Communication and Social Identity Theory: Existing and Potential Connections in Organizational Identification Research

This essay builds on the growing, but underdeveloped, role of communication in work based on Social Identity Theory (SIT) as it relates to identity and identification in the organization. Five existing areas of connection between communication and SIT in organizational identification research are documented and assessed. These include salience of dual/multiple identifications, computer-mediated communication and virtual work related to identification, relationally focused work identities, organizational-level identities, and disidentification and related forms.     

The relationship between listening styles and conversational sensitivity

This study examines the relationship between the listening styles people tend to employ habitually and related levels of conversational sensitivity. Conversational sensitivity deals with the extent to which people enjoy listening in social interaction, can identify hidden meaning in conversations, and generally are highly aware of implicit messages that may be gained from conversations. One way in which conversational sensitivity might be apparent is in the listening styles which people rely on habitually. Conversationally sensitive receivers may favor one or two listening styles over others. The results indicate a positive relationship between the People listening style and conversational sensitivity, as well as weaker positive relationships between the Content and Action styles and sensitivity. Conversationally sensitive people are most likely to employ the People listening style. The results illustrate the conversational advantages of employing a People listening style.     

“We Do It,but They Don't”: Multiple Categorizations and Work Team Communication

The present study adopted an intergroup approach to information sharing and ratings of work team communication in a public hospital (N?=?142) undergoing large-scale restructuring. Consistent with predictions, ratings of communication followed a double ingroup serving bias: while team members reported sending about the same levels of information to double ingroup members (same work team/same occupational group) as they did to partial ingroup members (same work team/different occupational group), they reported receiving less information from partial ingroup members than from double ingroup members and rated the communication that they received from partial ingroup members as less effective. We discuss the implication of these results for the management of information sharing and organizational communication.     

Types of touch in cross-sex relationships between coworkers: perceptions of relational and emotional messages,inappropriateness, and sexual harassment

This study examined observers' perceptions of nine different types of touch (including a "no touch" control condition) used in cross-sex relationships between coworkers. Results showed that face touch sends particularly strong relational and emotional messages. A soft touch in the cheek area of the face was seen as signaling more affection, attraction, flirtation, and love than the other types of touch. Face touch was also rated as the most inappropriate and sexually harassing of the nine types of touch examined. Arm around the waist was also rated as showing relatively high levels of attraction and flirtation, as well as inappropriateness and harassment. No touch and handshaking conveyed the most formality. Observers rated women as more affectionate, trusting, happy, and composed than men across the touch conditions. Men, however, were judged to be more attracted to their cross-sex partners than were women. These and other findings are discussed to shed light on the multiple interpretations of touch within the context of relationships between cross-sex coworkers.     

Sent from My iPhone: The Medium and Message as Cues of Sender Professionalism in Mobile Telephony

The growing ubiquity of mobile telephony able to send e-mail raises new questions, and renews old issues, about the effect of the medium on a message. This article reports experimental results testing effects of user- and medium-generated cues on perceptions of message senders. Grounded in warranting theory, we assess the interaction of low- and high-warrant cues on perceptions of the sender's professionalism, hypothesizing senders of grammatically accurate messages are perceived as more credible. However, we also hypothesize an interaction between grammatical accuracy and the system-generated high-warrant cues from the mobile device used to send the message. Responses from 111 students assessing the credibility of an e-mail sender indicate that, although a message's user-generated content (grammatically accurate vs. erred) influences receiver's perceptions, negative attributions are attenuated by cues reflecting the transmission medium (i.e., a message's mobile signature block). Findings offer theoretical implications for warranting theory. Additionally, results suggest practitioners need to craft a message and indicate the transmission medium strategically to mitigate any impacts on attributions of professionalism to message receivers.     

Children's conceptions of the earth,sun and moon

Understanding of the Earth/Sun/Moon system represents a major cultural nexus in the history of ideas as well as being an important conceptual area in junior science teaching. The situation is one in which the objects in question can be observed but do not lend themselves to hands‐on experience in the case of the Sun and Moon or to obvious meaningful experience of the system in the case of the Earth.

Children from 9 to 12 years of age were questioned using a clinical interview technique and stimulus materials, about the shape, size and motion of the Earth, Sun and Moon. A number of alternative views appear to be held. The use of a similar procedure with a group of children would seem to offer a powerful teaching methodology in which both teacher and students gain from the dialectic learning situation that is developed by this technique ‐ apart from providing insights concerning children's understanding.     

Media criticism group speech

Objective: To integrate speaking practice with rhetorical theory Type of speech: Persuasive Point value: 100 points (i.e., 30 points based on peer evaluations, 30 points based on individual performance, 40 points based on the group presentation), which is 25% of course grade Requirements: (a) References: 7–10; (b) Length: 20–30 minutes; (c) Visual aid: Yes; (d) Outline: Yes; (e) Prerequisite reading: The appropriate chapter (e.g., generic, feminist, metaphoric, fantasy theme, pentadic criticism, neo-Aristotelian) in Foss (1996); (f) Additional requirements: Each group member should be given an equal amount of time to speak and an equal amount of work in preparing the final presentation This assignment gives students a chance to engage in the study of popular culture as public address, giving them insight into their own worlds and the ways popular culture may help shape/instruct that world. This assignment also allows students to engage in critical analysis, which not only means that students can learn about rhetorical theory, but they also get to engage in the types of analysis used by their instructor during the course.     

College Students' Sexual Health: Investigating the Role of Peer Communication

This study used the Theory of Planned Behavior as a guide to investigate college students' discussions with their peers about sexual health-related topics. Two hundred thirty-one undergraduates from a large university completed a questionnaire that assessed their comfort level discussing sexual health-related issues, the topics discussed, and the sex of the discussion partners. Some of the topics most frequently discussed included birth control, condoms, sexually transmitted diseases, and resources. Although a majority of the participants felt comfortable talking with both males and females, participants felt more comfortable discussing with their own gender than the opposite gender, and were in general more comfortable talking with females than males. Results showed that most students felt comfortable discussing sexual health-related topics with their peers, with females reporting a slightly higher comfort level than males.     

Negotiating the Model Minority Image: Performative Aspects of College-Educated Asian American Professional Men

This study is a chapter in a larger work, in which the authors explore how eight college-educated Asian American professional men negotiate the model minority image to present the performative constructions of their multiple identities within the racialized and gendered context of U.S. organizations where they work. The authors first discuss the participants' perceptions of how others view their social identities as part of a homogenized concept, regardless of their diverse Asian American subjectivities. Then, they examine how the participants engage in performative aspects of the model minority image to promote positive impressions on others and to empower themselves in U.S. organizations. Exploring the subjective standpoint of being the model minority in the context of mainstream organizations, the authors aim to further reconsider the concept of identity as relational in the context of intercultural interactions.