Appendix A: Organization Authorization Letter

The following is the text of the letter was sent to organizations that expressed a desire to participate in the research to seek permission to contact their members as potential individual participants:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a doctoral candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto in Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Marilyn Laiken. I am currently conducting research into the nature and characteristics of organizational relationships, both within and outside of organizational boundaries, as they are changing through the effects of instantaneous, multi-way communications. Specifically, I am seeking to develop a model and descriptive vocabulary of what one might call, “the organization of the future,” based on information coming from the lived experiences of people in organizations of various kinds and sizes. The ultimate product of this research may assist organizations to adapt to changing conditions throughout society, and better serve its employees, customers, suppliers, and the community at large.

If your organization agrees to participate in the research, I will plan to conduct one or two interviews with each of two to three people. Ideally, the people will come from different hierarchical levels in your organization, from relatively lower to relatively higher.

Of course, you are under no obligation to participate, or even respond to this correspondence. The name of your organization and all individual participants will be kept confidential, unless you (and they) explicitly give permission for identities to be revealed.

If you would like to see the detailed information about the research and the proposed interviews, I can send it to you either in hard-copy by post, or as a PDF file by email. If you would prefer to receive the information in hard-copy, please provide me with your mailing address in your response. Should you decide that your organization is willing to participate in the research, I ask that you complete and sign the attached authorization form. Please keep one copy for your files, and return one copy to me.

Thank you for your consideration.