1,720,973 research outputs found
Communication and power in collaborative organizing
No full textThe purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the communicative processes and power relationships in collaborative organizing. Given that interorganizational collaboration is characterized by a lack of formal hierarchy and temporary, highly interdependent and embedded relationships, the processes of communication and power must be reconceptualized and examined using new methodologies. In this study, I combined social scientific methods and critical perspectives to examine two quasi-experimental collaborations. Through the use of descriptive and recently developed inferential (i.e., SIENA) social network analytic techniques this study found that: (a) collaboration is emergent, highly interdependent, and embedded within multiple contexts; (b) collaborative participants must constantly (re)negotiate the collaborative goals and processes; and (c) collaborative networks are fluid, moderately dense, decentralized and emerge as the result of specific endogenous and exogenous effects. This study makes several empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions. There are three main bodies of literature advanced by this study: collaboration, power, and social network analysis. This study is the first and only longitudinal, empirical investigation of the communication, resource, and semantic relationships among collaboration participants. As such, the findings provide insight into the collaborative process and confirmation of the assumed unique characteristics of collaboration (i.e., an organizing process characterized by highly interdependent, decentralized, and fluid relationships). Second, this study utilizes social scientific methods to examine a power structure as defined by critical-interpretive theory. While the two may be viewed as incommensurable because social scientific methods have a tendency to reify what critical-interpretive theory seeks to critique and change, this study demonstrates that quantitative methodologies can be used for critical theoretic ends. Thus, this research moves beyond triangulation (i.e., using multiple methods to assess power) to propose new ways of conceptualizing and assessing power relationships. And finally, the analyses examine networks across time and move away from network description to inferential models that predict network dynamics rather than simply describing their structure
Organizational communication connectedness in action
No full text"The lines between our personal and professional lives are blurred - naturally one affects the other. Organizational Communication is the first book on the subject to take into account the personal context we bring into an organization. In addition to the connections between home life, social life, and professional activities, author Cynthia Stohl asserts we must pay close attention to the linkages that individuals develop and maintain within their organizational contexts. Each chapter illustrates the ways in which today's changing social patterns, the increasing diversity of the work-force, the introduction of new communication technologies, and the challenges of global integration and competition create organizational and interpersonal networks that are intricately interwoven and complex. By reframing the network metaphor, the author challenges us to examine the ways in which organizational communication is always embedded in, and influenced by, overlapping systems of relationships."--BOOK JACKET
Participating in a participative management system: The role of active participation, organizational knowledge, and individual motivation in employee satisfaction and performance
No full textA substantial body of research has examined the relationship between worker participation in organizations and outcomes such as satisfaction and performance. However, little research has gone beyond the examination of the relationship between the presence or absence of participation programs and these outcomes. The present thesis extends this research in two respects. First, the thesis explores the relationship between worker empowerment and involvement within a participatory structure and worker satisfaction and performance. Second, the thesis examines the effect of individual motivation and knowledge about the organization in this participation-outcome relationship. Three hypotheses are tested: (1) in a participative management system, the degree to which a person is participating will have a positive effect on levels of individual performance and satisfaction; (2) the degree to which an individual is participating will have a stronger effect on satisfaction when motivation is high, and a weaker effect when motivation is low; and (3) the degree to which a person is participating will have a stronger effect on individual performance when knowledge is high, and a weaker effect when knowledge is low. These hypothesized relationships were examined in the context of a participatory management system in a large manufacturing plant located in the midwest. The results support the first hypothesis, but fail to support the second two hypotheses. Specifically, degree of worker empowerment within the system was found to be related to managerial assessment of worker performance, and both empowerment and degree of involvement were related to worker satisfaction. Although motivation was found to be significantly related to level of satisfaction, and knowledge was found to be significantly related to worker performance, neither acted to enhance the participation-outcome relationship. The findings presented have implications for future investigations of worker participation in organizations which are discussed in the final chapter of the thesis
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Institutional Pressures for Convergence and Divergence of Corporate Social Responsibility: Collaborative and Adversarial Networks of NGO-Governmental Organization-Corporations in South Korea
Get PDFThis study explores the network and relational dynamics among NGOs, governmental organizations (GOs) and corporations associated with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in South Korea, a state-led market economy. The study integrates and advances institutional theory, utilizing a network perspective to further understand the mechanisms through which NGOs develop pressures on corporations to practice CSR. The study explores the ways in which the South Korean institutional context is related to NGOs’ network dynamics for driving CSR practices. The findings suggest that (1) the network positions that benefit NGOs’ CSR networks are different depending on the type of sector in which networks are formed (cross-sector vs. within-sector); (2) the efficacy of network positions and the nature of relationships (collaborative or adversarial) vary by the type of CSR practiced by the NGOs and corporations – convergent CSR, which represents those practices that are embraced by both the global community and the South Korean state, and divergent CSR, which represents those practices that are framed by local economic, political and social conditions; and (3) NGO and corporate leaders’ perspectives regarding network dynamics are not consistent with one another. The study uses a mixed methods approach. Network analyses were based upon archival data collected from the annual NGO reports and CSR reports produced from 2014 to 2019. Three different centralities – degree centrality, eigenvector centrality and betweenness centrality – were used to understand how NGOs’ network dynamics within and across sectors are related to the frequency with which they practice certain type of CSR (convergent and divergent CSR). The relationships among CSR networks and practices were analyzed using established commercial metrics measuring Environment, Social and Governance dimensions of CSR (ESG). Network results were also compared and contrasted with the findings from 28 interviews of South Korean NGO and corporate leaders who discussed their motives and perspectives on their network activity. The analyses found that eigenvector centrality, representing ties to influential or central others in the network, emerged as the most important position of the NGOs in their networks with GOs that helped develop strong networks with corporations. In their within-sector NGO network, however, degree centrality, representing the density of their ties, emerged as the most important centrality that benefited the NGOs’ networks with GOs and corporations. The degree to which the NGOs and corporations engaged in convergent CSR was significantly related to collaborative network dynamics. On the other hand, the degree to which they engaged in divergent CSR was significantly related to adversarial network dynamics. The ESG outcomes suggest that it is only convergent CSR and collaborative network dynamics, rather than divergent CSR and adversarial network dynamics, which are significantly related to the companies’ ESG scores. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed to inform the network dynamics for CSR institutional pressures, the significance of national institutions and state-led economic systems in CSR networks, and the significance of sector type and nature of relationships in CSR institutionalization
Managing equivocality in the multiple modalities of the collaborative virtual classroom
No full textThe purpose of the present study was to investigate interaction sequences and turn taking in the collaborative virtual classroom. Using the SPEAKING schema developed by Dell Hymes and Karl Weick\u27s organizing model, this ethnography of communication analyzed how participants made sense in a collaborative virtual classroom over the course of a semester. Results suggest that the modalities implemented in the collaborative virtual classroom create different discursive spaces. Each of these discursive spaces contributed differently to the overarching pedagogical and relational objectives for the course. Any single modality was not sufficient in meeting the discursive needs of the participants, but the multiple discursive spaces complemented one another in providing arenas in which participants could work toward accomplishing the goals of the course. Additionally, the findings suggest that the equivocality in this learning environment required that more attention be paid to interaction management. The multiple modalities with their distinctive discursive styles, put differential demands on instructors. Strategies for managing interaction were borrowed, modified, and developed anew to meet these demands
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Public Narrative in Digital Canvassing: Emerging Hybrid Strategies
Get PDFThis study explores the public narrative format of traditional face-to-face canvassing in the digital context of YouTube using the concept of hybrid organizing as a framework. Research questions ask about the role of public narrative components and viral video elements in driving popularity of digital canvassing videos, and differences between videos produced by formal organizations and those produced by networked entrepreneurs. A content analysis of 93 YouTube canvassing videos shows that popularity is associated not with public narrative but rather with viral digital elements including music and production quality. Findings further show that formal organizations and networked entrepreneurs employ narrative components differentially, and videos produced by formal organizations achieve far greater popularity than those produced by networked entrepreneurs. Implications for digital organizational outreach are discussed
A discursive approach to embedded gender relations in (Swedish) global restructuring
No full textIn this research, I apply a discourse-centered approach to the study of embedded gender relations in global restructuring. I identify the multiple discourses that frame particular organizational practices of an efficiency program and resultant competency development program for redundant workers who were laid off as a result of restructuring. In general, I found that contemporary discourses such as globalization and post-Fordism fail to accurately meet the situation of global restructuring as it is played out in concrete, gendered organizational practice and individual work lives. Instead, I demonstrate how these discourses are fraught with ironies and contradictions that contribute to the reproduction of traditional gendered relationships within these contexts of rapid organizational change. The main contribution comes from my ironic analysis that reveals the discursive spaces, most especially the discourse of competency, where normative, gendered meanings and organizational practices are disrupted and power interests temporarily exposed. These implications are consistent with the overarching theoretical framework of feminist poststructuralism that seeks areas and strategies for change within socially and historically situated discursive relationships, as well as the discursive framework that foregrounds tensions and irony
Representations of secretarial resistance: Complementarity, alterity, and ambivalence
No full textThis study develops a terminological critique of the representation of workplace resistance in organizational studies and studies of office women\u27s resistance. It engages the struggle over representation that is implicit in efforts to represent the specificities of women\u27s workplace resistance. Such efforts are hampered by the analogic structure of representation that characterizes the term resistance. An analogic term is one that entails a common reference across diverse uses. The common reference across uses of resistance is distinguished etymologically as op-position, a particular sense of opposition which involves the antagonistic play of forces between polarized positions. The study demonstrates the prevalence of such a sense of op-position in studies of workplace resistance and secretarial and clerical women \u27s resistance. Two representational configurations are identified: one that starts with the exercise of force and represents resistance as its complement (complementarity) and one that starts with the exercise of counterforce and represents resistance as radically other (alterity). Although these representations might appear different, they affirm the analogic structure that binds the sense of resistance to op-position. Poststructuralist perspectives have argued for the instability of analogic form and feminist theory has embraced such instability theoretically and politically. The concept of ambivalence figures critically in such arguments. Ambivalence is a way of unsettling the ensconsed meanings and representational practices that have limited resistance to a politics of fixed op-positions. A model of secretarial positioning offers a grounded illustration of the ideological closure effected in the presumption of stability in the analogic structure and a reconsideration of the practice of bitching suggests how a movement of ambivalence effects resistance to such analogic assurances. The study urges organizational scholars to take issue not only with common sense meanings but with the forms of representation that configure those meanings in a given context
Hands in need: Cultural variability and institutionalization in Rett Syndrome organizations in the United States and Europe
No full textOrganizational communication theorists agree that organizations are best understood when examined within the context of their environment. One aspect of the organizational/environmental relationship is institutional, which is that part of the environment that instills certain structures or practices with value. Institutionalization has traditionally been presented as a process in which organizations become isomorphic with their environment by reacting to environmental pressures. More recently, however, critics have argued that organizations are not simply passive recipients of institutional knowledge. This project maintains that institutionalization is an interactive and communicative process, in which organizations simultaneously define and are defined by their institutional environments. In addition, this project examines the role of cultural variability in institutionalization. Because institutions are formed within the context of particular cultures, differences in the cultural fabric from which institutions are created likely impact on the process of institutionalization. Specifically, this research project addresses two research questions: (1) How do organizations actively and communicatively participate in the process of institutionalization, and (2) How does cultural variability impact on and how is it reflected in that process? The organizations used as subjects for this project are eight organizations that have been founded in the United States and Europe to help families cope with Rett Syndrome. The methodology employed in this case study is pattern matching. In answering the first research question, the interactive model is the predicted pattern against which the patterns of institutionalization observed in the eight cases are compared. In answering the second research question, the empirical data are matched against prototypes of how one might expect organizations from different culture clusters to participate in institutionalization. The results suggest that organizations do actively and communicatively participate in the process of institutionalization by (1) adapting to their institutional environment, (2) attaching themselves to elements within that environment, and (3) altering their environment. In addition, this process is not a universal process; rather, the ways in which organizations actively participate in institutionalization vary as a function of cultural variability
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The Appropriation of Traditional Media Contents in Online Contexts: A South Korean Case Study of an Emerging Social Movement
Get PDFThis study examines social media activity on Facebook, Twitter, and Blog during the 2015 South Korean protest movement against state history textbooks. The Thesis seeks to understand motives and implications of appropriation by activists. Appropriation refers to the transference of traditional media content into social media messaging. The findings suggest that there is greater appropriation on social media platforms than the theory of connective action suggests. Activists utilize traditional media content rather than personalized action frames in order to increase responsiveness in the volatile protest environment, be competitive amongst the large and rapid flows of information, and enhance their own credibility and legitimacy. The study uses a mixed method approach. Content analysis was used to analyze social media data produced between October 4th to November 7th, 2015, the peak of the civil protest against the South Korean government’s textbook policy. Data were collected from three social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook and Blog. Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with activists who participated in the movement against the government. Trend analysis was used to compare changes in public opposition to the textbooks with the appropriation by activists. The findings suggest that activists appropriated traditional media contents more than their own personally devised original contents. Interviews suggest that a primary force behind the appropriation was activists’ motivation to communicate credibility and legitimacy. However, platform type made a difference in how often they appropriated and what contents they used for the appropriation. The results suggest that the spirit of each platform, i.e. perceived features, was closely associated with appropriation choices. Content type also was related to the frequency of activists’ involvement in appropriation. Activists’ prior experiences and familiarity with appropriating the different content types mediated the frequency of appropriation. Trend analysis showed a generally positive relationship between negative public opinion and appropriation activities, most especially for younger activists
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