Browsing by Subject "Practice theory"

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Communicative elements of fluid collective organizing
(2019-05) Smith, William Rothel, III; Treem, Jeffrey W.; Barbour, Joshua; Jarvis, Sharon; Love, Brad
Organizational communication research has traditionally focused on the organizing processes of firmly structured conventional organizations, such as workplaces, schools, and nonprofits. However, a growing line of research is beginning to investigate more fluid, ad-hoc, ephemeral, spontaneous, and loosely structured social collectives. This dissertation draws upon interview, observational, photographic, and social media data collected over a four-year time frame to investigate how a community of bicycle motocross (BMX) riders in the Southern United States communicate and organize to build and maintain public bicycle dirt jumps, despite lacking many of the elements commonly associated with formal organizing. The dissertation explores three key areas: (1) how communication gives rise to forms of authority in this fluid social collective, (2) how the materiality of the natural environment intersects with the group’s organizing, and (3) how intermingling social, material, and performative practices negotiate the tensions inherent to this organizational setting. Findings of the first study reveal that specific communicative interactions in the form of repetitive stories and assertives scale up to form a paradoxical “authoritative text” (Kuhn, 2008) that upholds a group ethos of contribution, but fails to specify the nature of how to carry out that contribution. The paradoxical nature of this authoritative text perpetuates conflict within the space. Study two conceptualizes environmental materiality as pure natural or (re)natural—depending upon the degree of alteration at human hands—and explains how a combination of these forms of nature contribute to the group’s organizationality. Finally, study three develops a model showing how the tensions of organic/civic, inclusion/consensus, and contributing/loafing are negotiated through communicative practices to sustain a version of the space that is both material and vision flexible. Theoretical contributions of this dissertation include extending our understanding of how authoritative texts emerge outside of formal organizing, providing a stronger analytical focus on the material, and explicating the importance of the space of practice in the tensions inherent to fluid organizing. The final section provides suggestions for how organic community recreation sites might be supported through official organizations, without bureaucratic or institutional influence undermining the core characteristics of the community.
Unplanned conversations at work
(2018-10-10) Mandhana, Dron Manojkumar; Ballard, Dawna I.; Stephens, Keri; Treem, Jeffrey; Miller, Vernon
This dissertation conceptualizes formal organizing as an enacted capability that is constituted in everyday communication practices bound by time and space. Using a practice perspective, I argue that unplanned conversations are a constituent feature of organizing and a primary mover in organizing process. As part of the dissertation, I have developed a multi-level theoretical framework that provides insights about the factors that influence the frequency of unplanned conversations at work. In Chapter I, previous work on unplanned conversations from multiple disciplines (e.g., communication, design) is reviewed to define unplanned conversations, explicate their characteristics, and consider them as the unit of analysis. Following this discussion, I apply a practice perspective to explain how unplanned conversations produce and re-produce organizational structures, as well as the recursive relationship between structure and unplanned conversations. Finally, I discuss various ways to measure and operationalize unplanned conversations. Chapter II unpacks the effects of individual, team, and organizational level factors on the frequency of unplanned conversations. A two-mode data analytic strategy is presented to explore the dualistic relationship between the types of unplanned conversations and the organizational spaces they create. Then, the influence of unplanned conversations on organizational outcomes is discussed. Throughout the chapter, relevant research questions, hypotheses, and theoretical propositions are offered. Chapter III addresses the methodological challenges associated with capturing and measuring unplanned conversations. To overcome the methodological challenges, I developed and tested a multi-methodological approach to studying unplanned conversations. Data was collected using structured observations, spot sampling, online survey questionnaires and experience sampling from N = 61 employees over a four-week period. Finally, I report on the varied statistical methods used to explore the relationships described in Chapter II. The findings in Chapter IV provide strong support for the relationship between organizational context and the frequency of unplanned conversations. Correspondence analysis results provide strong support for the dualistic relationship between types of conversations and spaces. Taken together, the dissertation helps us more fully understand how unplanned conversations enable and constrain organizational communication processes. Chapter V concludes with a discussion of the results, limitations, an agenda for future research, and the theoretical and practical implications of the dissertation.