Originally published in 1971. On May 4th, 1970, shots fired by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University were heard around the world. People were either outraged by the killings or outraged at the students. Instant experts rendered the judgment that it was all a problem of communication. This book tested that hypothesis as it presents the result of an in-depth series of interviews both within and outside the university soon after the tragic event. The book includes a narrative of an initial understanding of the incidents but admits its limit in full information as it outlines the results of the study, which looked at systems and subsystems of information flow. This book adds to the understanding of problems of communication in large organisations and particularly education establishments as well as being a cautionary tale of a specific event.

Originally published in 1971. On May 4th, 1970, shots fired by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University were heard around the world. People were either outraged by the killings or outraged at the students. Instant experts rendered the judgment that it was all a problem of communication. This book tested that hypothesis as it presents the result of an in-depth series of interviews both within and outside the university soon after the tragic event. The book includes a narrative of an initial understanding of the incidents but admits its limit in full information as it outlines the results of the study, which looked at systems and subsystems of information flow. This book adds to the understanding of problems of communication in large organisations and particularly education establishments as well as being a cautionary tale of a specific event.

"Who Is My Neighbor?" is a compelling account of the author s ten-year journey as a volunteer at the St. Francis Center, a homeless shelter in Denver, Colorado. A retired Professor of Communication, Phil Tompkins marshals his considerable experience as a participant observer in recording the voices of the guests of the shelter as they teach us about their situation. We learn about their hopes for regaining a home and their fears as they are victimized in some cases even murdered. Tompkins shows how effective communication and organization can contribute to finding an end to homelessness and establishing a movement toward protective action, especially when a proactive local government gets involved. In addition to giving voice to homeless people, "Who Is My Neighbor?" explores Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper s ambitious Commission to End Homelessness. This remarkable social experiment, now called Denver s Road Home, is two years into implementing an innovative plan for ending homelessness. It provides a model for other cities nationwide where persistent homelessness has defied resolution. "Features of this unique book: Includes poignant stories of and interviews with homeless people from every background.Recounts the era of the brutal decapitation murders among Denver s homeless population.Author s first hand experience with and scholarly understanding of the homeless is reflected throughout.Shows the ways that businesses, nonprofits, and local, state, and the federal levels of government can work together to eliminate homelessness.Puts forth the radical proposals of Denver s Road Home ending homelessness by providing homes for people without them."Additional online resources to learn more about homelessness Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, www.coloradocoalition.orgCommunity for Creative Nonviolence, http: //users.erols.com/ccnv/ Corporation for Supportive Housing, www.csh.orgDenver s Road Home, www.denversroadhome.orgEveryone Deserves A Roof, www.edar.orgGood Samaritan Society, www.good-sam.comHousing Justice , www.housingjustice.orgNational Alliance to End Homelessness, www.endhomelessness.orgNational Coalition for Homeless Veterans, www.ncvh.orgNational Coalition for the Homeless, www.nationalhomeless.orgNational Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, www.nlchp.orgThe St. Francis Center, www.sfcdenver.orgUnited States Interagency Council on Homelessness, www.usich.gov"

"Who Is My Neighbor?" is a compelling account of the author s ten-year journey as a volunteer at the St. Francis Center, a homeless shelter in Denver, Colorado. A retired Professor of Communication, Phil Tompkins marshals his considerable experience as a participant observer in recording the voices of the guests of the shelter as they teach us about their situation. We learn about their hopes for regaining a home and their fears as they are victimized in some cases even murdered. Tompkins shows how effective communication and organization can contribute to finding an end to homelessness and establishing a movement toward protective action, especially when a proactive local government gets involved. In addition to giving voice to homeless people, "Who Is My Neighbor?" explores Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper s ambitious Commission to End Homelessness. This remarkable social experiment, now called Denver s Road Home, is two years into implementing an innovative plan for ending homelessness. It provides a model for other cities nationwide where persistent homelessness has defied resolution. "Features of this unique book: Includes poignant stories of and interviews with homeless people from every background.Recounts the era of the brutal decapitation murders among Denver s homeless population.Author s first hand experience with and scholarly understanding of the homeless is reflected throughout.Shows the ways that businesses, nonprofits, and local, state, and the federal levels of government can work together to eliminate homelessness.Puts forth the radical proposals of Denver s Road Home ending homelessness by providing homes for people without them."Additional online resources to learn more about homelessness Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, www.coloradocoalition.orgCommunity for Creative Nonviolence, http: //users.erols.com/ccnv/ Corporation for Supportive Housing, www.csh.orgDenver s Road Home, www.denversroadhome.orgEveryone Deserves A Roof, www.edar.orgGood Samaritan Society, www.good-sam.comHousing Justice , www.housingjustice.orgNational Alliance to End Homelessness, www.endhomelessness.orgNational Coalition for Homeless Veterans, www.ncvh.orgNational Coalition for the Homeless, www.nationalhomeless.orgNational Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, www.nlchp.orgThe St. Francis Center, www.sfcdenver.orgUnited States Interagency Council on Homelessness, www.usich.gov"

Apollo, Challenger, Columbia: The Decline of the Space Program provides unparalleled longitudinal insight into the organizational successes and failures of NASA. The book treats NASA over its 45-year history from 1958 to 2003, concentrating on five "data points":
* 1967: when Tompkins first served as a Summer Faculty Consultant in Organizational Communication to legendary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun during the Apollo Program.
* 1968: when he served in the same capacity to help reorganize NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
* 1986: when he investigated the communication failures that caused the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
* 1987: when he researched NASA's highly successful Aviation Safety Reporting System.
* 2003: when he interpreted the communication failures leading up to the catastrophic failure of the space shuttle Columbia.
The result is a presentation of concrete communication correlates of organizational success and failure. Tompkins is a master of what Clifford Geertz called "thick description." The result is a compelling, richly detailed, longitudinal case study concentrating on processual changes in communication-as-organization. In this book, Tompkins introduces theory subtly, inserting it to explain details of the organization that would otherwise defy understanding.
In considering other organizations in trouble, Tompkins identifies ten "communication transgressions," one of which, for example, is "ignorantia affectata"--an affected or cultivated ignorance of organizational problems. In contrast to these failed organizations and their pathologies, Tompkins offers a sketch of two healthy organizations that live by "valuelogics"--applying ethical values in the organizational workplace. There are lessons to be learned from NASA's disasters. With all of the high-profile ethical lapses in U.S. corporations, Tompkins advocates individuals and organizations taking responsibility for their actions.

Organizational Communication Imperatives: Lessons of the Space Program, by Phillip K. Tompkins, provides unparalleled insight into the communication successes and failures of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It spans a 25-year period--from the Apollo Program to the present-day dilemmas of the space program. Much of the book focuses on communication problems involved in the Challenger disaster. Tompkins is a master of what Clifford Geertz called "thick description." The result is a compelling, richly-detailed case study that brings alive the field of communication to students. Organizational Communication Imperatives eases the job of teaching by providing students with a narrative that stimulates interest, contextualizes abstract principles, and leads students into theory with greater understanding.
Through their study of the Marshall Center, students are exposed to
* how complex organizational structure changes over time.
* how employees are affected by these changes.
* how an organization may react to a major crisis.
* how an organization responds to different types of leadership.
* what it takes to bring an ailing organization back to health.
The text thus provides a more comprehensive insight into the functioning of one organization--rather than attempting to describe how all organizations function--than is offered in any other book of this type. Yet the analysis offered can be applied to any organization to improve communication.
Tompkins's work as an organizational communication consultant to the Marshall Center during the Apollo Program, under legendary German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, is well known. In 1990, Tompkins returned to Huntsville to interview top management and assess the Center's recovery since the Challenger disaster.
The book takes the shape of a first-person narrative, which gives it an accessible, personal style rarely found in textbooks. Students will have no difficulty with comprehension.
It is also unusual to present primary-source findings in a classroom text, as this book does. Students gain a sense of how original research is conducted as they use the book, which encourages development of their critical thinking skills.
Suggested questions for discussion and essays, as well as class projects and exercises, are included in an appendix to assist the instructor in using the book to maximum advantage.

Along with increased complexities in work and life in general in the twenty-first century come new and dangerous risks to workers, customers, and the general public. Drawing on decades of experience as a researcher and consultant for a range of organizations and individuals in high-risk domains, the author of this book presents a powerful theory of open communication and teamwork. This unites a range of communication practices and principles that have proven to combat risk and complexity in organizations. The book initially focuses on NASA, an organization that experiences and engages with high complexity and risk daily. As a participant-observer in the Apollo program, the author witnessed pioneering communication practices that, for example, empowered engineers with “automatic responsibility” for any technical problem they perceived. It was partly the failure to follow such protocols that resulted in the catastrophes experienced in the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, as the author shows. Using the lessons learned from the space program, the book then explores complexity and risk in medicine, aviation, the fighting of forest fires, and homelessness, again consistently finding communication practices that worked and did not work. Based on detailed research conducted over several decades, the book presents a unified theory linked to generally applicable communication practices. Case studies include the results of an international experiment of surgery conducted in ten countries that produced a highly significant reduction of deaths and infections in Africa, India, and other parts of the world, to the creation of innovative communication practices that significantly reduced risks in the US aviation industry.