Although work-family benefits are increasingly important organizational policies, limited research addresses the impact of communication on benefit utilization. However, communication is significant because the perceived appropriateness of work-family benefits emerges through interaction. For example, when coworkers complain about "picking up the slack" for those using family leave, their discourse may impact future decisions of other workers regarding whether they utilize the workfamily benefits available to them. We apply Giddens' (1984) Structuration Theory to examine organizational members' discursive responses to conditions (and contradictions) present in utilizing workfamily benefits in a governmental organization. We argue the daily discursive practices of individuals can either reinforce or undermine formally stated work-family initiatives, and in turn discuss the implications of this "structuration" of policy.No one talked to me directly and said, "Gee, I resent the fact that you were on maternity leave," but I know that people felt that way.People don't understand that when I had six weeks off [for maternity leave], I needed six weeks off. I didn't sit there and play cards, you know what I mean, go shopping every day.
To cite this article: Kathleen J. Krone (1992) A comparison of organizational, structural, and relationship effects on subordinates' upward influence choices, Communication Quarterly, 40:1, 1-15,
This study evaluated Rafaeli and Sutton's (1989) model of emotional expression in the workplace by examining descriptions of emotional interactions occurring among members of a state government agency. The results indicated that qualities of felt emotions influenced emotional expression, which in turn yielded changed relational perceptions and changed communication behavior subsequent to the emotional event. Content analysis of the event descriptions resulted in preliminary generalizations about the types of emotions experienced by members, the nature of repressed emotional messages, and the dimensions of relationship changes stemming from the emotional events. The results are interpreted as evidence of the importance of emotional communication in relationship reformulation and are consistent with Van Maanen and Kunda's (1989) recent depiction of emotional control as part of organizational culture.
Organizational norms of emotional expression are open to negotiation through improvised performances, as employees may bend or break emotion rules to gain more leeway in expressiveness and participate in the development of their own role identities in the workplace. In this ethnographic study, a dramaturgical perspective is used to analyze the processes and outcomes of emotional improvisation as observed among nurses, technicians, and physicians in a cardiac care center. It was found that the emphasis on maintaining a "professional" appearance in caregiving largely constrains actors to perform along their scripted roles. Results are discussed in terms of practical implications for training/education for health care providers and recipients. This study complements Goffman's (1959, 1961) emphasis on external role-playing by considering actors' internal feelings in relationship to observable emotional displays.
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