James R. Barker

How Swift Starting Action Teams Get off the Ground What United Flight 232 and Airline Flight Crews Can Tell Us About Team Communication

In 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 survived a catastrophic in-flight engine explosion because of, in part, the crew’s ability to communicate while under crisis conditions. Drawing on the experience of Flight 232, other flight deck crew research, and the authors’own flying experiences, the authors develop a descriptive, proposition-based model of the communication process dynamics found in such groups, which they call swift starting action teams. They argue that swift starting action teams, composed of highly trained strangers within one organization, must use communication processes that enable them to perform well immediately and manage crises in high risk environments. These processes depend on each team’s use and awareness of communication values and communication interactions. The authors discuss the communication dynamics of swift starting action teams and the implication of considering such teams in future research.

Working under intensive surveillance: When does ‘measuring everything that moves’ become intolerable?

We examine how call-center employees draw on opposed discourses to understand the purpose and consequences of performance measurement as workplace surveillance. Sometimes the workers saw performance measurement as a legitimate and impartial managerial tool serving the interests of everyone in the organization (e.g. by exposing free-riding, etc.). Other times, they saw performance measurement as intrusive and oppressive; imposed on them by managers who, as agents of employers, used it to serve a narrow set of interests (e.g. by intensifying work, etc.). Our analysis depicts how employees used an ironical process of predicate logic to develop flexible meaning-making strategies to cope with the apparent conflicts in meaning that arose from the two opposed discourses. We conclude by developing a three step method for the practical analysis of such ironical situations of competing discourses that facilitates our ability to reconsider and reconfigure meaning in more useful ways.

The role of communication values in swift starting action teams: IT insights from flight crew experience

We define a new subset of action teams termed swift starting action teams. These high technology groups of professional, well trained strangers perform from the moment they start working and face high stakes from the beginning. For these teams, we present evidence that the expression of communication values precedes effective task communication and team performance. IT professionals increasingly team with other professionals in high technology environments, such as swift starting action teams. Communication and communication values are important to the success of action team interactions common to IT professionals, such as requirements analysis, knowledge discovery interviews, and end user service engagements.

Neither good, nor bad, but dangerous: Surveillance as an ethical paradox

We argue for a discursive ethic of surveillancethat accounts for the paradoxes that thephenomenon presents to todays organisationalmembers. We first we develop a genealogy ofprivacy and illustrate its relation tosurveillance, focusing on the antinomianrelationship between the “public” and “private.” Then we review the common ethicaltensions that arise in todays technologicallyintensive workplace. Lastly, we develop acritical approach to the ethical status ofprivacy and surveillance – a “micro-ethics” – that remains open todiscursively-based negotiation by those whofind themselves at the verypoint of scrutiny.

History of Ideas in Management Communication Quarterly

For a quarter of a century, Management Communication Quarterly (MCQ) has published research about communication in the context of work. This article charts the intellectual history of MCQ to trace its epistemic, theoretical, and identity changes. The authors consider how the journal’s published research has changed, why it has changed, and what its future direction should be. The article also considers MCQ as a place for a community of scholars and the journal’s identity as a member of that community. In providing this empirical study of MCQ’s history, it is hoped that organizational communication scholars can consider further questions about their research, their journals, and their communities within the research tradition.

Assessing concertive control in the term environment

Recent research has identified concertive control as an essential factor constraining teamwork. We extend this research by reporting the development and validation of a scale to measure concertive control in teams that will assist organizational and management professionals both in assessing how teams struggle with process issues and in furthering conceptual research.

Public perceptions of pharmacist expanded scope of practice services in Nova Scotia

Background: Community pharmacists have been transitioning from traditional dispensing roles toward a much broader scope of practice. The objective of this research was to explore public perceptions of expanded scope of practice (ESOP) services as they relate to pharmacy and pharmacist characteristics. Methods: The Survey on New Services Offered by Nova Scotia Pharmacists was developed and deployed using in-pharmacy intercept surveys and online public surveys in Nova Scotia. The survey focused on 4 key ESOP elements/services: 1) prescribing for minor ailments (ambulatory conditions), 2) injections and vaccinations, 3) prescription renewals and 4) medication reviews. Data were analyzed using comparisons between groups (multivariate analysis of variance) and principal component analysis. Results: A total of 385 surveys were obtained from the public regarding their perceptions and use of ESOP services (online n = 237, in-pharmacy intercept n = 148). A number of significant differences were found on the basis of respondent sex, age and the location of survey deployment. Discussion: Overall, public perceptions of pharmacists’ knowledge and skills in providing ESOP services are positive. A pharmacist’s ability to communicate, protect confidentiality and provide quality information regarding medications is important to the public. Conclusion: Respondents who already have a good relationship with their pharmacist are more likely to see value in ESOP services. Future public education strategies should focus on factors positively affecting the public’s perceptions of ESOP services and should encourage public use of these services through intentional patient education of the benefits of ESOP services and strengthening of the patient-provider relationship.

The Institutionalization of CCO Scholarship: Trends from 2000 to 2015

This article presents an empirical analysis of the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) literature to demonstrate how, and to what extent, CCO scholarship is becoming established within organizational communication studies and related fields. We assess the trajectory of CCO research from 2000 to 2015 and, via the application of a neo-institutional perspective, show that CCO scholarship is gaining legitimacy within organizational communication and is becoming increasingly recognized in fields such as management and organization studies, although it has not focused extensively on formalizing its approaches to investigating how organizations are produced in communication. Our analysis reveals key questions and challenges that future CCO scholarship should address to strengthen its institutional legitimacy and influence.

Pharmacist work stress and learning from quality-related events

BACKGROUNDnAmong the many stresses faced by pharmacy staff, quality related event (QRE) learning can be among the most significant. In the absence of a supportive organizational culture, the potential for blaming individuals, versus identifying key process flaws, is significant and can be very intimidating to those involved in such discussions and may increase an already stressful work environment.nnnOBJECTIVEnThis research develops and tests a model of the relationship between the work stress faced by pharmacists and the extent of QRE learning in community pharmacies. Building upon recent research models that explore job characteristics and safety climate, the model proposes that work stress captured by the effort that the pharmacist invests into job performance, the extent to which the pharmacist is rewarded for such efforts, and the extent of pharmacist work-related commitment to their job, influence pharmacist assessment of the working conditions within their community pharmacy. It is further proposed that working conditions influence the extent of a blame culture and safety focus in the pharmacy, which, in turn, influences organizational learning from QREs.nnnMETHODSnThis research formed part of a larger study focused on QRE reporting in community pharmacies. As part of the larger study, a total of 1035 questionnaires were mailed to community pharmacists, pharmacy managers, and pharmacy owners in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan during the fall of 2013 and winter and spring of 2014. Partial least squares (PLS) using SmartPLS was selected to test and further develop the proposed model. An examination of the statistical significance of latent variable paths, convergent validity, construct reliability, discriminant validity, and variance explained was used to assess the overall quality of the model.nnnRESULTSnOf the 1035 questionnaire sent, a total of 432 questionnaires were returned for an initial response rate of approximately 42%. However, for this research, only questionnaires from staff pharmacists were used thereby reducing the number of usable questionnaires to 265. The final model highlights that pharmacist work stress greatly influences perceptions of the working conditions in the pharmacy (R(2)xa0=xa00.52), which, in turn, influence assessments of the safety focus (R(2)xa0=xa00.27) and blame culture (R(2)xa0=xa00.14) in the pharmacy. The model also found that the extent of a safety focus and blame culture within the pharmacy both influence the extent of organizational learning from QREs (R(2)xa0=xa00.44) within the pharmacy.nnnCONCLUSIONSnIn an environment where financial rewards are not always possible, ensuring that pharmacy staff feel respected and encouraged in providing safe care may help enhance QRE learning. Given the importance placed on organizational reporting of, and learning from, QREs in many jurisdictions in North America, the findings from this study suggest that a number of working conditions and perceptions of blame culture and organizational safety need to be explored before such processes can become entrenched in work flow.

Science and technology development and the depoliticization of the public space

Purpose – The authors aim to review a five‐year multi‐study research programme on the role of public dialogue in the social and cultural sustainability of biotechnology developments in New Zealand.Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a critical review of all the published research products from a five‐year government‐funded study of the cultural and social aspects of sustainable biotechnology in New Zealand.Findings – The review research highlights how New Zealand Government policies on biotechnology, which motivated the research programme, were fore‐grounded on economic progress and competitive positioning. Thus, debate on sustainable biotechnology issues became cast in economic and technical terms, while public dialogue became seen as diversionary and unsubstantiated. The analysis concludes that the programme was ineffective in influencing government policy and fell victim to the very problem of science governance that its purpose was designed to address.Research limitations/implications ...