Social Identity and Communicative Boundaries

Abstract

This study examines the boundaries of youth and young adult street persons and their strategies of communicating social identity. This communicative process is observed in the daily lives of these young speakers as they interact with other community members. The article discusses the various membership sets (Sacks) speakers call upon in constructing social identities. Youth and young adult street speakers rely on membership sets that conflict with those employed by parents, legislators, and other community members. The young street speakers attempt to challenge the membership sets of the more powerful speakers but are unsuccessful.

A Dual Process Model of Organizational Commitment

“…Communication, as such, appears to have several positive aspects in the organization. Earlier we claimed that communication plays an instrumental role in the completion of work routines (O'Reilly & Roberts, 1976;Weick, 1987;Yates & Orlikowski, 1992) and that it triggers important cues concerning in-group membership (Dollar & Zimmers, 1998;Suzuki, 1998). To the extent the dual paths of our theoretical model capture instrumental and expressive processes, the findings suggest this to be the case.…”

“…With this in mind, we predict that high levels of communication will enhance job satisfaction. Communication is also predicted to affect perceived organizational support (Dollar & Zimmers, 1998;Suzuki, 1998). To the extent the employee can reliably provide and receive information from superiors, this should foster perceptions of choice and control known to strengthen cognitive attachments to the larger organization (Lawler, 1992).…”

Pathways to Organizational Commitment

“…Particularly in times of change, communication is a mechanism for management to demonstrate concern for employees by keeping them involved and knowledgeable about policies, procedures, and events. Workforce research in other fields has found communication to affect the perception of organizational support (Dollar & Zimmers, 1998;Yoon & Thye, 2002).…”