Managing RISK in Communication Encounters: Strategies for the Workplace

Organizational Communication Challenges is a theory-driven, narrative-based examination of the most daunting communication situations students will face in their working lives. The book focuses on risky interactions, the ones that threaten identities and relationships and sometimes careers:A-A-practicing dissent; repairing broken relationships; managing privacy; responding to harassment; offering criticism; communicating emotion. These and other communicative practices enact, contest, and change the moral codes which govern workplace relationships and communication therein. They are inherently risky due to the power differences, poA-tential economic consequences, and normative pressures that shape workplace encounters.Organizational Communication Challenges is unique in its focus on the management of risk in work relationships. It is squarely focused on the challenges faced by members rather than leaders, because most students, indeed most employees, communicate from comA-paratively low power positions.A- A generic chapter structure is used, so each chapter (1) is grounded in real-life organizaA-tional scenarios, (2) familiarizes students with recent research on the nature and importance of each type of communication, (3) applies a standard theoretical framework, and (4) illustrates for students a full range of communicative tactics and discourse practices.Organizational Communication Challenges is intended to be an accessible supplemental text for underA-graduate and graduate courses in organizational communication, business and professional communication, and leadership communication. It will also prove useful in courses devoted to organizational ethics, managerial communication, applied communication, management, and organizational behavior.KEY FEATURES:·A-Helps students understand types of work situations that are both ethically challenging and personA-ally risky; introduces students to the risky situations they are likely to encounter during their workA-ing lives.+ Illustrates through vivid examples and narratives the inevitable tensions that emerge among our ethical, relational, and performance obligations.+ Emphasizes the role of discourse, interaction, and communication tactics in managing risk, performA-ing role identities, and promoting ethical workplaces. + Presents a theoretical model to help students and scholars (1) integrate existing research, (2) anaA-lyze situations, and (3) generate new questions.+ Grounds student learning in real-life organizational contexts and research on the lived experiences of workers.+ Helps students understand how individual, relational, organizational, and cultural forces shape workA-place communication.+ Shows that organizations benefit when employees are prepared to communicate in ways that manA-age risks to themselves and the organization.