Editorial

This issue of the Journal contains three interesting articlesabout central aspects of public opinion research, as well asan equal number of research notes that reflect the range oftopics that interest all public opinion researchers. Toshio Takeshita takes a turn at reconceptualizing agenda-settingstudies, using a taxonomy     

Masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and cooperative ways of organizing: contradictions and tensions in the experience and enactment of democracy

This study explores how members of the Nebraska Cooperative Council and its constituent producer-owned cooperatives understand and enact democratic ideologies, drawing particular attention to how emergent contradictions and tensions are experienced and managed. The Council serves as a particularly rich context in which to explore traditionally feminine ways of organizing (i.e., cooperative enactment) in a historically male-dominated arena (i.e., agriculture). The dialectic of independence and solidarity became a revealing prism through which to make sense of how members enact cooperative life. This dialectic manifests itself in the discourse of cooperative life as members struggle to manage tensions between efficiency and participation, equality and equity, and the paradox of agency. Communication theorizing about gendered organizing and the history of American agrarianism is used to explore intersections between the social construction of masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and tensions embedded in the discourse of cooperative organizing.     

Humor in middle management: women negotiating the paradoxes of organizational life

Women in middle management continue to face multiple paradoxes arising from their structural and gendered locations that add to the uncertainty of negotiating organizational life. Investigating the lived experiences of women middle managers can illuminate the constraints and paradoxes endemic to organizing, for such experiences foreground tensions at the intersection of structure, identity, agency, and power. Specifically, this contextual investigation of conversational humor explores links between organizational status, gender, and paradox. In so doing, it demonstrates how women can use humor to negotiate managerial identities and to navigate organizational life. This study uncovers nuanced and important communication tactics of middle management women. This study also reveals the value of investigating the complex convergence of humor, gender, and organizational communication theory.     

Employee mistreatment and muted voices in the culturally diverse workplace

This study examines mistreatment through the perspectives of employees with different cultural backgrounds and positions in order to understand the ways in which some voices are muted and others are privileged. Mistreatment is interactional, distributive, procedural, or systemic abuse of employees taking place at both interpersonal and institutional levels on the basis of cultural diversity. Narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with employees of a large research and development organization revealed three types of muted narratives used to respond to mistreatment (muted-but-engaged, angrily disengaged, and resigned) as well as one type of privileged response. The narratives provided evidence of two processes by which voices became muted: repeated silencing over time and silencing through ambiguity of policies.     

Creating Access to Invisible Special Collections: Using Participatory Management to Reduce a Backlog

The University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries used participatory management to reduce a special collections backlog. Without an increase in budget or staffing, technical and public services departments designed a pilot project to redeploy internal human resources in a collaborative manner. The process of backlog management is discussed.     

Academic health sciences library Website navigation: an analysis of forty-one Websites and their navigation tools.

BACKGROUND: The analysis included forty-one academic health sciences library (HSL) Websites as captured in the first two weeks of January 2001. Home pages and persistent navigational tools (PNTs) were analyzed for layout, technology, and links, and other general site metrics were taken. METHODS: Websites were selected based on rank in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, with regional and resource libraries given preference on the basis that these libraries are recognized as leaders in their regions and would be the most reasonable source of standards for best practice. A three-page evaluation tool was developed based on previous similar studies. All forty-one sites were evaluated in four specific areas: library general information, Website aids and tools, library services, and electronic resources. Metrics taken for electronic resources included orientation of bibliographic databases alphabetically by title or by subject area and with links to specifically named databases. RESULTS: Based on the results, a formula for determining obligatory links was developed, listing items that should appear on all academic HSL Web home pages and PNTs. CONCLUSIONS: These obligatory links demonstrate a series of best practices that may be followed in the design and construction of academic HSL Websites.     

Organizational Power and the Institutional Review Board

In this essay, we respond to the narratives and essays in this issue by examining organizational power issues related to researchers and institutional research boards (IRBs). Rather than taking a singular perspective on power, we use multiple perspectives and suggest that the cumulative analyses provide the best understanding of IRBs and organizational power.