Theodore E. Zorn

Nuts about Change Multiple Perspectives on Change-Oriented Communication in a Public Sector Organization

This article reports a case study of change-related communication in the business services department of a large local-government organization in New Zealand. The authors argue that popular contemporary management discourse celebrates change and creates assumptions that guide managerial practice and the interpretation of managerial actions. Thus, the work experience of most people is inundated with communication about and promoting change. The authors explore the change communication from the three perspectives suggested by Trujillo, what he terms the “functional,” the “romantic,” and the “critical”. Each of these perspectives has a different logic, suggests different metaphors, and implicates different standards for evaluation. In terms of communication, each perspective highlights different change-related communication practices and/or alternative dimensions of the same practice.

Empowerment in organizations: Employees’ perceptions of the influences on empowerment

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the sources of employees’ self‐reported feelings of empowerment by analyzing their descriptions of their jobs, supervisors, colleagues, and organization. Data were collected from forty employees of a large company in the form of interviews and surveys. Relationships between empowerment and five influences on empowerment were explored. Four of the five influences are dimensions underlying self‐efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 1986): enactive attainment, verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, and emotional arousal. The fifth influence is macro‐level organizational culture. Findings revealed that employees had multiple meanings associated with the five influences. Their feelings of empowerment were most strongly associated with their perceptions of macro‐level culture. Positive verbal persuasion and positive emotional arousal were also significantly related to feelings of empowerment. The results suggest that previous models of empowerment that include only the dim...

Meaningful Work and Personal/Social Well-Being Organizational Communication Engages the Meanings of Work

This chapter argues for a broadening of organizational communication scholarship through the consideration of meanings of work including meaningful work. First, we define meaningful work especially within the frame of a broader examination of meanings of work. Along the way, we consider the concept of meaningful work within a constellation of terms that includes job enrichment, work-life balance, career path, leisure, life satisfaction, and so forth. Second, we consider the historical-cultural contexts for our understanding of meaningful work. Here we treat both synchronic and diachronic perspectives on the meaning of work and bring into view matters of difference, such as race, nationality, gender, and class, particularly to the extent that the extant literature treats these dimensions. Third, we consider contemporary discourses in and around workplaces concerning meaningful work—especially in advanced industrial societies. In particular, we interpret recent trends in work and workplace restructuring and how stakeholders discuss them in various parts of

‘Getting on’: older New Zealanders’ perceptions of computing

This article explores older New Zealanders’ perceptions of the barriers to, benefits and negative consequences of computer-based information and communication technologies (ICTs) through the analysis of focus group discussions involving 98 respondents. Older people engage with computers in a context constituted by discourses positioning them as declining in the ability to learn skills such as computing, but creating a burden on society if they do not. In this paradoxical context, participants identified emotional and material barriers, as well as benefits and negative consequences to computer use that are shaped by age and gender. Significant gaps between the New Zealand Government’s identification of the benefits of computing for older people and the benefits identified by older people themselves are highlighted. The article argues for the need for a more balanced approach acknowledging potential negative consequences, promoting the ‘people-centred’ benefits of computer use over and above the national economic benefits emphasized in the government’s drive to encourage older people’s uptake of computer-based ICTs.

Focus Groups as Sites of Influential Interaction: Building Communicative Self-Efficacy and Effecting Attitudinal Change in Discussing Controversial Topics

Although most focus group theorists consider interaction to be a defining feature of focus groups, the influence that occurs through this interaction has been under-theorized. We argue that two important forms of influence may occur: influence on peoples beliefs about the substantive issues under discussion and influence on self-efficacy beliefs. As a result of such influence, focus groups provide a learning context that may facilitate empowerment of participants through the development of communicative self-efficacy as they struggle over constructing and sharing understandings of controversial issues. As part of a larger research project on dialogues about science, we present a case study that puts qualitatively analyzed transcripts of interaction and quantitative self-report measures into empirical conversation. The case study demonstrated that focus group participants were influenced in two important ways: participation and interaction led to increased participant confidence and motivation towards participating in public dialogues and to the construction, modification, and contestation of attitudes toward science, scientists, and biotechnology. Findings suggest that scholars should rethink their rationales for and use of the focus group as just a method of data collection and reconsider and explore alternative ways of presenting focus group results.

The emotionality of information and communication technology implementation

While there is extensive research on emotion in the workplace and on information and communication technology (ICT) implementation, largely ignored is the emotionality of ICT implementation and change management more generally, even though the emotional experience of such processes is critical to their success. The current paper integrates insights from research on emotion at work and the social construction of technology to demonstrate the role of emotion in ICT‐based organisational change through a case study of a not‐for‐profit organisation’s implementation of a Webbased case management system. In particular, it is argued that emotions and new ICT systems are experienced as ambiguous phenomena, which makes people susceptible to influence through interaction. Furthermore, such interaction to negotiate meanings for the emotional experience of ICT implementation is critical to its success.

10 Strategies for Engaged Scholarship.

T he argument that communication is a “practical discipline” (as Robert Craig, 1999, put it so well) is compelling because it suggests that we should be finding ways to make our research and teaching relevant to the world. Still, that imperative is necessarily ambiguous and subject to multiple translations. There is the risk of overprescribing exactly how one’s research or teaching or service should be practical but equally of concern is the risk of not doingmuch of anything at all to engage practical questions or problems. The really good news is that our field is now getting beyond the traditional division between basic and applied research. It is not that such a distinction is useless. Rather, the dichotomywas applied like a straightjacket in years past, preventing scholars and practitioners from pursuing creative projects that both contributed to the

Communication Abilities and Individual Achievement in Organizations.

Previous research suggests that interpersonal construct system development and person-centered persuasive ability are associated with indicators of individual achievement in organizations, such as job level and upward mobility. This study sought to extend previous work by using more sensitive indicators of individual achievement and by exploring sex differences in the relationship between communication abilities and individual achievement. Communication abilities were positively and significantly associated with attainment of organizational rewards. However, the correlations were significantly weaker on the whole than those found in previous research. Few significant differences were found in abilities-achievement relationships between the three organizations included in the present study or between men and women. Differences and similarities in organizational values, particularly the degree to which the organization valued communication, may have accounted in part for the differences and similarities in the abilities-success relationships across these three organizations and in the comparison to organizations included in previous studies.

Construct system development, transformational leadership and leadership messages

This paper reports a study of leadership and communication in small businesses. Recent scholarship on organizational leadership suggests the importance of social cognitive abilities and messages that accommodate followers’ perspectives. Thus the study attempted to integrate certain features of constructivist theory with transformational‐transactional leadership theory. Findings suggest that communication abilities such as construct system development and person‐centered message production may play important roles in leader‐follower interactions. Specifically, the results from this study suggest a moderate association between construct system development and three of the four factors purported to underlie transformational leadership, and insignificant relationships between construct system development and transactional qualities. Findings regarding the association between leadership qualities and person‐centered messages, and between person‐centered messages and evaluations of message effects, were mixed.

A job, a dream or a trap? Multiple meanings for encore careers:

Governments and activists are interested in the ageing workforce, as both a problem and, potentially, an asset. Terms such as ‘positive ageing’ and ‘successful ageing’ are increasingly used rhetorically to (re)frame the working lives of elders, and demand careful examination. A recent entry in the discursive re-construction of work in later life is ‘encore careers’, which highlights retirement as a time when individuals choose to use their wealth of experience, engaging in work that matters and makes meaningful contributions to society. This article reports on a study that used a multiple perspectives approach to analyse the discourse of elders engaged in encore careers and managers who work with them.