ICDC 2019: 2ND INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON DISCOURSE AND COMMUNICATION IN PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS – THE DARK SIDE OF COMMUNICATION
PROGRAM FOR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14TH
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09:30-10:30 Session 1: Keynote Address
Chair:
Peter Kastberg (Aalborg University, Denmark)
09:30
Dennis Mumby (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States)
(Re)Branding the Dark Side: Communicative Capitalism and Neoliberalism

ABSTRACT. For much of the history of capitalism, critical communication scholars have focused on its “dark side,” examining the ways in which it operates as a system of oppression that exploits human beings for their labor.  Critical scholarship has, in this sense, shone a light on capitalism’s darkest recesses and seedy underbelly, exploring how its structural contradictions can be brought to light, thus enabling possibilities for resistance. Critical communication scholarship is thus emancipatory at its core, looking for possibilities for empowerment. It embodies, to quote Antonio Gramsci, “the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will.” But what happens when the “dark side” of capitalism no longer hides in the shadows, but comes into the light?  What happens when, under neoliberal capitalism, branding can make light of the dark?  What happens when, for all intents and purposes, the line between dark and light has been blurred or erased? Whither critical communication scholarship under such circumstances?  In this talk I will explore how neoliberalism and “communicative capitalism” has shifted the terrain of struggle for critical scholarship, given the emergence of the brand as the key institutional mechanism for the creation of both economic value and human identity.

10:30-11:00Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 Session 2A
Chair:
Klarissa Lueg (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)
11:00
Tamar Lazar (University of Haifa, Israel)
Socially-mediated Organizational Scandal

ABSTRACT. Socially-mediated Organizational Scandal In this study, I apply the notion of media scandal – developed originally to examine the role of the mass media in mediating the normative transgressions of powerful individuals in the general public sphere (Bird, 2003) – to the organizational context. I examine how workers challenged institutional gatekeepers and instigated an organizational scandal on social media. Union activists published on YouTube a covertly recorded video, exposing a senior manager pressuring workers to withdraw their union memberships, and generated extensive interaction on their unionization Facebook page. The participants deliberated whether whistleblowing (Liebes & Blum-Kulka, 2004) against their employer on social media is manipulative and disgraceful ("dark") or emancipatory and courageous ("light"). Adopting Carlson's (2016) analytical framework of metajournalistic discourse, I introduce the notion of "metaorganizational discourse" to explore how organizational members interrogated the definitions, boundaries, and legitimacy of a socially-mediated organizational scandal. Initial findings based on Facebook interactions and interviews with union activists indicate that workers interpreted the scandal as part of their engagement in the unionization conflict. They identified different actors as victims or perpetrators and were concerned that overt accusations and slanders might harm the organization and its members. In retrospect, union activists acknowledged the scandal as an effective political tool but at the same time framed it as a necessary evil, that while serving the unionization effort severed relationships and friendships with coworkers.

Bird, S. E. (2003). Media scandal meets everyday life. In The Audience in Everyday Life: living in a media world (pp. 21–50). New York, NY: Routledge. Carlson, M. (2016). Metajournalistic discourse and the meanings of journalism: Definitional control, boundary work, and legitimation. Communication Theory, 26(4), 349–368. Liebes, T., & Blum-Kulka, S. (2004). It takes two to blow the whistle: Do journalists control the outbreak of scandal? American Behavioral Scientist, 47(9), 1153–1170.

11:30
Ivana Crestani (Charles Sturt University, Australia)
Dark side of communicating organisational change

ABSTRACT. Change communication is a topic that is under-researched and in practice, is mostly viewed as a tool or an instrument for management and practitioners to inform employees about change. There is also limited research on emotions that employees experience during change as most studies are from a management perspective. Consequently, the dominant focus is on managing employee resistance and the negative emotions triggered by stress, fear and the uncertainty of change. While this could be considered to be a dark side of organisational change, this qualitative case study adopts the Jungian Shadow, complemented with Deetz’ critical theory of communication in organisations to explore: What is the dark side of communicating organisational change? How can it be constructive and destructive? Interviews were conducted with 12 non-managerial employees in an Australian government department about their experiences of four major changes over a two year period. Through Saldana’s anthropological moiety analysis, tensions and power differences between the participants and those in authority were unearthed. An unconscious Communication Shadow was theorised for Deetz’s theory. Rather than viewing the dark side as bad, the Jungian perspective could help with constructing meaning when change is communicated, thereby enabling healthy emotional adaptation to change. Continuing to view it as bad, could lead to further destructive communication.

References Author’s (2018) published doctoral dissertation. Deetz, S. (1995). Transforming communication, transforming business: Building responsive and responsible workplaces. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Elving, W. J. (2005). The role of communication in organisational change. Corporate Communications, 10(2), 129-138. Jung, C. G. (1951/1968). Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self. (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) In H.Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 9ii, 2nd ed.). Princeton, NJ: Bollingen. Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). London: Sage.

12:00
Klarissa Lueg (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)
Martin Seeliger (Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany)
Window-dressing in non-profit organizations? A mixed methods case study of trade union organizational goal communication
PRESENTER: Klarissa Lueg

ABSTRACT. Research topic: The tokenistic communication of organizational goals can certainly be argued to represent a “dark side of communication”. The loose coupling of altruistic talk and capitalist action (Brunsson, 2002) in for-profit corporations has been shown to inform symbolic diversity policies, company “philosophy”, and sustainability issues, inter alia. By contrast, non-profit organizations, and their employment of window-dressing to achieve organizational legitimacy, have not been subject of extensive research. This original research paper focuses on trade unions as exemplary organizations strategically communicating with stakeholders depending on these stakeholders’ salience (Mitchell et al., 1997). The trustworthiness of unions seems unquestioned, since a non-capitalist, democratic purpose seems to grant sufficient legitimacy. We explore communicative mechanisms in trade unions potentially similar to those perceived as hypocritical in capitalist enter-prises. Based on observations of European trade unions we ask: Why do trade unions invest in communication of organizational goal that seem to be “lost causes”?

Approach: We focus on the union goal to coordinate workers’ wages on an all-European level. We employ thematic analysis to analyze a) semi-structured interviews with 25 union representatives, b) organizational information (brochures, press releases, policy papers), and c) minutes of partici-pant observation in union negotiation meetings.

Findings: Empirically, we find a strong and longitudinal communicative commitment to European wage coordination as an organizational goal. This ideal goes unfulfilled due to a lack of both market-ability and stakeholder salience. Theoretically, we show a decoupling of talk (goal communication) and action (actual policy implementation). We go beyond this framework by arguing that organiza-tions, especially those with a non-profit purpose, not only engage in ceremonial communication to seek organizational legitimacy, but do so in order to stay capable of acting in an “anticipated future” (Beckert, 2016). The present, however, is constructed as a present of practical constraints, legitimizing ceremonial agenda-building.

References Beckert, J. (2016), Imagined futures: fictional expectations and capitalist dynamics, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Brunsson, N. (2002), The organization of hypocrisy: talk, decisions and actions in organizations (2. ed.), Copenhagen Business School Press, Copenhagen. Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R. and Wood, D. J. (1997), "Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts", The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 853-886.

11:00-12:30 Session 2B
Chair:
Heidrun Knorr (Aalborg University, Denmark)
11:00
Heidrun Knorr (Aalborg University, Denmark)
The unwanted sides of trust: When trust leads to stress and exclusion at the workplace

ABSTRACT. Trust is almost always portrayed as essential for human life (Simmel 1990). Consequently, the abundance of trust literature highlights the positive sides of trust, leaving us with only scarce knowledge about the negative sides of trust. To date, trust researchers conceptualize the ‘downsides of trust’ predominantly as misjudged trust, distrust and trust violations (e.g., Kramer 2009). However, exceptions exist. For instance, Flores and Salomon’s (1998) empirical study points to the potentially manipulative effect of trust and in their conceptual paper, Skinner et al. (2014) address several negative sides of trust beyond distrust and misguided judgments. In order to shed further light on the ‘dark side of trust’, this article conceptualizes trust as a situational relational practice which is analyzed by drawing on Bourdieu’s (1977) concepts of field, capital, habitus and gift-giving. Based on such analysis of interviews, informal conversations and observations deriving from a longitudinal qualitative case study, I claim that trust can lead to unwanted obligations and organizational ‘realities’ which may result in stress and even exclusion of certain groups in the work place.

References: Bourdieu, P. (1977) ‘Outline of a Theory of Practice’, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Flores, F. and Solomon, R. C. (1998) ‘Creating Trust’, Business Ethics Quarterly 8(2): 205–32.

11:30
Bertrand Fauré (University Toulouse, France)
Aurélien Deville (University Toulouse, France)
The dark side of communication as communication without love : Evaluating the Level of Love (LoL) in organization?
PRESENTER: Bertrand Fauré

ABSTRACT. A simple way to apprehend the dark side of communicating activities (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2007) is to define this dark side as hateful communication (insults, threats, tears…) and by extension, as everything that leads to hate in communication (silence, denies, lies…). The interest of this definition is to revive a concept often avoided in organizations studies: the concept of love (Tasseli, 2018). Darkness and brightness are not symmetrical. Darkness is the absence of light and the level of darkness depends of the level of brightness, not the other way. In the same way, hate can be defined as the absence of love (indifference, ignorance, oblivion) and the dark side of communication can be found each time love is lowered (rejected, broken, lost).

This article proposes to define love as a force of reciprocal attraction that can transform into links of durable attachment. This definition enables to see communication as establishment of reciprocity and exchange of love’s unit, and organization as means to multiply links and to strengthen the force between them. This definition also enables to measure the Level of Love (LoL) in organizations and to study the causes and consequences of its variation across time and space. This perspective could not only help preventing conflicts and crisis but also empowering the contribution of the bright side to organizational performance.

References

Spitzberg, B. H., & Cupach, W. R. (2007). The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication (2nd ed. 2007). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum,. Tasseli, S. (2018). Love and Organization Studies: Moving beyond the Perspective of Avoidance. Organization Studies, 1‑16.

12:00
Ann Bager (Assistant Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark)
Identity dilemmas in organizational change and digitalization processes- A material-discursive study of organizational narrative-small-story dynamics

ABSTRACT. Digitalization is a major concern in today’s organizations. The affordances of a growing body of technological modes and platforms fundamentally affect our everyday (organizational) lives in terms of how we make relations to others (globally and locally) and how we make sense of our selves. Thereto, it provides multiple data points through which others can evaluate and monitor work performances. Hence digitalization is continuously changing our work conditions for good and bad as it fundamentally changes employees work conditions and the co-production of identities. Digitalization effects are pervasive but also subtle and cunning.

In this presentation analyses of identity formations in organizational digitalization/change processes is displayed from a storymaking perspective. The methodological frame is based on Bakhtinian dialogicality (1993) and combines storytelling organization theory (SOT, Boje 2014) and small story analysis (SSA, Bager 2015, Bamberg 2016). Thereby organizations are perceived as ensembles of complex storytelling practices spanning multiple spaces/participants embedding conflicting voices, ambiguity, power relations and struggles of meaning. The discourse analytical lens allows investigation of narrative-small-story dynamics involving how employees in local organizational settings create a sense of self and others through positioning activities against manifest organizational/societal narratives. The analysis strategy captures multimodal aspects together with the smallness and chaotic features of storymaking which allow a more nuanced look at identity work than often found in traditional narrative studies.

Empirical examples are drawn from fieldnotes, interviews and meetings. Among other things the analyses show how employees have a lot at stake identity wise as their small story efforts reveal identity dilemmas as integral part of change/digitalization processes.

The overall rationale is that from studying narrative-small-story dynamics we can strategically become smarter at designing organizational processes that challenge more hegemonic narratives/discourses in order to create more egalitarian organizational practices.

Bager, A. S. (2015). Organizational (auto)-ethnography: An interaction analysis of identity work through the study of other-orientation and storytelling practices in a leadership development forum. Tamara Special Issue on Organizational Ethnographies. Vol. 13, no 3 Bakhtin, M.M. (1993). Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Bamberg, M (2016). Language, interaction, and culture. In H. Miller (ED.), The Sage encyclopedia of theory in Psychology (pp. 497-470. London, Delhu, New York: Sage Publications.) Bamberg, M. og A. Georgakopoulou (2008). Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28 (3): 377-396. Boje, D. (2014). Storytelling organizational practices: Managing in the quantum age. Routledge

11:00-12:30 Session 2C
Chair:
Vibeke Thøis Madsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
11:00
Kate Sikerbol (Fielding Graduate University, Canada)
Muted Voices and Moral Distress: Exploring the Dark Side of Communication

ABSTRACT. Voice is a social process rather than an individual psychological trait or disposition. More than a property of the individual, voice emerges in the relational context between two social actors. Relationships emerge and are defined within an interactive context, are inherently communicative (Uhl-Bien, 2006), and create social worlds. This paper presents findings from an empirical study that used narrative inquiry to understand the experience of speaking up in academic workplaces and how the relational context between a manager and the higher up leader constrained voice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 mid-level and senior academic managers from 12 higher education institutions across Canada and the United States. Thematic analysis of narrative accounts (both inductive and deductive coding), combined with metaphor analysis, provided vivid descriptions of participant experiences. Descriptions of emotional distress were prominent and prevalent in accounts of negative experiences of speaking up, and figurative language used by participants emphasized the experience of emotional distress as a response to leader behavior that constrained voice. Further analysis revealed the ethical dilemmas, identity tensions, and threats to autonomy and integrity that characterize moral distress, an outcome of the experience of feeling constrained in speaking up. This paper adds a qualitative perspective to the extensive literature on employee voice by providing a rich and textured account of the experience of feeling constrained in speaking up. It highlights the role of emotions and the dynamics of the relational context in suppressing and muting voice, and provides insight into the power dynamics between social actors, making visible some of the invisible dimensions of organizational life that may constitute the “dark side” of communication. References Cornelissen, J. P., Durand, R., Fiss, P. C., Lammers, J. C. & Vaara, E. (2015). Putting communication front and center in institutional theory and analysis. Academy of Management Review, 40(1), 10-27. doi: 10.5465/amr.2014.0381 Labanyi, J. (2010). Doing things: Emotion, affect, and materiality. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 11(3/4), 223-233. doi: 10:1080/14636202.2010.538244 Milliken, F. J., & Morrison, E. W. (2003). Shades of silence: Emerging themes and future directions for research on silence in organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1564-1568. Thyssen, O. (2005). The invisibility of the organization. Ephemera, 5(3), 519-536. Uhl-Bien, M. (2006). Relational leadership theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. Leadership Quarterly, 17, 654-676.

11:30
Heidi Hansen (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)
The Dark Side of Charismatic Leadership

ABSTRACT. Research topic CSR as aspirational talk has been theorized as being conducive to spur a positive development, given that communication is conceptualized as constitutive of organization (Christensen, Morsing, & Thyssen, 2013), and organized hypocrisy is accepted as a strategy for organizations to handle conflicting demands (Brunsson, 2003). However, sometimes leaders are idealized excessively, which may lead to disregard of negative aspects and an exaggeration of the good qualities (Conger, 1990), and it may also lead to a “yes culture”, where organizational members fail to question ideas or point out flaws in the leader’s vision (ibid.). The present paper examines how a dark side of internal communication is produced, when a CEO uses impression management to silence his employees. The CEO is solely focused on the “big picture” of his vision but fails to listen to his employees to get an understanding of essential details that affect the viability of the vision. Empirical data and method Data has been collected through a longitudinal case study performed in a Danish multinational organization and includes observation, interviews and collection of documents and materiality. The CEO of the company has a vision of a new CSR-based corporate branding strategy. To spur the development of this new branding strategy, five middle managers are invited to participate in a steering group. The steering group meetings have been shadowed and video recorded, data has been transcribed and coded in NVivo following a strategy of inductive, open coding. Findings The CEO uses impression management to position himself as an expert. References Brunsson, N. (2003). Organized hypocrisy. In B. Czarniawska (Ed.), Northen Lights. Christensen, L. T., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2013). CSR as aspirational talk. Organization, 20(3), 372-393. Conger, J. A. (1990). The dark side of leadership. Organizational Dynamics, 19(2), 44-55.

12:00
Vibeke Thøis Madsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Joost Verhoeven (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Active employee communication roles in the future – Voluntary or part of the job?

ABSTRACT. Social media has made employees more visible both inside and outside the organization, and employees are increasingly perceived as key communicators in corporate communication (Heide and Simonsson, 2011; Snyder and Honig, 2016; Pekkala and Luoma-aho, 2017). Employees are asked to share knowledge and develop new ideas on internal social media (Vuori and Okkonen, 2012) and to act as brand ambassadors on external social media, since they can promote the brand in a trustworthy and reliable way (Snyder and Honig, 2016; Pekkala and Luoma-aho, 2017). The enactment of active communication roles springs out of organizational identification and organizational citizen behavior (Morrison, 1994). However, as the importance of employees as communicators increases, organizations encourage employees to enact these active communication roles. In this respect, employees are not only required to perform their job in a satisfactory manner, they also have to play a number of communication roles. These elevated role expectations complicate organizational communication for employees. They can experience stress since they have to act out so many different roles or they can experience role conflict or ambiguity. No comprehensive framework has so far defined or described the many communication roles employees are expected to play. An extensive literature review was conducted to identify and understand the many employee communication role in organizational, strategic and corporate communication. Based on the review a typology of eight employee communication roles was developed to clarify the roles and discuss the consequences for employees and organizational communication.

References Heide, M. and Simonsson, C. (2011). Putting Coworkers in the Limelight: new Challenges for Communication Professionals, Internal Journal of Strategic Communication, 5(4), 201–220. Morrison, E. W. (1994). Role definitions and organizational citizenship behavior: The importance of the employee's perspective. Academy of management journal, 37(6), 1543-1567. Pekkala, K., and Luoma-aho, V. (2017, March). Looking back, looking forward: From spokespersons to employee advocates. In 20TH INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE. Snyder, T., and Honig, D. (2016). Unleashing your silent majority: How employee advocacy and engagement build your brand and trust via digital strategies. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 4(3), 217-231. Vuori, V., and Okkonen, J. (2012). Knowledge sharing motivational factors of using an intra-organizational social media platform. Journal of knowledge management, 16(4), 592-603.

12:30-13:30Lunch
13:30-14:30 Session 3: Keynote Address
Chair:
Line Schmeltz (Aalborg University, Denmark)
13:30
Charlotte Simonsson (Lund University, Sweden)
Managerialism – a threat to communication professionalism?

ABSTRACT. Communication professionals have for long struggled to gain increased legitimacy and occupational status. Their ambition has been to advance from a tactical, operational function receiving and executing orders to a strategic and decisional function being recognized as a key player for organizational success. Both researchers and practitioners have argued that the recipe for achieving this is to gain access to the organization’s dominant coalition of leadership and become a management partner. However, the project to turn communication into a strategic management function has also been accompanied by an expectation to adjust to the dominant logic of managerialism. It is a logic privileging the interest of managers and it is based on idealized rationalism, instrumentality, focus on economic goals and a belief that all organizations and professions can be optimized by the application of generic management skills. While professionals in other occupational fields such as healthcare are presumed to resist managerial ideals and principles in order to keep their professional autonomy, it has been taken for granted that communication professionals need to do the opposite, i.e. adopt a managerial logic in order to reach increased professionalization. This is quite remarkable since managerialism ties in with a simplistic, transmission-oriented understanding of communication which should be a barrier for increased communication professionalism. Rather than adopting managerialism it seems that communicators need to develop and advance their own professional logic. In this presentation, I will challenge the one-sided belief in the managerial approach and explore the hidden consequences of managerialism for communications professionals’ legitimacy and work practices. I will also suggest an alternative communicative logic that has theoretical as well as practical implications.

14:30-15:00Coffee Break
15:00-17:00 Session 4A: PANEL: The Dark Side of Organizational Socialization

Today, “organizations are [seen as] key sites of human identity formation in modern society” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47), which makes the modern corporation “the primary institution for the development of our identities, surpassing the family, church, government, and education systems in this role” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47, cf. Deetz 1992). A feature of late modernity that has led Deetz to coin the phrase “corporate colonization” of the individual’s life world (Deetz, 1992). Living in an era where the corporate colonization of the employees’ life worlds is the norm and where the organization has become a key site of human identity formation, implies that the responsibilities of good corporate governance (e.g. Solomon, 2007) have expanded dramatically compared to previously. 

In that sense organizations have truly become sites of power and control (cf. Mumby, 2013, p. 47), i.e. institutions which affect individual’s identity and life in a direct and fundamental way – a state of affairs which in and of itself calls for applying a critical approach to organizational discourse from an ethical perspective. For if indeed companies seek to influence the identity formation of its employees – and they do – then the scope of any company’s social as well as ethical responsibilities towards its employees is widened significantly as a result. 
For any organization it is crucial that it attracts and recruits the right employees. Whereas attracting and recruiting what appears to be the right employee is necessary, the act of hiring is not in and of itself sufficient to ensure that the new employee masters the task s/he is hired to perform, neither that s/he is on par with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. In order to secure this extensive kind of alignment, the organization’s strategic HR function typically sets up and runs an elaborate organizational socialization program that is “identified as the primary process by which people adapt to new jobs and organizational goals” (Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, p. 730). Activities, in sum, that are designed to guide (and if need be: to correct) employee behavior. In lieu of this it can perhaps come as no surprise that in the extant literature, the very first phase in any organizational socialization program is prototypically referred to as “breaking in”, as “molding”, or indeed as “people processing”. 

In this panel, we will present, discuss and (critically) evaluate examples of real-life organizational socialization discourses that – in our book – pay homage to the credo that employee identity (among other phenomena) “have to be actively engendered or manufactured” (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002, p. 623). And we will do so in order to shed some light on the dark side of organizational socialization by raising awareness of what is taken-for-granted within the fields of management and strategic communication. More specifically, the panel will deal with:

  • Examples of Vigorous Socialization in Onboarding Practices (Marianne Grove Ditlevsen & Peter Kastberg)
  • Examples of Strategic Corporate Journalism as a Vehicle for Ongoing Socialization (Peter Kastberg & Marianne Grove Ditlevsen)
  • Examples of Socialization through Narratives of Organizational Success (Lise-Lotte Holmgreen)
  • Examples of employee advocate schemes (Vibeke Thøis Madsen)

References
Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (2002). Identity regulation as organizational control: producing the appropriate individual. Journal of Management Studies, 39(5), 619-644. 
Chao, G. T., O'Leary-Kelly, A. M., Wolf, S., Klein, H. J., & Gardner, P. D. (1994). Organizational Socialization: Its Content and Consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(5), 730-743. 
Deetz, S. A. (1992). Democracy in an age of corporate colonization: developments in communication and the politics of everyday life. New York: State University of New York Press.
Mumby, D. (2013). Organizational communication. A critical approach. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC: Sage.
Solomon, J. (2007). Corporate governance and accountability. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

Chair:
Peter Kastberg (Aalborg University, Denmark)
15:00
Peter Kastberg (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Marianne Grove Ditlevsen (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Examples of Strategic Corporate Journalism as a Vehicle for Ongoing Socialization
PRESENTER: Peter Kastberg

ABSTRACT. Today, “organizations are [seen as] key sites of human identity formation in modern society” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47), which makes the modern corporation “the primary institution for the development of our identities, surpassing the family, church, government, and education systems in this role” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47, cf. Deetz 1992). A feature of late modernity that has led Deetz to coin the phrase “corporate colonization” of the individual’s life world (Deetz, 1992). Living in an era where the corporate colonization of the employees’ life worlds is the norm and where the organization has become a key site of human identity formation, implies that the responsibilities of good corporate governance (e.g. Solomon, 2007) have expanded dramatically compared to previously.

In that sense organizations have truly become sites of power and control (cf. Mumby, 2013, p. 47), i.e. institutions which affect individual’s identity and life in a direct and fundamental way – a state of affairs which in and of itself calls for applying a critical approach to organizational discourse from an ethical perspective. For if indeed companies seek to influence the identity formation of its employees – and they do – then the scope of any company’s social as well as ethical responsibilities towards its employees is widened significantly as a result. For any organization it is crucial that it attracts and recruits the right employees. Whereas attracting and recruiting what appears to be the right employee is necessary, the act of hiring is not in and of itself sufficient to ensure that the new employee masters the task s/he is hired to perform, neither that s/he is on par with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. In order to secure this extensive kind of alignment, the organization’s strategic HR function typically sets up and runs an elaborate organizational socialization program that is “identified as the primary process by which people adapt to new jobs and organizational goals” (Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, p. 730). Activities, in sum, that are designed to guide (and if need be: to correct) employee behavior. In lieu of this it can perhaps come as no surprise that in the extant literature, the very first phase in any organizational socialization program is prototypically referred to as “breaking in”, as “molding”, or indeed as “people processing”.

In this panel, we will present, discuss and (critically) evaluate examples of real-life organizational socialization discourses that – in our book – pay homage to the credo that employee identity (among other phenomena) “have to be actively engendered or manufactured” (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002, p. 623). And we will do so in order to shed some light on the dark side of organizational socialization by raising awareness of what is taken-for-granted within the fields of management and strategic communication.

15:30
Marianne Grove Ditlevsen (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Peter Kastberg (Aalborg University, Faculty of the Humanities, Dept. of Cultural and Global Studies, Denmark)
Examples of Vigorous Socialization in Onboarding Practices

ABSTRACT. Today, “organizations are [seen as] key sites of human identity formation in modern society” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47), which makes the modern corporation “the primary institution for the development of our identities, surpassing the family, church, government, and education systems in this role” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47, cf. Deetz 1992). A feature of late modernity that has led Deetz to coin the phrase “corporate colonization” of the individual’s life world (Deetz, 1992). Living in an era where the corporate colonization of the employees’ life worlds is the norm and where the organization has become a key site of human identity formation, implies that the responsibilities of good corporate governance (e.g. Solomon, 2007) have expanded dramatically compared to previously.

In that sense organizations have truly become sites of power and control (cf. Mumby, 2013, p. 47), i.e. institutions which affect individual’s identity and life in a direct and fundamental way – a state of affairs which in and of itself calls for applying a critical approach to organizational discourse from an ethical perspective. For if indeed companies seek to influence the identity formation of its employees – and they do – then the scope of any company’s social as well as ethical responsibilities towards its employees is widened significantly as a result. For any organization it is crucial that it attracts and recruits the right employees. Whereas attracting and recruiting what appears to be the right employee is necessary, the act of hiring is not in and of itself sufficient to ensure that the new employee masters the task s/he is hired to perform, neither that s/he is on par with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. In order to secure this extensive kind of alignment, the organization’s strategic HR function typically sets up and runs an elaborate organizational socialization program that is “identified as the primary process by which people adapt to new jobs and organizational goals” (Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, p. 730). Activities, in sum, that are designed to guide (and if need be: to correct) employee behavior. In lieu of this it can perhaps come as no surprise that in the extant literature, the very first phase in any organizational socialization program is prototypically referred to as “breaking in”, as “molding”, or indeed as “people processing”.

In this panel, we will present, discuss and (critically) evaluate examples of real-life organizational socialization discourses that – in our book – pay homage to the credo that employee identity (among other phenomena) “have to be actively engendered or manufactured” (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002, p. 623). And we will do so in order to shed some light on the dark side of organizational socialization by raising awareness of what is taken-for-granted within the fields of management and strategic communication.

16:00
Vibeke Thøis Madsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Examples of employee advocate schemes

ABSTRACT. Panel abstract: Today, “organizations are [seen as] key sites of human identity formation in modern society” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47), which makes the modern corporation “the primary institution for the development of our identities, surpassing the family, church, government, and education systems in this role” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47, cf. Deetz 1992). A feature of late modernity that has led Deetz to coin the phrase “corporate colonization” of the individual’s life world (Deetz, 1992). Living in an era where the corporate colonization of the employees’ life worlds is the norm and where the organization has become a key site of human identity formation, implies that the responsibilities of good corporate governance (e.g. Solomon, 2007) have expanded dramatically compared to previously.

In that sense organizations have truly become sites of power and control (cf. Mumby, 2013, p. 47), i.e. institutions which affect individual’s identity and life in a direct and fundamental way – a state of affairs which in and of itself calls for applying a critical approach to organizational discourse from an ethical perspective. For if indeed companies seek to influence the identity formation of its employees – and they do – then the scope of any company’s social as well as ethical responsibilities towards its employees is widened significantly as a result. For any organization it is crucial that it attracts and recruits the right employees. Whereas attracting and recruiting what appears to be the right employee is necessary, the act of hiring is not in and of itself sufficient to ensure that the new employee masters the task s/he is hired to perform, neither that s/he is on par with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. In order to secure this extensive kind of alignment, the organization’s strategic HR function typically sets up and runs an elaborate organizational socialization program that is “identified as the primary process by which people adapt to new jobs and organizational goals” (Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, p. 730). Activities, in sum, that are designed to guide (and if need be: to correct) employee behavior. In lieu of this it can perhaps come as no surprise that in the extant literature, the very first phase in any organizational socialization program is prototypically referred to as “breaking in”, as “molding”, or indeed as “people processing”.

In this panel, we will present, discuss and (critically) evaluate examples of real-life organizational socialization discourses that – in our book – pay homage to the credo that employee identity (among other phenomena) “have to be actively engendered or manufactured” (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002, p. 623). And we will do so in order to shed some light on the dark side of organizational socialization by raising awareness of what is taken-for-granted within the fields of management and strategic communication.

16:30
Lise-Lotte Holmgreen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Examples of Socialization through Narratives of Organizational Success

ABSTRACT. Panel abstract: Today, “organizations are [seen as] key sites of human identity formation in modern society” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47), which makes the modern corporation “the primary institution for the development of our identities, surpassing the family, church, government, and education systems in this role” (Mumby, 2013, p. 47, cf. Deetz 1992). A feature of late modernity that has led Deetz to coin the phrase “corporate colonization” of the individual’s life world (Deetz, 1992). Living in an era where the corporate colonization of the employees’ life worlds is the norm and where the organization has become a key site of human identity formation, implies that the responsibilities of good corporate governance (e.g. Solomon, 2007) have expanded dramatically compared to previously.

In that sense organizations have truly become sites of power and control (cf. Mumby, 2013, p. 47), i.e. institutions which affect individual’s identity and life in a direct and fundamental way – a state of affairs which in and of itself calls for applying a critical approach to organizational discourse from an ethical perspective. For if indeed companies seek to influence the identity formation of its employees – and they do – then the scope of any company’s social as well as ethical responsibilities towards its employees is widened significantly as a result. For any organization it is crucial that it attracts and recruits the right employees. Whereas attracting and recruiting what appears to be the right employee is necessary, the act of hiring is not in and of itself sufficient to ensure that the new employee masters the task s/he is hired to perform, neither that s/he is on par with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. In order to secure this extensive kind of alignment, the organization’s strategic HR function typically sets up and runs an elaborate organizational socialization program that is “identified as the primary process by which people adapt to new jobs and organizational goals” (Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, p. 730). Activities, in sum, that are designed to guide (and if need be: to correct) employee behavior. In lieu of this it can perhaps come as no surprise that in the extant literature, the very first phase in any organizational socialization program is prototypically referred to as “breaking in”, as “molding”, or indeed as “people processing”.

In this panel, we will present, discuss and (critically) evaluate examples of real-life organizational socialization discourses that – in our book – pay homage to the credo that employee identity (among other phenomena) “have to be actively engendered or manufactured” (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002, p. 623). And we will do so in order to shed some light on the dark side of organizational socialization by raising awareness of what is taken-for-granted within the fields of management and strategic communication.

15:00-17:00 Session 4B
Chair:
Mona Agerholm Andersen (Aarhus University, Denmark)
15:00
Mona Agerholm Andersen (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Founding father – a bright light or dark shadow on employees’ perceptions of organizational spirit and organizational identity?

ABSTRACT. There has been a growing interest in the rhetorical use of history as a persuasive strategy for management to reach organizational goals (Suddaby, Foster and Trank, 2010). Research also illustrates how management use their power to shape what an organization choose to remember and forget from the past (Casey and Olivera, 2011), and how managers can gain support for change processes when communicating about a successful past (Brunninge, 2009). Previous studies have primarily focused on management’s strategic use of history to influence an external or internal audience. Yet, the role of the founding father as identity maker has only received little attention. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how employees perceive the role of the founding father as a symbolic figure for creating and maintaining organizational spirit and identity. Nineteen in-depth interviews with employees was conducted in the autumn of 2017 in the Danish family-owned company Danfoss. Narrative analysis was applied to study the employees’ story-work and remembrance in relation to their work-life experiences. The analysis shows how employees from different generations use official and existing stories of the founding father to tell their own, often contrasting, stories of experienced organizational reality. Long after his death, the founding father thus maintains his presence in the organization as casting either a bright light or a dark shadow on identity continuity and organizational change.

References Brunninge, O. (2009), “Using history in organizations: how managers make purposeful reference to history in strategy processes”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 8-26. Casey, A.J., & Olivera, F. (2011), “Reflections on organizational memory and forgetting”. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20:305-310. Suddaby, R., Foster, W.M. and Trank, C.Q. (2010), “Rhetorical history as a source of competitive advantage”, The Globalization of Strategy Research. Advances in Strategic Management, Vol. 27, pp. 147-173.

15:30
Thomas Borchmann (Aalborg University, Denmark)
The dark side of customer-employee communication: Employee representations of customer rage and verbal and behavioral harassment in self-reported tales

ABSTRACT. In this paper we aim to shed light on the dark sides of customer-employee communication. In particular we want to focus on the verbal and behavioral harassment experienced by employees. Research on work-place related aggression and verbal and behavioral harassment has typically focused on supervisors or co‐workers as the instigators; however, confrontations with aggressive customers are also a part of many peoples working life and experienced and reflected in its own ways. The data used originates from a study of an internet forum where employees from different customer-oriented job-functions share their experience on troublesome interactions with customers. Approximately 2000 tales and 3000 comments/responses has been analyzed using content analysis. The study focused on mapping and exploring 1) the character of the experienced incidents, 2) the employees’ perception and representation of possible causes to the incident, 3) the content and character of the solutions envisioned or acted out, 4) the emotions displayed, 5) received comments/responses; the support and/or correctives and supplements offered. In the present article we limit our focus to the findings relating to the character of the experienced incidents and the perception and representation of possible causes to the incident. The use of descriptive statistics is complemented with re-immersion in the qualitative data.

Literature:

Boyd, C. (2002) Customer Violence and Employee Health and Safety. Work, Employment and Society Grandey, A. et all (2004) The customer is not always right: customer aggression and emotion regulation of service employees. Journal of organizational Behaviour Groth, M. & Grandey, A (2012) From bad to worse: Negative exchange spirals in employee–customer service interactions. Organizational psychology Review McKoll-Kennedy, J. R et all (2009) Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors. Journal of Retailing Patterson G. P. et all (2009) Customer Rage: Triggers, Tipping Points, and Take-Outs. California Management review. November 2009

16:00
Dorien Van De Mieroop (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
The subtle dark side of ‘doing influence’

ABSTRACT. This presentation focuses on investigating leadership, defined here as the ‘doing of influence’. I adopt a critical discourse analytical perspective which integrates discursive, sequential and multimodal analytical layers into the micro-interactional analyses. Building on existing discursive leadership research (Fairhurst 2007), I demonstrate that leadership is not achieved only through talk, but by means of a complex interplay between verbal and non-verbal resources. Focusing on video-recordings of authentic meetings that are characterized by an authoritative leadership style, I investigate the interactional interplay between the superior, the meeting chair and the other participants by drawing on the distinction between proximal and distal deontics (Stevanovic 2015, Stevanovic and Peräkylä 2012). In particular, I demonstrate one the one hand that even authoritative leadership is an essentially collaborative accomplishment in which all participants, leaders and followers, play a role. I argue that this can only be uncovered fully when attention is paid to the variety of means – verbal as well as non-verbal – that interlocutors have at their disposal when attempting to influence each other. Yet, on the other hand, I also show how the ‘doing of influence’ may sometimes be achieved in very subtle non-verbal ways. These multimodal resources that participants draw upon when enacting leadership may often be harder to challenge, thus preventing participation from all interlocutors in the decision making processes that are crucial for organizational life. As such, I intend to show the ‘dark side’ of multimodal resources for doing leadership.

References Fairhurst, Gail T. 2007. Discursive Leadership. In Conversation with Leadership Psychology. London, England: Sage. Stevanovic, Melisa. 2015. "Displays of uncertainty and proximal deontic claims: The case of proposal sequences." Journal of Pragmatics 78: 84-97. Stevanovic, Melisa and Peräkylä, Anssi. 2012. "Deontic Authority in Interaction: The Right to Announce, Propose, and Decide." Research on Language and Social Interaction 45(3): 297-321.

15:00-17:00 Session 4C
Chair:
Nigel Hatton (University of California, Merced, United States)
15:00
Tymoteusz Chajdas (Department of Global Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, United States)
Between Promise and Prosperity: Special Advertising Sections as the Dark Side of Global Communications Industry

ABSTRACT. Traditionally, inter-state communication aimed to foster global connectivity as well as diplomatic imperatives, just as journalism was associated with the “Fourth Estate.” However, the neoliberal shift of media industries began to challenge the reputation and trustworthiness of journalism, which subsequently gave rise to the dark side of global communications industry. This essay evaluates the emergence of advertorials—advertisements presented as editorial copy—also known as special advertising sections. As I focus on specific kind of advertorials disseminated with quality press, and devoted to promoting developing countries, I ask: What is the purpose of these reports? To what extent are they marketing tools of country branding aspiring to bring prosperity to a region in question? Or are they really profit-driven predatory enterprises?

Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of news values, neo-imperialism, and Orientalism, this essay traces the incentives of the media power elites of western corporate world which produce special advertising sections. Exposing the underbelly of global communications industry, I review the extent to which certain transnational media conglomerates exploit developing countries seeking foreign investment. With a mixed method approach, this essay offers case studies of a special advertising agency, AFA Press, in Libya and Sudan. Through comparative and discourse analyses as well as a focus group, I examine the economic incentives and ethical issues involved in privatized country branding, a form of global communication industry that produces special advertising sections.

I suggest that the agencies involved employ deceitful information to serve not as trustworthy economic analyses that promote national prosperity and offer promise of foreign investment, but as corporate instruments of Western media elites exploiting fragile economies. I conclude by showing that special advertising sections are purposefully using the trustworthiness of journalism in capitalist-driven knowledge production to further corporate interests instead of contributing to making a change in emerging economies.

15:30
Nigel Hatton (University of California, Merced, United States)
Branding Tragedy: The Dilemma of Communicating Human Rights and Humanitarian Crises in a Global Market

ABSTRACT. Branding and communication strategy play a troubling and integral role in the functions and decision-making of transnational human rights and humanitarian organizations. The emphasis on presentation in brochures, websites, media, and promotional materials impacts funding and often overshadows the human suffering and global tragedies human rights and humanitarian organizations aim to prevent or assist. The choice of what tragic image to place on an annual report, for example, is less about the human beings or destruction depicted in the image and more about the reception of the image in the hearts, minds and emotions of Western stakeholders. Public affairs units at human rights and humanitarian organizations are forced to make communications decisions that resemble corporate world decision-making. The result is a double tragedy, or a redoubling of the initial moment of violence against human beings. This paper draws from international relations theory, narrative studies, and observational research with the communications division at Human Rights Watch in New York City and the public affairs branch of the president’s chamber at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In order for NGOs and transnational organizations such as the UNHCR, United Nations and the ICC to realize their intentions of preventing violence and pursuing justice, they must first address the dark secrets and challenges of globalized communication that require human beings and tragedies to objectified, charted, vetted, and packaged for Western consumption.

Amoore, Louise. The Politics of Possibility: Risk and Security Beyond Probability. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013. Kennedy, David. The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. Richey, Lisa Ann, and Stefano Ponte. Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 2011.   Robbins, Bruce. The Beneficiary. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.  

16:00
Chiara Valentini (Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE), Finland)
Dean Kruckeberg (UNC Charlotte, United States)
Between the Light and the Dark: Shimmering Shades of Grey in the History and Legacy of Public Relations
PRESENTER: Chiara Valentini

ABSTRACT. To a greater or lesser extent throughout its history, public relations has been aptly described as “the dark side of communication.” This reputational legacy has considerable validity, in great part because the concept historically has been vague and amorphous; public relations is often identified as a tool to promote neo-liberal economic policies; the practice’s evolutionary trajectory has been non-linear and globally disparate; and definitions remain confounded by competing and implicitly conflicting labels such as corporate communication, strategic communication, and integrated communications. Yet, public relations’ professional values, ethical standards, and professional parameters must not be contingent or predicated upon other communication or business fields (Kruckeberg,1998). Despite the existence of global ethical codes for public relations professionals, practices vary from countries to countries. Tsetsura and Valentini (2016) argued that professionals’ ethical behaviors are highly influenced by personal, professional, and environmental values and that these might not always be in balance; thus, not-so-ethical practices occur. However, is public relations perceived to be connaturally a “corporate gunslinger” or “Samurai warrior” (Kruckeberg, 2000)? And what are the fundamental grounds of public relations’ dark sides? This study will conduct a meta-analysis of scientific publications to explore academic discourses on what type of public relations are considered manipulative and distorted and why. Only English-language papers published in international peer-review journals will be analyzed. A search in Business Source Complete and Communication & Mass Media Research Databases that will include keywords “public relations” and “manipulation” and/or “deception” and/or “deceptive strategies” and/or “opacity” and/or “propaganda” and/or “maneuvering” and/or “fake” and/or “dark” will be used to identify relevant scientific publications. Only academic papers will be reviewed and subjected to meta-analysis techniques. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used. Quantitative elements will include the year of publication, journal type, disciplinary field, and type of publication (empirical, theoretical, or conceptual paper). To these, the study will discuss qualitative findings that explore the prevalent issues and perspectives dealing with public relations and deception that are articulated in the research. The qualitative analysis will use thematic analysis that will be informed by three main research goals. Specifically, this investigation will identify a) how public relations is defined; b) what public relations practices in the articulated definition of public relations are considered deceptive; and c) what implications for organizations, society, and the profession are suggested. The findings of this investigation not only will help to improve understanding of the identity and professional challenges of public relations as a distinct scientific field, but also can further prompt academic debate and careful (re)examination of the profession’s practices and scholarly assumptions to ensure its future advancement in the most productive manner.

References Kruckeberg, D. (1998). Future reconciliation of multicultural perspectives in public relations ethics. Public Relations Quarterly, 43(1), 45-48. Kruckeberg, D. (2000). Public relations: Toward a global professionalism. In J. A. Ledingham & S. D. Bruning (Eds.), Public relations as relationship management: A relational approach to the study and practice of public relations (pp. 145-157). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Tsetsura, K. & Valentini, C. (2016). The “Holy” triad in media ethics: A conceptual model for understanding global media ethics. Public relations Review, 42(4), 573-581.

16:30
Katie Sullivan (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, United States)
Jens Rennstam (Lund University, Sweden)
Jon Bertilsson (Lund University, Sweden)
Auditioning for Amazon: The dark side of place branding and corporate domination
PRESENTER: Katie Sullivan

ABSTRACT. This case study on the dark side of communication and place branding explores the Amazon corporation’s highly-publicized competitive search for a city to become their second headquarters (dubbed HQ2). In 2017 Amazon sent an open Request for Proposals (RFP) to cities in North America defining what constitutes an ‘ideal’ headquarters. In addition to offering capital and incentives, Amazon’s ideal city is a creative-thinking, business-friendly metropolitan hub that attracts technical talent. The RFP motivated 238 cities to submit proposals communicating their particular ‘business-friendly brand’. A year of intense media attention later, Amazon announced they would split their second U.S. headquarters between two cities in New York and Virginia. Our empirical materials include Amazon’s public H2Q documents, 15 cities’ publicly available proposals, and 10-15 city-generated promotional videos. We draw on critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1993), critical studies of branding (Mumby, 2016) and Powers’ (1997) Audit Society to explore how a branding orientation shifts the power relationships between cities and corporations. Expected findings include insights into how cities brand themselves for Amazon in text and imagery, how cities make themselves ‘auditable’ and with what effects, and how a brand orientation is generated in the interaction between corporate strategizing and city management. Inviting cities to brand themselves around the Amazon ideal encouraged conformity to the Amazon brand, rather than diversity. This case shows how city branding becomes a medium of corporate interests.

References

Fairclough, N. (1993). Critical discourse analysis and the marketization of public discourse: The universities. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 133-168.

Mumby, D. K. 2016. “Organizing Beyond Organization: Branding, Discourse, and Communicative Capitalism,” Organization, 23, 884–907.

Power, M. (1997). The audit society: Rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.