Corporations are changing; they are reinventing, rethinking, transforming, and reengineering themselves. And with change comes chaos, uncertainty, and renewal. For everyone involved, change represents either a threat to security or an opportunity to move forward. What are the forces at work in changing corporations? In the author's own research on corporate culture and on the forces affecting corporate communication, marketing, and advertising, five general categories of forces have emerged: a new sophistication in customers or audience; new media and technologies or communication tools; a more complex ethical environment; stronger economic factors; and new strategic alliances.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Enormous changes that have taken place in the last few years in Russia have revealed a need for Russian technical communicators to refocus their expertise and skills in order to enter the global marketplace successfully and competitively. Rather than dwell on the familiar differences between Americans and Russians, Cold War adversaries, a common ground exists and is growing. We share a mutual interest in the successful entry of Russian technical communicators in the global marketplace. We also share an understanding that technology is central to civilization as we know it, and that the masters of technology have a substantial influence on all activities that they touch; a belief that technology has had a major beneficial effect on the peoples of the world, but that with such power comes the potential for large, serious, and potentially devastating influences; the idea that the embrace of technology is a good cultural fit with cultures formed from revolutions, for technology in the later part of this century has come to be synonymous with rapid change, and cultures with revolutionary heritage welcome change; the notion that technological breakthroughs have profound influences on the nature of work, liberating the traditional intensive physical nature of labor to the emergence of a knowledge worker; and the belief that the global marketplace forces the need for clear and rapid communication across borders, as well as among cultures. If we can agree on these technical communications issues, then we have a firm foundation for building a gateway to communication in the global market.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A study of communication in graduate management programs sponsored by IEEE/PCS and Fairleigh Dickinson University is described. The findings indicate a clear need for more emphasis on oral and written communication and suggest that one solution to the problem is a course requirement in written and oral communication in conjunction with one or two full-time faculty dedicated to the subject. The findings also indicate that full-time faculty who teach communication courses at the graduate level have extensive business and academic experience, and their compensation is well within national guidelines. The study indicates clearly that exit requirements, when they exist, lack both an oral and written communication component, although a written term project for course work is almost universally employed. Other surveys and publications provide background information;.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>