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BA 330 (Fischer) - Managerial Communications

Fall 2025 - Prof. Christine Fischer

Scenario 1: Company Productivity

For this scenario, you may want to explore newspaper/magazine articles about companies who have opened company-run childcare centers and review academic research articles on how providing childcare impacts productivity.


Along with Mardigian Search, some specific database recommendations include: Factiva, ABI/Inform, and Proquest Global Newsstream


When searching, try a variety of keywords to search with. This list includes just a few options for keyword combinations to try: 

  • Company productivity
  • Employee productivity
  • Employee attendance

AND

  • Childcare centers
  • Onsite childcare
  • Working parents/working mothers
  • Company childcare/company daycare

Here is an example search in the ABI/Inform database:

Keyword search example in ABI/INFORM's advanced search

Scenario 2: Code of Ethics

For this scenario, you can start by identifying companies with exemplary codes of ethics by searching news sources. One approach would be searching for lists or rankings of ethical companies in one of our news databases. Once you have located promising companies, see if you can find their full code of ethics on their company website


Specific database recommendations include: Factiva and Nexis Uni.


Below is an example search in Nexis Uni.

Example keyword search in NexisUni's advanced search

Notice that I changed my range of searches from "all fields" to "title" so I could find articles that had my terms in the title of the article. I also used an asterisk so my results would include both the words "company" and "companies." I also limited the date to the last few years. 


Since this scenario reference's Lockheed Martin's code of ethics, make sure to explore their code. You can find Lockheed Martin's webpage on their ethics code here

Scenario 3: Talent Incentives

To compile your list of recommendations, you may wish to explore both news articles and academic journal articles. News sources can help you identify companies who have developed successful talent incentive programs, and journal articles may cover research on how what kinds of incentives yield positive results.


Along with using Mardigian Search, specific database recommendations include: ABI/Inform, ProQuest Global Newsstream, and Business Source Complete.


Below is a sample search in the Business Source Complete database:

screenshot of Business Source complete search


When searching, try using a variety of keywords and combinations. This list includes just a few options for keyword combinations to try: 

  • Employee incentives
  • Labor incentives
  • Talent incentives
  • Employee motivation
  • Recruitment
  • Retention
  • Morale

You may also want to check out Fortune's Best Companies for 2025, mentioned by Prof. Fischer in the scenario description. Please note that this link may require you to log into your UMich account.

Scenario 4: Advertising Campaign

In this scenario, you'll need to conduct some industry and company research in order to find comparable and/or competitor companies. Once you've generated a list of these companies, you can then move on to analyzing their advertising strategies. Along with using library databases, you can also hunt for your comparable companies' advertising strategies on the open web.


For industry and company research, some databases to explore include Statista, D&B Hoovers, and IBISWorld.

For advertising and market research, try Statista and eMarketer.


To start finding out more about your chosen company's competitors, I went into IBIS world, searched for "car & automobile manufacturing," and selected their industry report. Although the entire report may be worth exploring for whatever industry you're interested in, the competitive forces and companies sections may be most useful:

screenshot of IBISWorld database

Scenario 5: IPO

For your research to help prepare for your company's IPO, you can explore sources such as books that provide a comprehensive overview, case studies, and procedural documentation such as government guidelines and regulations


Some databases where you could find coverage of real-life IPO examples include Factiva and ProQuest Global Newsstream.

  • Note: Recent heavily-reported on IPO's include Airbnb, Bumble, Roblox, and Warby Parker.

The U.S. SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) has lots of helpful information about going public on their website

The library has a number of books that discuss the IPO process. I've selected a few titles here, although you can also search for additional books and ebooks in the library catalog


Below is a sample search in Factiva: 

Factiva search of Airbnb w/3 IPO OR "initial public offering"

This database has quite a few search features that are unique to Factiva. In the example search above, "w/3" means that in my search results, the word "airbnb" must occur within three words of "IPO." This helps get more relevant search results. To see all the different Factiva search options, select "examples" next to the search box. I've also limited the date range to the year surrounding Airbnb's IPO. 

  • Note: Once you have viewed your search results, you may want to change the order of results. Factiva defaults to most recent first, but often I find I get better initial results when I sort by relevance instead. 

Scenario 6: Work from Home Policy

To help you develop your work from home policy, your research will likely include news articles, trade publications, and academic, peer-reviewed studies


Along with Mardigian Search, you may also want to try the ABI/Inform, Factiva, and Business Source Complete databases. One potential challenge of searching on this topic is the numerous terms used to describe working from home. To address this challenge, consider using "OR" to connect synonyms. This will ensure you are not missing articles due to slight differences in the terminology used. 


Below is an example search in ABI/Inform. Note how I used OR to add a number of synonyms for "work from home": 

Example ABI/INFORM search using Boolean operators AND and OR

Image caption: the image above demonstrates a sample keyword search of: "work* at home" OR telecommuting OR "work from home" OR "remote work" AND "company policy"

I used the asterisk after "work" so I would see results that included both "working" and "work." I also limited my results to only those that I have immediate full text access to and narrowed to only articles published in the last three years, since the conversation around remote work has shifted so much due to the pandemic. 


Some keywords to try include: 

  • Work from home, work at home, remote work, telecommuting, hybrid work
  • human resources, policy, program
  • employee productivity, company productivity, employee satisfaction, employee retention, employee recruitment

Try combining keywords from each bullet point above to develop your search!

 

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