This review highlights the relevance of argumentation and narration for organizational communicat... more This review highlights the relevance of argumentation and narration for organizational communication, which is the exchange of information among organizational participants from which meaning is inferred. The links between argument and organizational rationality and between the narrative paradigm and organizational storytelling are discussed. Organizational and communication variables are viewed as mutually relevant. As the mixtures of argumentation and narration change, interaction changes, and different organizational structures are created. These processes have implications for both scholars and practicing managers.
Lists and Stories as 0 rg an iza t iona I Communication This article examines how two communicati... more Lists and Stories as 0 rg an iza t iona I Communication This article examines how two communication types, lists and stories, structure organizations and claims that all organizational communication is composed of these two types. The list is rooted in science and presented as a formula for action leading to controllable outcomes. I t represents standards, accountability, and certainty. Conversely, the story is romantic, humorous, tragic, and dramatic. I t unfolds sequentially, with overlays, pockets of mystery, and the addition or deletion of performers. This article posits lists and stories as the central ingredients of organizational communication and suggests that their ratio, rate, and order of occurrence are problems for research and theory. I t reaffirms the list as organizational communication and elevates the story to a position equal to the list. Lists are technical communication, progressive, public; and once shared they extend a power base. Stories are communications about personal experience told in evetyday discourse. They reject local knowledge, give coherence to group subcultures, change over time. and contain multiple voices. The lists and stories thesis contributes to organizational communication by providing another avenue for considering structuration. The contrasting qualities of lists and stories direct focus to the question of how individuals organize. How much structure and variety are there and how much are culturally optimal?
This article analyzes the combat emotions of Royal Norwegian Air Force Fighter pilots (hereafter ... more This article analyzes the combat emotions of Royal Norwegian Air Force Fighter pilots (hereafter RNoAF) during their bombing campaign over Libya in 2011. Using grounded theory in our interviews with them, we identified 12 categories of their emotions and behaviors, with variations in pride and fear emerging as the two key themes. We show how those two emotions thread through the literature of emotions in combat, and show further how our data, and the resulting matrix from an analysis of it, both apply to and extend that literature. We also show how the high and low variations of pride and fear interact to both support and counter each other. Our findings thus make an important contribution to the combat emotions literature on the action and behavior of fighter pilots.
Journal of information, information technology, and organizations, 2007
Using ICTs effectively is a major consideration for managers. This paper, which draws on 67 indep... more Using ICTs effectively is a major consideration for managers. This paper, which draws on 67 indepth interviews with advanced ICT users, looks at that empirical data through two lenses: Weick's notion of enactment and Langer's theory of mindfulness. We find that ICT use is more realistically explained by employing the concepts of enactment, scripts, and mindfulness/mindlessness in concert. Mindfulness is required for media richness theory to be predictive, and organizational members construct the richness of one medium through the use of other media.
Organizational Communication and Technology in the Time of Coronavirus
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Two team members from a four-person research project chronicle the power relations of their exper... more Two team members from a four-person research project chronicle the power relations of their experiences during a 6-year study of information and communication technologies (ICTs), showing that employing bargaining techniques and framing the corporate support as a grant rather than as a contract can help one resist and even “manage upward” the corporate influence on research. The authors also detail the micro strategies and politics of team membership over the life of the project and show how membership dynamics change as a result of diverse interests, changing competencies, and, most important, the health issues that affected team members.
We tell of our struggles in completing ethnographic field research by showing the hurdles and dif... more We tell of our struggles in completing ethnographic field research by showing the hurdles and difficult interactions we faced on our different projects. We interpret the obstacles as threats to our identities and show how we responded to them. Our conclusion shows how we preserved the independence of our interpretations while completing the data collection and interpretation.
La communication dans les organisations recourt massivement à des listes (plans d'action, « bulle... more La communication dans les organisations recourt massivement à des listes (plans d'action, « bullet points » sur des PAR THIERRY BOUDÈS, LARRY D. BROWNING La dialectique entre listeset récits au sein des organisations Cet article des Editions Lavoisier est disponible en acces libre et gratuit sur archives-rfg.revuesonline.com La dialectique entre listes et récits au sein des organisations 235 Cet article des Editions Lavoisier est disponible en acces libre et gratuit sur archives-rfg.revuesonline.com
This review highlights the relevance of argumentation and narration for organizational communicat... more This review highlights the relevance of argumentation and narration for organizational communication, which is the exchange of information among organizational participants from which meaning is inferred. The links between argument and organizational rationality and between the narrative paradigm and organizational storytelling are discussed. Organizational and communication variables are viewed as mutually relevant. As the mixtures of argumentation and narration change, interaction changes, and different organizational structures are created. These processes have implications for both scholars and practicing managers.
Lists and Stories as 0 rg an iza t iona I Communication This article examines how two communicati... more Lists and Stories as 0 rg an iza t iona I Communication This article examines how two communication types, lists and stories, structure organizations and claims that all organizational communication is composed of these two types. The list is rooted in science and presented as a formula for action leading to controllable outcomes. I t represents standards, accountability, and certainty. Conversely, the story is romantic, humorous, tragic, and dramatic. I t unfolds sequentially, with overlays, pockets of mystery, and the addition or deletion of performers. This article posits lists and stories as the central ingredients of organizational communication and suggests that their ratio, rate, and order of occurrence are problems for research and theory. I t reaffirms the list as organizational communication and elevates the story to a position equal to the list. Lists are technical communication, progressive, public; and once shared they extend a power base. Stories are communications about personal experience told in evetyday discourse. They reject local knowledge, give coherence to group subcultures, change over time. and contain multiple voices. The lists and stories thesis contributes to organizational communication by providing another avenue for considering structuration. The contrasting qualities of lists and stories direct focus to the question of how individuals organize. How much structure and variety are there and how much are culturally optimal?
This article analyzes the combat emotions of Royal Norwegian Air Force Fighter pilots (hereafter ... more This article analyzes the combat emotions of Royal Norwegian Air Force Fighter pilots (hereafter RNoAF) during their bombing campaign over Libya in 2011. Using grounded theory in our interviews with them, we identified 12 categories of their emotions and behaviors, with variations in pride and fear emerging as the two key themes. We show how those two emotions thread through the literature of emotions in combat, and show further how our data, and the resulting matrix from an analysis of it, both apply to and extend that literature. We also show how the high and low variations of pride and fear interact to both support and counter each other. Our findings thus make an important contribution to the combat emotions literature on the action and behavior of fighter pilots.
Journal of information, information technology, and organizations, 2007
Using ICTs effectively is a major consideration for managers. This paper, which draws on 67 indep... more Using ICTs effectively is a major consideration for managers. This paper, which draws on 67 indepth interviews with advanced ICT users, looks at that empirical data through two lenses: Weick's notion of enactment and Langer's theory of mindfulness. We find that ICT use is more realistically explained by employing the concepts of enactment, scripts, and mindfulness/mindlessness in concert. Mindfulness is required for media richness theory to be predictive, and organizational members construct the richness of one medium through the use of other media.
Organizational Communication and Technology in the Time of Coronavirus
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Two team members from a four-person research project chronicle the power relations of their exper... more Two team members from a four-person research project chronicle the power relations of their experiences during a 6-year study of information and communication technologies (ICTs), showing that employing bargaining techniques and framing the corporate support as a grant rather than as a contract can help one resist and even “manage upward” the corporate influence on research. The authors also detail the micro strategies and politics of team membership over the life of the project and show how membership dynamics change as a result of diverse interests, changing competencies, and, most important, the health issues that affected team members.
We tell of our struggles in completing ethnographic field research by showing the hurdles and dif... more We tell of our struggles in completing ethnographic field research by showing the hurdles and difficult interactions we faced on our different projects. We interpret the obstacles as threats to our identities and show how we responded to them. Our conclusion shows how we preserved the independence of our interpretations while completing the data collection and interpretation.
La communication dans les organisations recourt massivement à des listes (plans d'action, « bulle... more La communication dans les organisations recourt massivement à des listes (plans d'action, « bullet points » sur des PAR THIERRY BOUDÈS, LARRY D. BROWNING La dialectique entre listeset récits au sein des organisations Cet article des Editions Lavoisier est disponible en acces libre et gratuit sur archives-rfg.revuesonline.com La dialectique entre listes et récits au sein des organisations 235 Cet article des Editions Lavoisier est disponible en acces libre et gratuit sur archives-rfg.revuesonline.com
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