Robin Patric Clair

The use of framing devices to sequester organizational narratives: Hegemony and harassment

This empirical study of sexual harassment extends the current critical‐interpretive approaches to organizational communication by exploring and examining the role that framing devices play in sequestering stories that might otherwise challenge the dominant interests of organizations. Six framing devices are proposed and reviewed in terms of their relation to hegemony. A quota sample based on figures garnered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was selected. Working women were interviewed about their experiences with sexual harassment and their accounts were interpreted according to their reliance on the proposed framing techniques. The findings suggest that the most prominently employed framing devices by the subjugated group are trivialization, denotative hesitancy, and invoking the private domain or private expression. Furthermore, mutual negation, minimalization, self‐defacing, and self‐effacing/erasing emerged as framing techniques. The implication of these findings is that the subjugated group a...

The political nature of the colloquialism, “a real job”: Implications for organizational socialization

This study of the colloquialism, “a real job,” challenges previous assumptions about work socialization. It extends theoretical approaches by situating the stage model of work socialization within a larger context of communication. In the current study, college students explain the meaning of the colloquialism by writing personal narratives. An interpretive analysis probes the ontology of work and the political socializing nature of the colloquialism.

The Bureaucratization, Commodification, and Privatization of Sexual Harassment through Institutional Discourse A Study of the Big Ten Universities

The present study extends research of sexual harassment by examining the communicative techniques that are employed in institutional discourse. Sexual harassment is viewed as a discursive practice that can be enacted, tolerated, perpetuated, or rectified through communication. Past studies have examined how the victims of sexual harassment “frame” these events that in turn affect power relations. The current study addresses how universities frame their managerial discourse regarding sexual harassment, which often perpetuates the bureaucratization, commodification, and privatization of sexual harassment. Specifically, a post-structuralist critique and deconstruction of the policies and brochures developed by the Big Ten universities are undertaken to reveal oppressive and/or emancipatory forms of discourse. Three specific forms are addressed. They are taken-for-granted discourse, strategic ambiguity, and exclusionary discourse. A discussion follows that suggests that these forms of discourse contribute to the commodification, bureaucratization, and privatization of sexual harassment in an ironic way.

Resistance and oppression as a self‐contained opposite: An organizational communication analysis of one man's story of sexual harassment

This analysis of discourse displays the interplay between resistance and domination using one mans description of sexual harassment and his attempts at redress. The interpretation of this tense situation illustrates the complexity of discursive practices which result in unexpected outcomes. These outcomes, at times, appear to be in direct opposition to the intention of the discursive practice. They are described as self‐contained opposites. The analysis begins by addressing an article detailing one mans story of sexual harassment which was published in a local newspaper. The analysis is then extended through interviews with the harassed man. The interpretive analysis reveals how the articulation of resistance becomes oppressive and the articulation of oppression offers resistance. The self‐contained opposite of resistance/oppression reflects a hegemonic moment. The impact of the micro‐level discursive practices are discussed in terms of their relation to the macro‐level gender structuring of organizations.

Graffiti as communication: Exploring the discursive tensions of anonymous texts

This study views graffiti as a communicative opportunity to gather insights into the discursive tensions associated with how marginalized groups treat each other through anonymous text. Graffiti are considered anonymous texts that enact identity, resistance, and oppression. Specifically, this study explores graffiti at a predominantly Black university in order to explore how marginalized members of society enact or react to hegemonic conditions. The graffiti revealed a pervasive focus on sex, sexual orientation, and racial identity. This study clearly demonstrates a propensity for marginalized members of society to perpetuate the status quo in a number of issues (e.g., sex, sexual orientation, racial identities/stereotypes).

Rhetorical Strategies in Union Organizing A Case of Labor Versus Management

This study examines a union organizing campaign to assess the rhetorical strategies used by both union organizers and management. Bowers and Ochs’s typology of agitation and control rhetoric is used to analyze these strategies. The union organizers relied on promulgation (e.g., sarcasm, co-opting company messages, and straightforward explanation), polarization, and solidification to gain worker support and later added specific forms of focusing on the issue, visualizing the future, making personal testimonials, using repetition, and having the last word. Management relied on counter persuasion, which included diversion of attention, drawbacks of change, images of a negative future, education, sarcasm, and polarization to resist the organizing effort. The analysis underscored the importance of examining labor organizing campaigns from a rhetorical perspective. Future studies concerning organizing campaigns are discussed.

Narrative approaches to raising consciousness about sexual harassment: From research to pedagogy and back again

Abstract In this paper we discuss narrative from both a theoretical and pedagogical perspective. After briefly reviewing the theoretical possibilities of narrative for addressing the problem of sexual harassment, we discuss how feminist pedagogy both draws from and advances our notions of narrative. We then focus on three forms of narrative as they are used to raise consciousness concerning the issue of sexual harassment. The three specific approaches include: (1) the personal narrative, (2) the case study, and (3) the interactive narrative or collective story. After providing illustrations of these three approaches as they are used in academic settings, we explore the possibility that utilizing these approaches might provide heuristic tools for the classroom instructor, useful strategies for the workplace practitioner, and insight into the theoretical exploration of sexual harassment.

Pay discrimination as a discursive and material practice: A case concerning extended housework 1

Abstract Based on the premise that past and current theories of pay discrimination fail to explain womens continued economic deprivation, a theory of extended housework is advanced and illustrated through responses from women employed in paid positions. Specifically, this theory views communication, not as an independent nor as a dependent variable, but as an integral aspect of pay inequity. Market theories, critical theories, and feminist theories concerning pay inequity are reviewed with special emphasis on how these theories position communication with the practice of pay inequity. Fifty women working at paid occupations were interviewed. Their responses shed light upon how pay inequity articulates patriarchal conditions often hidden behind the ‘rationality’ of capitalism. Implications for future research are discussed.

Contestation and Opportunity in Reflexivity: An Introduction:

Academic discourse on ideas and techniques of reflexivity in ethnographic research are common and essential. Less common are collections devoted entirely to this topic, and those conducted by diverse researchers who draw on distinctive intellectual values and commitments for cultural inquiry. Also strange to the literature are discussions about ethnographic reflexivity that are grounded in everyday personal and professional experiences of ethnographers, those lived but less-examined (and often contested) realities that constitute what it means to be ethnographers and do ethnography. This introduction briefly discusses this void in the literature and previews the current issue of Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies.

Measuring Mao Zedong Thought and Interpreting Organizational Communication in China

This study examines the impact of Maoist (Mao Zedong Thought; MZT) influence on organizational communication practices in the Peoples Republic of China. The authors developed an instrument from a thematic analysis of Maos writings. Findings from the thematic analysis were used to create an instrument to measure MZT from an organizational communication perspective that was subsequently tested in a survey of more than 400 mainland Chinese employees working across 15 different organizations. Results suggest that MZT can be measured with some confidence with respect to reliability and validity. The results also suggest that MZT influences organizational communication practices to varying degrees in various mainland Chinese organizations. The findings are especially useful in todays global market for understanding organizational communication practices in China as well as other cultures.