Janie M. Harden Fritz

Organizational Ethical Standards and Organizational Commitment

Organizations interested in employee ethics compliance face the problem of conflict between employee and organizational ethical standards. Socializing new employees is one way of assuring compliance. Important for longer term employees as well as new ones, however, is making those standards visible and then operable in the daily life of an organization. This study, conducted in one large organization, found that, depending on organizational level, awareness of an organizations ethical standards is predicted by managerial adherence to and organizational compliance with those standards and/or discussions with peers. Regardless of level, organizational commitment was predicted most strongly by managerial adherence to organizational standards. These findings have theoretical implications for the fields of business ethics, organizational identity and organizational socialization and practical implications for the implementation of ethics policies.

Men's and Women's Organizational Peer Relationships: A Comparison Janie Harden Fritz

A study of differences in mens and womens information, collegial, and special organizational peer relationships was conducted on a large, diverse sample (n = 666) in order to explore whether (1) work friendships tended to be same- or cross-sex and (2) whether same-sex work relationships had features and func tions similar to nonwork same-sex relationships. Results were generally sup portive of findings outside the organizational context for mens and womens relationships, but several interesting patterns were noted across relationship types that suggest different relational trajectories for mens and womens rela tionships. Specifically, the number of relationships claimed by men and women were similar, but womens collegial relationships were higher on several rela tional functions than mens, and womens special peer relationships were stronger than mens in several areas. This study shows that the work setting as a context is, for friendship purposes, similar to nonwork contexts.A study of differences in mens and womens information, collegial, and special organizational peer relationships was conducted on a large, diverse sample (n = 666) in order to explore whether (1) work friendships tended to be same- or cross-sex and (2) whether same-sex work relationships had features and func tions similar to nonwork same-sex relationships. Results were generally sup portive of findings outside the organizational context for mens and womens relationships, but several interesting patterns were noted across relationship types that suggest different relational trajectories for mens and womens rela tionships. Specifically, the number of relationships claimed by men and women were similar, but womens collegial relationships were higher on several rela tional functions than mens, and womens special peer relationships were stronger than mens in several areas. This study shows that the work setting as a context is, for friendship purposes, similar to nonwork contexts.

Researching workplace relationships: What can we learn from qualitative organizational studies?

The study of workplace relationships is now well established. Although initially conducted with quantitative methods, when the qualitative turn in organizational communication intersected with increased recognition of the value of qualitative/interpretive methods for understanding interpersonal relationships, research on work relationships began to move in a similar direction, resulting in an increasingly rich knowledge base. This article traces the rise of qualitative research on workplace relationships, highlighting exemplary studies and identifying resources that can guide continued qualitative research on workplace relationships.

Dialogic Learning as First Principle in Communication Ethics

This article frames a dialogic learning theory of communication ethics based upon Buber (1955, 1958), Gadamer (1988), Freire (2000), and Arendt (1998). This communication ethics theory privileges dialogic learning as first principle, accompanied by attending and listening as one searches for temporal answers emerging among three coordinates: (a) communicative partners (self and Other), (b) communicative content, and (c) the communicative demands of the historical moment. We situate a communication ethic within a philosophical and pragmatic first principle: dialogic learning (Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2009), working within the tradition of Levinas (2001) that ethics is first philosophy and first principle (Bergo, 1999).

Rudeness and Incivility in the Workplace

Incivility may be defined as low intensity deviant behaviour that violates workplace norms for mutual respect. The effects of intra-organizational incivility are considerable, and resolving conflicts among co-workers can account for much of managers’ time. This chapter details the nature of incivility and its consequences. The chapter provides keys to recognizing and dealing with habitual instigators and offers remedies that are being used effectively by organizations to curtail and correct employee-toemployee incivility.

Sustaining Institutional Ethos and Integrity: Management in a Postmodern Moment

A local hospital runs a campaign for being a place of “caring and healing”. In conversation with a consultant for that hospital, one hears contradictory insights. Employees feel underpaid in a hospital strapped for money, unable to supply the latest equipment. The advertising misrepresents the “real” story that guides the hospital. Public information has managerial and employee consequences. Cynicism, fueled by disconnection between public mission and organizational reality, decreases managerial effectiveness and endangers institutional integrity and ethos. Health care institutions need communication that promotes organizational health, lessening the possibility of organizational cynicism.

The “Ideal Professor” and Gender Effects in Christian Higher Education

A survey was administered to 451 undergraduate students at a private liberal arts Christian university to identify students’ perceptions of the ideal professor. The survey revealed that the ideal professor places great emphasis on the integration of faith and learning, is flexible (and even easy), maintains high academic standards, encourages students, and has an adaptive teaching style. Findings also highlighted gender differences in student perception of the ideal professor. Women perceived an adaptable teaching style, encouragement, and integration of faith and learning as slightly more important than men did in defining the characteristics of an ideal professor. Implications are framed in terms of student expectations for content and relationship dimensions of learning associated with Christian colleges and universities.

Responses to unpleasant work relationships

The likelihood of use in Rusbults (e.g., Rusbult & Zembrodt, 1983) typology of exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect responses to romantic relationships was assessed for its general applicability to unpleasant work relationships. Correlational analysis revealed that ones own orientation to an unpleasant work relationship and the perception of the other persons orientation to the problematic relationship were associated with the voice response. Loyalty was associated with ones own orientation to the problematic relationship, as was the neglect response. Status relative to the unpleasant person was found to shape ones responses to the relationship as well. Some correlations varied by gender.

Stephen M. Croucher and Tina M. Harris (Eds.).Religion & Communication: An Anthology of Extensions in Theory, Research, & Method: Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2012, 298 pp., ISBN No. 978-1433112881 (hardcover); 978-1433112874 (paperback).

Scholarship on communication and religion has increased substantially over the last several decades. Currently, there are two journals devoted explicitly to communication and religion: the Journal of Communication and Religion, sponsored by the Religious Communication Association, covering all aspects of communication and religion, and the Journal of Media and Religion, targeting a specific area of the communication field. Several edited volumes devoted to specific aspects of communication and religion, including religion and mediated communication (e.g., Geybels, Mels, & Walvare, 2009; Hoover & Clark, 2002), the interrelationship of evangelicalism and communicative elements of popular culture (Woods, 2013), Augustine and philosophy of communication (Troup, 2014), interreligious dialogue (Brown, 2013), and religion in the digital sphere (Campbell, 2013), offer detailed insights and new theoretical approaches to help us understand the constitutive, constituted, causal, shaping, and=or formative role of religion, faith perspectives, belief systems, and worldviews in communicative activity. Religion and Communication: An Anthology of Extensions in Theory, Research, and Method, edited by Stephen M. Croucher and Tina M. Harris, contributes to this ongoing conversation by offering an eclectic collection addressing the intersection of religion and communication across a range of contexts. This ambitious volume, designed to offer exemplary treatments of areas that are part of the expansive literature in communication and religion and illustrating the ‘‘complex nature of communication and how it is used Mass Communication and Society, 18:851–854, 2015 Copyright # Mass Communication & Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication ISSN: 1520-5436 print=1532-7825 online DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2014.933849

Who Reads Catholic Newspapers? Exploring Readership in a Changing Industry

Newspapers published by Roman Catholic dioceses represent a large and unexplored part of the religious publishing industry. This study attempts to shed light on the challenges these publications face by examining the readership of a diocesan newspaper in a large Catholic diocese in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Based on a comprehensive survey of 24,278 Roman Catholic households from 27 parishes throughout the diocese, this study finds a large gap in readership and engagement between older and younger readers, raising important strategic and pastoral questions for the newspaper in the years to come.