Guides -- Communications Workshop (BUS 561P)

Researching the Value of Corporate Philosophy Statements

This Guide was developed specifically for this course's research project, to locate information about and analyze the following three issues:

Best companies to work for
Companies with successful retention rates
Corporate philosophy statements - best practices, process, successes and failures

The Guide is divided into two sections:

1) Identify the best sources and present the most effective, transferable strategies for developing using both open Web and specialized search engines
2) Suggest search strategies for some of the sources identified with the intent of enabling obtaining good results and illustrating important differences between the sources

1) What are the best sources

Factiva
ABI Inform
Business Source Premier
Conference Board
Corporate Web Sites
Case Studies
Advanced Google
Management Consulting Firms (white papers, other publications)
Educational Institutions/Think Tanks, etc.
- Corporate Communication Institute

2) What are the best search strategies

Fluid not literal
Synonyms
Be in the driver's seat (know your search engine)
Persistence and perseverance
Think likely sources
Trial and error

3) Learn from your results

Sort by relevancy
Look at first 100+ returned results
Scan for more keywords
Scan for leads (associations, studies, surveys, consulting/research firms, etc.)
REWORK, REFINE, RETHINK

Search Strategies

Soul of Dell

Factiva

soul of dell

Best Companies to Work For

Factiva

hlp=(best w/5 (compan* or firm* or organization* or employer*)) and hlp=work [Region: United States]

hlp=(best w/5 (compan* or firm* or organization* or employer*)) and hlp=work and atleast2 best [Region: United States]

Retention

Factiva

(retention or retain* or turnover) and (highest or best) and (employee* or staff) [Region: United States]

hlp=((retention or retain* or turnover) and (highest or best) and (employee* or staff)) [Region: United States]

(retention or retain* or turnover) and (highest or best) and (employee* or staff) and (corporate w/5 (value* or philosophy or culture)) [Region: United States]

ABI Inform

retention or turnover (citation and abstract)

AND employee? or staff(citation and abstract)

AND highest or best (citation and abstract)

Corporate Philosophy

Factiva

corporate philosophy

corporate mission and philosophy

hlp=(corporate mission) and philosophy

(corporate w/5 (philosophy or value*)) and (study or survey*)

hlp=corporate and (corporate w/5 (philosophy or value*)) and hlp=(study or survey* or association*)

(corporate w/5 (philosophy or value*)) and (retention or turnover or satisfaction or productiv*) and (employee* or staff)

hlp=corporate and (corporate w/5 (philosophy or value*)) and hlp=(study or survey* or association*) and (retention or turnover or satisfaction or productiv*) and (employee* or staff)

Corporate Culture

ABI Inform

corporate culture (citation and abstract)

AND (chang? or transfor? or adapt?)

corporate culture (citation and abstract)

AND case studies (citation and abstract)

Business Source Premier

corporate culture

Fair Disclosure Transcripts Factiva

Investment Banking Reports Investext

Case Studies

Company Profile SWOT Analysis Marketline Business Information Centre (formerly Datamonitor)