Vincent R. Waldron

Achieving communication goals in superior‐subordinate relationships: The multi‐functionality of upward maintenance tactics

Maintenance of the supervisory relationship is arguably the most important of the communication objectives pursued by subordinates. Maintenance communication creates the context in which other goal‐oriented messages are constructed by the subordinate and evaluated by the supervisor. In this study, an inductive procedure was used to identify upward maintenance tactics reportedly used by subordinates. Subsequent factor analysis using a sample of 518 working adults yielded four maintenance tactic types: Personal, Contractual, Regulative, and Direct. Supervisory relationship quality influenced reported tactic use: Subordinates participating in leadership exchanges (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975) scored higher on the Personal, Contractual, and Directness factors. Subordinates in supervisory exchanges scored higher on the Regulative factor. Results are interpreted as evidence that in high quality supervisory relationships, upward maintenance tactics may be multi‐functional, simultaneously preserving relational...

Mindfulness and Interpersonal Communication

Many social problems can be traced to interpersonal communication difficulties,just as many proposed interventions to solve social ills also depend on effectiveinterpersonal communication. This article examines three potential relationshipsbetween states of mind and social interaction followed by illustrations fromresearch related to five exemplar social issues—developing effective programsfor solving workplace communication problems, training the public to detectscams and hoaxes, reducing stereotyping and cross-cultural misunderstanding,managing interpersonal conflict, and constructing effective public health cam-paigns. We conclude by considering the likely inhibiting and facilitating effects ofmindfulness-mindlessness on socially relevant transactions.That seemingly “mindless” communication occurs frequently comes as nosurprise to even the casual observer of human interaction. Illustrative of a remark-able capacity for humans to dissociate thought and talk are these nuggets minedfrom the world of work:

An Investigation of Forgiveness-seeking Communication and Relational Outcomes

Therapists and theologians claim that the process of forgiveness is essential to the restoration of damaged relationships, but this possibility has received limited empirical attention. Furthermore, the role of an offenders communicative behavior in the forgiveness process remains understudied. This project first analyzed an inductively derived list of communication behaviors to develop a taxonomy of forgiveness-seeking approaches used by 186 romantic partners. These were interpreted with reference to face-management, uncertainty reduction, and rule-negotiation approaches to relationship recovery. Associations between the types of forgiveness-seeking communication and several different measures of post-transgression relationship change were examined. Results indicated that relationships recovered significantly when offending partners used behaviors labeled as explicit acknowledgment, nonverbal assurance, and compensation. Significant communicative effects remained after the effects of transgression severity were controlled. Results are interpreted as partially supportive of the assumption that forgiveness-seeking communication facilitates recovery from relational damage.

Forgiving communication as a response to relational transgressions

Researchers and therapists have argued that forgiveness is essential to the process of relationship reconciliation. This project describes five types of forgiving communication reported by 187 adult members of romantic relationships. We labeled these forms of forgiving communication conditional, minimizing, discussion, nonverbal display, and explicit. As expected, forgivers recalled using more conditional and less minimizing types of communication when relational transgressions were severe. In addition, variations in reported forgiving communication were associated with relational outcomes. Partners who reported using conditional forms of communication also indicated that they experienced relationship deterioration after the forgiveness episode. In contrast, reported explicit and nonverbal forgiveness strategies were positively associated with relationship strengthening. The results are interpreted as further evidence that the role of communication behavior should be expanded in conceptual models of forgiveness and relationship reconciliation.

The Experience and Expression of Emotion in the Workplace:A Study of a Corrections Organization

This study evaluated Rafaeli and Suttons (1989) model of emotional expression in the workplace by examining descriptions of emotional interactions occurring among members of a state government agency. The results indicated that qualities of felt emotions influenced emotional expression, which in turn yielded changed relational perceptions and changed communication behavior subsequent to the emotional event. Content analysis of the event descriptions resulted in preliminary generalizations about the types of emotions experienced by members, the nature of repressed emotional messages, and the dimensions of relationship changes stemming from the emotional events. The results are interpreted as evidence of the importance of emotional communication in relationship reformulation and are consistent with Van Maanen and Kundas (1989) recent depiction of emotional control as part of organizational culture.

Once More, With Feeling: Reconsidering the Role of Emotion in Work

The role of emotion in the workplace has been the subject of a series of provocative studies (Hochschild, 1983; Van Maanen & Kunda, 1989). This essay locates research on organizational emotion in the larger traditions of emotion research and argues that the communicative aspects of emotion have been understudied. Existing research on the subject is divided into three themes: the emotional labor and attendant psychological costs that characterize some occupations, the use of emotional expression as a tool for the achievement of management objectives, and the role of culture in shaping the emotional lives of members. Three broad areas requiring study by communication researchers are explored. First, the substantial literature on organizational regulation of emotional display is reviewed and criticized for implicitly casting communication in the role of “emotional packaging.” Second, possibilities for studying the process of emotional interpretation are presented, with particular emphasis on the constitutive...

The nature and prevention of harm in technology-mediated self-help settings: three exemplars

SUMMARY This paper argues that in addition to the substantial benefits they provide for members, on-line support groups create the potential for harm. Qualitative discourse analysis methods are used to examine messages exchanged in three distinct groups comprised of sexual abuse survivors, persons with disabilities, and parents. Examples of on-line practices with the potential to be harmful to individuals, dyadic relationships, and the larger group are identified. Several protective practices used by these groups that appear uniquely adapted for on-line support environments are also documented. Tentative guidelines are suggested for human services professionals interested in developing on-line support groups or referring clients to existing groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of the need for more research and a caution about the ethical responsibilities of researchers and practitioners who venture into this rapidly developing context of human service work.

Constrained rationality: Situational influences on information acquisition plans and tactics

It is argued that the relative influence of automatic, knowledge‐based, and creative planning processes on conversational behavior should vary as a function of planning constraints. The effects of two potential constraints, instrumental goal priority and instrumental goal complexity, on cognitive and tactical indices of planning were assessed. As expected, increased instrumental goal priority resulted in reduced creative planning, as indicated by the prominence of simple and direct information acquisition plans. Indirect plans which simultaneously addressed instrumental and relational/identity management concerns were used less frequently under these conditions. Manipulation of instrumental goal complexity resulted in similar but less extensive effects on planning. Both types of planning constraints resulted in increased use of direct information acquisition tactics. The results suggest interactants are strategic planners to the extent that situational and cognitive resource constraints allow. The cued‐re...

Communication Practices of Followers, Members, and Protégés: The Case of Upward Influence Tactics

Changing forms of organization and evolving conceptions of leadership have created the potential for followers to exert increased influence in American organizations. This chapter reviews research from a variety of disciplines on the nature of upward influence messages. Related forms of communication, such as feedback seeking, dissent, and relationship maintenance, are also discussed. Studies of the individual, relational, and organizational antecedents and outcomes of upward influence are presented. The author concludes that this form of communication has important consequences for individual members and leader-follower relationships. He suggests that future research should supplement existing work on influence tactics, with finer-grained analysis of the interactive behavior. The need to rethink traditional (psychological, hierarchical) conceptions of leader-member influence is established and alternate perspectives are explored.

A study of the relationship between communicative performance and conversation participants’ thoughts

This study directly examines the assumed relationship between a communicators thoughts and his/her communicative actions. Individuals’ communicative performance (i.e., effectiveness and appropriateness) on an information acquisition task was assessed and assigned to high, moderate and low communication competence groupings. Their thought protocols, as gathered through a stimulated recall procedure, were then compared. As predicted, high competent communicators had more goal‐relevant thoughts than their less competent counterparts. Moreover, communicators’ thoughts corresponded with the type of performance strategies evidenced in their interactions. Other results indicated that low competent communicators had significantly more self assessment thoughts than their more competent counterparts. However, no support was found for a predicted interaction between competence level and goal complexity. The results were discussed in terms of implications for further study of cognitive processing and communicative p...