Browsing by Subject "Organizational communication"

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Bounded by repertoires and roles : communication through multiple ICTs in a health care organization
(2020-03-24) Harrison, Millie Archer; Stephens, Keri K.; Treem, Jeffrey W.; Donovan, Erin E.; Carmack, Heather J.
Health care has become the largest employer in the United States, and health care organizations are looking to ICTs as a solution to facilitate interprofessional communication and patient care. Yet extant findings show mixed results on the efficacy of ICT use for coordination, and little is known about how health care professionals use their collection of ICTs, as opposed to a singular device, to communicate. Inspired by the theoretical underpinnings of communication media repertoires and boundary theory, this dissertation provides an empirical link between the use of multiple ICTs, that are both organizationally-issued and personally-owned, and the complexities of coordinating patient care. Drawing on qualitative data collected from observations, interviews, and focus groups at a pediatric hospital in the Southern U.S., this research investigates the communicative practices of different teams of allied health professionals—an underexplored population making up approximately 60% of the health care workforce. Differences in technological access, managerial expectations, and workflows emerged within and across the professional groups in the health care organization studied. The findings reveal how allied health professionals experienced repertoire misalignment, a situation where ICTs and routines of use clashed. Furthermore, many people were overloaded by learning which ICTs their colleagues used and how they used them— defined as communication load issues—which impeded the efficiency and quality of their work. This dissertation further shows how ICT repertoires are situated at the crossroad of multiple role boundaries, complicated by organizational rules and norms that were inconsistent across teams. These allied health professionals held strong professional identities, and they were asked—or required—to use personal mobile phones for work purposes. When organizational, professional, and personal boundaries were at odds, employees did not feel empowered to enact their ICTs in ways that privileged professionalism or personal preferences. Thus, although the use of ICT repertoires can facilitate communication within and across professional teams, this dissertation exposes how health care professionals’ work practices are being challenged and constrained by organizational demands for ICT repertoire use
Can organizational communication strategies that activate associations with mindfulness and flow enhance novel-idea production in an open-ended problem-solving task?
(2015-12) Moode, Michael Stephen; Ballard, Dawna I.; McGlone, Matt; Browning, Larry; Treem, Jeffrey; Cox, Stephen
Creativity is the production of solutions to problems that are both original and appropriate. Although organizational communication literature offers insights regarding overt strategies for enhancing creativity at work (e.g., brainstorming rules), processes whereby creativity may be tacitly enhanced remain largely under-explored. Drawing upon creativity’s associations with heightened awareness (i.e., mindfulness) and the experience of flow—a psychological state characterized partially by distorted perceptions of the passage of time—the present study considers whether exposure to phrases related to these concepts influence the likelihood of one producing more novel ideas in an open-ended problem-solving task. The pursuit of new, tacit means for enhancing the originality of solutions to problems may benefit organizational communication practitioners in the following way. The creativity of employees may be facilitated if new tacit means are used (or avoided) alongside extant overt strategies. Employees may be more capable of producing novel ideas in response to a problem-solving task if organizational communication practitioners develop a more nuanced understanding of how the presentation of problems, and the methods used in solving them, exposes employees to incidental and unobtrusive meanings that shape the socio-environmental context in which problem-solving takes place. The present study used a two-by-two, between subjects factorial design, that presented participants with a set of phrases related to different levels of mindset (i.e., mindfulness and mindlessness) and psychological state (i.e., flow and anti-flow). For example, phrases representing the combination of mindfulness and flow included, “I’m focused,” “my goals are clear,” “I’m tuned in to my feelings,” and “I’m up to the challenge at hand.” Exposure to these phrases sought to activate associations with the mindset of actively and fluidly processing social information (i.e., mindfulness) and the psychological state whereby deep concentration leads to the reduction of self-awareness and awareness of the passage of time (i.e., flow). Conversely, phrases representing the combination of mindlessness and anti-flow included, “I’m not focused,” “my goals are not clear,” “I’m not tuned in to my feelings,” and I’m not up to the challenge at hand.” After being exposed to one of four sets of phrases, participants were then administered a novel-idea production task in which they were instructed to produce a list of solutions to a problem (i.e., people driving while using text messaging on their cell phones). Results of the experiment failed to demonstrate a relationship between the presentation of phrases aiming to trigger associations with mindset and psychological state; however, measures to assess internal reliability suggested that methodological limitations confounded the present study’s ability to accurately test how the activation of associations between mindset and psychological state are related to the likelihood of one producing novel ideas. As such, the present study concludes by drawing a number of insights regarding methodological considerations for future investigations. Specifically, recommendations are drawn regarding participant selection, the research milieu in which novel-idea production may be empirically observed, how associations with different mindsets and psychological states may be primed, and how a problem should be presented within an experiment intending to measure novel-idea production. Summarily, the present study represents a valuable starting point for investigators seeking to contribute to an under-explored topic within the organizational communication literature; for explorations of how the implementation of overt strategies to enhance novel-idea production in organizations may be enhanced by practitioners’ attention to whether and how employees are exposed to stimuli which may prime associations with peak creativity.
Change is inevitable but compliance is optional : coworker social influence and behavioral work-arounds in the EHR implementation of healthcare organizations
(2015-05) Barrett, Ashley Katherine; Stephens, Keri K.; Browning , Larry D.; Ballard, Dawna; Treem , Jeffrey W; Jones, Terry
The implementation of planned organizational change is ultimately a communication-related phenomenon, and as such, it is imperative that organizational communication scholars examine the interactions surrounding EHR implementation and understand how users (e.g. healthcare practitioners) utilize, evaluate, and deliberate this new technological innovation. Previous research on planned organizational change has called for researchers to adopt a more dynamic perspective that emphasizes the active agency of organizational members throughout implementation processes and focuses on informal implementers and change reinvention (work-arounds) as individuals actively reinterpret and personalize their work roles during implementation socialization. This dissertation seeks to fill this gap in research by demonstrating how communication between doctors, nurses, and other health professionals affects the adoption, maintenance, alternation, modification, or rejection of EHR systems within health care organizations. To delve into these inquiries and examine the intersecting domains of medical informatics and organizational communication research, this dissertation proceeds in the following manner: First, a literature review, capitalizing on Laurie Lewis’s work in planned organizational change and social constructionist views of technology use in organizations, outlines the assumptions that undergird this research. Next, this dissertation builds a model that predicts the communicative and structural antecedents of the study outcome variables, which include 1) organizational resistance to EHR implementation, 2) employees’ perception of EHR implementation success, 3) levels of change reinvention—or work-arounds—due to change initiatives and activities, and 4) employees’ perceptions of the quality of the organizational communication surrounding the change. Hypotheses guiding the model specification are provided and are followed by a description of the empirical methods and procedures that were utilized to explore the variable relationships. Results of the SEM model suggest that work-arounds could play a mediating role governing the relationship between informal social influence and the outcome variables in the study. In addition, one-way ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses reveal that physicians are the most resistant to EHR implementation and perceived change communication quality positively predicts perceived EHR implementation success and perceived relative advantage of EHR and negatively predicts employee resistance. A discussion of the expected and unexpected results is offered in addition to study limitation and future directions.
Changing careers : how newcomers seek information in three types of career transitions
(2018-06-15) Frei, Seth Steven; Stephens, Keri K.; Treem, Jeffrey W; Donovan, Erin; Beebe, Steven A; Houser, Marian L
Workplace transitions are increasingly common as individuals move between jobs and occupations more frequently. Socialization literature looks at the process organizations use to help individuals meet their needs and acquire information about the new job (Kramer, 2010; Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). While many scholars study socialization, the most recent Handbook of Organizational Communication suggests nonentry-level newcomers are relatively unexplored (Kramer & Miller, 2014). To further understand the behaviors of nonentry-level newcomers, especially as mid-life and early-life career transitions grow more common, future research is warranted. This dissertation focuses on the information-seeking behaviors of organizational newcomers. Using theory-based models of information seeking (Miller & Jablin, 1991; Morrison, 2002), this study seeks to further understand the behaviors of newcomers when changing careers. This study focuses on three types of career transitions: (1) Occupational (Moving from outside the typical work progression to a new occupation); (2) Job (Changing jobs within the same field for the purpose of advancement or salary increase); and (3) Education to paid work (Transitioning from a full-time educational setting to full-time paid work). This investigation highlights a number of significant findings in information-seeking behaviors. Across all three types of career transitions, the most common source of information is peers, the most common tactic is overt, and the most common communication medium is the internet. Results suggested need for control over others, intrinsic motivation, and learning orientation were significant predictors of landline phone use for information seeking. The study demonstrated coworker influence as a significant predictor of information seeking through the organizational intranet. There was also a significant difference between individual use of third parties for information seeking between job transitioners and those making transitions from education to paid work. This study offers insights to both communication and management scholars who study socialization and information seeking, as well as human resource development practitioners. These findings contribute to the socialization literature by further describing how individuals make career transitions at various life stages. Additionally, these findings are helpful to practitioners who anticipate career transitioners into their workforce. Taken together, these results facilitate both a theoretical and practical application of newcomer socialization in these contexts.
Creative work in precarity : how musicians communicate for creativity and control in a diverse technological environment
(2024-05) Jensen, Jared Thomas ; Barbour, Joshua B.; Ganesh, Shiv; Slotta, James; Ballard, Dawna I.; Scott, Craig R
Creativity is fundamental to human labor, but the mainstream implementation of AI technologies with the capacity to automate creativity highlights long-standing tensions in creative industries between workers’ rights and the precarity of their work. Understanding creative work is therefore crucial for addressing emerging anxieties about the future of work. The following study focuses on musicians and how they communicate to accomplish creativity and control in their organizing. Musicians are the original gig worker and provide a useful lens because they organize within a power-laden industry, and they use and integrate a wide array of musical technologies to innovate and develop creative products. Through an iterative analysis of interviews and observations of independent band members, this study identifies a variety of communication practices and material symbolic technology uses that are central to musicians’ work. Overall, the study finds that musicians rely on their creative visions not only to guide the music they create but also to establish systems of group control. These arrangements shape and are shaped by how they use music technologies in their creative work. Musicians use technologies not only for music making but also for collaborating with each other—for producing and cultivating creative visions. AI technologies allow them to spark, motivate, and support their creative ideas, and to also navigate (and, at times, avoid) the difficult yet important work of collaborating with others. This study makes contributions to theories of organizational creativity and control by demonstrating that creative visions do not only consist of creative intentions but also always include governing practices. The study also makes contributions to theories of communication and technology and occupational identity by elucidating the material symbolic ways in which musicians use an array of technologies to align with institutionalized occupational commitments.
Dogging it at work : developing and performing organizational routines as a minor league baseball mascot
(2015-05) Birdsell, Jeffrey LaVerne; Browning, Larry D.; Berkelaar, Brenda L; Streeck, Jürgen; Brummett, Barry; Green, B. Christine
Referring to an employee as “the face” of an organization suggests that an individual worker’s actions may transmit information about the kind of organization they represent. Mascots in a baseball stadium make that metaphor material by wearing an organizationally prescribed mask and performing in the name of the organization (Keller & Richey, 2006; MacNeill, 2009). This study investigated how one baseball mascot, Spike of the Round Rock Express, embodied his team’s identity through the activation of organizational routines by analyzing video recordings, autoethnographic field notes, and stories (Heath & Luff, 2013). Recognizing the highly symbolic work of a mascot work has implications for the performer, audience members, and organizations who rely on mascots to enhance the stadium experience. Additionally, this research provides suggestions for future mascot performers on how they might come to “know your role and play it to the hilt” (Devantier & Turkington, 2006). Organizational routines combine three recursive dimensions: the ostensive, understandings an employee brings to his or her work, the performative, actions an employee takes while doing his or her work, and the artifactual, material objects an employee uses or creates in order to facilitate work tasks (Feldman & Pentland, 2003). This research begins with an exploration of how I developed occupational and organizational role expectations. In order to know my role, I had to learn Spike’s identity: what he must do, may do, and can do (Strauss, 1959; Enfield, 2011). I specifically recognize the ways I came to understand my role as someone who embodies the mission of the organization through the preparation of artifacts for performance and protection of the audience for whom I am performing. The performative dimension is explored by identifying instances when my performance challenged established understandings of Spike’s identity, specifically in instances where I was unprepared for a scenario or chose to protect one group’s interest over another’s. In these unanticipated moments, I often found myself turning other participants in the stadium event, like fans and coworkers, into co-performers and relied on their improvisational offerings to inform my ongoing performance (Eisenberg, 1990; Meyer, Frost, & Weick, 1998).
Government as work : temporal communication design through genres
(2015-05) Ford, Emily Anne; Ballard, Dawna I.; Jarvis, Sharon E
This thesis describes the current research that has been done on governments in communication and opportunities within organizational communication, then offers an example of research that could expand this area of scholarship. The content analysis of U.S. Digital Services' forums on GitHub, a software development website used for open coding projects, investigates communication genres and genre systems through a codebook of genre norms (Im,Yates, & Orlikowski, 2005) to analyze the temporal aspects of communication design as a theoretical perspective and the practical implications of considering time scale in coordination, collaboration, and idea generation. Temporal landmarks led to four specific patterns in forum participation, and the temporal foci of proposed ideas were overwhelmingly in the present. Third, it calls for a new model of communication, one that does not use a process definition of communication.
"I don't want no membership card" : a grounded theory of the facets, responses, and outcomes of involuntary membership in US and Norwegian prisons
(2010-05) Peterson, Brittany Leigh; Browning, Larry D.; Ballard, Dawna I.; Stephens, Keri K.; Gossett, Loril M.; Szmania, Susan J.
This study investigated the experience of involuntary membership in U.S. and Norwegian prisons. The purpose of the study was two-fold: 1) offer a comprehensive understanding of the construct of membership, and 2) develop a substantive, mid-range theory of involuntary membership (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Merton, 1968; Weick, 1974). The research questions posed were designed to clarify the experience of involuntary membership and included: What facets comprise involuntary membership?, In what ways do individuals describe the experience of involuntary membership?, and In what ways does Norwegian involuntary membership differ from U.S. involuntary membership in a prison setting? In order to answer these questions, I conducted 62 in-depth interviews in the United States and Norway with incarcerated individuals (n = 41), correctional officers (n = 10), wardens (n = 3), and prison teachers (n = 8). The interviews were dispersed across four separate prison facilities. I took a grounded theoretical approach to the data and used the constant comparative method in my analysis. Participants spoke about involuntary membership in relation to 10 distinct facets: Activities, Belongings, Body, Communication, Mind, Organizational Boundary Management, Space, Sound, Relationships, and Time. In addition, the participants in the study described their experience with involuntary membership in relation to their 1) responses to, and 2) outcomes of the phenomenon. Similarities and differences in the experience of involuntary membership between the United States and Norway were also discussed. The three-macro themes in this study came together to create a substantive, mid-range theory of involuntary membership in prisons. In order to explicate this theory, I offered a Process Model of Involuntary Membership and subsequently elucidated the theory using a structurational ontology (see Banks & Riley, 1993; Kirby & Krone, 2002) or worldview (Kilminster, 1991). This study contributes to communication research and theorizing by illuminating and addressing the limitations of previous scholarship. Theoretical implications and future research directions are also discussed.
The language of legitimacy : the role of institutionalism in entrepreneurial communication
(2016-05) Waters, Eric DeMar; Stephens, Keri K.; Bailey, Diane; Barbour, Joshua; Jarvenpaa, Sirkka; Treem, Jeffrey
Recently, entrepreneurship has become an increasingly attractive career option for American adults (Fairlie, 2011; Kelley et al., 2014). This major shift from the security of membership in a conventional organization to the high risk/high reward process of founding a new venture is drawing interest from researchers in a variety of fields. This trend represents a sea change, exerting effects on organizational scholarship as well as society as a whole. Recognizing that even entrepreneurial organizations are communicatively constituted (McPhee & Zaug, 2008), some organizational communication scholars have begun investigating entrepreneurial activity from a communicative perspective. Such inquiries have examined entrepreneurial identity and difference (Gill, 2012; Gill & Ganesh, 2007), the Grand Discourses of entrepreneurship per the popular and business press (Gill, 2013), and the role of narrative (Dempsey & Sanders, 2010; Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001). More research is necessary, however, to explicate how entrepreneurs strategically engage in communicative behaviors to gain legitimacy for their organizations. To address this gap, I observed entrepreneurs at two technology incubators for six months and conducted 55 interviews of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors. Using the framework of legitimacy (Deephouse & Carter, 2005; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Suchman, 1995) as a guide, my grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) analysis identified venture viability discourses and engaging founder resources as two major categories of normative entrepreneurial communicative behaviors used to perform legitimacy. The analysis also established inspirational and instructional messages as the means by which entrepreneurs learn to perform legitimacy. This study contributes to theory by explaining and illuminating entrepreneurial firm creation process from a communicative perspective. The findings reveal how entrepreneurs utilize topics of discourse, communication delivery strategies, and social aptitude to influence legitimacy judgements. This dissertation allows researchers to more easily recognize the motivations for entrepreneurial communicative acts during organizational formation and growth.
Leader perspectives of organizational growth and communication
(2006-05) Nail, Adrianna Noel; Lewis, Laurie K.
This study examines the growth phase of the organizational life cycle and its impact on internal and external organizational communication. A qualitative case study of a national nonprofit operating foundation was performed, revealing several changes brought on by the recent growth of the organization. Interviews with the organization's leaders and other members reveal the communicative challenges experienced within the organization. Findings bolster previous claims presented by organizational scholars and highlight the role of communication in the organizational growth process. Further, three hypotheses regarding organizational growth and communication are proposed for future research regarding growth in the field of organizational communication.
The modern, mobile me : an exploration of smartphones, being always on, and our relationship with work in the United States
(2010-05) Davis, Jennifer Deering; Browning, Larry D.; Stephens, Keri; Ballard, Dawna; Cherwitz, Richard; Scott, Craig
Experts estimate that by 2013, every adult in the world will own a mobile phone. Mobile technologies are one of the fastest growing and most widely adopted technologies in history. This study seeks to understand the impacts of an increasingly mobile culture in the United States, focusing on how being “always on” impacts individuals' relationships with work. Being always on refers to an individual’s propensity to remain continuously connected to the world through a web-enabled, mobile technology device, such as an iPhone or BlackBerry. Influenced by Clark's (2000) work-family border theory, I conducted 49 in-depth interviews, in order to develop a communicative model of being always on. The model is characterized by using new mobile technologies, needing to be connected, blurring boundaries between work and non-work spheres, identifying with work, working long hours, and having work-life balance. Being always on is linked to a strong work identity and desire for control over one's time. However, being constantly connected with a smartphone also means being more connected to work; it has become easier to work longer hours, have work leak into personal time, and slowly but ultimately lose control over the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Ironically, individuals who are always on in order to gain more control over their time may actually end up giving up more control than they gain. However, always-on individuals actually feel like they have an appropriate work-life balance, which complicates traditional understandings of the meaning of “balance.” Instead, these findings suggest always-on individuals actually “atomize,” a term that refers to the breaking down of communicative tasks into small pieces to can be completed anywhere, at any time, enabling flexibility and control.
The Norwegian success story : narrative applications of interpretation, understanding, & communication in complex organizational systems
(2013-12) Goins, Elizabeth Simpson; Browning, Larry D.
Stories about the oil and gas industry are made for drama; these are tales of unimaginable wealth, unimaginable power, and oftentimes, unimaginable deeds. But what should we make of an oil and gas narrative without a blood feud or villain? This is the story of the Norway Model, a unique system of natural resource management responsible for this country’s transformation since 1969 when massive oil reserves were discovered on the North Sea continental shelf. After centuries of foreign occupation, the Norwegian government has built a thriving petroleum sector to fund its social welfare system beyond even the highest expectations; somehow, this nation of five million people grew from a poor maritime society to a global leader in environmentally conscious energy production with the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. Despite these results, this oil economy faces new challenges in the coming years; as North Sea production declines, Norway increasingly looks north for fossil fuels in the Arctic and how these resources are discovered, produced, and regulated will require new innovations to ensure the sustainability of this welfare state. Thus, the next chapter of the Norwegian success story remains to be written and this dissertation explores how narratives about the past, present, and future of the Norway Model will shape the course of natural resource management policies. In presenting the case of Norway’s success from a narrative perspective, this research breaks new ground in both applied and theoretical territories. As perhaps the most successful system of its kind in the world, scholars and policy makers alike have much to learn from studying this model. But when it comes to understanding the dynamic connections between energy management, international policy, and global warming, positivistic models for prediction and causality have fallen short (Smil, 2005). In contrast, narrative can communicate nuanced meanings in complex systems of organization. Therefore, this research explores the connections between narrative and complexity, as well as the communicative applications of narrative for understanding and organizational decision-making. Overall, conceptualizing this model’s evolution as a narrative offers tangible entry points for understanding how one country’s story can change the world.
Organizational resilience in the face of crisis : communal coping in family businesses
(2023-04-19) Powers, Courtney J.; Stephens, Keri K.; Ballard, Dawna I; Dailey, René M; Dailey, Stephanie L
When crises like the COVID-19 pandemic arise and leave devastating impacts on family businesses, the economy, and our world at large, there is an appeal to organizational communication scholars to not only explore the impact of these crises on organizations, but to also understand what can contribute to building resilience in the face of these crises. Given that coping with others is fundamentally a communicative behavior that can have implications for business resilience in a crisis, this study investigates how family business members appraise work-related stress and communally cope together for the sake of their business’s success and resilience during an extended crisis. Guided by Afifi et al.’s (2020) extended model of communal coping, organizational and crisis-specific variables such as crisis self-efficacy, organizational identification, and perceived severity of the crisis were explored as they relate to communal coping in an extended crisis impacting family businesses. Finally, organizational resilience was investigated as an outcome of communal coping. Using quantitative survey data collected from more than 500 family business member participants whose family businesses have continued to operate after the COVID-19 Pandemic, this study found that communal coping significantly contributed to organizational resilience for family businesses, above and beyond other variables. Additionally, this study found evidence of “independent” coping coexisting alongside communal coping behaviors for the family business participants in this study. While both communal coping and “independent” coping behaviors were linked to an increase in organizational resilience, communal coping was a much stronger predictor of organizational resilience. Furthermore, organizational identification and crisis self-efficacy were each found to partially mediate the relationship between communal coping and organizational resilience, and participants’ perceptions of the severity of the crisis impacting their family businesses were found to be an influential predictor of engagement in communal coping behaviors overall. Not only do key findings from this study offer useful recommendations for family businesses, and potentially even organizations at large that are facing a crisis, but this research ultimately makes theoretical contributions to the intersection of organizational and interpersonal communication by extending the communal coping theory to family businesses.
Organizing fandom: communicative dynamics of global K-pop participatory fan culture
(2024-05) James, Samantha (Ph. D. in communication studies) ; Ganesh, Shiv; Treem, Jeffery; Sowards, Stacey K; Shorey, Samantha; Oh, Youjeong
Fans of Korean pop music (K-pop) have recently demonstrated their prowess for highly visible collective feats. However, they simultaneously hide behind anonymous profiles during daily interactions with one another and the public. This dichotomy exemplifies the changing nature of both fandom and participation writ large. That is, K-pop fans do not act in vacuum, rather, global dynamics have changed the shape of fandom to be more engaged and active while participation itself has become more distributive and less institutional. Therefore, understanding K-pop fan participatory culture provides insight into the contemporary state of public participation. This study draws upon the theoretical relationship participation has with affect, platformization, and organizational form. Then, using data from an on the ground participant ethnography and in-depth interviews with fans in South Korea and the United States, this ethnographic study traces the communicative dynamics of international K-pop fan participatory culture across three pillars: Identity, infrastructure, and practice. First, I find contradictory sensations of pride and shame affectively influence fan identity in ways that drive participation. Second, platformization shapes an infrastructure that fans experience via enculturation, regulation, and commodification, which they navigate in creative ways that simultaneously support and subvert systems of power. Finally, the third pillar of global K-pop fan participatory culture is practice. Fan practices demonstrate the properties of density, texture, reactivity, and volatility that define a viscous culture. These findings add to contemporary scholarship by emphasizing the idea that affect can be sensed in hybrid forms, carries hegemonic effects, and drives fandom participation in fan and non-fan activities through collective sensations of pride and shame. These findings also build upon literature on participation and infrastructure by adding that fan navigation tactics demonstrate the discourse of cultural imperialism in which, while fans recognize their role in platform capitalism, they are still unable to avoid participating. The characteristics of density, texture, reactivity, and volatility also give fan participatory culture its sticky and extremely dedicated qualities, which, when taken together, explain how fandom viscosity is a grounded example of organizational hybridity. This dissertation therefore shows how these three pillars constitute a unique fan culture that builds on interdisciplinary understandings of participation and offers the possibility for other affective platformized viscous cultures.
Performing in the virtual organization
(2010-12) Sinclair, Caroline Louise, 1971-; Stephens, Keri K.; Browning, Larry
This qualitative study examined fifteen organizational members across four international technology companies to discover how they behave and manage daily interactions in a virtual environment within a geographically distributed team. Using a grounded theory methodology, an extensive analysis of the interview data was conducted. Three core themes emerged that focus on the individuals’ attempts to manage impressions in an environment that demands multicommunication. The themes of time stacking, participation predications and performance are discussed in detail using the theoretical lens of impression management.
Time and temporality as authoritative forces in a busy organization
(2019-05-13) Jensen, Jared Thomas; Barbour, Joshua B.
The following research study examines issues of time, communication design, and power in the context of a busy health research organization. Through an analysis of communicative discourses, issues of time and temporality surfaced as powerful authoritative forces that influenced the communicative choices that individuals made to intervene in work processes. Using Ballard’s (2009) activity cycles as a theoretical framework, I found that members designed their communication to attend to cycles of commotion as opposed to other cycles of activity. In other words, busyness was a norm that made it difficult for members to find time to spend on routine, creative, or long-term tasks. In addition, leaders possessed and could wield time that was privileged over non-leaders’ time. Through discourses of time, a structure of power was talked into being. Three discursive themes emerged from an analysis of the data, including (1) the loudness of work referring to the environment as temporally loud in that members navigated high volumes of work, ambiguous work boundaries, and distracting spaces; (2) the race of work, referring to the marathon that members ran to keep up with the busyness of the organization; and (3) scheduling work referring to dimensions of time allocation where members tried to navigate high volumes of meetings and ‘key’ members determined the calendars of others. These findings contribute to theoretical understandings of the relationships between Collective Communication Design, temporality, and authority
Time out : organizational training for improvisation in lifesaving critial teams
(2012-08) Ishak, Andrew Waguih, 1982-; Browning, Larry D.; Ballard, Dawna I.; Stephens, Keri K.; Maxwell, Madeline M.; Ziegler, Jennifer A.
Exemplified by fire crews, SWAT teams, and emergency surgical units, critical teams are a subset of action teams whose work is marked by finality, pressure, and potentially fatal outcomes (Ishak & Ballard, 2012). Using communicative and temporal lenses, this study investigates how organizations prime and prepare their embedded critical teams to deal with improvisation. This study explicates how organizations both encourage and discourage improvisation for their embedded critical teams. Throughout the training process, organizations implement a structured yet flexible “roadmap”-type approach to critical team work, an approach that is encapsulated through three training goals. The first goal is to make events routine to members. The second goal is to help members deal with non-routine events. The third goal is to help members understand how to differentiate between what is routine and non-routine. The grounded theory analysis in this study also surfaced three tools that are used within the parameters of the roadmap approach: experience, communicative decision making, and sensemaking. Using Dewey’s (1939, 1958) theory of experience, I introduce a middle-range adapted theory of critical team experience. In this theory, experience and sensemaking are synthesized through communicative decision making to produce decisions, actions, and outcomes in time-limited, specialized, stressful environments. Critical teams have unique temporal patterns that must be considered in any study of their work. Partially based on the nested phase model (Ishak & Ballard, 2012), I also identify three phases of critical team process as critical-interactive, meaning that they are specific to action/critical teams, and they are engaged in by critical teams for the expressed purpose of interaction. These phases are simulation, adaptation, and debriefing. These tools and phases are then placed in the Critical-Action-Response Training Outcomes Grid (CARTOG) to create nine interactions that are useful in implementing a structured yet flexible approach to improvisation in the work of critical teams. Data collection consisted of field observations, semi-structured interviews, and impromptu interviews at work sites. In total, I engaged in 55 hours of field observations at 10 sites. I conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with members of wildland and urban fire crews; emergency medical teams; and tactical teams, including SWAT teams and a bomb squad. I also offer practical implications and future directions for research on the temporal and communicative aspects of critical teams, their parent organizations, and considerations of improvisation in their work.
Unprecedented or unprepared? : exploring the role of organizations in motivating employee protective behaviors during a health crisis
(2023-04-17) Tich, Kendall Paige; Stephens, Keri K.; Donovan, Erin; Treem, Jeffrey W; O'Connor, Amy
The world has experienced an increase in crises and disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, practitioners and scholars alike have looked for ways to prepare and empower people to understand risk, prepare for disasters, and protect themselves. During health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations, the government, public health officials, and the media shared information around safety measures and healthy behaviors (Kim & Kreps, 2020; Stephens, et al., 2020) to invoke positive behaviors such as taking protective action (Liu, et al., 2020; Stephens, et al., 2020). Guided by the use of Protection Motivation Theory (Maddux & Rogers, 1983), PMT, this study applied a new perspective to our understanding of risk communication and protective action-taking: incorporating the role of organizations in risk communication to understand how people intend to respond to threats, such as the COVID-19 health threat. The current study extended research in risk information seeking, risk and disaster preparedness, and protective behaviors taken during crises by drawing on variables in the PMT. The findings revealed that although organizational relationship variables are important in understanding protection motivation behaviors, it is the exposure of employees to messages about protective action and how satisfied they are with those messages that tell the story of an organization’s role in influencing employee behavior. The connectedness one feels to their organization (i.e. identification) and the behaviors of employees around them (i.e. norms), did not significantly influence employee protective action-taking above and beyond PMT variables. The application of PMT alongside organizational variables, led to a deeper understanding of the role organizations and message exposure play in helping employees take protective actions during a crisis. This provided an important space for organizational communication scholarship to contribute to the growing body of literature in risk and crisis communication. The purpose of this study was to understand the potential impact of organizational variables on engagement in protective behaviors, above and beyond the role that PMT variables play, during a health crisis. The results build upon our understanding of the role organizations can play in the crisis context and provide significant theoretical and practical implications for organizational and risk communication and the practice of communication during a crisis. This understanding of the role message exposure and organizational message satisfaction can play during crises can help organizations make communicative improvements with the hope that future efforts can facilitate and encourage a more prepared workforce so that an “unprecedented” crisis is prepared for and “precedented.”
What happens before full-time employment? Internships as a mechanism of anticipatory socialization
(2014-05) Dailey, Stephanie Layne; Stephens, Keri K.; Bailey, Diane E., 1961-
Every day, people seek organizations to join, work in companies, and leave firms; thus, scholars consider socialization a key construct in organizational communication and management. Research explains the socialization process in four stages—anticipatory socialization, encounter, metamorphosis, and exit—yet studies have paid disproportionate attention to “experiences after entry” (Bauer & Green, 1994, p. 221). This study sheds light on an understudied stage by examining the consequences of anticipatory socialization. Research has demonstrated the importance of prior experiences in the socialization process (e.g., Gibson & Papa, 2000), but scholars have yet to explore internships as a mechanism of anticipatory socialization that prepares people for full-time employment. Whereas less than 3% of students held internships in 1980, 84% of current undergraduates have participated in internships (Kamenetz, 2006), and the number of post-college internships has increased from 5% in 1995 to 20% in 2002 (“Internships for all ages,” 2007). Despite this growth, scholars have yet to theoretically explore internships as a prior experience that fosters socialization. Some studies have used socialization as a framework to study how people adapt to internships, but this research has explored socialization within internships instead of as anticipatory socialization for future employment. To fill this gap, I collected qualitative and quantitative data over 15 months: before people’s internships, after their internships, and upon full-time employment. Results from interview, observation, and questionnaire data suggest that participants learn about and adapt to organizations and vocations during their internships, but more importantly, internships may provide more realistic anticipatory socialization than other means of anticipatory socialization (e.g., recruitment, vocational messages). This study helps us reconsider the role that anticipatory socialization plays in work. Whereas previous research has described anticipatory socialization as a beneficial endeavor for prospective employees (Phillips, 1998), this study shows an unfavorable side of prior experiences. Internships showed interns and organizations exactly what full-time employment would be like, dissuading most interns or organizations (78%) to continue their relationship. Whereas traditional means of anticipatory socialization (e.g., recruitment, vocational messages) provide just enough of an introduction, internships may provide such an in-depth preview that they make applicants and organizations less desirable.