Scholars have largely overlooked philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s thoughts on occupational, vocational, and work topics, although he did concern himself with occupational topics. This theoretical piece explores Kierkegaard’s concept of “leveling” (Nivelleringen), connecting it to human resource development (HRD) and organizational socialization processes, which are often conducted by HRD departments. Organizational socialization is important as it provides newcomers with functional and cultural information. Similar to the concept of leveling, however, organizational socialization can provide employees with taken-for-granted socially constructed definitions of the self. This article proposes expanding edification and capability for individuals in the workplace via Kierkegaardian indirect communication in HRD and organizational socialization practices.

The purpose of this research study was to explore the topic of organizational communication in higher education and examine staff members’ perceptions about their level of communication and job satisfaction in their workplaces. This study was also designed to test the relationship between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction by analyzing the significance of different dimensions of Communication Satisfaction with the view that satisfaction is multifaceted. The results of the study indicated that gender differences and the number of years in service do not seem to make a significant difference in the level of satisfaction among staff members, but the level of education and job classification seem to make a significant difference in the level of satisfaction among staff members. There were strong positive relationships found among all 8 dimensions of Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ ), which indicated that staff members when felt positive about 1 dimension of CSQ, also tended to feel positive about other dimensions of CSQ. A strong positive relationship and statistically significant correlation was found between overall communication satisfaction and job satisfaction scores, indicating that when staff members feel satisfied with communication in their workplace, they also tend to feel satisfied with their job in their workplace.