified involves what we term cultural accommodation which describes how CC, its practitioners, its organization and the general way in which it is practiced is embedded in the cultural context of the firm. Effectively, the choices made by Philips, Nokia, Shell and Siemens regarding staffing, training and development, structuring and the model of communication strategy development are all highly varied, yet linked to the core of their business, history and culture. Such variety and cultural adaptation may point to what Gratton and Ghoshal (2005) call signature practices; practices and processes that embody a company ’ s character and are therefore somewhat unique and idiosyncratic, rather than general and universal for the entire industry. Signature practices are linked with the core values of the organization and evolve from a company-specific history and are embedded in its culture and core values. Within Philips, as mentioned, corporate communications is seen as a part of an Organization-wide technocratic engineering culture where every function and the work processes involved are documented and standardized, so that these can be constantly monitored, updated and optimized. Work processes (e.g. media inquiries) within corporate communications have equally been documented and standardized in flow-charts and worksheets (following ISO quality specifications). This kind of signature process may not work in other companies in the consumer electronics industry (or indeed other industries) as it is tied to Philips ’ core cultural values and company history. Within Nokia, in contrast, the corporate vision of ‘connecting people’ together with the fact that members of the company have a strong bond between them ( ‘ having embarked on the technological journey together ’ ) has led to an ‘ informal ’ , ‘ innovative ’ and ‘ can-do ’ culture of knowledge sharing and of coordinating work processes. There are little formalized work patterns or lines of communication between communication professionals within Nokia; they rather liaise frequently and informally with one another. CONCLUSIONS The preceding section is the conclusion on the ‘practice’ perspective on CC and conceptualized the important dimensions of this perspective.   These are (1) the roles, skills and activities of practitioners, (2) the organization of these practitioners and their work, (3) political and cultural issues that contextualize and mediate these activities, and (4) the communication and consumption of the process and products of activities performed. Together, these dimensions (see Table 1) provide a framework for considering the practice of CC in its entirety and in a much more comprehensive manner than previous work has done. Table 1 : Summary of the practice conceptualization of corporate communications Dimension   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Themes Roles and activities of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   — Manager vs technician practitioners   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   — Generalist vs specialist — Professional development, status and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   contribution Organization of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   — Departmental arrangement communication work   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   — Reporting relationship and/or seat on executive   Ã‚     Ã‚  team — Centralization vs decentralization Political and cultural issues Status of communication practitioners and their   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   work — Added value of communication activities — Cultural accommodation Contribution of work and activities   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   — Strategic or tactical contribution Input into corporate strategy and decision-   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   making Interface between communication and other Functional areas (e.g. Finance, Human Resources, etc)   I also articulated two processes (strategic positioning and cultural accommodation) that appear to be central to the practice of CC. In all, the practice-based conceptualization of CC makes the following contributions. First, it has started to open up the ‘black box’ of the organization in which CC activities take place. CC is conceptualized as an organizational phenomenon rather than a macro strategy problem detached from the internal dynamics of the organization. Internal politics, structure and cultural issues are introduced into the field of managing CC, not as inevitable failings or difficulties within firms, but as significant for communications strategy outcomes, perhaps even as attributes to be exploited positively for the status and contribution of CC. Second, the ‘practice’ conceptualization of CC has started to ‘humanize’ the field (cf Pettigrew et al., 2002: 12). Unlike much prior work that has focused on the strategic outcomes of CC activities (e.g. strong reputations and relationships with stakeholders), a ‘practice’ perspective populates the field of CC with human beings. In effect, all forces and activities are seen to emerge from human action – from the actions and contributions of communications practitioners, as well as the reactions by senior managers and managers in other functional areas (human resources, finance, etc.) of the firm. Third, and related to the previous points, the view of CC as ‘practice’ has started to explore the agency of communications practitioners to bring about changes in corporate strategy and in the interaction between the firm and its environment, amidst general professional as well as situational constraints (Whittington, 1988 ). Practitioners can be captured in wider professional belief systems about their roles and work – that is, the aforementioned distinction between ‘manager’ and ‘technician’ roles (Pieczka and L’ Etang, 2000) – that effect and constrain their possibilities for action. Similarly, the political and structural aspects of the work situation in their firms – that is, whether there is a receptive environment among senior managers for an input from CC, and whether communications practitioners are located in departments with access (through a reporting relationship or seat on the management team) to senior management at the corporate level of the firm – effects the micro activities and agency of communication practitioners. Fourth, a practice perspective and our case studies suggest that there are clear interrelations between the roles and backgrounds of practitioners, their activities, the political and cultural situation surrounding their work, the way in which they are organized, and their input and contribution to the firm at the corporate and market levels of the firm. As such, it connects macro phenomena with micro explanations. It does not deny the importance of research that has raised the awareness of key macro issues and challenges; the challenge of achieving and sustaining strong corporate reputations with stakeholders, of identifying and building on unique organizational assets or the ‘ corporate identity ’ of the firm, of managing international communications for multinational firms. Instead, it extends such macro level accounts with descriptions and explanations of the practices and activities that underpin and constitute such phenomena. In addition, as our case studies demonstrated, the practice of CC consists of interrelated dimensions, and as such we extend prior perspectives that have narrowly focused on either dimension or only on the strategic outcomes of CC activities. Any change in strategic outcomes (i.e. stronger corporate reputations with stakeholders) is not simply a case of a creative campaign or of improving one dimension (e.g. reputation measurement to demonstrate accountability) but ultimately depends on a whole range of factors, including the professional roles and competencies of practitioners and the way in which they are organized. Table 2 summarizes the main differences between a ‘practice’ perspective on CC and the more traditional perspectives on CC that have primarily focused on macro strategic outcomes. Table 2: A practice perspective versus traditional perspectives on corporate communications Traditional perspectives on CC   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A practice perspective on CC Primary focus   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Macro: strategic outcomes   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Micro: practitioners, processes and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (reputations and reputation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  structures within the organization measurement) Explanations of  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Deductive: infer best practices from  Ã‚     Ã‚   Inductive: grounded in the actual Performance  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   reputation scores across firms  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   activities of professionals and how   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   these add value and make a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   contribution to a firm Key strategic  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ‘Alignment’ between the reputation     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Strategic positioning and cultural processes  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  and the identity or positioning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   accommodation within the firm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   communicated A fifth contribution concerns its practical implications. A practice perspective on CC extends macro level explanations of CC as outcomes of what goes on in organizations to the activities that constitute them. This perspective is concerned with the same strategic issues of importance to senior managers and communication practitioners (i.e. how to build and maintain strong corporate reputations with stakeholders of the firm?), but in terms of the organizational activities and practices, which are their fabric. As such, it provides a more comprehensive and detailed picture of how communications is and indeed can be managed. The relationships between the practice dimensions (i.e. the backgrounds of practitioners, their activities, the political and cultural situation surrounding their work, the way in which they are organized, and their input and contribution to the firm at the corporate and market levels of the firm) in particular provide managers and communication practitioners with concrete factors or attributes that can be understood and, if needed, challenged or manipulated. To communications practitioners, the profound implication is not only a greater understanding of their work but also suggestions and prescriptions for how their work can be changed or improved. More specifically, if practitioners aspire a developmental shift from a ‘tactical’ or ‘craft ’orientation to communications, characterized by technician role enactment and communications service departments or units carrying out low-level communication mechanics, to a strategic management function, they know that they need to enact managerial roles through management activities like environmental scanning, counseling and strategic planning that demonstrably add value to the corporation, and that they need to vie for an organizational arrangement that gives them a central, recognizable place in the firm from where to counsel and support senior management as well as managers in other functional areas. The two processes of ‘ strategic positioning ’ and ‘ cultural accommodation ’ that we observed in our four case studies may also be taken to hand by practitioners to bring about changes in their firms in such a way that these changes are in line with their firms ’ culture and improve the performance and standing of CC. Recommendations for Research In sum, the practice conceptualization of CC suggests a need to put the micro into macro in order to both uncover plausible linkages to performance (with stakeholder groups) and to offer tangible guides to managerial action. Some important insights, albeit preliminary and illustrative, on micro issues in CC are offered through our four case studies. However, beyond these preliminary case studies, we make two main recommendations in line with this research agenda. First, we recommend further small sample in-depth studies of CC within firms, to develop the contextual and holistic understanding of the practice dimensions of CC that is essential to unpacking the complex driving forces of the management of CC and its strategic outcomes with stakeholders of the firm. In-depth studies, particularly at this early stage of theoretical development on CC, are a necessary feature of furthering the conceptualization and understanding of CC as an area of practice. Second, we recommend process research as a methodology for capturing and explaining how the practice of CC evolves within fi rms. Process research is concerned with understanding how things evolve over time and why they evolve in this way (see Langley, 1999; Van de Ven and Huber, 1990), and process data therefore consist largely of stories about what happened and who did what when – that is, events, activities, and choices ordered over time. In his classic work on organization theory, Mohr (1982) makes a distinction between what he calls ‘variance theory’ and   Ã¢â‚¬Ëœprocess theory’. Whereas variance theories provide explanations for phenomena in terms of relationships among dependent and independent variables (eg more of X and more of Y produce more of Z ), process theories provide explanations in terms of the sequence of events leading to an outcome (eg do A and then B to get C). Temporal ordering and probabilistic interaction between entities are important here (Mohr, 1982). Within the context of CC, the emphasis is with process research on understanding patterns in events (eg the link between activities and tools of communication practitioners and changes in stakeholder reputations), either as a narrative pattern or analytical sequence of events. 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