Communication scholars, psychologists, teachers and social scientists recognize the importance of empathy to effective communication; however, its essential nature remains a mystery. The nonverbal and subjective aspects of empathic perception make it difficult to study with traditional Western scientific tools. Existing studies of empathic process concentrate primarily on the early or the latter stages. The central steps are seldom addressed. A method is needed for following empathic perception to its core processes and exploring the principles that govern its nature. Systems science offers a viable alternative method of studying empathy through analysis of models, emphasizing principles of interaction and process.

An engaged workforce can increase organizational productivity and decrease employee turnover. Current research on employee engagement exists, yet little research exists on how the communication behaviors of management affect employee engagement. Guided by the conceptual framework of systems theory and communications theory, an exploration of the influence of management communication behaviors on employee engagement was conducted. A descriptive research design helped explore the influence of management communication behaviors on employee engagement within local, government entities of the Tidewater, Virginia, area. Data included semistructured interviews with 23 participants (11 managers and 12 employees). Data analysis occurred using the modified van Kaam method, which resulted in 4 emergent themes including (a) open, respectful, and transparent communication; (b) positive communication promoted an engaged workforce; (c) favorable communication increased engagement; and (d) negative communication decreased engagement. The results of the study may contribute to positive social change by providing managers a tool to reduce turnover in organizations, which, in turn, may lower the local unemployment rate. Indicators of economic cycles with low rates of unemployment include greater economic activity, stronger demand for workers, and a higher demand for goods and services. A lower unemployment rate may lessen the overall burden on government and society.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 4, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University. / Bibliography: leaves 97-106. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

John Dewey once wrote: Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful. For him communication is the highest of the arts of life, for it is in communication that society is born and nurtured. It is by communication that we discover the possibilities of nature. And it is through communication that we make our shared experience meaningful. It is no wonder, then, that Dewey would conclude The Public and Its Problems with this provocative statement: Democracy will have its consummation when free social inquiry is indissolubly wedded to the art of full and moving communication. Dewey, however, does not adequately explain what he understands by the art of full and moving communication and never tells us how communication functions in the varied contexts of practical life. Despite, then, his obvious affection for communication, he leaves many questions about it unanswered. For instance, what makes communication possible? In what kind of situations is communication called for and why? How does an inchoate feeling or idea find concrete embodiment in language? What are the connections among language, communication, thought, feeling, and action? Most importantly, what is the process by which one employs the art of communication to influence the beliefs and behaviors of others? This dissertation addresses these questions by approaching Deweys thinking on communication from a distinctly rhetorical perspective. Even though Dewey almost never mentions rhetoric in his entire corpus, I argue that it is precisely the absence of the term from his writings that makes a rhetorical reading of his work all the more imperative. Such a reading permits us to understand the practical importance of the art of communication in the larger context of his social thought. If, then, the problem with Deweys writing on communication is that it often drifts into abstractions, one remedy is take those abstractions and place them into concrete situations, where communication is required to transform some part of the environment through transaction with human thought and action. Because this kind of activity has been the specific domain of rhetoric since the time of the sophists, it is only appropriate to read Deweys work through that tradition. In effect, the goal of this dissertation is to explicate Deweys theory of communication in the terms of a rhetorical theory. But insofar as his thought went through three distinct periods in his lifetime, beginning with his Idealistic period in 1880, moving into his Experimental period in 1903, and culminating in his Naturalistic period in 1925, Dewey can be said to have had three implicit rhetorical theories. To articulate and explain each of these theories, I trace Deweys theoretical development through time and construct, through published works, private correspondence, and biographical material. I show that the first theory envisioned rhetoric as a form of eros that helps us grow towards Absolute self consciousness. The second theory views rhetoric as a form of critical inquiry whose goal is the development of phronçsis, or practical wisdom. The third theory treats rhetoric as a productive technç, or a naturalistic form of art that has the power to transform experience, nature, and society through its transactional character. By tracing Deweys theoretical development and explicating three implicit theories of rhetoric in his writings, this dissertation not only provides a unique perspective on Deweys changing views on language, ontology, and social practice, but also demonstrates how each theory can still be effectively used to interpret and guide the art of rhetoric. This kind of work enables us to grasp different facets of this diverse and vibrant art. At the same time, it shows how Deweys work remains an important resource for those who wish to promote and sustain a democratic way of life by educating citizens in the art of full and moving communication.

This dissertation analyzes the rhetorical situation of the peasant-driven land reform struggle in the country of Paraguay. While the term Campesinos Sin Tierra unites the many different groups participating in the struggle, this work specifically identifies the character of many peasant organizations at local and national levels of participation as well as exploring the attitudes and contributions of individual peasants. The struggle is situated within both historical and rhetorical contexts. The historical importance of land tenure practices is recognized and traced from pre-Columbian civilization to the present. The concept of land as a socio-political instrument as well as an economic resource is explored and related to the present politics of land reform. In addition, the nature of peasant organization, protest strategies, argumentation and success are thoroughly investigated and elucidated in this work. Through on-site research, interviews and translation of newspaper accounts and academic students of Paraguayan peasants, the dissertation develops a thick description of peasant perspectives in the struggle. Particular attention is devoted to unearthing argument strategies and the specific language employed by individual peasant protestors, peasant organizations and other groups. An analysis of these argument strategies constitutes the basis for evaluating the struggle as a new social movement in the context of social movement theory. Finally, the dissertation proposes that rhetoripolitical practices structure and constrain the argumentative and protest strategies employed in the struggle and serve to explain its failure as a new social movement. Rhetoripolitics functions as a hegemonic process of argumentative cooptation that both limits protest innovation and safeguards the social order from social protest activity. Rhetoripolitics is discussed as a historical and cultural phenomenon situated within the cultural milieu of Paraguay and the Paraguayan land reform struggle. The dissertation concludes by suggesting that rhetoripolitics could structure the nature of social struggles in other developing nations and place constraints upon the nature of social protest as it has in the Paraguayan case. Rhetoripolitics may function as an important limit to the ability of nations in the developing world to participate in the new social movement phenomenon.

This dissertation rethinks some of the core arguments of the Western theories of the masses. By demonstrating the inapplicability of these theories in the situation of the Twentieth Century totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia, this study argues for a replacement of the dominant paradigms with new theories of the masses relevant to the specific historical and social conditions. History of the masses in communist Czechoslovakia shows that the masses were not viewed as an inherently destructive social element. Instead, the masses functioned as supportive social structures for the oppressive regime, but also as the expressions of the nascent democratic civic interaction that later challenged this regime.

No description available.

Espionage as a communication phenomenon is investigated through three recent case studies. Emphasis is placed on understanding intelligence and espionage as communication, but more importantly the discourses surrounding the label of espionage. These discourses are paradoxical, in that the heart of the discourse remains secret. Discourses about espionage are clearly persuasive. Indeed, the topic of espionage is the most socially prominent way in which modern American society negotiates issues about what properly counts as a secret, and what counts as treason. Yet here is the rhetorical challenge: how can the discourse be persuasive when the evidence itself must remain a secret? The results suggest that, contrary to traditional rhetorical expectations about the importance of evidence for persuasion, in the context of espionage the suppression of evidence is advantageous for persuasion. Secrecy itself is what sells. The discursive absence is highlighted, which in turn invites particular reading strategies. Audience expectations are activated, and a paranoid reading of overdetermined cues is invoked.

Between 1876 and 1900, large numbers of manufacturers began to advertise more widely in an effort to create national markets for their products. They commissioned lithographic firms to produce chromolithographed cards, booklets, calendars, and posters, which were then distributed to stores, stuffed into packages, or tacked up on bill-posting boards. The enormous increase in visual advertising in the late nineteenth century, then, must be understood in the context of the production, distribution, and consumption of chromolithography. While chromolithographic advertising may not have had the cultivating and democratizing influence on American society that reformers believed it could, it did blend in with other cultural forms, thus integrating the discourse of visual advertising into everyday life across class boundaries. Produced under a complex, irrational, and inefficient system by men and women from many walks of life, it was a crucial component in the development of consumer culture. Not only were individual brands developed largely through chromolithography, but also the very idea of the brand was made intelligible during the chromo era. Chromolithographic advertisements drew upon existing cultural forms and visual vernaculars to communicate an ideology of consumption by visually articulating consumption to whiteness and citizenshipand elevating it to a position as the most significant realm of activity. With a large number of firms vying for advertising work, lithographers desperate to compete turned to independent artists with original ideas in order to distinguish themselves and thus help them land contracts. As a result, watercolor and pastel artists from a range of social positions, both women and men, were brought into the process of visual-advertising design. The lithographic craftsmen who printed, and also sometimes designed, the advertisements identified as both consumers and workers, while expressing dismay that their trade had become little more than the humble handmaid of advertisers.