ABSTRACT. I believe United Nations’ (& EU) Agenda 2030 is being colonized and co-opted by corporatized environmentalism approaches such as Circular Economy and Triple Bottom Line that put economic growth ahead of ecology and equity As a result the 17 UN SDGs will not contain average climate temperatures overshooting the 1.5 degree C by 2030.  I will assert that this has everything to do with the look the other way ‘bystander’ ‘Business Storytelling’ and the Echo Chambers of social media, partially funded by Exxon and by the Koch Brothers. With the withdrawal of Trump from Paris Climate agreement, and installing anti climate science administrators to head US agencies, it is unlike the 1.5 degree climate change targets of UN and EU will be met by 2030. My approach is to develop storytelling science, in relation to critical discourse analysis and critical organization communication studies, a sort of critical storytelling discourse organizational communication paradigm shift. We (Boje & Rosile) calling ‘self-correcting storytelling science', a methodology of refuting the business storytelling claims, instead of just verification. As Edward Abbey (1968/1971: 145, boldness, mine) put it, “growth for the sake of growth is a cancerous madness”. What people don’t do is read the rest of the quote, which is about water, because as climate warms, the water warms, glaciers melt, sea levels rise, oceans acidify, temperatures rise some more, and the earth is not habitable by most species. I will argue that we need a research-as-craft storytelling approach that is about reflexives. It is what a new article released by Human Relations by Emma Bell and Hugh Willmott call, three dynamic kinds of reflexivity: (1) epistemic reflexivity, (2) constitutive reflexivity, and (3) disruptive reflexivity. GUESS WHICH ONE I AM TODAY?  

ABSTRACT. Employability looks like an unquestioned goal of higher education. It is expected from universities that they produce ‘work-ready’ graduates. In consequence, there is currently a great pressure on teaching programmes - particularly on the Humanities in Denmark - to prove their usefulness for the ‘real world’. The goal of the panel is to discuss the ambivalences of employability in the communication sector. We want to explore both its bright side and its dark side. The first academic contribution will introduce to critical perspectives on employability by referring to insights from organizational socialization research and discourses on the ‘marketization’ of higher education. It is argued that a ‘dark side’ of employability prevails, once the concept is understood as a kind of total alignment and identification with corporate expectations. Instead, new employees also ought to ‘make a difference’. Professional communicators in particular are expected to take the role of ‘boundary spanners’ with the outside world. Thus, they also need the capability to take a challenging – and at times disturbing – innovation function which collides with an understanding of employability as a predictor for a smooth integration ‘into’ the organization. The contributor will present results from a research project on the employability of communication graduates in North Jutland which indicate the tension between an instrumental ‘alignment’ approach and an understanding of university studies as an end in itself.

ABSTRACT. The second contributor is responsible for the marketing and market development of a company in North Jutland. The contributor will outline the expectations towards communication graduates from a corporate perspective. It is argued that small and medium-sized companies cannot but focus on the production of sales-related communication. Respective programmes at universities would need to account for that.

ABSTRACT. This contributor represents a union for communication and language professionals. The contributor will focus on the challenges that automation, artificial intelligence and big data will mean to communication professionals. But also ethics, value creation, measurement and evaluation of communication. Some job functions will disappear, others will be automated, and the relation man-machine will mean that communication professionals and educators must redefine their roles and understanding of employability. Communication strategies will increasingly be based on data analysis, and much of the work, written or spoken communication, will be executed by machines. Organizations today have lots of communication activities, but how come that measurement and evaluation of communication is not a key subject at universities, why is the communication of organizations seldomly measured and evaluated, how do you know that you are doing the right thing at all? The same questions apply to ethics. How does the communicator keep the organization on track? Why would one pay for communication services, do they create any added value? What are the basic competences of young communicators graduating from universities? Can the universities deliver? These are some of the questions what we as a member organization for practitioners are faced with on behalf of our members. And how do we prepare in the best way our members to answer these questions?

ABSTRACT. Topic: In the last decades, strategic organizational communication has taken over many universities (Diefenbach, 2009). German universities provide an interesting context to explore this issue: on the one hand, German universities, with their legal chairholder autonomy, have introduced managerialism at a comparatively slow pace. On the other hand, this (deceptive) autonomy makes way for compliance towards soft governance policies. One of these policies pertains to Corporate Design (CD): universities disseminate guidelines as to the use of symbolism and all forms of planned communication. We want to explore what motivates this development, and ask: What are the ration-ales behind introducing Corporate Design in the university sector? Approach: Our case study of 36 German universities takes a virtual ethnographic approach (Figaredo et al., 2007). We analyze the CD policies and their prefaces employing qualitative content analysis. Findings: We find that CD is being used for integrated communication with external stakeholders. CD, via its routinized use, is to align the „social identity“ of faculty with „corporate identity“ (Cornelissen et al., 2007). Organizational identity is clearly subordinated to the corporate identity. Faculty is subjected to this process and coerced into compliance. Consequently, they are being marginalized as stakeholders. References: Cornelissen, J., Haslam, S. A. and Balmer, J. M. (2007), "Social identity, organizational identity and corporate identity: Towards an integrated understanding of processes, patternings and products", British journal of management, Vol. 18 No., pp. S1-S16. Diefenbach, T. (2009), "New public management in public sector organizations: the dark sides of managerialistic 'enlightenment'", Public Administration, Vol. 87 No. 4, pp. 892. Figaredo, D. D., Beaulieu, A., Estalella, A., Gómez, E., Schnettler, B. and Read, R. (2007), "Virtual Ethnography", Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 8 No. 3.

ABSTRACT. Employee volunteering refers to activities where organizations support, encourage, or organize employees’ involvement with social and environmental causes and issues. It typically involves employees giving their time, knowledge and skills on company time (Grant 2012). Externally, volunteering programmes are said to support organizational claims related to responsibility, legitimacy and citizenship, while internally, they are seen as useful in fostering employee commitment, satisfaction and engagement. Thereby, volunteering is seen as an instrument in maintaining and enhancing employees’ connection to the organization (Grant 2012) and acts as part of more subtle or normative forms of control where management seeks to lead by strengthening the employees’ identification (Karmark 2005).

Employee identification is understood as the extent to which employees define themselves by way of the same attributes and values they assign to their place of work (Elsbach 1999), i.e. organizational identity becomes a reference point for the employee’s identity. Volunteer programmes can be argued to actively articulate certain organizational attributes and values for the employee to internalize. However, these attributes and values also entail particular understandings of the employee which, in turn raise questions such as: how voluntary is employee volunteering? What ideas of the employee are articulated in volunteer programmes? And what assumptions about employee identification are embedded in these ideas?

This study addresses how communication focused on employee volunteering articulates or narrates the role of the employee making available certain identity positions and forms of identification. Through a narrative analysis of organizational communication materials drawing on the notion of subject positioning (Davies and Harré 1990), the analysis sheds light on how organizations, through the strategic use of communication, position the employees in certain ways by providing particular identity repertoires for the employees to inhabit (or refuse). Consequently, it provides insights into the instrumental workings of communication in relation to employee identification.

References Davies, B. and Harré, R. (1990). “The discursive production of selves”. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20(1), 43-63.

Elsbach, K.D. (1999). “An expanded model of organizational identification”. Research in Organizational Behavior, 21, 163-200.

Grant, A.M. (2012). “Giving time, time after time: Work design and sustained employee participation in corporate volunteering”. Academy of Management Review, 37(4), 589-615.

Karmark, Esben (2005). ”Living the brand”. In M. Schultz, Y.M. Antorini and F.F. Csaba (eds.), Corporate branding: Towards the second wave of corporate branding. Purpose/People/Process. Frederiksberg: Copenhagen Business School Press, 103-124.

ABSTRACT. Rhetorical strategies have always played a major role in persuading people in war discourses and are a classical example for a dark side of communication. While both Marketing (as) rhetoric and political Marketing have become more important to researchers and professionals in the past years, discussing strategies of political leaders in the context of war can extend this field of research and add more valuable perspectives. Creating strong emotions and hence the narration of illustrative descriptions that demand military reaction may be called a core element of persuading the German people for entering war during the conflict in Kosovo in 1999. In this paper, a rhetorical discourse analysis is offered that discusses the main arguments by German politics to justify a war entry, containing descriptions of Serbias cruel actions in Kosovo. By identifying, structuring, and interpreting those arguments from a rhetorical point of view, typical persuasive strategies of persuasion in war times can be observed. In a world in which crises ask for military action even more today, the knowledge of those rhetorical strategies from a Marketing oriented point of view pays for both: political leaders as well as critical research and media.

ABSTRACT. Isabelle Sorente’s contemporary French play about three female office workers who bully a female colleague clearly illustrates how fictional stories represent psychological violence. Martin Goodman provides a short introduction to this play and then presents the second part of a live performance recording of his English language translation which premiered in London last June. The play demonstrates how constant derision and shaming. and other forms of dark communication, can lead to mental and physical trauma. It also shows how witnesses or bystanders can play a key role in bullying situations.

ABSTRACT. Research topic The contribute focuses on communication management in Public Sector organizations. It aims at investigating the impact of changes occurred in the last decades in the communication activities due to the spreading of new technologies and their highly participatory digital publics. In our study, if “lightness” is represented by explicit communicators’ tasks and responsibilities - in the meaning of “evident”, “clear”, but also recognized and legitimated - “darkness” deals with something “implicit”, “unspoken”, “tacit”, which is struggling to find formalization and real legitimacy.

Theoretical approach The study can be framed within the umbrella term of “public sector communication” (Canel & Luoma-aho 2018; Authors 2016; Dahlgren 2009), with a particular focus on the municipal level.

Methods Qualitative research methods and narrative approaches (Czarniawska 1997) were preferred to bring to the surface the hidden (dark) aspects of the communication work. In-depth interviews with a selected panel of communication manager and PR practiotionners in 36 italian municipalities and 2 focus groups were carried out.

Empirical data and expected findings Findings deal with several “shades” of darkness that seem characterized communication activities in local governments. The changes of recent decades have produced a reflection process within organizations able to 'put the light' on the importance of communication as: - a fundamental element to build institutional/organizational identities; - an opportunity to recognize the relevance of internal relations dealing (i.e. communicating) with citizens and other stakeholders. Professional biographies constitute the script of the organizations’ communicative competence which represents a key-resource to weave internal relationships and with citizens.

References Canel MJ., Luoma-Aho (2018), Public sector communication. Closing gaps between public sector organizations and citizens, Wiley, New Jersey Czarniawska B. (1997), A narrative approach to organization studies, Sage, Thousand Oaks Dahlgren P. (2009), Media and Political Engagement. Citizen, Communication and Democracy, Cambridge University Press, New York

ABSTRACT. Introduction The dark side of communication lies in its power to influence. Strategic communication is goal-oriented and deliberate practice which legitimate social actors use guided by law and ethics. However, other actors, like terrorist organizations, may follow very different logics of disrespect and distortion in their communication. This paper ponders on terrorism as dark side of communication, and what kind of challenges it sets for the bright side’s strategic communication. Terrorism and risk communication As terrorism aims at spreading fear, the tricky question of terrorism related risk communication is what, how much, and how to tell to the public. Media coverage of terrorist attacks facilitates a communication process between the terrorists and the public, but also the counter-terrorism efforts are part of the process. Warning publicly about possible terrorist attack creates fear. Governments which warn regularly, but without anything happening, may be accused of alarmism (Freedmann, 2005). Method This theoretical paper focuses on terrorism related risk communication trying to make sense of different counter terrorism strategies, their view on terrorism, and the role that communication plays in them. Findings If we understand terrorism as socially constructed in public discourse (Tuman 2010), the actual acts of terror as such do not achieve their goal without the attention given to those acts by public communication. This creates paradox in the battle against terrorism: how to communicate about it without becoming part of the dark side of communication. Furthermore, how to fight against terrorism, with communication and other means, without violating the democratic principles or basic human rights?

References Freedman, L. (2005). The politics of warning: Terrorism and risk communication. Intelligence and National Security, 20 (3), 379–418. Tuman, J. S. (2010). Communicating Terror. The Rhetorical Dimensions of Terrorism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

ABSTRACT. The spread of social protection programmes, particularly cash transfer programmes, in developing countries (Barrientos & Hulme, 2009) led to the application of several mechanism for constituting the subjects of these programmes. One of such mechanisms is the proxy means test (Kidd, 2017) questionnaire of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme of Ghana. The LEAP programme is a public social protection programme that provides cash grants to extremely poor households. The programme authorities design the questionnaire in English language, and administer it electronically to poor households’ heads cum caregivers who do not understand, speak or write in the English language. The structure of the questionnaire captures the biodata of the heads and the livelihood characteristics of the households. In this paper, the central question is how the heads cum caregivers of these households understand the application of the proxy means test (PMT) questionnaire.

Methodologically, the paper use data from ethnographic observation (Krzyżanowski, 2011) at the LEAP programme secretariat and the local communities in which the caregivers live. I did six in-depth interviews at the programme secretariat, retrieved a videotape from the programme Facebook page in which an ‘enumerator’ interacts with a household head during the questionnaire administration. I then retrieved the proxy means test questionnaire from the programme secretariat. In addition, I conducted four focus group discussion with caregivers and community focal persons in the local communities. This paper is a Foucault-base analysis that draws on discourse critical discourse studies (Fairclough, 2015) and conversation analysis (Schegloff, 2007) features, and analyses the accounts of the programme officers and caregivers.

ABSTRACT. According to the unanimous international community, it is due time for a democracy-enhancing reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The reform debate is, however, imbued with discursive struggle (Fairclough, 1989). Whereas the majority discourse, invoked by The Group of Four G4, emphasises that a democratic reform must rely on increased permanent representation, the prominent minority discourse, invoked by Uniting for Consensus (UfC), emphasises that a democratic reform needs to reconsider the veto prerogative granted to permanent members.

We understand this utilisation of the notion of ‘democracy’ and the non-neutrality of the competing reform discourses as an example of ‘dark side communication’, and we see Foucault’s work on governmentality (Foucault, 2007) as offering a lens through which to further conceptualise this insight. As Rose (Rose, 1999) points out, governing through governmental rationalities demands ongoing rationalisation in which governors ascribe to a certain form of truth (p. 27), and, to a large extent, this rationalisation work unfolds in discourse. Furthermore, Foucault’s work implies that governmentality, or conduct of conduct, is seen as co-constituted through resistance; through counter-conduct aimed to “struggle against the processes implemented for conducting others” (Foucault, 2007, p. 201).

We focus on the minority discourse, namely the UfC-discourse, approaching it as a form of counter-conduct that simultaneously co-constitutes and challenges the conduct of conduct invoked by the majority discourse. We draw on various data such as meeting minutes, public statements, press releases and tweets. In a recent volume (McIlvenny, Zhukova Klausen, & Lindegaard, 2016), it is explored how discourse analysis can be brought into productive interplay with studies of governmentality, and taking inspiration from this, we explore the strategic ambiguities and evasive strategies (Friedman, 2017) through which UfC’s reform proposal and a particular notion of ‘democracy’ are co-constituted as counter-conduct challenging the dominating governmentality.

Literature

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. Language in Social Life Series, 259. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(90)90053-G

Foucault, M. (2007). Security, territory, population : lectures at the College De France 1977-78. (M. Foucault, Ed.). Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan.

Friedman, E. (2017). Evasion strategies in international documents: when ‘constructive ambiguity’ leads to oppositional interpretation. Critical Discourse Studies, 14(4), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2017.1292932

McIlvenny, P., Zhukova Klausen, J., & Lindegaard, L. B. (2016). Studies of discourse and governmentality : new perspectives and methods Laura Bang Lindegaard, Aalborg University. (P. McIlvenny, Ed.) (Elektronic). Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Rose, N. s. (1999). Powers of freedom : reframing political thought. (N. s Rose, Ed.), Powers of Freedom. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.

ABSTRACT. For a critical scholar, education is an inherent paradox: on the one hand it aims to awaken students to how power is instantiated and perpetuated through discourse practices; on the other hand, it has to prepare them towards their role in the community by conforming to the same practices. In this talk I argue for the crucial importance of getting this balancing act right: in the era of fake news and unprecedented public manipulation, management fads hidden under hard-to-decode management jargon, and the era ruled by visionary, religious-like leadership gurus students should be made aware of the the dual function of language as a means of doing work and as a social action that constitutes social reality. Drawing on examples from my research, I demonstrate the utility of being able to notice, identify, and reflect on linguistic and discourse practices for such awareness-raising. To be able to teach such knowledge however, scientific approaches to language need to be taken more seriously, in particular in disciplines that claim to be 'linguistically turned’. I conclude my talk by calling for increased interdisciplinary efforts, in the hope that a greater attention to language awareness will lead to a future generation of aware, critical and ethical text consumers and producers.

ABSTRACT. Research topic: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, initiatives and activities are by now an integrated part of doing business, and today, the majority of companies are thus engaged in activities designed to minimize environmental impact, to secure employee benefits, and safe and fair working conditions throughout the supply chain, etc. Also, health promotion has entered the workplace through initiatives such as fruit schemes, access to a workplace gym, etc. Recently, however, a new category of health-related CSR initiative has appeared, namely worksite health promotion that is not confined to the work site as such, but which crosses over into the private life of the employees. Examples include workplace smoking cessation programs, the use of sleep apps and health checks focusing on calculating BMI, measuring blood pressure, cholesterol, body age, etc. The aim of this paper is to identify and map the extent and nature of such initiatives among the Danish frontrunner companies of CSR with a view to discussing the potential dark side of communicating such “employee benefits”.

Method & empirical data: The top 20 companies on the Danish Sustainability Brand Index are contacted in order to identify which health-related initiatives they offer their employees. Combined with data from corporate websites and sustainability reports, a mapping and categorization of corporate health-promotion initiatives is carried out.

Expected findings: The study will provide a first mapping of health-related initiatives offered to Danish employees in terms of extent and category. Furthermore, based on this mapping, we will discuss the implications of work-site health promotion initiatives that cross over into the employees’ private lives.

ABSTRACT. The value of narrative is often attributed to its ability to help human beings find meaning in the myriad aspects of life through such operations as the demarcation of beginnings and endings, the creation of order and coherence in temporal sequences and the attribution of causality to disparate events (Phelan 2008). In this paper, I consider the role of these fundamental narrative operations in what has been called “the tyranny of story” (Harris 2018), the imposition of coherence in order to tame or exclude undesirable elements. My focus is on how we can (re)turn to narratology to find explanatory concepts to analyze how master narratives are sanctioned, as well as resisted. I consider the narratological concepts of plot and chronology and the role they play in culturally preferred narratives of illness, such as the “narrative of triumph” (Conway 2007), in order to discuss how first-person narratives of illness may be constrained by — or may challenge — prescriptive ideals about narrative wholeness and finding “meaning” in illness (Woods 2011). Using examples from the illness narrative Transfer Window. Tales of the Mistakes of the Well (Gerhardt 2017), I situate these concepts in the context of recent calls within the medical humanities for alternative types of narrative that do justice to the complexity, unpredictablity, and unmanagability that characterize serious illness, injury or loss.

References

Conway, K. (2007). Beyond words. Illness and the limits of expression. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Gerhardt, M. (2017). Transfervindue. [Transfer Window.] Copenhagen: Politikens Forlag.

Harris, J. (2018). The Tyranny of Story. Podcast for the BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bfxw6j View date 15 Jan. 2019.

Phelan, J. (2008). “Narratives in contest. Or, another twist in the narrative turn.” Journal of Modern Language Association of America, 166-175.

Woods, A. (2011). The limits of narrative: provocations for the medical humanities. Medical Humanities. 37, 73-78.

ABSTRACT. Cancer has been the number one killer in Japan since 1981 and is still at issue not only for its mortality but also for its social stigma. In this presentation, I will present a discursive psychological analysis of how professional medical contexts are transported into contexts outside hospital, a community charity event, and how cancer “survivors" are “re-diagnosed" as “patients”, which could contribute to perpetuation of its social stigma. Research on communication and cancer has been focused on interactions in medical institutions, even though those who are suffering from chronic diseases such as cancer tend to spend more time outside hospitals. Medical professionals have few opportunities to interact with their patients outside their professional contexts, and, therefore, some might have very limited views on patients, which could be directed by their professional roles. I will present a case study of discursive practices to position cancer survivors as “self-distructive”, “short-temper”, “irrational”, and, as a result, “patients” rather than “survivors” in a non-medical context by a Japanese nurse. The primary concern of the study is to reveal how such discursive practices become possible by analysing discursive resources used and relevant contexts invoked by them. It is discussed what the results mean for the role of healthcare professional knowledge beyond medical practice.

Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. London: Sage. Horton-Salway, M. (2001). Narrative identities and the management of personal accountability in talk about ME: A discursive psychology approach to illness narrative. Journal of Health Psychology, 6(2), 247-259. Kleinman, A. (1988). The illness narratives: suffering, healing, and the human condition. Basic books. Korobov, N. (2010). A discursive psychological approach to positioning. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 7(3), 263-277.

ABSTRACT. Public policymakers and health professionals use nudging as a tool to steer the public’s choices and behaviors regarding health and healthy lifestyles. To nudge is to “alter[..] people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives” (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008, p. 6). Concerns have been raised about ethical problems associated with nudging (Gorin, 2017). A common critique of nudging is that nudges are disrespectful of citizens and manipulate them (Bonell et al., 2011), which we interpret to be a potential dark side of nudging. Manipulation arises when nudging is misleading or exploits a weakness among those who are nudged, resulting in changes in individuals’ goals or preferences (Rudinow, 1978).

In this paper, we investigate how nudging may give rise to ethical concerns by exploring how nudging is used to promote participation in the Danish National Screening Programme for Colon Cancer. The Danish Health Authority has produced a pamphlet that includes information about the disease and screening programme. The pamphlet itself can be considered a nudge, because it aims to change the behavior of people between 50 and 74 years. A document analysis of the pamphlet was conducted using a template analysis that was based on the following predetermined theoretically inspired categories: paternalism, undermined autonomy and manipulation. Analysis showed that the Danish Health Authority used its strong authority in the field of health care; the ways in which risk information was framed could problematise autonomous decision-making; and the pamphlet highlighted the benefits of the programme and communicated only to a minor extent about its harmful effects. Based on Blumenthal-Barby and Burroughs’ (2012) definition of manipulation occurring “when one influences another by bypassing their capacity for reason” (p.5), several aspects of nudging in the screening programme can be characterised as manipulative.

ABSTRACT. RESEARCH TOPIC: As information-based campaigns are largely ineffective in producing healthier behaviours amongst the general public (Kelly & Barker, 2016), health-promoting interventions increasingly draw on techniques such as nudging (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Nudging typically involves setting up environments so that individuals’ behaviours are influenced in predictable ways; it relies primarily on System 1 cognition, which is quick and non-reflective, as opposed to System 2, which is slow and deliberative (Kahneman, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to gain critical purchase on nudges’ bypassing of critical reflection using Foucault’s (1994[1974]) “toolbox”. METHOD: I use Foucauldian theories, derived from his archaeological and genealogical approaches, to interrogate nudging techniques. Nudging in public health has, for example, been investigated with respect to “biopolitics” (Peeters & Schuilenburg, 2017), but exploring instances of public health nudges using a broader palette of Foucauldian theories can shed further light on what nudges are and do. EMPIRICAL DATA: Examples of nudges drawn from empirical studies of public health nudging interventions are critically investigated. THEORETICAL APPROACH: Foucauldian theories are supplemented by Habermas’s normative conceptualisation of deliberative democracy. FINDINGS: From a Foucauldian perspective, nudges shape our practices and potentially our subjectivities. They are typically non-discursive as they strategically lack epistemic content and can thus be difficult to resist, but they represent a politicisation of public space, a governing rationality and a mode of discipline. Their lack of transparency (their ‘dark side’ quality) stands in opposition to Habermas’s framework of deliberative democracy. Given nudges’ deliberate epistemic hollowness, I argue for the value of a critical public discourse on nudging. In that way, intended nudgees may be better positioned to spot nudges, and the implications of policymakers using this technique of governance can be scrutinised.

ABSTRACT. For all their visceral intensity, fictional stories about workplace suffering sometimes fail to communicate the sheer scale of symbolic violence across an organisation because such stories are frequently focused on an individual’s experience of bullying and associated suffering as a way of engaging the reader or spectator with their narrative. The magnitude of ‘symbolic violence’ as defined in theoretical concepts developed by Pierre Bourdieu can be seen in the totemic case of France Télécom where there have been more than 30 confirmed work-related suicides, as well as other examples of large scale organisational suffering, including at vehicle maker, Renault. Most fictional stories about institutional organisational bullying communicate this misery through third parties as main protagonists who witness enormous suffering as a dominant, recurring motif and are rendered powerless to address it because of its sheer scale. In the final analysis, they too are potential targets. This is true of the film, Corporate, presented here where an HR manager gradually and reluctantly recognises her complicity in perpetrating symbolic violence she once considered routine and acceptable behaviour. I also examine the stage play, Au pays des, a deeply black comedy in which relations between the organisation and its workforce are pushed to its limits by the ‘violence perverse’ of brutalising executives whose detailed bullying techniques have become institutionalised. This story focuses on one manager, François, who ends up shooting himself.

ABSTRACT. Research topic Acknowledging storytelling for being constitutive of organizational reality, this paper takes a dialectical dialogical storytelling perspective on the dark side of strategy change communication.

Methods and Empirical data The paper evolves from an empirical vignette telling the story of a strategic level organizational change in the digital area in a large local, relation-based Bank in Denmark. Prospectively making sense of an unclear future, the management is convinced about the need for being both local and relationship-oriented and the need for being digital applying big data. The organizational change is in the midst of antenarrative sensemaking. The managerial both-and perspective is met by an either-or perspective raised by dominant voices in the organization; a sensemaking struggle in danger of killing the strategy.

Theoretical approach The antenarrative storytelling perspective of the paper draws on the conceptual contributions from Boje approaching storytelling through the antenarrative interplay between at the one hand dialectical narrative-counternarrative and at the other hand dialogical living stories (Boje, 2014; Boje et al., 2016). In his development of the storytelling framework, Boje applies both Bakhtinian dialogue e.g. on change communication (Jabri & Boje, 2008) and Hegelian dialectics (e.g. Hillon & Boje, 2017).

In this paper, the struggle of antenarrative sensemaking is viewed from a dialectical dialogical storytelling perspective. Mumby (2005) suggests to use dialectics in order to view resistance and control as mutually constitutive in producing daily organizational life. A Bakhtinian approach would, however, be critical towards dialectics (Bakhtin, 1986). This paper argues that there is a need for both dialectics and dialogues in order to understand struggles of antenarrative sensemaking and furthermore that dialectical dialogical storytelling offers a conceptual prism reflecting the dark side and light side of storytelling in change communication.

Findings Firstly, dialectics enlighten the dark side of narrative-counternarrative struggles: their risk of being fixed in closed retrospective discursive positions leading to a simplistic either-or perspective. Secondly, by reducing change communication into two contradictory positions, dialectics tend to reduce the liveliness, richness, and complexities of polyphonic living stories. Thirdly, there is a need for multi-voiced dialogues decentering in the antenarrative middle of making sense of the organizational future.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. (B. W. Shaffer, V. W. McGee, C. Emerson, & M. Holquist, Eds.), SubStance (Third Pape, Vol. 17). United States of America: University of Texas Press, Austin. Boje, D. M. (2014). Storytelling Organizational Practices. Managing in the Quantum Age. New York: Routledge. Boje, et al. (2016). Counternarrative and Antenarrative Inquiry in Two Cross-Cultural Contexts. European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competences and Management, 4(1), 55–84. Hillon, Yue C.; Boje, D. M. (2017). The dialectical development of “storytelling” learning organizations: A case study of a public research university. The Learning Organization, 24(4), 226–235. Jabri, M., Adrian, A. D., & Boje, D. M. (2008). Reconsidering the role of conversations in change communication: A contribution based on Bakhtin. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 21(6), 667–685. Mumby, D. K. (2005). Theorizing Resistance in Organization Studies. A Dialectical Approach. Management COmmunication Quarterly, 19(1), 19–44.

ABSTRACT. The advent of social media has fundamentally changed the media landscape, influencing the ways in which information is communicated and misinformation is spread. Social network theory suggests that people may access these online personal communication networks in order to access relevant information and support from others. The world of online influencers, or lay person opinion leaders who have the power to influence the perceptions of others, present an emerging and powerful online network where misinformation may quickly spread. The enduring movement that the anti-vaccination community has engaged in online as well as the more recent issues that have plagued elections in the U.S. exemplify this. These online influencers are trusted by their readers, often share information about important issues –and this combination of platform and influence means that they can motivate their readers to consider a product, an idea, or behavior. However, if we do not share evidence-based information with these influencers, this influence may also mean that they write about topics or issues in ways that may be problematic for their readers and have implications for real life. As Risk and Petersen (2002) posit, “A plethora of inaccurate and even potentially life-threatening content readily accessible to anyone with a modem and an Internet browser supports the validity of that concern.” (p.2713) This presentation will define online influencers, describe the literature that demonstrates how they function as opinion leaders, and discuss their role in spreading faulty or inaccurate information. Case study examples and research on topics such as vaccination, infectious diseases, e.g. Zika, and environmental risk factors for breast cancer will be discussed. Strategies for preventing the spread of and countering misinformation will also be presented.

ABSTRACT. When organisations hire, they are often branding themselves as employers (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004) and relying on a positive framing to present available jobs, in order to attract candidates. However, recruitment communication can present organisations with a challenge, as they need to live up to their promises for the candidates who are ultimately selected and accept the job offer. The result of overpromising and underdelivering will often be that the newcomers perceive a breach of the initial psychological contract. In that way, recruitment communication presents a dilemma for organisations. This is especially pertinent for new and unknown companies, where concerns about the company’s legitimacy as an employer may cause some potential candidates not to apply (Williamson, Cable & Aldrich, 2002). On the one hand, the startups need and want to attract the best, and on the other hand they need to be wary of the impression they are creating of the job and the organisation as a place of work, as they would also like the candidates to stay once they are hired. In this paper, I draw on interviews with managers and newcomers in Danish startups to give empirical examples of this challenge and its results, using the literature on psychological contracts (e.g. Rousseau, 1995) as an explanatory framework. Based on this, I discuss what organisations might do to accomplish this balancing feat.

Backhaus, K., & Tikoo, S. (2004). Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career Development International, 9(4/5), 501-517.

Rousseau, D. M. (1995). Psychological contracts in organizations: Understanding written and unwritten agreements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Williamson, I. O., Cable, D. M., & Aldrich, H. E. (2002). Smaller but not necessarily weaker: How small businesses can overcome barriers to recruitment. In J. A. Katz & T. M. Welbourne (Eds.), Managing people in entrepreneurial organizations (pp. 83-106). Amsterdam: JAI Press.

ABSTRACT. The use of internal social media (ISM) for internal communication is increasing in organizations and new forms of online communication and interactions among organizational members are emerging (Leonardi & Vaast, 2017). Employee ideation on ISM is an example of such new ways where in principle all employees may be invited to communicate about ideas online. Consequently, employees are considered valuable internal innovation sources, and ISM is assumed to constitute the collaborative online platform that may foster employee ideation (Beretta et al., 2018; Linke & Zerfass, 2011). Despite these bright opportunities for ideas to emerge and to be further developed through employee communication on ISM, a dark side may exist, since employee participation is often low and employee ideation on ISM often underperforms or fails (Beretta et al., 2018). Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore what may constitute the dark side of employee participation in ideation on ISM. The paper is based on a qualitative single case study of one knowledge-intensive Danish organization. Semi-structured interviews with fourteen employees in autumn/winter 2017/2018 as well as online observations of employees’ actual communication about ideas on ISM from 2016 to 2018 constitute the empirical material. The paper found that communication among employees about ideas on ISM is actually going on in the organization. However, it was found that employees generate ideas in a context of uncertainties and tensions, and that they applied seven different dialogue strategies in order to protect not only their own but also their colleagues’ self-presentation.

ABSTRACT. What if what comes across as dark, psychopathic or ill-intended was actually only a misunderstanding or slip of the tongue? What if what seems like employee misconduct stemmed from situational misinterpretations or work-related strain, rather than pathology? And what if the harm could be undone in a way that remedies and restores, rather than punishes and sanctions, scarring individuals for life?

Admittedly, bullying and harassment constitute severe adversaries inducing trauma in their targets. As their occurrences began to proliferate alarmingly in the postmodern era, they started attracting academic and practitioner interest due to their implications for productivity. More recently, and coinciding with the adoption of facilitative conflict mediation methodology in organizations, incivility has increasingly been explored through the growth its consequences can potentially trigger in individuals.

This presentation reviews literature to understand the negative undercurrents in team communication through their underlying causes and impacts on individuals. Second, it presents workplace conflict mediation as an instrument restoring team harmony and disputant egos. Finally, it analyzes the positive outcomes associated with conflict mediation and the way it changes individuals’ interaction styles. The findings are based on a qualitative, empirical investigation of conflict disputant perceptions.

The findings confirm the key tenet of the restorative paradigm, describing the facilitative approach as an instrument promoting individual growth and organizational learning. Thematically, such renewal materializes as motivation for self-growth and skilling in self-reflective ability and communication.

Arpawonga, T.; Rohrbach, A.; Milamb, J.; Ungerb, J.; Land H.; Sun, P.; Spruijt-Metzb, D.; Sussman S. (2016). Stressful life events and predictors of post-traumatic growth among high-risk early emerging adults. Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(1), 1-14.

Wall, J. & Kressler, K. (2012): Research on Mediator Style: A Summary and Some Research Suggestions. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 5(4), 403-421.