Management Communication Quarterly current issue

The Mediation of Policy Knowledge: An Interpretive Analysis of Intersecting Activity Systems

Canary, H. E., McPhee, R. D. — 2009-09-30

We use structurating activity theory,an integration of structuration and cultural-historical activity theories, to examine how individuals construct policy knowledge.The study was conducted over 5 months with participants from related activity systems who interacted regarding special education policy. Qualitative analysis focused on how participants drew on system-specific and structural rules and resources to construct policy knowledge within and between activity systems. Results reveal how participants developed policy knowledge that was mediated by system elements of divisions of labor, communities, rules, subjects, and both material and symbolic mediating resources.The mediated knowledge construction process also reproduced broad structural features. Results interpreted through structurating activity theory extend current understandings of policy and knowledge processes and offer directions for future research.

Role Negotiations in a Temporary Organization: Making Sense During Role Development in an Educational Theater Production

Kramer, M. W. — 2009-09-30

Negotiating the performance of an individual’s role is an essential part of the assimilation process. Role negotiations consist of a two-part process: (a) negotiating a particular organizational role to perform and (b) negotiating that role’s performance once it is assumed. Whereas previous research has failed to explore how these two processes interact,this participant-observation study used sensemaking to examine the communication individuals used both to negotiate a specific role in a temporary organization, an educational theater production, and then to negotiate that role’s performance. The temporary organization provided a unique opportunity to observe both processes from beginning to end and allowed for examination of specific communication behaviors individuals used to make sense during both negotiations. The results provide insight into the relationship between negotiating a specific role and negotiating that role’s performance as well as extending the understanding of sensemaking.

"We Don't Want Complaining Women!" A Critical Analysis of the Business Case for Diversity

Perriton, L. — 2009-09-30

The author explores how the corporate discourse of "the business case" works to frame, restrict, and depoliticize the discussion of gender in the workplace. In turn, bemused and surprised by the ease with which women have been persuaded it is not "businesslike" to complain, the author explores how women’s linguistic choices shape their corporate lives. By examining the didactic and embedded "gender work" of a women’s leadership event and reflecting on her own, occasional, weakness for the discourse, the author contributes to the understanding of how a seemingly positive and popular communication strategy reproduces unequal gendered relationships in the workplace. The author rejects the claim that using a business case discourse is an effective strategy in improving the recognition, promotion, and rewarding of women in organizations.

Organizational Newc(ust)omers: Applying Organizational Newcomer Assimilation Concepts to Customer Information Seeking and Service Outcomes

Fonner, K. L., Timmerman, C. E. — 2009-09-30

The process through which customers resolve uncertainty regarding their participative role in service transactions may be similar to the process that organizational newcomers experience as they gain role clarity and assimilate into organizations.This study applies organizational socialization literature to examine customer socialization, information seeking, role clarity, and service outcomes. Results (N = 328) indicate that (a) customers’ perceived social costs have a stronger association with information seeking than does felt need for information, (b) overt and indirect information seeking is related to role clarity, and (c) role clarity mediates relationships between overt and third-party information seeking tactics and service outcomes.The report concludes with discussion of the benefits of applying organizational socialization frameworks to service contexts.

Violating Prescriptive Stereotypes on Job Resumes: A Self-Presentational Perspective

Tyler, J. M., McCullough, J. D. — 2009-09-30

The authors investigate the earliest stage of the job-screening process—the resume, which represents an applicant’s initial self-presentation efforts, and examine whether women are evaluated more negatively on hiring-related decisions when their resume communicates an identity that violates gender stereotypic prescriptions. This question is important because resumes determine whether an applicant is interviewed and because, in general, women suffer negative sanctions when their behavior violates stereotypic prescriptions.The results show that when women’s resumes violated these prescriptions, men evaluated them more negatively, with women’s perceived social skills mediating the applicant gender—evaluation relationship. These findings provide the first evidence showing that gender biases emerge at the earliest phase of the job-seeking process, that is, when a woman’s resume projects an identity-image that violates gender stereotypes.

Guest Reviewer Acknowledgement

2009-09-30