A Competing Values Framework for Analyzing Presentational Communication in Management Contexts

Communication specialists have long been interested in analyzing messages. More recently, they have stressed the need for evaluative tools that account for situational ex pectations and constraints. Drawing from the literature on organizational and managerial effectiveness, we constructed an empirical model applicable to presenta tional communication. Over 100 communication professors evaluated the relevance of descriptors for six different types of business presentations: three oral and three writ ten. Their judgments were used to create similarity scores, which were submitted to multidimensional scaling. A three-dimensional model emerged. This "competing values model" illustrates the dynamic interplay between the highly contrasting charac teristics of four general types of presentational communication: relational, information al, instructional, and transformational. In conclusion, we discuss the benefits of the model and suggest its usefulness as an evaluative tool, particularly for the training of managers.