Top corporate management requires communications departments that maintain credibility with the public by developing the following qualities: integrity established through consistent and honest messages; accuracy based on solid research; authority derived from an understanding of the subject and from drawing on appropriate expertise; a professional style distinguished by clarity, brevity, forcefulness, and organization; and advocacy of the company and its interests. Other obvious requirements include productivity, business sense, and an understanding of the political processes by which public policy is formed. The new, more sophisticated image of top management, as conveyed by members of the Business Roundtable (an organization of business leaders attempting to give business a more active voice in the formation of public policy), offers clues to future expectations regarding corporate communications. These new executives demonstrate that they are well read, up-to-date on current affairs, articulate, open with the press, aware of their public responsibilities, business-centered, action-oriented, pragmatic, and conscious of the need to build a supportive constituency for business. (MAI)