This article explores how corporations project their corporate philosophy through `Mission Statements'. Linguistic and textual analysis of such statements drawn from a sizeable corpus allows us to typify the texts as constituting a non-routine, organizational genre, and one that has recently become of some significance. This discussion serves as a foundation for a contextual and intertextual analysis (cf. Fairclough, 1992) of Mission Statements from two well-known US companies. By detailing the history, rationale and role of these Mission Statements we indicate how the texts are rhetorically designed in order to ensure maximum employee `buy-in'. Despite linguistic and rhetorical similarities among the texts, an exploration of context reveals startling differences in communicative purpose. In one case the Mission Statement emerges as an empowering historical vision to be protected and nurtured through all vicissitudes; in the other case, the rewriting of the Mission Statement emerges as a collaborative response to crisis. The article ends by discussing the implications of such findings for contemporary approaches to discourse and genre analysis within institutional linguistics.

C ommunication is an ancient discipline which has evolved considerably. Throughout this evolutionary process, effectiveness has been a central concern. In the fifth century BC, for instance, Corax, one of the first teachers of human discourse, suggested the need for speakers to &dquo;produce an effect in listeners&dquo; (Hinks, 1940;Kennedy, 1959 (1973) suggests that theory construction in the future should &dquo;focus on a new set of variables and employ a new set of analytic techniques&dquo; (p. 16).

This article revieios research leading to a Competing Values Model for Management Communication and provides instruments for evaluating managerial writing and speaking based on that model. Developed through empirical research by Quinn, Hildebrandt, Rogers, and Thompson (1991), the Competing Values Model for Communication illustrates the interplay between contrasting qualities in management messages. Instruments based on this model allow users to analyze the extent to which these qualities characterize their written and spoken presentations. By collecting analytical data from superiors, subordinates, and peers, a manager may compare his/her self‐assessment with the assessments of others. Methods for interpreting the data include suggestions for developing action plans. The article concludes with a discussion of other potential applications of the instruments to communication research and pedagogy in managerial contexts. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This study examines the nature and value of empathic communication in call center dyads. Our research site was a multinational financial services call center that we came to know through grounded study techniques, including analyses of 289 stressful calls. Examining calls as communication genre revealed that agents and customers have conflicting organizational, service, and efficiency needs that undermine communication. But three types of empathic expression can mitigate these conflicts in some interactions. Affective expressions, such as “I’m sorry,” were less effectual, but attentive and cognitive responses could engender highly positive responses although customers’ need for them varied tremendously. Thus, customer service agents must use both diagnostic and enactment skills to perform empathic communication effectively, a coupling that we call empathy work.