Family Communication Patterns as Predictors of Organizational Dissent: A Replication Study

This study replicated a previous research project addressing connections between family-of-origin communication and organizational dissent expression. We predicted that family communication patterns (FCPs), specifically conversation and conformity orientations, would predict upward, lateral, and displaced dissent. As in the original study, significant findings emerged for upward dissent and conformity orientation. This replication study indicated family type as an inconsistent predictor of expressed dissent. Contrary to the original study, we found no evidence to support a connection between pluralistic family types and upward dissent. Finally, as an extension of the original study we analyzed effects of FCPs on displaced dissent, finding an inverse association with conversation orientation. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Instructional Dissent as a Function of Student Conflict Styles

The purpose of this study was to examine how students’ conflict styles (i.e., integrating, avoiding, dominating, obliging, and compromising) were related to the expression of instructional dissent (i.e., expressive, rhetorical, and vengeful). Participants were 160 undergraduate students, who completed a questionnaire measuring their conflict-handling communication with an instructor and how frequently they engaged in instructional dissent throughout the semester. Results of a canonical correlation revealed that (a) when students used the integrating, dominating, and compromising conflict styles, but did not use the avoiding style, they communicated more rhetorical dissent, and (b) when students used the dominating style, but not the integrating or obliging styles, they communicated more expressive, rhetorical, and vengeful dissent.     

A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Organizational Dissent and Workplace Freedom in Five European Economies

Individuals in five European countries—Finland, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom (n = 1184)—completed a survey exploring the relationship between organizational dissent and workplace freedom of speech. Results revealed workplace freedom of speech is positively correlated with dissent among the entire sample in France and in Germany. Results in Spain were nonsignificant. In the United Kingdom, there was a negative relationship between workplace freedom of speech and dissent. There was a negative relationship between workplace freedom of speech and articulated dissent and a positive relationship with latent dissent in Finland. Moreover, MANCOVA testing showed nationality to have a significant effect on organizational dissent and workplace freedom of speech. Germans scored the highest on dissent and workplace freedom with Spain scoring the lowest.     

Responses to Organizational Mandates: How Voice Attenuates Psychological Reactance and Dissent

Organizations sometimes create policies that restrict the decision freedom of their members. When doing so, they might create psychological reactance and dissent. This study examines whether providing voice into a decision can reduce the likelihood that those affected by the decision perceive it as imposing on their rights, can have negative emotional reactions to its adoption, and can want to engage in organizational dissent. Undergraduate students were randomly assigned to read scenarios in which a university committee decided to recommend that a university-wide, mandatory, comprehensive exit examination requirement be adopted after a student group either supported the requirement or opposed it. The results confirmed an indirect path between voice and dissent that flowed through perceived imposition on students’ rights and negative emotional reactions to the adoption of the requirement. The limitations of the study and implications of the results for theory and research are discussed.     

媒介正义论:走向正义的传播理论与实践

传媒业界和传播学界始终不曾间断对正义的追求,集中体现在传播与社会正义运动、传播与社会正义研究、社会正义的新闻学、媒介伦理学及信息公平论等研究中。本文提出,应基于传媒实践与传播理论提炼并建构中国的媒介正义论研究。     

Effect of timing of communicator identification and level of source credibility on attitude

This study investigated whether roommates who were similar in their communication traits would express more satisfaction with and affinity for their roommates. Specifically, the communication traits of willingness to communicate, interpersonal communication competence, and verbal aggressiveness were considered. Participants (college students and their roommates) completed measures of their own communication traits and their feelings about their roommates. Results showed that roommates who were prosocially similar (when both roommates were high in willingness to communicate, when both roommates were high in interpersonal communication competence, and when both roommates were low in verbal aggressiveness) reported the highest roommate satisfaction and liking.     

Feeling Valued Matters: An Examination of Instructor Confirmation and Instructional Dissent

This study explored the relationship between effective instructor behavior—instructor confirmation—and a potentially negative student behavior—instructional dissent. Previous studies demonstrate that student characteristics provide a limited explanation for how students express dissent (e.g., Goodboy & Myers, 2012 Goodboy, A. K. & Myers, S. A. (2012). Brief report: Instructional dissent as an expression of students’ verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness traits. Communication Education, 61, 448–458. doi:10.1080/03634523.2012.699635[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Thus, scholars have begun to investigate the influence of instructor behaviors along with student characteristics to understand why students express dissent (LaBelle, Martin, & Weber, 2013 LaBelle, S., Martin, M. M. & Weber, K. (2013). Instructional dissent in the college classroom: Using the instructional beliefs model as a framework. Communication Education, 62, 169–190. doi:10.1080/03634523.2012.759243[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). This study revealed that instructor confirmation negatively related to expressive and vengeful dissent, but not rhetorical dissent. Further, the three dimensions of instructor confirmation functioned differently in accounting for variance in expressive and vengeful dissent. Future research should build towards a model of instructional dissent model that reflects the unique characteristics of the instructional context and modifiable instructor behaviors.     

平等、公平、公正及平等服务之思辨——兼论当前公共图书馆的差异服务

新世纪一场关于图书馆精神的辩论,将平等服务的话题摆到图书馆人的面前。平等精神作为图书馆精神的核心理念,是理论家们的共识,但对平等的理解还存在着误区。本文对平等的实质内涵作了深入分析,比较了平等与公平、公正的关系,认为平等是公平的最高境界和追求,公正才是衡量社会正义的天平;图书馆的差异服务不能与不平等服务划等号,社会的差异是客观的存在,合理的差异服务符合公正原则,绝对平均主义是行不通的。     

Attribution Theory in the College Classroom: Examining the Relationship of Student Attributions and Instructional Dissent

This study sought to expand knowledge on instructional dissent by establishing the relationship between student attributions of instructor behavior (attribution theory) and their own communicative behavior following a difference of opinion with an instructor. Student participants (N = 244) completed survey questionnaires regarding their perceptions of instructor's internality for a perceived disagreement and their own communicative behavior following the incident (i.e., expressive, rhetorical, or vengeful dissent). Results indicate that students’ attributions of internality are positively related to all three forms of dissent.     

Motivating factors: perceptions of justice and their relationship with managerial and organizational trust

Research on trust in organizations shows that it facilitates relationships, cooperation between individuals and organizations, organizational commitment, and employees’ motivation to innovate. Organizational justice, which refers to perceptions of the fairness of workplace outcomes or processes, is often considered an antecedent to managerial and organizational trust. The current research sought to determine whether different types of justice relate to managerial and organizational trust in unique ways. Participants from numerous organizations representing two geographic regions were surveyed regarding their last performance appraisal. Results indicate that procedural justice was the strongest predictor of both organizational and managerial trust, distributive justice only predicted managerial trust, and interactional justice did not predict either type of trust.     

组织学习与绩效的关系：基于动态能力的中介效应

基于资源基础观构建一个反映组织学习、动态能力以及绩效关系的理论模型。以我国广东珠三角地区317家企业为调查对象,采用结构方程模型方法进行实证检验。结果发现：企业的组织学习对组织绩效没有显著的直接影响,但是组织学习可以通过动态能力对组织绩效产生显著的影响。该研究结果可为中国企业如何运用组织学习以增强动态能力和最终改善绩效提供有益的借鉴。     

Disclosure of a Cancer Diagnosis in Organizational Peer Relationships

The purpose of this study was to explore types of message content received by peers of cancer survivors (N = 126) during cancer disclosure in the workplace. Coworkers reported cancer disclosure interactions with female (65.5%) and male (34.5%) cancer patients. Based on organizational peer types reported in the literature, coworkers reported differences in specific message content received by informational (36.5%), collegial (52.3%), and special peers (11.1%). Coworker relationships were also examined for perceived interpersonal solidarity based on peer type. Results reveal that messages with a treatment focus were most common with all peer types, followed by nondisclosure. Nondisclosure of a cancer diagnosis between coworkers reinforces cancer patients' needs for privacy boundaries, even within close workplace relationships. Of the three peer types, special peers had the most perceived interpersonal solidarity after a cancer disclosure.     

Perceptions of Instructor Interactional Justice as a Predictor of Student Resistance An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Central States Communication Association,Cleveland, OH and was named a Top Four Paper in the Communication Education Interest Group.

This study examined students’ perceptions of instructor interactional justice as a predictor of students’ self-reported likelihood of using teacher-owned resistance strategies. Interactional justice refers to the fairness and quality of interpersonal treatment students receive from their instructors. Results indicate that students’ perceptions of instructor interactional justice negatively predicted the student resistance strategies of Teacher Advice, Teacher Blame, Appeal to Powerful Others, and Modeling Teacher Affect. This study suggests that instructors use interactional justice as a possible means to reduce student resistance.     

Organizational Surveys: A System for Employee Voice

Although surveys are often used to assess and track employee attitudes and opinions over time and are used quite frequently by applied communication researchers, the use of surveys as a channel to voice employee attitudes and opinions has not been fully explored in the employee voice or basic organizational communication literature. With the increased call for accountability, effective applied communication researchers can play an important role in ensuring that organizations engage in the survey process in a manner that is “safe” for employees, and ethical and practical for the organization. Because the question of how to accomplish this task is complex and cannot be fully addressed within the constraints of a commentary, I offer three general principles to guide future researchers in helping overcome organizational communication problems:

1. Build trust in the organizational survey process, the researcher(s), and the organization.

2. Eliminate the adversarial relationship that often exists between management and employees who speak up.

3. Provide evidence that the organization does more than purport to value the things that it says it values.

     

An Exploration of Organizational Assimilation Among State-Owned,Private-Owned,and Foreign-Invested Enterprises in China

This study explores organizational assimilation in Chinese organizations. To reflect the Chinese context more accurately, the present study compared employees working in three different kinds of organizations: state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private-owned enterprises (POEs), and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). Data collected from 220 full-time employees were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Regression analyses demonstrated that employees’ level of organizational assimilation was significantly influenced by organizational type: Employees in SOEs reported the highest level and employees in FIEs reported the lowest level of organizational assimilation.     

组织学习研究的本体论进路：进展及贡献

本体论进路是以基于本体论思维或由本体论衍生的一些理论为研究对象,进行剖析的研究脉络、研究方法或研究范式的统一。已有学者以本体论思想为本源,基于不同领域的具体理论,对组织学习开展了不同层面的研究。本体论进路常结合复杂系统理论、中国哲学中阴阳等相关理论,以＂类比—关联—融合＂的结构和程序深度分析组织及组织学习,从而使个人学习理论和组织学习理论更紧密连接,弥补现有理论的不足,为组织学习研究提供了新的理论基础,并取得了一些进展。     

Machiavellians' Motives in Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This study investigated the relationship between Machiavellianism, a predisposition toward manipulative behavior, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), defined by being helpful, cooperative, and conscientious. Given past findings that Machiavellians seek opportunities for impression management to obtain personal benefit, we hypothesized that the negative association between Machiavellianism and organizational citizenship behaviors toward the organization (OCBO) is stronger than the negative association between Machiavellianism and organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals or groups (OCBI). Additionally, we hypothesized that Machiavellianism is associated with the OCB motive of impression management, but negatively associated with the OCB motives of organizational concern and prosocial values. Participants were 606 working adults (as well as their supervisors and co-workers) from various organizations in the U.S. South and West. Results generally confirmed the predicted relationships, which were consistent across supervisor and co-worker perceptions as well. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Speaking Up Competently: A Comparison of Perceived Competence in Upward Dissent Strategies

Recent dissent research indicates that employees report using several different strategies for expressing their dissent to management and supervisors (i.e., upward dissent). The purpose of this study was to compare previously recognized upward dissent strategies in terms of perceived competence. Employees completed a survey instrument that asked them to assess the competence of different upward dissent strategies. Results indicate that employees perceived solution presentation to be the most competent upward dissent strategy, followed by direct-factual appeal, repetition, and circumvention. Threatening resignation was perceived as the least competent upward dissent strategy.