Communicating sensitive business issues: Part 1

This is the first of a two‐part article reporting the results of a study which investigated communication and relationships in the workplaces of four large organizations in Northern Ireland, two in the public and two in the private sector. A central purpose of the research was to evaluate suitable methods for auditing relationships among staff. Based on a review of the apposite literature on organizational and relational communication, the techniques finally selected as holding out most promise were the focus group approach, retrospective interview technique, social network analysis (SNA), and critical incident technique (CIT). Part 1 evaluates the first two of these techniques in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency in generating rich data enabling sharp insights to be gained of the types of association that typify those who share a work environment. SNA and CIT are similarly dealt with in Part 2, where recommendations for using qualitative and quantitative methods for auditing internal relationships are also offered.