She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Pretoria in South Africa on the role of relationship management in change and transformation with specific reference to postmodern approaches to management. She does regular training and consulting work in this area. Miia Jaatinen received a doctoral degree in communication from the University of Helsinki in 1999. She continues her academic work as a docent at the University of Jyva¨skyla¨, Finland. Miia is a senior consultant at Eera Finland, a GCI Group company. She is a member of the IPRA (International Public Relations Association) and EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education and Research Association).

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Changes occur in organisations because of changes in the environment.Conflicts arise between the organisation and internal and externalstakeholders of the organisation because of these uncontrolledinfluences. Small points of disorder may easily escalate into disorderedcrises and chaos (bifurcations and the butterfly effect). Communicationmanagement - and specifically constructive conflict management - couldlead to 'positive chaos' and a culture (strange attractor) of constantchange. Positive chaos implies an unstable, seemingly disorderedsituation that could bring about productive, creative, and improvedresults. Communication management could be used by organisations toreorganise themselves out of disorder and chaos by facilitating conflictsand diversity. Strategic planning will become even more important, butwill have to change from the basic premise of control and prediction toscenario planning, and the emphasis will be on relationship building.

Since the notion of strategic communication management1had become popular inliterature and as a result of the Excellence study (Dozier, Grunig & Grunig,1995), manypractitioners and communication management departments have attempted toimplement all or some of the elements of the Excellence theory in order to change thenegative reputation of communication management research. Improving the theoreticaland practical knowledge within the communication management department is oneway of rectifying the aforementioned situation. The new knowledge base would includea far better understanding of the strategic management process as well as basic andadvanced research practices.This exploratory study is aimed at describing the nature of communication managementresearch and its function within the communication management department, as wellas the value thereof within the greater organisation. Communication managementresearch theory forms the basis of this project, while exploratory qualitative researchwas conducted within the South African corporate context in order to supplementthese theoretical perspectives.

SUMMARY 'What is chaos, that we should be mindful of it?'(Josepth Ford).Chaos will always be a mystery.