12 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, "In this essay the perspective of Ritzer's McDonaldization of Society thesis is the starting point for developing theses about corporate communication (CorpCom). The central idea of McDonaldization is that increasing numbers of organizations are run as fast food restaurants, focusing on efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control of people. "At the same time that CorpCom departments help organizations with the McDonaldization of their organizations, they are also the ones most likely to be the first to be confronted with the irrationality that the economic rationality of the organization evokes. Stakeholders who disagree with the opinions and ideas of the organization come knocking on the door and generally that will be the door of the CorpCom professional. The irrationality of rationality, as the fifth dimension of McDonaldization, is likely to become visible and tangible in their offices. All types of tensions throughout the organization, for example, those regarding environmental, health, and other societal issues, seem to converge in the CorpCom department."
A version of this article appears in print on September 6, 2015, Section A, Page 1 of the New York Edition of the New York Times with the headline, "Emails reveal academic ties in a food war.", Examines lobbying activities of firms and interest groups in the debate over bioengineered foods - and involving third-party scientists "and their supposedly unbiased research." Includes examples of interactions and financial support for university scientists by commercial firms.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 153 Document Number: D06810
Notes:
Sense and Sustainability Study based on an online national survey among U.S. adults by Harris Poll for G&S Business Communications, New York City, New York. 19-page PowerPoint presentation.
