Aug. 23, 2003 - IRVING, Texas--If you were looking for Tom Corcoran, chief executive of FelCor Lodging Trust Inc., on Friday morning, the place to start was the company kitchen.

Smelling of chicken fajitas and dressed in cargo shorts, a summery shirt and an apron, Mr. Corcoran simultaneously set out fresh bowls of salsa and listened to a hotel board meeting while trailing a 20-foot telephone extension behind him. (The hotel's monthly reports were stashed at the iced-tea station.)

"OK, we've got hot [taco] shells," he said at one point to no one in particular. "What's next?"

Mr. Corcoran's monthly homemade lunches have been a FelCor tradition for more than six years, offering a regular, albeit unusual, way for the chief executive to interact with his 60 employees.

"It's a way for everyone to get together in a setting that is unlike the business environment and get to know each other," he said.

That's an important asset for any company that has survived the past two years' economic uncertainties, management experts say.

Several Dallas area executives have responded by shifting to more frequent contact with their workers in less formal settings. Mr. Corcoran's lunches are an admittedly creative approach, but other companies are looking for similar opportunities, ranging from ice cream socials to town hall meetings.

"Open, flexible communication is the key," said Robert Rasberry, an assistant professor of management and organizations in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. "In bad times, sometimes the lifeline of business itself depends on everyone in the company being able to read from the same page of information."

FelCor's lunches aren't designed for conducting business. They're intended to complement Mr. Corcoran's weekly meetings with the hotel company's management groups and officers.

Mr. Corcoran also has started giving all employees the same monthly report that goes to FelCor's board of directors.

"Employees hate mystery and the unknown," said Mr. Corcoran. "People like to know what's going on and feel involved."

FelCor's lunch-prep teams change every month, with Mr. Corcoran preparing all the menus and cooking about every other time. Each employee ends up in the kitchen at FelCor's Irving headquarters about once a year.

During most lunches, Mr. Corcoran discusses the latest news about the company's 172 hotels and recognizes individual efforts and employment anniversaries.

"You have to build a foundation during good times so that there's a culture in the company that helps people to feel going about their job and good about working for FelCor," Mr. Corcoran said.

Such a foundation can help any company during difficult times, when tensions run high and employees have "a tendency to clam up," said Mr. Rasberry and others.

Frequent and open communications with chief executives and other managers also can improve company productivity, said Julie Freeman, president of the International Association of Business Communicators.

"It lets them feel comfortable about where they work and engages them in a way that helps the company to be more productive," Ms. Freeman said.

Executive communication has gotten more scrutiny from management consultants in the post-Enron environment.

"It used to be that credibility and trust in the CEO was a given," Ms. Freeman said. "We've learned some hard lessons over the last couple of years that it's not always the case."

Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. adopted a more open strategy this spring as it shared detailed financial information to employees groups it was asking to accept wage and benefit cuts.

"It was very clear we had to open our books to everyone to show them how dire our situation was ... and demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that we needed their help," said spokesman Marty Heires.

Those gains were threatened when it was revealed that officials withheld information about executive incentives and pension benefits. The controversy, which nearly sent the company into bankruptcy, led to the resignation of chairman and chief executive Donald Carty and a new round of employee negotiations.

American's new CEO, Gerard Arpey, has taken a more personal approach, holding monthly meeting with small groups of employees to talk about the company's finances and operations, Mr. Heires said.

"We've been trying to break it down for employees more often and try to help them gain an understanding about where the company is now and where we need to be," Mr. Heires said.

Dallas-based Wyndham International Inc. shifted from quarterly business presentations to monthly town hall meetings in early 2001. At the time, rumors were flying that the hotel company, laden with $3.4 billion in debt, was about to be sold. Cost-cutting moves also had led to three waves of layoffs totaling 850 employees and suspension of some benefits.

"We wanted to create an environment where people could get their questions addressed," said Ted Teng, Wyndham's president and chief operating officer. "Employees want to see energy and possibility from their leadership ... they don't want to be told everything is rosy and not have it be grounded in reality."

As the economic downturn and Wynham's woes have continued, those meetings have been critical to employee morale, Mr. Teng said.

"You can tough it out for eight or nine months, but when you get to two years or more, the fatigue factors really sets in," Mr. Teng said.

Farmers Branch-based software company I2 Technologies Inc. -- which has grappled with a sales slump that led to 3,500 layoffs since the beginning of 2002 -- has tried to emphasize the positive to employees. The company's intranet site boasts new customer accounts and business updates. And executives visit the various corporate offices to meet one-on-one with employees.

"We don't want a lot of stuffy settings," said Adrianne Court, the company's vice president of human resources. As a result, I2 has started scheduling ice cream socials for executives and employees.

"People require a personal touch ... the generic, totally cleaned up e-mail from your CEO is no longer the appropriate format for keeping your employees engaged," Ms. Court said.

Frequency of communication doesn't necessarily mean better communication.

Officials at Texas Instruments Inc. recently standardized and consolidated corporate memos into weekly dispatches so employees weren't deluged with information. Just a year ago, various departments would send an average of one message per day to all employees, each with a different look and format.

"There were some messages that weren't necessary and others that were getting lost," said Lisa Byrd, director of internal communications.

TI has also shifted to more face-to-face communications to develop closer ties between employees and the corporate mission, Ms. Byrd said.

"If people don't understand what they're working on and why it's important, they're not going to give you their best shot," Ms. Byrd said. "The bottom line for TI is better productivity."

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