Unobtrusive control in a leadership organization: Integrating control and resistance

Western Journal of Communication

Volumn 71, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 136-158

  Bisel, Ryan S ^a   Ford, Debra J ^a   Keyton, Joann ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS   (United States)

Author keywords

Identification; Leadership training; Organizational decision making; Resistance; Unobtrusive control

Indexed keywords

EID: 34250183490     PISSN: 10570314     EISSN: 17451027     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10570310701368039     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Ashforth, B. E. & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of Management Review, 14, 20-39.
2. Barker, J. R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 408-437.
3. Barker, J. R., Melville, C. W., & Pacanowsky, M. E. (1993). Self-directed teams at Xel: Changes in communication practices during a program of cultural transformation. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 21, 297-312.
4. Barker, J. R. & Tompkins, P. K. (1994). Identification in the self-managing organization: Characteristics of target and tenure. Human Communication Research, 21, 223-240.
5. Brown, A. D. & Starkey, K. (2000). Organizational identity and learning: A psychodynamic perspective. Academy of Management Review, 25, 102-120.
6. Bullis, C. (1991). Communication practices as unobtrusive control: An observational study. Communication Studies, 42, 254-271.
7. Burke, K. (1969). A rhetoric of motives. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
8. Charmaz, K. (2000). Grounded theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 509-535). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
9. Cheney, G. (1983a). On the various and changing meanings of organizational membership: A field study of organizational identification. Communication Monographs, 50, 342-362.
10. Cheney, G. (1983b). The rhetoric of identification and the study of organizational communication. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 69, 143-158.
11. Cheney, G. & Christensen, L. T. (2001). Organizational identity: Linkages between internal and external communication. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 231-269). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
12. Cheney, G. & McMillan, J. J. (1990). Organizational rhetoric and the practice of criticism. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 18, 93-114.
13. City commission consists of five members [Electronic version]. (2003, September 25). Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved July 15, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/146545
14. Conrad, C. & Haynes, J. (2001). Development of key constructs. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 47-77). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15. Dey, I. (1999). Grounding grounded theory: Guidelines for qualitative inquiry. New York: Academic Press.
16. Dutton, J. E. & Dukerich, J. M. (1991). Keeping an eye on the mirror: Image and identity in organizational adaptation. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 517-554.
17. Fagan, M. (2001, April 6). Growing into community [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved July 15, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/47505
18. Ganesh, S., Zoller, H., & Cheney, G. (2005). Transforming resistance, broadening our boundaries: Critical organizational communication meets globalization from below. Communication Monographs, 72, 169-191.
19. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
20. Glaser, B. G. (1992). Basics of grounded theory analysis: Emergence versus forcing. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
21. Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine.
22. Gossett, L. M. (2002). Kept at arm's length: Questioning the organizational desirability of member identification. Communication Monographs, 69, 385-404.
23. Kuhn, T. & Nelson, N. (2002). Reengineering identity: A case study of multiplicity and duality in organizational identification. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 5-38.
24. Larson, G. S. & Tompkins, P. K. (2005). Ambivalence and resistance: A study of management in a concertive control system. Communication Monographs, 72, 1-21.
25. Lewis, L. (2005). The civil society sector: A review of critical issues and research agenda for organizational communication scholars. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 238-267.
26. Mael, F. & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 103-123.
27. Mathis, J. (2002a, October, 3). First contender files for city seat [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved September 29, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/107965
28. Mathis, J. (2002b, November 10). Thorny issues thwart consensus [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved July 15, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/112116
29. Mathis, J. (2003a, February 13). City growth plan compromise sought [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved September 29, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/124462
30. Mathis, J. (2003b, March 9). Success of Progressive Lawrence PAC may be sign of new political landscape [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved July 15, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/ citynews/storypr/124462
31. Mathis, J. (2003c, March 25). 'Business' candidates rack up donations [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved July 15, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/126113
32. Mathis, J. (2003d, October 2). Promises, progress [Electronic version]. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved September 29, 2004, from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/storypr/147253
33. Morgan, J. M., Reynolds, C. M., Nelson, T. J., Johanningmeier, A. R., Griffin, M., & Andrade, P. (2004). Tales from the fields: Sources of employee identification in agribusiness. Management Communication Quarterly, 17, 360-395.
34. Mumby, D. K. (2001). Power and politics. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 585-623). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
35. Mumby, D. K. & Stohl, C. (1991). Power and discourse in organization studies: Absence and the dialectic of control. Discourse & Society, 2, 313-332.
36. Putnam, L. L. (Ed.). (2005). Discourse, resistance, and organization [Special issue]. Management Communication Quarterly, 19(1).
37. Russo, T. C. (1998). Organizational and professional identification: A case of newspaper journalists. Management Communication Quarterly, 12, 72-111.
38. Scott, C. R., Corman, S. R., & Cheney, G. (1998). Development of a structurational model of identification in the organization. Communication Theory, 8, 298-336.
39. Stohl, C. & Cheney, G. (2001). Participatory processes: Paradoxical practices. Management Communication Quarterly, 14, 349-407.
40. Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1985). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 1-20). London: Academic Press.
41. Tompkins, P. K. & Cheney, G. (1983). Account analysis of organizations: Decision making and identification. In L. L. Putnam & M. E. Pacanowsky (Eds.), Communication and organizations: An interpretive approach (pp. 123-146). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
42. Tompkins, P. K. & Cheney, G. (1985). Communication and unobtrusive control in contemporary organizations. In R. D. McPhee & P. K. Tompkins (Eds.), Organizational communication: Traditional themes and new directions (pp. 179-210). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
43. Tracy, S. J. (2000). Becoming a character for commerce: Emotion labor, self-subordination, and discursive construction of identity in a total institution. Management Communication Quarterly, 14, 90-128.
44. Treadwell, D. F. & Harrison, T. M. (1994). Conceptualizing and assessing organizational image: Model images, commitment, and communication. Communication Monographs, 61, 63-85.
45. Trethewey, A. (2001). Reproducing and resisting the master narrative of decline: Midlife professional women's experiences of aging. Management Communication Quarterly, 15, 183-226.
46. Wituk, S., Warren, M., Heiny, P., Clark, J. P., Power, C., & Meissen, G. (2003). Developing communities of leaders: Outcomes of a statewide initiative. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 9, 76-86.