Rousing and redirecting a sleeping giant: Symbolic Convergence Theory and Complexities in the Communicative Constitution of Collective Action

Management Communication Quarterly

Volumn 19, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 451-492

  Olufowote, James O ^a  

^a BOSTON COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

organizational coalitions; power and politics; symbolic convergence theory

Indexed keywords

EID: 84990317188     PISSN: 08933189     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0893318905280326     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. Allen, B. J., & Tompkins, P. K. (1997). Vocabularies of motives in a crisis of academic leadership: “Hell hath no fury…” In B. D. Sypher (Ed.), Case studies in organizational communication (Vol. 2, pp. 53-67). New York: Guilford.
2. Andrews, S. (2002, June 1). Romancing the CEO. Vanity Fair, 113-124.
3. Armstrong, D., & Bandler, J. (2002, July 9). Harvard Business Review publisher is forced to resign—Abernathy’s departure comes amid overhaul of University operations. The Wall Street Journal, p. A3.
4. Bacharach, S. B., & Lawler, E. J. (1980). Power and politics in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
5. Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. (1962). Decisions and nondecisions: An analytical framework. American Political Science Review, 57, 641-651.
6. Bales, R. F. (1970). Personality and interpersonal behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
7. Bandler, J. (2002a, March 4). Harvard editor faces revolt over Welch story. The Wall Street Journal, p. B1.
8. Bandler, J. (2002b, March 11). Harvard editor’s deal further irks review staffers. The Wall Street Journal, p. B1.
9. Bandler, J. (2002c, April 25). Harvard Business Review’s Wetlaufer resigns. The Wall Street Journal, p. B1.
10. Bormann, E. G. (1973). The Eagleton affair: A fantasy theme analysis. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 59, 143-159.
11. Bormann, E. G. (1982). Fantasy and rhetorical vision: Ten years later. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 68, 288-305.
12. Bormann, E. G. (1983a). Symbolic convergence: Organizational communication and culture. In L. L. Putnam & M. E. Pacanowsky (Eds.), Communication and Organizations (pp. 99-122). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
13. Bormann, E. G. (1983b). The symbolic convergence theory of communication and the creation, raising, and sustaining of public consciousness. In J. Sisco (Ed.), The Jensen lectures: Contemporary communication studies. Tampa: University of South Florida.
14. Bormann, E. G. (1985a). Symbolic convergence theory: A communication formulation. Journal of Communication, 35, 128-138.
15. Bormann, E. G. (1985b). The force of fantasy: Restoring the American dream. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
16. Bormann, E. G. (1988). “Empowering” as a heuristic concept in organizational communication. In J. A. Anderson (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 11, pp. 391-404). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
17. Bormann, E. G., Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D. C. (1994). In defense of symbolic convergence theory: A look at the theory and its criticism after two decades. Communication Theory, 4, 259-294.
18. Bormann, E. G., Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D. C. (1996). An expansion of the rhetorical vision component of the Symbolic Convergence Theory: The cold war paradigm case. Communication Monographs, 63, 1-28.
19. Bormann, E. G., Knutson, R. L., & Musolf, K. (1997). Why do people share fantasies? An empirical investigation of a basic tenet of the symbolic convergence communication theory. Communication Studies, 48, 254-276.
20. Bormann, E. G., Pratt, J., & Putnam, L. (1978). Power, authority, and sex: Male response to female leadership. Communication Monographs, 45, 119-155.
21. Chesebro, J. W., Cragan, J. F., & McCullough, P. (1973). The small group technique of the radical revolutionary: A synthetic study of consciousness raising. Communication Monographs, 10, 136-146.
22. Clark, T., & Salaman, G. (1998). Telling tales: Managerial guru’s narratives and the construction of managerial identity. Journal of Management Studies, 35, 137-161.
23. CNN Sports Illustrated. (2001). Foregone conclusion: Texas Tech A.D. will recommend Knight to president. Retrieved March, 2001, from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com
24. Cobb, A. T. (1982). A social psychological approach to coalition membership: An expectancy model of individual choice. Group & Organization Studies, 7, 295-319.
25. Cobb, A. T. (1986). Coalition identification in organizational research. In R.J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 97-115). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
26. Cobb, A. T. (1991). Toward the study of organizational coalition: Participant concerns and activities in a simulated organizational setting. Human Relations, 44, 1057-1079.
27. Conrad, C., & McIntush, H. G. (2003). Organizational rhetoric and healthcare policymaking. In T. L. Thompson, A. M. Dorsey, K. I. Miller, & R. Parrott (Eds.), Handbook of health communication (pp. 403-422). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
28. Cooren, F. (2001). Translation and articulation in the organization of coalitions: The Great Whale River case. Communication Theory, 11, 178-200.
29. Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D. C. (1981). Applied communication research: A dramatistic approach. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
30. Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D. C. (1992). The use of symbolic convergence theory in corporate strategic planning: A case study. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 20, 199-218.
31. Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D. C. (1999). Translating scholarship into practice: Communication studies reflecting the value of theory-based research to everyday life. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 27, 92-106.
32. Cyert, R., & March, J. (1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
33. Dahl, R. (1957). The concept of power. Behavioral Science, 2, 201-215.
34. Emerson, R. M. (1962). Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review, 27, 31-41.
35. Endres, T. G. (1994). Co-existing master analogues in symbolic convergence theory: The knights of Columbus quincentennial campaign. Communication Studies, 45, 294-308.
36. Fee, G., Raposa, L., & Westmoreland, S. (2004, April 25). Suzy, Jack light up their day. Boston Herald, p. 016.
37. Freedman, S. C. (1981). Threats, promises, and coalitions: A study of compliance and retaliation in a simulated organizational setting. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 14, 114-136.
38. Grint, K., & Case, P. (1998). The violent rhetoric of re-engineering: Management consultancy on the offensive. Journal of Management Studies, 35, 557-576.
39. Hardy, C. (1994). Managing strategic action: Mobilizing change concepts, readings and cases. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
40. Heisey, D. R., & Trebing, J. D. (1983). A comparison of the rhetorical visions and strategies of the Shah’s white revolution and the Ayatollah’s Islamic revolution. Communication Monographs, 50, 158-174.
41. Hensley, C. W. (1975). Rhetorical vision and the persuasion of a historical movement: The Disciples of Christ in the nineteenth century American culture. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 61, 251-264.
42. Hymowitz, C. (2002, May 14). An HBR case study: How magazine failed to respond to a crisis. The Wall Street Journal, p. B1.
43. Jackson, B. G. (1999). The goose that laid the golden egg? A rhetorical critique of Stephen Covey and the effectiveness movement. Journal of Management Studies, 36, 353-377.
44. Kroll, B. S. (1983). From small group to public view: Mainstreaming the women’s movement. Communication Quarterly, 31, 139-147.
45. Kuhn, T., & Nelson, N. (2002). Reengineering identity: A case study in multiplicity and duality in organizational identification. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 5-38.
46. Larson, G. S., & Pepper, G. L. (2003). Strategies for managing multiple organizational identifications: A case of competing identities. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 528-557.
47. Lawler, E. J. (1975). An experimental study of factors affecting the mobilization of revolutionary coalitions. Sociometry, 38, 163-179.
48. Lukes, S. (1974). Power: A radical view. London: Macmillan.
49. Mannix, E. A. (1993). Organizations as resource dilemmas: The effects of power balance on coalition formation in small groups. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 55, 1-22.
50. Miller, C. E., & Komorita, S. S. (1986). Coalition formation in organizations: What laboratory studies do and do not tell us. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 117-137). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
51. Mohrmann, G. P. (1982). An essay on fantasy theme criticism. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 68, 109-132.
52. Mumby, D. K. (1988). Communication and power in organizations: Discourse, ideology, and domination. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
53. 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.
54. Murnighan, J. K. (1978). Models of coalition behavior: Game theoretic, social psychological and political perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 1130-1153.
55. Murray, M., Silverman, R. E., & Hymowitz, C. (2002, November 27). GE’s Jack Welch meets his match in divorce court—Stymied early on, ex-CEO drops his own bombshell; Another icon tarnished?—Color coded chart of perks. The Wall Street Journal, p. A1.
56. Pacanowsky, M. E. (1988). Communication in the empowering organization. In J. A. Anderson (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 11, pp. 356-379). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
57. Pastin, M. (2002, March 15). Scandalous reading—What exactly is the Harvard Business Review, anyway? The Wall Street Journal, p. W15.
58. Pearce, J. L., Stevenson, W. B., & Porter, L. W. (1986). Coalitions in the organizational context. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 97-115). Greenwich: JAI Press.
59. Pfeffer, J. (1981). Power in organizations. New York: Harper & Row.
60. Pool, J. (1976). Coalition formation in small groups with incomplete communication networks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 82-91.
61. Porter, L. W. (1976). The White House transcripts: Group fantasy events concerning the mass media. The Central States Speech Journal, 27, 272-279.
62. Putnam, L. L., & Stohl, C. (1990a). Bona fide decision making groups. In M. Poole & R. Hirokawa (Eds.), Handbook of small group decision making (pp. 147-178). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
63. Putnam, L. L., & Stohl, C. (1990b). Bona fide groups: A reconceptualization of groups in context. Communication Studies, 41, 248-265.
64. Schutz, A. (1967). The phenomenology of the social world. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
65. Scott, C. R., Connaughton, S. L., Diaz-Saenz, H. R., Maguire, K., Ramirez, R., Richardson, B., et al. (1999). The impacts of communication and multiple identifications on intent to leave: A multimethodological exploration. Management Communication Quarterly, 12, 400-435.
66. Semlak, W. D. (1973). A rhetorical analysis of George S. McGovern’s campaign for the 1972 democratic presidential nomination. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
67. Shields, D. C. (1981). The St. Paul fire fighters’ dramatis personae: Concurrent and construct validation for the theory of rhetorical vision. In J. Cragan & D. Shields (Eds.), Applied communication research: A dramatistic approach (pp. 235-270). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
68. Stevenson, W. B., Pearce, J. L., & Porter, L. W. (1985). The concept of “coalition” in organization theory and research. Academy of Management Review, 10, 256-268.
69. Thamel, P. (2004, February). Knight insists he didn’t start latest incident. New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2004, from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/04/sports/ncaabasketball/04KNIG.html
70. Trachtenberg, J., & Bandler, J. (2002, April 15). Penguin’s Wan to head Harvard publishing unit. The Wall Street Journal, p. B4.
71. Weick, K. E. (1969). The social psychology of organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
72. Weick, K. E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. New York: McGraw-Hill.
73. Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.