Integrated communications at America's leading total quality management corporations

Abstract

This study examines how to create organizational processes that allow communication professionals with a variety of expertise—e.g. media relations, employee communications, investor relations, and advertising—to support each other through coordination and integration. It is a multi-case study of eight of America's leading total quality management corporations: AT&T, Allen-Bradley, Eastman Chemicals, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Saturn, and Xerox. Because of their emphasis on systems thinking and interdepartmental integration, these companies offer an opportunity to examine innovative approaches to integration. The findings are based on face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 41 senior managers representing different communication disciplines at the eight companies. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed with the "constant comparative method." The study explores how various total quality management processes, such as teamwork, research, and documentation of processes, support integration among communication departments.