FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9/17/08
Contact: Barry Freidly '69, interim director of media relations, 717-361-1495, freidlyb@etown.edu
Elizabethtown College Professor Co-Authors Strategic Employee Communications Resource
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Pooling their half century of experience in the field, Elizabethtown College communications professor Tamara Gillis and Watson Wyatt Worldwide consultant John Finney crafted a guide to effective internal communications, titled “Essentials of Employee Communication: Building Relationship that Create Business Success.” The resource – which recently was published by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) – offers a step-by-step, proven process for executing and supervising internal communications efforts.
According to the authors, “Essentials of Employee Communication” provides communication professionals with an invaluable resource for engaging and empowering employees, “the most precious capital of an organization – large or small.” “Employee communication, like all processes in business today, is a moving target, an ever-changing process affected by technology and organizational culture,” said Gillis and Finney in their acknowledgements. “In this manual, we attempt to keep pace with current issues and provide case studies to support best practices.”
Designed as a start-to-finish solution for professionals, the guide is structured on the three steps vital to any communication program – planning, implementation and evaluation. It draws on analysis, research and the experience of consultants and in-house communication leaders to deliver a fully integrated perspective. Readers will learn from best-practice case studies that address both current technology and the evolving organization structure.
Contributing to the project were Jackie Stuedemann and Angela Barrus. Additionally, Ann Johnson and Beth Zemaitis provided early advice, support and contributions.
Tamara Gillis, Ed.D., ABC, is an associate professor of communications at Elizabethtown College, where she teaches organizational communication, communication research, public relations and journalism. She is editor of “The Handbook of Organizational Communication” and its companion instructor’s manual, which was published by Jossey-Bass in 2006. Additionally, Gillis authored “The Human Element,” which was published by IABC Knowledge Centre in 2008. Her research interests include change management communication as an organizational cultural artifact and public art as communication.
John Finney has more than 20 years of business communication experience with 12 years in Canadian health care, working in employee and crisis communication, media relations, and issues management. Now a consultant for Watson Wyatt worldwide, Finney specializes in employee sensing, strategic planning and change communication. He was chair of IABC from 1997 until 1998, and currently serves as the IABC representative on the Global Alliance of Public Relations and Communication Management.
Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, Elizabethtown College offers its 1,900 students more than 50 academic programs in the liberal arts, sciences and professional studies. Driven by its motto to “Educate for Service,” Elizabethtown centers learning in strong relationships, links classroom instruction with experiential learning, emphasizes international and cross-cultural perspectives and nurtures the capacity for lives of purpose.
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