Organizational Communication

“My Country’s Future”: A Culture-Centered Interrogation of Corporate Social Responsibility in India

by Rahul Mitra

Journal of Business Ethics (2012), Volume 106, issue 2, 131-147.

Companies operating and located in emerging economy nations routinely couch their corporate social responsibility... more Companies operating and located in emerging economy nations routinely couch their corporate social responsibility (CSR) work in nation-building terms. In this article, I focus on the Indian context and critically examine mainstream CSR discourse from the perspective of the culture-centered approach (CCA). Accordingly, five main themes of CSR stand out: nation-building facade, underlying neoliberal logics, CSR as voluntary, CSR as synergetic, and a clear urban bias. Next, I outline a CCA-inspired CSR framework that allows corporate responsibility to be re-claimed and re-framed by subaltern communities of interest. I identify such resistive openings via interrogations of culture (I focus on oft-cited Gandhian ethics here), structure (State policy, organizational strategy, and global/local flows), and agency (subaltern reframing of institutional responsibility, engagement with alternative modes of agency, and deconstructive vigilance).

Why your TeamSTEPPS program may not be working

by Timothy Clapper

Clapper, T. C., & Ng, G. M. (2012, in press). Why your TeamSTEPPS program may not be working. Clinical Simulation in Nursing. doi:10.1016/j.ecns.2012.03.007

Co-authored with Grace Ng

Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety ® (TeamSTEPPS) is a patient safety tool developed... more Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety ® (TeamSTEPPS) is a patient safety tool developed by the defense industry and based on four competencies: leadership, communication, situational monitoring, and mutual support. Unfortunately, there are barriers that prevent TeamSTEPPS from reaching its full potential, including: (a) lack of administrative support and resources, (b) lack of training focus to address hierarchal differences and incivility at all levels of health care practice and administration, (c) inadequate TeamSTEPPS instruction and simulation practices, and (d) educators’ resistance to change from crew resource management concepts. Suggestions for improvement include providing command and health care agency emphasis for the TeamSTEPPS program, providing adequate material and personnel resources, designing training that is geared to trainer implementation at the departmental level, prioritizing and saturating training, and striving toward a just culture.

Challenges to workplace dignity in a total institution: Examining the experiences of Foxconn’s migrant workforce

by Kristen Lucas

Lucas, K., Kang, D., & Li, Z. (in press). Challenges to workplace dignity in a total institution: Examining the experiences of Foxconn’s migrant workforce. Journal of Business Ethics. doi: 10.1007/s10551-012-1328-0

In 2010, a cluster of suicides at the electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group sparked worldwide... more In 2010, a cluster of suicides at the electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group sparked worldwide outcry about working conditions at its factories in China. Within a few short months, 14 young migrant workers jumped to their deaths from buildings on the Foxconn campus, an all-encompassing compound where they had worked, eaten, and slept. Even though the language of workplace dignity was invoked in official responses from Foxconn and its business partner Apple, neither of these parties directly examined workers’ dignity in their ensuing audits. Based on our analysis of media accounts of life at Foxconn, we argue that its total institution structure imposed unique indignities on its workers that both raised questions of their self-respect and self-worth, as well as gave rise to multiple episodes of disrespectful communication. We interpret our findings in light of the larger cultural context and meanings of work in China to understand more fully the experience of dignity of Foxconn’s migrant workforce.

Professional learning and the materiality of social practice

by Åsa Mäkitalo

Published in the Journal of Education and Work in a special issue on Reconceptualising Professional Learning in a Changing Society edited by T. Fenwick, M. Nerland and K Jensen

This article addresses professional learning as intrinsic to social practices. It takes its point of departure in a... more This article addresses professional learning as intrinsic to social practices. It takes its point of departure in a sociocultural notion of mediation and communication in human activity and addresses the constitutive nature of language and artefacts as material-semiotic tools in the social coordination of perspectives and action, meaning-making and gap-bridging
in professional work. The empirical examples are taken from different settings; an IT helpdesk team working in a multinational production company; vocational guidance officers working in a public employment office and from nurses at a rehabilitation ward in a hospital. The theoretical perspective is used when discussing these cases so as to display the
use of the core concepts and the dynamics of change which may be illuminated by the analytical approach. In the conclusion, specific aspects of the materiality of social practice relevant for the study of learning and knowing in professional work are made salient.

Noticing the Past to Manage the Future: On the Organization of Shared Knowing In IT-Support Practices

by Åsa Mäkitalo

Co-authored with Ann-Charlotte Eklund and Roger Säljö.

http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/dxreader/Reader.aspx?token=aa5512e9c8b944149e70154f63e4cc69&rand=1293582439&buyNowLink=&page=&chapter=

Digital technology is a generic element in the transformation of work practices through ways we communicate,... more Digital technology is a generic element in the transformation of work practices through ways we communicate, administrative procedures, the organization of production processes, and so on. IT helpdesk practices are obvious symptoms of this development. The overall aim of this empirical study is to document and analyze how an IT helpdesk team in a multinational company operates in its everyday practice, and how members develop and maintain collective and individual knowing. As collective knowing is established within a team working 24/7, local jargon and modes of communicating emerge which allow participants to take things for granted and smoothly coordinate their activities. Such jargon is, however, difficult to penetrate for outsiders and newbies. Settings characterized by implicit use of local semiotic tools present an interesting challenge to the study of learning and knowing. In this chapter, we also discuss this challenge and give an account of our research strategy to tease out critical elements in the teams ways of making things relevant.

Information, Community, and Action: How Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media

by Gregory Saxton

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 17, pp. 337-353, 2012.

The rapid diffusion of “micro-blogging” services such as Twitter is ushering in a new era of possibilities for... more The rapid diffusion of “micro-blogging” services such as Twitter is ushering in a new era of possibilities for organizations to communicate with and engage their core stakeholders and the general public. To enhance understanding of the communicative functions micro- blogging serves for organizations, this study examines the Twitter utilization practices of the 100 largest nonprofit organizations in the United States. The analysis reveals there are three key functions of micro-blogging updates —“information,” “community,” and “action.” Though the informational use of micro-blogging is extensive, nonprofit organizations are better at using Twitter to strategically engage their stakeholders via dialogic and community-building practices than they have been with traditional websites. The adoption of social media appears to have engendered new paradigms of public engagement.

La polyphonie organisationnelle au service de la sécurité au travail ?

by Sylvie Grosjean

Grosjean, S., Huët, R., Bonneville, L., (2010). Actes du 17e congrès de la Société française des sciences de l'information et de la communication (SFIC), Dijon, France, 23-26 juin 2010.

L’objectif de cette communication est de montrer que différents territoires de sens émergent au sein d’une... more L’objectif de cette communication est de montrer que différents territoires de sens émergent au sein d’une organisation et contribuent à ce que des savoirs liés à la sécurité soient mis en scène et actualisés. Nous convoquerons la notion de polyphonie pour appréhender les organisations comme des espaces dialogiques où s’expriment, circulent de multiples voix, où s’entrelacent des textes, le tout pouvant avoir parfois une apparence chaotique. Nous présenterons une recherche de type ethnographique afin de montrer comment cette polyphonie organisationnelle s’exprime de multiples façons via des pratiques langagières et non langagières et soutient la circulation des savoirs organisationnels. 

Normes et écriture de l'organisation

by Sylvie Grosjean

De La Broise, P., Grosjean, S (2010), Études de communication, No.34, 2010, p. 9-22.

La question des normes constitue un objet éminemment heuristique pour la recherche en sciences humaines et sociales,... more La question des normes constitue un objet éminemment heuristique pour la recherche en sciences humaines et sociales, et plus particulièrement en sciences de l’information et de la communication, sachant que l’activité sociale est tout à la fois tributaire et productrice de ces normes. De nombreux chercheurs, tant français que nord-américains, ont étudié le rôle de diverses formes de textes, d’écritures dans les organisations. Le numéro 34 d’ Études de communication invitera donc à prendre la mesure de l’écrit, celui-ci étant vu comme un objet de transaction, d’interaction, d’archivage et de pouvoir. L’entrée par l’écriture, dans l’articulation du procès et du dispositif, donnera à lire un ordre négocié de la prescription où les langages de la norme disent autant les contextes dans lesquels elle opère que la prescription elle-même. Cette livraison franco-canadienne voudrait ouvrir la discussion sur les manières dont le texte est « investi » et comment, en retour, il « investit » l’organisation. Quels sont ces textes qui, entre l’esprit et la lettre, feraient de l’action collective leur obligée ? Pourquoi, et comment, feraient-ils autorité ? Et le font-ils effectivement ?

Strategic organizational communication - A case study on the Danish cartoon controversies

by Fabian Bethge

The author of this article suggests a model to analyze strategic organizational communication and applies it for the... more The author of this article suggests a model to analyze strategic organizational communication and applies it for the case of the Danish cartoon controversies, 2005 – 2008. The model consists
of the four dimensions timeline, meaning (connotative vs. denotative), actors (radical other vs. self) and policy (communicated policy vs. executed policy). According to that strategic organizational communication was defined as an intentional set up plan that integrates activities along these dimensions and between them to control the outcomes in a way that enables future success.

Keywords: Strategic communication, Denmark, cartoon controversies

Layer-Based Troubleshooting: Effective Communication

by Matt Lievertz

Juried paper accepted at the 2012 International Telecommunications Education and Research Association Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Primary author. Additional authors include Molly Morris, Richard Wayman, and Jacob Roth. Acknowledgements to Dr. Jay Gillette and the Center for Information and Communication Sciences.

Related presentation: more Related presentation: http://ballstate.academia.edu/MattLievertz/Talks/78380/Layer-Based_Troubleshooting_Effective_Communication

We propose a new meta-theory of human communication and a new model for human communication. We explore the layers of this model and show how the model indicates a layer-based troubleshooting approach to communication, with recommendations for effective communication.

Keywords: Communication Approaches; Troubleshooting communication problems; Motivation of human communication; Communication filters; Geert Hofstede; Shannon-Weaver Communication Model; SEMDR Communication Model; DiSC Assessment; Myers-Briggs; Effective Communication; Meta-evolution; Layer-Based Model of Communication

Displaying Competence in Organizations

by Tom Van Hout

Edited volume published by Palgrave Macmillan

Competence encompasses or overlaps with notions of efficiency, success, accountability, excellence and... more Competence encompasses or overlaps with notions of efficiency, success, accountability, excellence and self-justification. The contributors explore ways in which individuals, teams or groups in organizations discursively present themselves as competent, i.e. as having the ability and willingness to perform tasks or functions, possibly at a superior level. The chapters offer analyses of displays of competence based on the idea that such displays are extensively signaled and encoded in organizational discourse. This collection of research papers is characterized by an empirical approach to socially situated instances of text and talk that is analytically concerned with describing patterns, regularities and implicit meanings as they are manifested in the organizational practices that agents, groups and communities engage in. A wide spectrum of organizational settings is discussed including management, education, gate-keeping and service encounters in a variety of institutions and organizations. This is studied through a range of different media such as face-to-face interaction, print media and a variety of digital media.

Cómo hacer organización sin palabras: Performatividad y Silencio

by Benoit Cordelier

Resumen:

La teoría de los actos de habla ha sido muy influyente en la comunicación organizacional y ha... more Resumen:

La teoría de los actos de habla ha sido muy influyente en la comunicación organizacional y ha facilitado el desarrollo de teorías originales, a raíz de las diferentes ramas que posee. Pese a ello, no siempre los actores de la organización pueden expresar sus voluntades, y sus silencios pueden surtir efecto. Por lo tanto, estudiar el silencio como acto performativo, permite evidenciar los aspectos que se callan en la estrategia de un actor. Aquello, obviamente, plantea ciertas dificultades conceptuales y metodológicas que este artículo se propone explorar. Así, con base en un caso de cambio organizacional, se estudiarán los elementos contextuales y teóricos, así como las condiciones de felicidad necesarias para que se realice la performatividad del acto de silencio.

Palabras clave:
Acto de habla, acto de silencio, cambio organizacional, estrategia, temporalidad.

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Abstract:

Speech act theory has been very influential in organizational communication and made possible the appearance of original theories that evolved from its many developments. Nonetheless, organizational actors are not always able to express their will and their silences may have an effect. Therefore, studying silence as a performative act allows to highlighting the unspoken aspects of an actor’s strategy. This arises obviously some conceptual and methodological difficulties that we are going to explore in this article. With an organizational change case as a field, we study the needed contextual and theoretical elements, felicity conditions for the performativity of a silence act to be possible.

Key concepts:
Speech act, act of silence, organizational change, strategy, temporality.

Kommunikationsflüsse im Bild. Dynamische Netzwerkvisualisierung in der internen Organisationskommunikation anhand des Fallbeispiels eines Universitätsinstituts

by Lukas Zenk

Zenk, L., Windhager, F., Ettl-Huber, S. & Smuc, M. (2011). Kommunikationsflüsse im Bild. Medien Journal, 35/2, 50-61. (Preprint Version)

Die Stärken der Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse in der Darstellung tatsächlicher Kommunikationsflüsse und informeller Muster... more Die Stärken der Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse in der Darstellung tatsächlicher Kommunikationsflüsse und informeller Muster der Zusammenarbeit in Gruppen und Organisationen wurden bereits weitgehend diskutiert. Verschiedene Kombinationen von Methoden und Algorithmen stehen zu Verfügung, um kommunikative Beziehungsmuster zu erheben und als statische Netzwerke zu visualisieren. Die laufende Veränderung dieser Netzwerke über die Zeit bringt jedoch die Frage mit sich, wie diese Dynamiken sichtbar gemacht werden können. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden vier Methoden der dynamischen Netzwerkvisualisierung vorgestellt, um die Veränderung von sozialen Netzwerken visuell zu analysieren. Anhand des Fallbeispiels eines Universitätsinstituts wird deren Anwendung demonstriert und aufgezeigt, wie dadurch kommunikationswissenschaftliche Forschung in Organisationen unterstützt werden kann.

Ragged Edges in the Fractured Future: A Co-authored Organizational Autoethnography

by Andrew Herrmann

Co-authored with J.J. Barnhill & M.C. Poole.

Draft only. Do not copy. Under review at the Journal of Organizational Ethnography.

Purpose: This article represents three ethnographers researching an organizational event within academia: the Second... more Purpose: This article represents three ethnographers researching an organizational event within academia: the Second International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. It explores the divergent viewpoints of our ethnographic experiences as well as reflecting upon our relationships with each other as we attempted to understand each others' viewpoints.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This ethnographic project involved participant observation, full participation, and narrative interviews. However, as the project continued, it evolved to reflexively examining our own viewpoints and relationships challenges.

Findings: This paper contributes to understanding ethnographic research of organizational events in several ways. First, it is an exemplar of how three ethnographers examining the same organizational event view it through differing lenses. Secondly, it shows how we worked together through the research, struggling to understand each others' varied political and personal lenses through dialogue.

Limitations: The research examined only one organizational event, therefore the findings are specific to this site and the same results may not necessarily be found in other organizations.

Originality/Value: This paper is unique in that three ethnographers from different generations and different political worlviews can came together for the purposes of research, examine an organizational event and learn to cooperate with and appreciate each others' viewpoints.

Creating and Responding to the Gen(d)eralized Other: Women Miners' Community-Constructed Identities

by Sarah Steimel

Co-authored with Dr. Kristen Lucas; Published in Women's Studies in Communication (2009)

An analysis of interviews with mining families reveals that gender identity construction is a collaborative process... more An analysis of interviews with mining families reveals that gender identity construction is a collaborative process that draws upon broader community discourses. Male miners and non-mining women created a generalized other for women as “unfit to mine” (i.e., women are physically too weak to mine, are easy prey, and are ladies who do not belong in the mines). Female miners responded with gendered discourses that distanced themselves from and linked themselves to the generalized other.

Dialectic Tensions Experienced by Resettled Sudanese Refugees in Mediating Organization

by Sarah Steimel

Published in the International Journal of Communication (2010)

An increasing number of global migrants are refugees who have fled religious, racial, ethnic, or other political... more An increasing number of global migrants are refugees who have fled religious, racial, ethnic, or other political persecution. As these refugee populations have grown, governmental and nonprofit organizations have emerged to help mediate the resettlement experience. The current study explores the dialectical tensions Sudanese refugees face in communicating with the organizations designed to make their resettlement successful. Five Sudanese refugees participated in semistructured interviews about their experiences communicating with mediating organizations. Four dialectical tensions emerged from participants’ stories about their communication in and with mediating organizations: (a) dissemination and dialogue, (b) emancipation and control,
(c) empowerment and oppression, and (d) integration and separation. Taken as a totality, these challenges both replicate and extend existing organizational empowerment research.

Impact of Social Issues on Public Sector Employees: Research Summary and Implications for Workplace Conflict Professionals

by Sherrill Hayes

Materiality as Organizational Communication: Technology, Intention, and Delegation in the Production of Meaning

by William Barley

Book Chapter co-authored with Paul Leonardi

Citation:
Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, W. C. (2011). Materiality as Organizational Communication: Technology,... more Citation:
Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, W. C. (2011). Materiality as Organizational Communication: Technology, Intent, and Delegation in the Production of Meaning. In T. Kuhn (Ed.), Matters of Communication: Political, Cultural, and Technological Challenges to Communication Theorizing. pp. 101-122. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Engineering Objects for Collaboration: Strategies of Ambiguity and Clarity at Knowledge Boundaries

by William Barley

Co-authored with Paul Leonardi & Diane Bailey. Appeared in the 2011 Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. Longer version is forthcoming in Human Communication Research

Studies have shown that objects – such as sketches, photographs, or tables of data - can play an important role in... more Studies have shown that objects – such as sketches, photographs, or tables of data - can play an important role in supporting collaboration among individuals with differing knowledge. These objects often serve as “boundary objects” that simultaneously permit multiple meanings for individuals across knowledge boundaries, while supporting unequivocal meanings to individuals within them. According to most past research, the meanings that individuals attach to boundary objects emerge through cross-boundary collaboration as members engage with one another and the object. By focusing on the point of such interactions, existing research highlights how distinct knowledge communities can use the diverse meanings engendered by boundary objects to work together. Treating meaning as emerging through interaction, however, ignores that objects may enter cross-boundary settings via individuals who created them with the intent to guide others toward a particular set of meanings. Acknowledging individual agency and strategic action in the production of the object's form would portray boundary objects not as "tabulae rasae" whose meanings develop in an unplanned and emergent way, but as objects that enter interaction with a planned form aimed at engendering particular meanings. Understanding the how the ultimate meanings associated with an object develop, therefore, would require us to attend to the object not as it enters cross-boundary collaboration, but as it is created. In this paper, we expand the research lens to include the preparation that individuals undertake before bringing objects into group interactions.

L'ordinateur portable en soins à domicile : l'espace interactionnel soignant/soigné en mutation

by Sylvie Grosjean

Bonneville, Grosjean (2009), In Questions de communication, N.15.

Résumé : Dans le cadre de cet article, nous présentons une recherche menée auprès de professionnels de la santé... more Résumé : Dans le cadre de cet article, nous présentons une recherche menée auprès de professionnels de la santé utilisateurs d’un ordinateur portable en soins à domicile. Nous montrons à partir d’extraits d’entrevues et en mobilisant la notion de « territoire » (Goffman) en quoi la présence d’un ordinateur portable en soins à domicile modifie l’environnement de travail du soignant et agit – d’une certaine manière – sur la relation soignant/soigné.

Mots clés : Interaction, soins à domicile, ordinateur, territoires du moi, médiation

Abstract: After having done a research on the use of a personal computer by nurses working in ambulatory care, we show, by using the notion of territory (Goffman), a few transformations in the way healthcare services are given. Especially, we show that the use of a personal computer by nurse in ambulatory care has a specific impact on their work environment, as well as their relation with patients.

Keywords: Interaction, ambulatory care, computer, territories of the self, mediation