Organizational Communication Commons^™

Blue-Collar Discourses Of Workplace Dignity: Using Outgroup Comparisons To Construct Positive Identities, Kristen Lucas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

People generally possess a strong desire to construct positive, dignified work identities. However, this goal may be more challenging for some people, such as blue-collar workers, whose occupations may not offer qualities typically associated with workplace dignity. Interviews with 37 people from a blue-collar mining community reveal three central identity discourses about workplace dignity: All jobs are important and valuable; dignity is located in the quality of the job performed; and dignity emerges from the way people treat and are treated by others. Participants communicated these themes by backgrounding their own occupations and drawing comparisons between two outgroups, low-status, low-paid …

Socializing Messages In Blue-Collar Families: Communicative Pathways To Social Mobility And Reproduction, Kristen Lucas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explicitly links processes of anticipatory socialization to social mobility and reproduction. An examination of the socializing messages exchanged between blue-collar parents (n=41) and their children (n=25) demonstrate that family-based messages about work and career seldom occur in straightforward, unambiguous ways. Instead, messages take several paths (direct, indirect, ambient, and omission). Further, the content of messages communicated along these paths often is contradictory. That is, sons and daughters receive messages that both encourage and discourage social mobility. Ultimately, these individuals must negotiate the meanings of family-based anticipatory socialization communicated to them through a mix of messages.

Antecedents Of Servant Leadership: A Mixed Methods Study, Curtis D. Beck

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the antecedents of servant leadership. The sequential explanatory research design consisted of two distinct phases: quantitative followed by qualitative. The Phase One quantitative survey collected data from 499 leaders and 630 raters from community leadership programs in the United States using the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006). During Phase Two, selected leaders from phase one (N = 12) were interviewed to explain those results in more depth. The data were coded and analyzed for possible themes. Triangulation was used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data to validate …

Dialectic Tensions Experienced By Resettled Sudanese Refugees In Mediating Organizations, Sarah Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An increasing number of global migrants are refugees who have fled religious, racial, ethnic, or other political persecution. As these refugee populations have grown, governmental and nonprofit organizations have emerged to help mediate the resettlement experience. The current study explores the dialectical tensions Sudanese refugees face in communicating with the organizations designed to make their resettlement successful. Sudanese refugees participated in semistructured interviews about their experiences communicating with mediating organizations. Four dialectical tensions emerged from participants’ stories about their communication in and with mediating organizations: (a) dissemination and dialogue, (b) emancipation and control, (c) empowerment and oppression, and (d) integration …

Refugees As People: The Portrayal Of Refugees In American Human Interest Stories, Sarah Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study combines discourse analysis and narrative analysis (Yin 2007) to examine top US newspapers’ coverage of refugees in American human interest stories. I find that the refugees are presented (a) as prior victims; (b) as in search of the American Dream; and (c) as unable to achieve the American Dream. As human-interest features, the stories provide a largely positive portrayal of individual refugees and their families. However, the human interest stories also depict refugees as current victims of the American economic crisis; deeply frustrated by their inability to achieve the American Dream. Together these discourses represent a narrative of …

Creating And Responding To The Gen(D)Eralized Other: Women Miners’ Community-Constructed Identities, Kristen Lucas, Sarah J. Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An analysis of interviews with mining families reveals that gender identity construction is a collaborative process that draws upon broader community discourses. Male miners and non-mining women created a generalized other for women as "unfit to mine" (i.e., women are physically too weak to mine, are easy prey, and are ladies who do not belong in the mines). Female miners responded with gendered discourses that distanced themselves from and linked themselves to the generalized other.

Refugees In The News: A Representative Anecdote Of Identification/Division In Refugee Media Coverage, Sarah Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

A refugee worker conflict at the JBS Swift plant in Grand Island, Nebraska serves as a representative anecdote of the dominant media discourses about refugees in the United States. This study adopts a critical cultural perspective and applies Burke’s (1969) concepts of identification and division to the ways in which refugees are described in comparison to other immigrants in the media coverage of the conflict. These identifications and divisions generate ideologically powerful official roles for refugees in American society. This study finds that refugees, especially refugees who are also Muslim, are defined in the media coverage of the Grand Island …

Making Good Tenure Decisions, Samuel L. Becker, Kathleen M. Galvin, Marsha Houston, Gustav W. Friedrich, Judy C. Pearson, William J. Seiler, Judith S. Trent

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Whether to recommend the granting or denial of tenure to a faculty member is the most important decision a department makes. It not only has an effect on the professional life of a colleague, it has a major influence on the direction and long-term quality of the department. Therefore, it is essential that the decision be a good one. Although there is no way to absolutely ensure it, since some faculty members greatly improve with time and experience, while others fall apart, we believe the criteria and procedures we suggest can help to substantially increase the probability of a good …

Technical Manual Tm 5-248, Foreign Maps, July 1946

United States Army: Field Manuals

This manual is intended to help personnel using foreign maps. It contains guidelines for evaluating foreign maps. It contains summary information about the mapping systems of countries, primarily participants in World War II, along with samples of foreign maps. Several pages each are given to:

(a) British Military Maps
(b) French Military Maps
(c) German Military Maps
(d) Italian Military Maps
(e) Russian Military Maps
(f) Japanese Topographic Maps
(g) Chinese Military Maps

Mention is made of military maps from other countries in the Far East, Western Europe, Central Europe, Scandinavia, and the Balkans.

The appendices include various types for …

Army Service Forces, Organization Manual, M301

United States Army: Field Manuals

During World War II, the Army in the continental United States was organized into the Army Headquarters and three commands:

Army Ground Forces which was concerned with the organization and training of ground forces for use in the various theaters of war.

The Army Air Forces, which were concerned with the organization and training of air forces and with research, development, and production of aviation related equipment.

The Army Services Forces (ASF), which was concerned with administrative, personnel, supply, and fiscal activities as well as the Army Technical Forces:

The Office of the Quartermaster General
The Office of the Chief …

Fm 11-20. Signal Corps Field Manual: Organization And Operations In Corps, Army Theater Of Operations, And Ghq, Robert Bolin , Depositor

United States Army: Field Manuals

This manual is a plan for organizing Signal Corps services within the continental US and in theatres of operation. This manual was issued shortly before the US entered World War II. I imagine that the actual organization of Signal Corps services during the war was considerably different from what was shown in this manual. One humorous feature of this manual is the attention given to the “Pigeon Company.”