A qualitative narrative approach is used in this study of hidden conflict among nurses and support staff in a hospital setting. Twenty nurses and support staff from a single hospital nursing unit participated in in-depth interviews and shared narratives about hidden conflict. These narratives were used as data in the analysis and were augmented by observations and participant observational data. Narrative, content and theme analyses were applied to the data. Bruner’s narrative theory was applied to a portion of the narratives as a methodology for narrative analysis. Content and theme analyses facilitated the differentiation and grouping of the communicative acts from the hidden conflict acts as found in the narrative and observational data. Results showed that nurses and support staff aligned themselves within the organizational hierarchy, and that much of the experienced hidden conflicts stemmed from issues of organizational positioning. Results also showed that narrative analysis was an effective way to understand the meaning behind the conflict experiences of nurses and support staff. Finally, results demonstrated key communicative forms and hidden conflict strategies used in carrying out hidden conflict acts. Collectively, these findings verify the vitality of hidden conflict’s presence in organizations that exists embedded in the organizational culture. This study further reaffirms the importance of front stage communications to decrease the negative affects of hidden organizational conflict.

The purpose of this study is to understand the situations of Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) employees¡¦ organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment. According to several relative questions analysis, We also hope to research the relationships and influences of TSC employees¡¦ organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment when TSC during organizational change. The goals of this study are as follows: 1. To understand the situations of TSC employees¡¦ organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment. 2. To understand the different degrees of TSC employees¡¦ organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment on different attributes employees. 3. To research the relationships among organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment. 4. To research the influence on organizational change recognition from organizational communication. 5. To research the influences on job satisfaction from organizational communication and organizational change recognition. 6. To research the influences on organizational commitment from organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication and job satisfaction. This study adopts the method of investigation through questionnaires, 400 questionnaires were distributed and 317 effective ones were returned, SPSS version 10.0 (Statistical software) was utilized to conduct Descriptive Statistical Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Factor Analysis, Independent Samples T-Test, Analysis of Variance, Correlation Analysis and Regression Analysis for testing the hypotheses of this study. The results of this study are shown as follows: 1. There are partial significant differences on organizational change recognition¡Borganizational communication¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment among different attributes employees. 2. There are significant relationships on organizational change recognition¡Bjob satisfaction and organizational commitment from organizational communication. 3. There are partial significant relationships on job satisfaction and organizational commitment from organizational change recognition. 4. There is a significant relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. 5. Organizational communication has significant influence to organizational change recognition. 6. Organizational communication and organizational change recognition have partial significant influences to job satisfaction. 7. Organizational communication¡Borganizational change recognition and job satisfaction have partial significant influences to organizational commitment.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among individual and organizational characteristics variables, several aspects of organizational communication, organizational commitment, organizational identification, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, the influence of supervisor and workgroup commitment on organizational commitment was also examined. With these purposes, following two different pilot studies, questionnaires were administered to a sample of 321 white collar bank employees who are working in different branches of different banks in Ankara. The results of the study revealed that influence of individual and organizational characteristics variables on job satisfaction, organizational identification, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions were low and most of the time insignificant. The results of both regression analyses and model test indicated that job satisfaction was significantly and positively predicted by downward instrumental communication and turnover intentions was found to be significantly predicted by upward instrumental and downward positive communication and organizational identification was found to be significantly predicted by downward instrumental communication in the model test. Furthermore, both job satisfaction and organizational identification were found to be significant positive predictors of organizational commitment. In addition, organizational commitment was found to significantly and positively predicted by commitment to workgroup but not by commitment to supervisor. On the other hand, organizational commitment was found as a significant negative predictor of turnover intentions. However, when entered into the regression analysis together with organizational commitment, neither job satisfaction, nor organizational identification predicted turnover intentions significantly. However, significance of indirect effect of job satisfaction and organizational identification on turnover intentions through organizational commitment confirms the mediation of organizational commitment. The results of the present study, its limitations, and implications were discussed in more detail in the light of the relevant empirical evidence.

Hoy and Miskel (2008) and Weick (1976) conceptualize schools as organizational systems of which parents comprise part of the organization. Specifically, parent involvement includes such behaviors as assisting students with homework, participating in policy decisions, and providing feedback (Barge & Loges, 2003). Parent involvement is largely championed in K12 education and particularly in middle schools (e.g., Coalition of Essential Schools, 1993; Texas Education Agency, 1991). In fact, both parents and teachers value building positive parent-teacher relationships (Kalin & Steh, 2010) and may communicate regarding a variety of topics including student academic performance, classroom behavior, preparation, hostile peer interactions, and health (Thompson & Mazer, 2012). However, while parents and teachers report valuing positive parent-teacher interactions, Lasky (2000) found that “teachers and parents sometimes felt confused, powerless, and misunderstood as a result of their interactions” (p. 857). One specific type of parent-teacher communication that may lead to dissatisfying interactions is parent expressed educational dissent (PED). Similar to organizations and workplaces that do not value dissent as a feedback process increasing democratic discourse in the system, schools may actively attempt to avoid potentially negative or conflict-inducing communication such as dissent (Ehman, 1995). Scholars (e.g., Davies, 1987; Fine, 1993; Sarason, 1995) note the importance of dissent and parent involvement in education systems, and case studies espouse positive changes within education systems as a result of parental dissent (e.g., Ehman, 1997). In order to better understand PED, this dissertation project seeks to (a) examine why parents express dissent in educational systems, (b) identify how parents express dissent in educational systems, and (c) measure how PED affects members of the educational system. To accomplish these goals, the author conducted a series of focus groups with teachers and parents, developed a measure of PED, and disseminated a survey to both parents and teachers assessing the antecedents and possible outcomes affected by PED. The findings of this research aim to improve organizational communication within middle school education systems such that schools may develop prosocial strategies for (re)framing and addressing PED.

According to many, the legal industry is currently suffering from a professionalism problem. The following dissertation is a response to the question, "What can be done about incivility in the practice of law in Florida?" It begins by exploring the literature examining ethics and professionalism, specifically focusing on the role communication plays in the production and reification of patterns of meaning and action. After contextualizing the professionalism problem socio-culturally and historically, the dissertation next provides an overview of some relevant aspects of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (a theoretical communication framework employed to help make sense of the existing state of affairs) and examines how legal scholars and practitioners can begin to communicate their way out of the problem. Following the literature review, the dissertation outlines four research questions and addresses the study's use of the World Cafe design principles and methodology for examining the "professionalism problem." Finally, the dissertation concludes by relating four key findings and an observation as well as addressing five ways in which the research has practical and theoretical implications. In embracing CMM to analyze the conversational patterns and practices of law as they relate to ethics and professionalism, this research theoretically aligns primarily with the sociocultural tradition with some critical and cybernetic overtones. While there are many ways one might examine the professionalism problem, CMM offers an exemplary lens with which to both analyze the problem and proffer a discursive pathway out of the problem. From a communication perspective, the problematics of ethics and professionalism in the practice of law can be understood to originate in the inherent polysemy of language and the incommensurability of moral orders deriving from alternative forms of communication.

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). / text

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. / text

Using typologies by Benoit (1995), Seeger (2006), and Heath (2006) this study argues that when an organization encounters multiple complications (e.g., perceived guilt, magnitude of harm, nature of the victims, etc.) compounding a crisis situation, that the organization’s best course of action is to employ atonement rhetoric. Second, this study also argues for the inclusion of a new best practice in crisis communication, which highlights the importance of organizations to recognize the impact visual evidence, especially video footage, has on complicating crisis response while also increasing demand for an appropriate and timely response. To do this the study uses the above typologies as well as Koesten and Rowland (2004) to carry out a rhetorical analysis of the NFL’s response to the Ray Rice crisis. This study finds that the NFL’s crisis response through the first three phases, though using nearly all of Benoit’s (1995) strategies, fails to meet all of Seeger’s (2006) and Heath’s (2006) best practices. It is only through meeting the requirements for atonement set out by Koesten and Rowland (2004) that the NFL meets the recommended best practices and achieves resolution from this crisis.

Current U.S. college graduates are part of the millennial generation, which is the largest and most well-educated generation of all time (PEW, 2014; Twenge, 2006) and are the future of the workforce. Moreover, recent college graduates have unique job searching and career expectations, which underlie the communication strategies used to search for jobs. While the process of job searching is inherently communicative in nature, job searching is an under studied context within communication research. Although previous research outlines the career related expectations of young job seekers, it fails to examine how recent college graduates search for jobs and communicatively respond to violated job searching expectations. This goal of this study was to determine the communicative strategies recent college graduates use to search for jobs and the role communication plays in responding to job searching expectation violations. Expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978), a communicative framework, is applied in this study to understand how recent college graduates respond to violated job searching expectations. Six research questions guided this study to determine the job searching communication strategies, job searching expectations, career expectations, and expectancy violations that occurred throughout the job search. To answer these questions, I conducted interviews with 20 participants, twice over a three-month period, to qualitatively understand and analyze the job searching processes of recent college graduates. The findings from this study demonstrate that recent college graduates use a combination of traditional job searching strategies and online social networking strategies to find, research, and apply for jobs. While participants expected the job search to be difficult, they were surprised at the amount of intensity and effort job searching required. Interpreting the results through the lens of EVT helped note that the participants with the most realistic job searching and career related expectations had greater success job searching over a three-month period and at the time of the follow up interview, several participants had accepted full-time, post graduate jobs. Expectancy violations theory was essential in interpreting how participants network with interpersonal contacts by offering insight for why participants strategically communicate with contacts based upon their potential reward value. The reciprocation and compensation mechanisms of expectancy violations theory also provided an explanation as to why some participants increased their job searching activity in response to violated expectations and others did not. An especially interesting finding illustrates that participants preferred to receive bad news over no news at all, and even evaluated bad news as a positive expectancy violation because it reduced their uncertainty. Collectively, expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978) and anticipatory socialization research (Dubinsky, Howell, Ingram, & Bellenger, 1986) highlight how recent college graduates form their job searching and career expectations. The findings from this study also contribute to existing job searching research by examining the job searching strategies and behaviors of recent college graduates to better understand how they job search and what they expect from their future employers. Lastly, the findings from this study provide several practical application suggestions for organizations to implement in order to recruit and retain the best young job seekers in light of their current expectations and job searching strategies.

Abstract Title: Organization is communication. Communication is organization. - A case study of the communication between the management and the employees at Save the Children Sweden. (Organisation är kommunikation. Kommunikation är organisation. - En studie av kommunikationen mellan chef och medarbetare på Rädda Barnen) Number of pages: 37, without enclosures Author: Anna Lilius Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Spring 2008 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the communication between the management and the employees in the organization today and compare it with the organization's new strategy for internal communication. The questions asked are: 1) How is the communication between management and employees perceived by respective parties today and 2) What, if any, are the differences between the situation today as described in question 1 and the strategy for internal communication. Material/Method: Qualitative research method. By interviewing four members of lower management and four employees, an analysis was made of how the communication between management and employees is perceived today. The results from the interviews were analyzed with the help of current theories within organizational communication, and the compared with the new strategy for internal communication. Main results: While the results from the interviews had some similarities in relation to the importance of information of the organization's goals, they varied between the groups in respect to the degree of dialogue that was experienced. There were also differing results as to the communicational responsibilities of the employees; while the management saw that the employees had a crucial and very important communicational role, the employees themselves did not acknowledge it in any largersense. Keywords: Organizational communication, Internal communication, Dialogue, Sense making