Vernon E. Cronen

A Rules-Based Model for the Analysis and Evaluation of Organizational Communication.

This paper combines an interactionist perspective with a rules‐based approach for the purpose of analyzing and evaluating organizations. It is suggested that an organization is analogous to a culture and that it can be analyzed by identifying its collectively defined master contract. It may be critiqued by assessing the process by which that master contract is communicated among its members. The organization and its individual members can then be evaluated according to the competence with which members can coorient themselves to the master contract and can coordinate their activities within the constitutive and regulative rules established by the organization. A case study suggests this new approach to organizational communication will be a useful one for communication theory as well as for consultants.

A Dialectical View of Personal Change

Once one has been sensitized to it, the process of the social construction of reality presents little mystery. For example, Austin’s (1961) How to Do Things with Words satisfactorily demonstrates the existence of “performatives,” a category of utterances that derive their meaning from the social reality they create rather than from any sort of “referential” function. Touchdowns, marriages, debutants, saints, heros, and insults are no part of physical reality, but are social constructs. In more recent years the conception of social construction has been extended to embrace the concepts “mind” (Bateson, 1979) and “self” (Gergen, 1977; Harre.˙., 1977). This “new paradigm” research has in effect returned to Mead’s (1934) problem of illuminating the nexus of mind, self, and society as a process of social constitution.

The logic of the coordinated management of meaning: A rules‐based approach to the first course in interpersonal communication

This article presents a new approach to the basic course in interpersonal communication. The approach is based on the need to teach principles that both cut beneath cultural diversity and function ...

Fishbein's conception of belief strength: A theoretical, methodological, and experimental critique

A theoretical critique of Fishbeins conception of belief strength is advanced which examines the concept in the context of Hullian behaviorism. Fishbeins experimental support for the concept is questioned. Finally three studies are discussed that cast doubt on the importance of belief strength weights for attitude predictions.

Belief salience, summation theory, and the attitude construct

In this paper the authors argue that the salience of beliefs about an attitude object (their elicitability) is an independent dimension of persuasion theory. A revision of Fishbeins summation theory is offered to take this dimension into account and to expand the explanatory range of the theory to include and predict temporary effects. Experimental support for the revision is offered. The authors argue for further revision of the attitude construct as borrowed from psychology. Communication scholars should distinguish between changes in “attitudinal tendency” and changes in “manifest attitude.”

The structure of communication rules and the form of conversation: An experimental simulation

The theory of “the coordinated management of meaning” predicts that the forms of conversations are a function of the degree to which the communicators’ rules for meaning and action are similar in structure and content. A new game of simulated conversation, “Coordination,” permitted an experimental test which supported the theory and demonstrated the utility of the game as a research protocol.

Inoculation against Persuasive Attacks: A Test of Alternative Explanations

Summary Alternative explanations of the effectiveness of refutational pretreatments were examined. McGuires explanation and an alternative offered by Kiesler et al. were elaborated in cognitive terms. Ss were 148 undergraduate men and women. The design was a 2 × 2 fully randomized ANOVA. Independent variables were the presence or absence of a refutational pretreatment and presence or absence of a massive attack. Dependent measures included a Likert-type scale to assess belief in the falsehood of arguments against the truism, a measure of cognitive complexity for openended essays developed by Schroeder et al., and a simple count of the number of arguments Ss used which functioned to measure cognitive differentiation. Significant findings were as follows (all ps < .001). Refutational pretreatments increased belief that all arguments against the truism are typically false, while decreasing overall cognitive complexity. Massive attack on the truism increased overall complexity and cognitive differentiation. ...

Task requirements, belief salience and attitude: Beyond the Hullian model

Results of this study support three conclusions: 1. A task requiring certain conscious cognitive operations can cause subjects to bring to mind prior held beliefs that are not usually salient. 2. Change in belief salience produces temporary attitude shifts. 3. Attitude correlates highly with the proportion of negative associations in the salient array of beliefs. Questions are raised as to the adequacy of Hullian theory to account for the results and the TOTE model is proposed as a method of reconciling human condi‐tionability with higher level cognitive capabilities.

Summation Theory and the Predictive Power of Subjects' Own Salient Beliefs

Summary It is argued that the low correlations of summation predictions with semantic differential attitude scores have been due to two problems: (a) the cueing effects of the semantic differential scales themselves; and (b) the elicitation of nonsalient, as well as salient, subject beliefs. An experiment was conducted that eliminated these limiting methodological characteristics. Summation theory predictions were found to correlate with attitude .77 (p < .001), a significantly higher correlation than those usually obtained. In addition, a formula for the proportion of positive to negative salient beliefs was presented and was found to correlate with attitude .60 (p < .01). Implications for attitude measuurement are discussed.

The evaluation of deductive argument: A process analysis

This paper presents a model of the processes involved in listener response to deductive arguments. The model stresses the function of situation and message stimuli as activating habit‐families of perceptual rules and evaluative strategies. A typology of responses to fallacious deductive arguments is included. The occurrence of these response types is used as a dependent measure in three studies of hypotheses derived from the model. It is suggested that the validity of an argument as well as the form of an argument is determined by the listener. External stimuli influence the perceptual rules and evaluative strategies activated within the listener. Concern should thus be upon the appropriateness of evaluative procedures for communication situations.