High reliability organizations (HROs) need to collaborate to address risks that transcend organizational boundaries. HRO literature has yet to examine the challenge of creating interorganizational reliability, while collaboration literature can further explore how stakeholder priorities become dominant in collaborations. This study joins these bodies of literature to identify the growing domain of

Prior research suggests that tensions are particularly salient in nonprofit and interorganizational contexts but rarely considers the impacts of managing these tensions. This manuscript applies a constitutive view of tensions to a community collaboration. Applied tensional analysis suggests interrelated membership tensions identified by organizational partners (grassroots/grasstops and inclusion/exclusion)

Little academic attention has been focused on the experiences of communities situated at the margins in receiving nonprofit services. In this essay, we draw on the culture-centered approach to critically interrogate the concept of engagement among a range of nonprofit organizations. We analyze ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a low income suburban area in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which narrative

To date there has been little work that uses fine-grained interactional analyses of the in situ doing of leadership to make visible the role of non-human as well as human actants in this process. Using transcripts of naturally-occurring interaction as data, this study seeks to show how leadership is co-achieved by artefacts as an in-situ accomplishment. To do this we situate this study within recent

Drawing upon contemporary academic debates about nonprofit worker precarity combined with needed theoretical re-orientations toward transparency, this paper explicates the situated communication practices and politics of resistant transparency. Resistant transparency describes communication aimed at revealing and publicizing previously obscured or hidden wage data and employment conditions to challenge

Extensive commentary cautions about the consequences of poor email etiquette, including emotional miscommunication and conflict escalation at work. This research considers the role of the receiver in negative email exchanges. Participants identified examples of negatively perceived emails received from coworkers, provided the text of these emails, and reported their perceptions and accounts of the

In this introduction to the Special Issue, we foreground our feminist journeys, discuss legacies of feminist organizational communication, and introduce the articles of the Special Issue. In the process, we imagine future possibilities of feminist work, thus charting directions for research and praxis.

This study examines discourses of gender equality, inclusion, and empowerment in the mineral mining industry, focusing on the Women in Mining Association of Namibia (WiMAN). Qualitative content analysis revealed four themes: women as activists, women as hard workers, women as negotiators, and women as aligned with men. Building on African feminisms, the study emphasizes co-constructed, conciliatory

Gay bars have historically functioned as communal spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. Because of neoliberalism, LGBTQ+ acceptance continues to rise as “post-gay’’ discourses, coupled with the inclusion of heterosexual audiences, have repositioned gay bars as inclusive spaces. In this study, we explore how the meaning of “gay bar” is communicatively negotiated. Specifically, we employed a co-sexuality

We propose a rhetorical intersectionality pedagogy to teach Buzzanell’s (1994) “Gaining a Voice.” Specifically, we advance Buzzanell’s vision by presenting a way to teach this article in an intersectional manner and open the dialogue to a wider range of students. This approach encompasses four needs: (a) unhiding the curriculum and the underlying structure of our academic settings, (b) asking learners

This article introduces five principles of Deleuzian ontology and the conceptual framework of techniques and forces into emerging CCO scholarship addressing (dis)organization and power. By introducing Deleuzian concepts of (1) the virtual, (2) mutual (in)stability of meaning and materiality, (3) forces (and techniques), (4) communication, and (5) power, this essay builds a relational ontology that

This study examined conversation preferences in workplace meetings via a cross-sectional survey of working adults (N = 217). Dialogue orientations from the argumentation literature were employed in conjunction with a typology of meetings proposed by the authors to examine communication and satisfaction in various types of meetings. Results revealed that three dialogue orientations (negotiation, information-giving

In this study, we revisit alternative feminist organizing in order to identify the dialectical tensions, paradoxical discourses, and agentic qualities of women’s participation in an online antifeminist space. We engage in text mining, semantic network analysis, and the constant comparative method to identify dialogical tensions and the paradoxical organizing strategies of Red Pill Women, an online

It is time to move past the words—the well-crafted statements circulated by groups and organizations across the academy, the scholarly writing as displacement, the formal and informal critiques—as if they had some recognizable impact. Each of these rhetorical moves can be valuable in helping to effect larger cultural and structural shifts. Yet, alone, a variety of evidence suggests that these forms

Organizational exit can be turbulent. This study examines the communication surrounding coworker dismissal, including how remaining employees learn about a coworker’s dismissal and what predicts remaining employees’ information seeking, uncertainty, and perceptions of social costs related to information seeking. Statistical and content analyses were conducted on survey data gathered from 220 participants

Leadership and knowledge are often paired together. Yet, certain forces that operate on businesses and individuals are often unknowable. In this study, we consider leaders’ perceptions of the consequences of not knowing and how leaders discursively cope with a sense of not knowing. Based on interviews with 33 participants working in multinational companies in India, we find that leaders perceive negative

Job insecurity—seen in practices like temporary work, furloughs, and site closures—is an ongoing reality for increasing numbers of workers. While the communicative constitution of resilience in situations of job loss has received significant attention, we know little about how resilience is constituted in the face of ongoing job insecurity. This study explores that question by considering how a group

Despite the prevalence of work spouses, scarce empirical research has focused on the communication occurring within these relationships, leaving managers with little understanding as to whether organizations can or should communicate support for employees forming these relationships and how privacy is navigated among work spouses. Building on McBride and Bergen’s conceptualization of the work-spouse

When I purchased Ryan Bisel’s Organizational Moral Learning in 2018, the news cycle was dominated by ethical issues such as the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and ransomware attacks. Today, during a time when ethical puzzles span systemic racial inequities, face mask mandates, and the forced closing of businesses in the interest of public health, a closer examination of ethics within organizations is imperative

This study analyzes how team members perceive changes in relational leadership processes over time. Interview data from three virtual teams (N = 18) were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The findings illustrate how ideals of well-functioning leadership and teamwork communication can differ both between and within teams at different times. Team members may perceive benefits of the passage

Uncertainty is at the forefront of many crises, disasters, and emergencies, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no different in this regard. In this forum, we, as a group of organizational communication scholars currently living in North America, engage in sensemaking and sensegiving around this pandemic to help process and share some of the academic uncertainties and opportunities relevant to organizational

One question not addressed in communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) literature is where an organization is located. As more workers work on the road, at coffee shops, from home, and in coworking spaces, it is important to consider the relationship of these spaces to the organization. In this study, I argue that when someone appropriates features of a space to do work, that space becomes

Social class influences communication behaviors in a variety of ways, including, for example, norms regarding volume, silence, and language use. Communication typical of white-collar backgrounds is often privileged in social life, while communication common to blue-collar backgrounds is marginalized. However, organizational scholars rarely discuss such tendencies and their impact on research methods

Employers have used social network sites (SNSs) to screen job candidates. However, the mechanism by which SNS posts shape employers’ impressions of the candidates is unclear in previous research. Two studies were conducted to examine how employers develop impressions of job candidates by evaluating their SNS profile against perceived organizational and societal injunctive norms (perceived organizational

Intractable workplace conflicts that impede individual and organizational success are common, yet little is understood about how such cycles are formed. Structurational divergence (SD) theory explains intractable conflict cycles resulting from incompatible meaning structures. SD-nexus is the interpenetration of equally compelling but incompatible structures, creating unresolvable conflicts, thus escalating

The current study reveals that a corporate statement on a controversial social issue is effective in changing an individual’s attitude toward the issue depending on how much the issue is relevant to the individual’s goals and/or if the corporate statement is supported by other corporations. Advocacy fit, corporate credibility, the bandwagon heuristic, and position advocated were varied in a fully crossed

The status of transgender rights presents a national crisis, and organizational communication scholars must mobilize activist scholarship in which the “T” in “LGBT” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) matters in the argument presented and changes proposed. The purpose of this study was (a) to acknowledge transgender members as worthy of focused organizational study and (b) to theorize a transgender

This study unpacks the complex relationship between corporate–nonprofit partnerships, corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, and stakeholder evaluations of fit. We move beyond the fundamental question of whether partner fit matters to questions about what types of messages matter, under what conditions, and to whom. We conducted an online experiment (N = 966) to test created fit messages’

This study proposes the Work-Related Emotional Communication model of burnout to explicate the relationships between processes of emotional work and emotional labor leading to burnout. The model was validated drawing on survey data from 2,067 practicing attorneys. Our analyses found emotional contagion to have a stronger positive influence on burnout through its direct effect on exhaustion than through

Case study remains a foundation of past and present organizational communication scholarship. In this article, we show the value of supplementing traditional case-selection methods with positive deviance case selection (PDCS). PDCS is about identifying and investigating individuals, teams, and organizations whose communication is intentional, nonnormative, and honorable. PDCS supports the creation

Situated in communication privacy management (CPM) theory, this study found that anticipated risk was the strongest predictor of minority religious identity disclosure at work. Older workers who regarded non-Christian belief or non-belief as central to who they were and who worked in smaller organizations disclosed their identity more than other participants. The follow-up analyses also revealed that

Organizations hire in-house communication professionals to maximize efficiency in managing information and stakeholder relationships across various internal and external boundaries. The boundary-spanning aspect of in-house communication professionals’ job has the potential to shape their membership negotiation (MN, that is, ongoing communication processes through which individuals develop meanings

On December 4, 2017, Patagonia launched its “The President Stole Your Land” initiative on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. In so doing, the longtime corporate social responsibility (CSR) leader entered social media in a deliberately inflammatory and political manner. This initiative defies the principles of CSR often touted in the literature and provides for an intriguing case study. We engage in

Few studies have explored how line managers respond to employees’ use of voice in interaction and the challenges facing the line managers in relation to voice. While some scholars have argued that managers’ reactions to voice are generally shaped by personal dispositions, such as the managers’ degree of “openness,” this study draws on the approach of discursive psychology to demonstrate that line managers’

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the world’s largest and oldest organizations, yet communication among its members serving in ecclesiastical occupations (e.g., priests) remains relatively unexplored. The present study addresses this paucity of research by examining the relationship between 145 U.S. priests’ and sisters’ perceptions of their religious superiors’ aggressive communication and perceptions

Guided by the theoretical underpinnings of the whole-person approach to wellness, we critique and adapt this framework to explain the combined complexities of organizational stress and wellness communication processes in a pediatric residency program. Using a qualitative, thematic analysis, we explore the link between employee stressors and participation in wellness resources found in a workplace wellness

Distributed teams in organizations are ubiquitous, use digital technologies extensively, and have the potential to be innovative due to the level of diversity of their members, but they face many challenges. Demographic differences can often result in the activation of team faultlines (overlap of surface-level differences), leading to formation of subgroups and negative impacts on group outcomes. This

Membership negotiation is the communicative process by which individuals transform from nonmembers to organizational members. This investigation extends the membership negotiation model proposed by Scott and Myers by incorporating previous work experience as a medium of membership negotiation and others’ perceptions of the value of that experience. The proposed extended model also identifies how membership

The benefit corporation (BC) in the United States is a new type of corporation legally required to generate profit for its shareholders and to pursue public benefit. BCs explicitly work to balance profit maximization and social mission, which is an ongoing challenge for businesses with an expansive view of the bottom line. This multiple case study extends scholarship on identity formation (IF) in nontraditional

In this article we draw on Scandinavian institutionalism to argue that ideas act as imperatives for organizations’ communication, whereby differences between ideas can generate tensions that organizations must manage. We focus on transparency and consistency, ideas that frequently underpin organizational communication, but are mobilized by different problems and offer different solutions. An analysis

Without experience or in the face of limited work experience, refined expectations for what it means to work or what to expect in terms of communicative role behaviors from a manager may largely be composed of desires. Therein lies the tension; if young adults are unable or unwilling to see work processes and managerial behavior the way that they are, they may reorient their attention from realistic

This article investigates how universities may evolve into high- or low-performance institutions by taking different approaches to dissent tolerance and processing. We explore different dissent management policies related to growth and productivity. We experiment with a dynamic model of dissent creation and processing in organizations presented in an earlier paper by the authors. Computer simulations

Supervisors are confronted with the challenge to support the employability of rapidly aging teams. Drawing on structuration theory, two studies construct and test a conceptual model of how structures (rules and resources) constraining supervisors’ communication with older workers impede older workers’ job performance and access to promotion. A set of constraining structures was qualitatively identified

Several political analysts, communication strategists, and academics have speculated that leaders who openly defy the norms of political correctness may gain a reputation for honesty and integrity, which may make them come across as more trustworthy. The present article reports the results from two randomized vignette-based experiments exploring the potential link between managers’ political incorrectness

This study examined the extent to which having colleagues as friends on Facebook influences departmental and organizational identification by blurring the boundaries between work and private life. Based on social identity theory and proxy efficacy, we argue that work-related friends on Facebook may affect employee identification with different levels of the organization. The results of an online panel

Given the increasing number of interorganizational collaborations across governmental and private sectors, this study furthers theoretical understanding of these relationships by focusing on dialectical tensions experienced in a collaborative strategic change effort. The research site was an 11-member statewide interorganizational committee working to create change across all involved organizations

This study developed the construct of readiness for renewal in organizations and evaluated its underlying psychometric properties. We drew on Discourse of Renewal theory to develop, pilot, and refine a scale through three studies with full-time employees whose organizations recently experienced crises. Study 1 established a two-factor structure that included ethical communication and effective organizational

Interorganizational collaboration relies on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). However, previous ICT research often takes place within a single organization, lacking insight into how ICTs sustain interorganizational structures. This study examined both the product categories and functional uses of ICTs for interorganizational collaboration, drawing from surveys among a random

Based on a meso-level model of organizational temporality, this study examined U.S. immigrant workers’ workplace temporal enactment and construal regarding cultural time orientation (monochronic vs. polychronic), acculturation type (assimilation, integration, segregation), and mobile technology use. Analyses revealed that cultural time orientation and acculturation type interacted to influence separated

Employees can provide invaluable input to organizations when they can freely express their opinions at work. Employees, however, may not believe that it is safe or efficacious to voice their concerns. How features of communication channels affect employees’ safety and efficacy perceptions is largely ignored in existing voice models. Therefore, this study seeks to understand how the anonymity and visibility

This article demonstrates that when supervisors encourage subordinates to defer to their embodied expertise, subordinates are more likely to voice explicitly moralized upward dissent to an unethical business request. Working adults (N = 312) were randomly assigned to respond to an unethical business request from their boss in one of three scenarios that varied by how much the supervisor was known for

The Work of Communication. Relational Perspectives on Working and Organizing in Contemporary Capitalism by Tim Kuhn, Karen Ashcraft, Francois Cooren , is a welcomed comprehensive and rigorous attempt at theorizing how communication ‘works’ in contemporary capitalism. In this essay, we review what we see as the contributions of this book – as organization scholars interested in performativity – and

Researchers have become increasingly interested in the strategic value of transparency in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in recent years. However, transparency research in CSR communication is still scarce. In particular, little research has examined whether the effects of transparency may depend on contextual factors, such as whether an organization is associated with a stigmatized

In today’s changing environment, employees’ voice behavior can enhance organizational effectiveness. This study tests an integrative model linking proactive personality, leader–member exchange (LMX), voice behavior, and employee–supervisor sex (dis)similarity. Sex (dis)similarity is posited as a moderator. Results showed proactive personality was positively related to both voice behavior and LMX quality

Programs aimed at implementing change in organizations regularly experience high failure rates. Exploring resistance to change is one promising way to better understand what might be done to improve these rates. Resistance to change has often been envisioned as employee noncompliance with one-way change messages. This study instead conceptualizes resistance as an interpretive system between implementers

This project investigated how issue involvement and positive affect are related to attitude and behavioral intention in the context of episodically and thematically framed corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages. We examined mediation effects of message elaboration on issue involvement and affect as well as moderation effects of dispositional skepticism on the relationships between affect, and

This article employs a boundary work framework to analyze how volunteers from two nonprofit human services organizations navigated the tensions between volunteerism and professionalism. Based on interview data and analysis of organizational documents, the study found that volunteers at the first organization, fundraisers for child health promotion and parent education, dichotomized volunteerism and

This study investigates the communication elements within organizations that enhance social exchanges and influence an individual’s willingness to spread positive information about their employer. Findings from a survey of employees in a United States–based health care organization (N = 223) indicate that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between employee-centered internal communication

Professionalizing occupations strive to convince the public, policy makers, and each other of their distinctiveness and legitimacy. Efforts to maintain professional status are a key facet of professional identity negotiation, which is complicated by technological, political, and economic threats. This study investigated librarians’ struggle to defend the legitimacy of their profession while facing

This study offers an in-depth account of the mutual constitution of technology use and status hierarchies in a global organization by investigating the use of enterprise social media (ESM). Analyses of individual interviews (N = 32) and ESM posts (N = 1,050) showed that (a) the visibility affordance was perceived and used differently by various status groups and (b) emerging patterns of ESM use contributed