DOCSLIB.ORG

Rethinking Resistance and Recognizing Ambivalence: a Multidimensional View of Attitudes Toward an Organizational Change

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Rethinking Resistance and Recognizing Ambivalence: a Multidimensional View of Attitudes Toward an Organizational Change * Academy of Management Beview 2000, Vol. 25, No. 4, 783-794. RETHINKING RESISTANCE AND RECOGNIZING AMBIVALENCE: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL VIEW OF ATTITUDES TOWARD AN ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE SANDY KRISTIN PIDERIT Case Western Reserve University In this article I review studies of resistance to change and advocate new research based on a reconceptualization of individual responses to change as multidimen- sional attitudes. A challenging question for research and practice arises: How can we balance the organizational need to ioster ambivalent attitudes toward change and the individual need to minimize the potentially debilitating effects of ambivalence? I conclude by highlighting the importance of examining the evolution of employee responses to change over time and the need to understand responses to change proposals that emerge from bottom-up, egalitarian change processes. Adapting to changing goals and demands has terms; for instance, practical scholars and schol- been a timeless challenge for organizations, but arly practitioners argue that the concept might the task seems to have become even more cru- have outlived its usefulness (Dent & Goldberg, cial in the past decade. In the for-profit sector, 1999; Krantz, 1999). My purpose here is to sum- global population growth and political shifts marize a critique of existing views of resistance have opened new markets for products and ser- to change and to advocate a view that captures vices at a dizzying pace. To respond to the pace more of the complexity of individuals' responses of change, organizations are adopting flatter, to proposed organizational changes. more agile structures and more empowering, In the first part of the article, I suggest that in team-oriented cultures. As status differences studies of resistance to change, researchers erode, some employees are coming to expect have largely overlooked the potentially positive involvement in decisions about organizational intentions that may motivate negative re- change. Successful organizational adaptation is sponses to change. I also show how studies of increasingly reliant on generating employee resistance have dichotomized responses to support and enthusiasm for proposed changes, change and, thus, somewhat oversimplified rather than merely overcoming resistance. them. Furthermore, I argue that varied empha- The concept of resistance to change has been ses in the conceptualization of resistance have widely studied, but it has limitations. Both Mer- slipped into the literature, blurring our sense of ron (1993) and Dent and Goldberg (1999) have the complexities of the phenomenon. argued for retiring the phrase "resistance to In the second part of the article, I propose a change." The limitations of the concept can be multidimensional view of responses to proposed framed in philosophical terms; for instance, crit- ical theorists and labor policy scholars argue organizational changes, capturing employee re- that the interests of managers should not be sponses along at least three dimensions (emo- privileged over the interests of workers when tional, cognitive, and intentional). Within this studying organizational change (Jermier, view, "resistance to a change" is represented by Knights, & Nord, 1994). Alternatively, the limita- the set of responses to change that are negative tions of the concept can be framed in practical along all three dimensions, and "support for a change" is represented by the set of responses that are positive along all three dimensions. I gratefully acknowledge the comments of Richard Responses to a change initiative that are neither Bagozzi, David Deeds, Jane Dutton, Loren Dyck, Phoebe Ells- consistently negative nor consistently positive, worth, Eric Neilsen, Mary Grace Neville, Janet Weiss, and the reviewers and special issue editor on earlier versions of which were previously ignored but are poten- this work. tially the most prevalent type of initial response. 783 784 Academy of Management Review October can be analyzed as cross-dimension ambiva- Likewise, Lawrence (1954) warns managers to lence in employees' responses to change. avoid creating resistance in subordinates by as- In the third part of the article, I identify the suming that they will always be opposed to implications of this new view for both research change. In the 1990s others have reissued simi- and practice. By highlighting the many other lar warnings (Dent & Goldberg, 1999; Merron, sets of responses that can occur, this new view 1993). A prominent consultant noted that the con- shows the importance of ambivalent responses cept of resistance to change "has been trans- to change for research on exit, voice, loyalty, formed over the years into a not-so-disguised and neglect and for research on generating way of blaming the less powerful for unsatisfac- change within organizations. tory results of change efforts" (Krantz, 1999: 42). This tendency to dismiss employees' objec- tions to change simply may be another manifes- A SYNTHESIS OF PAST tation of the fundamental attribution error (Jones CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF & Harris, 1967); that is, managers in charge of RESISTANCE TO CHANGE rolling out a change initiative blame others for the failure of the initiative, rather than accept- Unfavorable Responses to Change Might Be ing their role in its failure. Employees are likely Motivated by the Best of Intentions to do the same thing—assigning blame for In the majority of work on resistance to failed change attempts to their managers, rather change, researchers have borrowed a view from than themselves. However, as Klein (1976) and physics to metaphorically define resistance as a Thomas (1989) argue, in most research on resis- restraining force moving in the direction of tance to change, researchers have taken the per- maintaining the status quo (cf. Lewin, 1952). Fur- spective of those in charge of implementing thermore, most scholars have focused on the change, and so scholars have written less about various "forces" that lead employees away from the perspectives of those with less power. Per- supporting changes proposed by managers. As haps scholars, as well as practitioners, need to Watson (1982) points out, managers often per- be cautioned against playing the blame game ceive resistance negatively, since they see em- unwittingly. ployees who resist as disobedient. And as Jer- Fortunately, in other types of literature—not mier et al. put it, "The most prevalent way of yet well integrated into research on resistance analysing resistance is to see it as a reactive to change—scholars also remind us of a wider process where agents embedded in power rela- range of reasons why employees may oppose a tions actively oppose initiatives by other proposed organizational change. For instance, agents" (1994: 9). Even if they only see employ- research on obedience to authority indicates ees who oppose change as short sighted, man- that resistance might be motivated by individu- agers are tempted by the language of resistance als' desires to act in accordance with their eth- to treat their subordinates as obstacles. ical principles (Milgram, 1965; Modigliani & Thus, the label of resistance can be used to Rochat, 1995). Similarly, the organizational dis- dismiss potentially valid employee concerns sent literature shows that some employee resis- about proposed changes. Of course, for a long tance to organizational actions is motivated by time in the practical literature about managing more than mere selfishness (Graham, 1984, change processes, researchers have been advis- 1986). Also, recent studies of issue selling (Ash- ing practitioners to guard against this. For ex- ford, Rothbard, Piderit, & Dutton, 1998; Dutton, ample, Mary Parker Follett pointed out in the Ashford, Wierba, O'Neill, & Hayes, 1997) indicate 1920s that that employees might try to get top management to pay attention to issues that employees be- we shouldn't put to ... workers finished plans in lieve must be addressed in order for the organi- order merely to get their consent one of two zation to maintain high performance. things is likely to happen, both bad: either we shall Rarely do individuals form resistant attitudes, get a rubber-stamped consent and thus lose what they might contribute to the problem in question, or express such attitudes in acts of dissent or or else we shall find ourselves with a fight on our protest, without considering the potential nega- hands—an open fight or discontent seething under- tive consequences for themselves. This point is neath (reprinted in Graham, 1995: 220). documented in several studies. In the field of 2000 Pideiit 785 ethics, for instance, Clinard (1983) documents fined resistance by using a metaphor from the the "pressures on middle management," such as physical sciences. In their classic study Coch threats to their opportunities for advancement or and French (1948) focused on the undesirable to their job security, that can discourage man- behaviors of workers in response to manage- agers from speaking up about ethical concerns. ment-imposed changes in jobs and work meth- Meyerson and Scully (1995) dramatize the dilem- ods. With their quasi-experiment they examined mas faced by change agents when judging how whether encouraging employee participation in far they can stretch those they wish to lead. planning a change would reduce resistance. Al- Rodrigues and Collinson (1995) analyze the dif- though their conceptual discussion indicated ferent ways in which Brazilian employees use that resistance could involve undesirable be- humor to "camouflage
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Critical Success Factors for Employee Suggestion Schemes : a Literature Review Lasrado, F, Arif, M, Rizvi, a and Urdzik, C
    Critical success factors for employee suggestion schemes : a literature review Lasrado, F, Arif, M, Rizvi, A and Urdzik, C http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-2014-0753 Title Critical success factors for employee suggestion schemes : a literature review Authors Lasrado, F, Arif, M, Rizvi, A and Urdzik, C Type Article URL This version is available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/38157/ Published Date 2016 USIR is a digital collection of the research output of the University of Salford. Where copyright permits, full text material held in the repository is made freely available online and can be read, downloaded and copied for non-commercial private study or research purposes. Please check the manuscript for any further copyright restrictions. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR EMPLOYEE SUGGESTION SCHEMES: A LITERATURE REVIEW Abstract Employee suggestion schemes have existed for many years and numerous articles on this subject have been published over the last several decades. These schemes have been studied from many perspectives to illustrate their objectives, nature, content, processes, significance and benefits. Arguments have been made with respect to successes and failures of suggestion schemes. Although organizations widely use suggestion schemes to elicit the creative ideas of their employees, sustaining an effective suggestion scheme is still a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to extract critical success factors and critical success criteria to suggestion schemes and to discuss the importance of these factors on suggestion system sustainability. This is a literature review paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotions That Facilitate Language Learning: the Positive-Broadening Power of the Imagination1
    Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching Department of English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz SSLLT 2 (2). 193-213 http://www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power 1 of the imagination Peter MacIntyre Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada [email protected] Tammy Gregersen University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, USA [email protected] Abstract The imagination is powerful, in part, because of the emotions that can be activated by imagining future states. Imagined future states are a key fea- ture of the L2 self-system proposed by Dƅrnyei, and emotion may be the key to the motivational quality of the imagined future self. In particular, this pa- per focuses on positive anticipated and anticipatory emotions related to language learning. It is argued that, in general, positive emotion has a dif- ferent function from negative emotion; they are not opposite ends of the same spectrum. Based on the work of Fredrickson, we argue that positive emotion facilitates the building of resources because positive emotion tends to broaden a person’s perspective, opening the individual to absorb the lan- guage. In contrast, negative emotion produces the opposite tendency, a nar- rowing of focus and a restriction of the range of potential language input. This article draws a framework for finding a balance between the positive- broadening and negative-narrowing emotions in the language classroom, 1 Authors’ note: This research was facilitated by a grant from Cape Breton University. We would like to thank Jillian Burns for comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ambivalence of Executive Power
    1 Introduction: The Ambivalence of Executive Power o understand the modern doctrine of executive power, we Tneed to know, at least approximately, what executive power is. It might at first seem best to go directly to the thing and to ignore opinions about it. For executive power is universally agreed to be a modern necessity: why, then, should it be pre­ sented as a modern doctrine? No modern state is considered a going concern unless it is equipped with a strong executive, and every state without one is held to be courting disaster, and re­ garded with pity and contempt by those more fortunate. Nor can the necessity of executive power be dismissed as an unconscious assumption which, being universal, goes unchal­ lenged. It is challenged, but never successfully. Even though the assumption regarding the necessity of executive power is univer­ sal, there are always some and sometimes many living under free governments who grumble about strong executive actions they find distasteful. They deplore and oppose them as the practices of tyranny, calling them by one of the many contemporary equiv­ alents for that term which our prudery requires and our experi­ ence makes very familiar. Yet the protestations subside soon enough as if in recognition of necessity, unless indeed the tune is changed and a clamor begins for strong executive actions which the formerly disapproving now find beneficial. The necessity of a strong executive has, therefore, been tested by those to whom it has not been obvious. Those who speak against it either fall silent or contradict themselves. So to present executive power as 1 ...
    [Show full text]
  • Threads of Intersection and Distinction: Joining an Ongoing Conversation
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette College of Communication Faculty Research and Communication, College of Publications 3-1-2010 Threads of Intersection and Distinction: Joining an Ongoing Conversation within Organizational Communication Research Sarah Bonewits Feldner Marquette University, [email protected] Scott .C D'Urso Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. Communication Research Trends, Vol. 29, No. 1 (March 2010): 4-28. Permalink. © 2010 Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture. Threads of Intersection and Distinction: Joining an Ongoing Conversation within Organizational Communication Research Sarah Bonewits Feldner & Scott C. D'Urso [email protected] [email protected] In any given discipline, there seems to be an lications within a discipline to discern how that disci- ongoing battle of definition, a certain degree of con- pline’s identity evolves along with society. sternation about who we are and where we fit. In this As a construct of organizational communication, review we argue that the discipline of organizational identity is that which makes an organization distinct. communication is no different. In fact, journals and Yet at the same time, establishing an organization’s handbooks have published several special issues that identity is not simply about what makes one different, have attempted to tackle this same challenge. These but it is also about what makes one the same as others moments of identity crisis hold significance in both with whom the organization engages and interacts. In their frequency—in many ways they mark time as it the end, identity makes one the same but different. In passes—and function—they serve as markers of this essay, we take up the identity question once trends and currents of thinking between and amongst again—but in a renewed way—approaching the ques- scholars.
    [Show full text]
  • Mixed Feelings: the Case of Ambivalence
    Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Mixed feelings: the case of ambivalence 1 2 Iris K Schneider and Norbert Schwarz Mixed feelings come in many forms. We focus on mixed Attitudinal ambivalence feelings resulting from conflicting evaluations of a single Attitudinal ambivalence refers to the simultaneous occur- attitude object, that is, attitudinal ambivalence. Research on rence of positive and negative implicit or explicit evalua- attitudinal ambivalence has led to specific measures that tions of a single attitude object [3–6]. Ambivalence has assess the presence, intensity, and resolution of ambivalence, been documented for a wide range of stimuli, including shedding new light on underlying dynamics and moderators. abortion, organ donation, euthanasia [7], contraception This work has also spawned an interest in the metacognitive [8], minority groups [9], food [10,11], labor laws [12], experiences of conflict that arise from ambivalence and their tobacco [13], and consumer products [14–16] (for over- downstream consequences for judgment and choice. Because views, see Refs. [17,18,19,20]). On a neurological level, research into mixed emotions may benefit from these attitudinal ambivalence is associated with increased acti- conceptual and methodological developments, the current vation in the anterior cingular cortex [21,22], an area article provides an introductory overview of attitudinal associated with conflict monitoring processes [23]. ambivalence and its measurement. Ambivalence is distinct from uncertainty, because each of the two conflicting evaluations can be held with great Addresses 1 confidence [19,22,24]. It is also distinct from ambiguity, University of Cologne, Germany 2 where the attitude object cannot be interpreted due to University of Southern California, United States lack of cues [25].
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Emotion from Mouse Cursor Motions: Affective Computing Approach
    Cognitive Science (2017) 1–49 Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0364-0213 print / 1551-6709 online DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12557 Reading Emotion From Mouse Cursor Motions: Affective Computing Approach Takashi Yamauchi, Kunchen Xiao Department of Psychological and Brain Science, Texas A&M University Received 1 March 2016; received in revised form 5 July 2017; accepted 22 August 2017 Abstract Affective computing research has advanced emotion recognition systems using facial expres- sions, voices, gaits, and physiological signals, yet these methods are often impractical. This study integrates mouse cursor motion analysis into affective computing and investigates the idea that movements of the computer cursor can provide information about emotion of the computer user. We extracted 16–26 trajectory features during a choice-reaching task and examined the link between emotion and cursor motions. Participants were induced for positive or negative emotions by music, film clips, or emotional pictures, and they indicated their emotions with questionnaires. Our 10-fold cross-validation analysis shows that statistical models formed from “known” partici- pants (training data) could predict nearly 10%–20% of the variance of positive affect and atten- tiveness ratings of “unknown” participants, suggesting that cursor movement patterns such as the area under curve and direction change help infer emotions of computer users. Keywords: Mouse cursor motion analysis; Affective computing; Choice reaching trajectory; Emotion
    [Show full text]
  • The ABC of Ambivalence: Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Consequences of Attitudinal Conflict
    ARTICLE IN PRESS The ABC of Ambivalence: Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Consequences of Attitudinal Conflict Frenk van Harreveld*,1, Hannah U. Nohlen*, Iris K. Schneider†,{ *Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social Psychology Program, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands †Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA { Department of Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 1Corresponding author: e-mail address: [email protected] Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. What Is Ambivalence? 3 3. Ambivalence and Attitude Strength 4 4. Consequences of Ambivalence 6 4.1 A: Affect 6 4.2 B: Behavior 14 4.3 C: Cognition 19 5. The ABC of Ambivalence 25 5.1 Objective ambivalence causes negative affect when both evaluative components are accessible and conflict ensues 25 5.2 Affect influences cognitions 26 5.3 Affect influences behavior 27 5.4 Cognition influences objective ambivalence and affect 27 5.5 Behavior influences affect 28 5.6 Putting it all together 28 6. Discussion 29 References 33 Abstract In a world where individuals are continuously exposed to information, the experience of ambivalence has become an intricate part of human existence. Recently, the conse- quences of ambivalence have been the subject of considerable research attention. In this chapter, we provide an overview of this research and present the ABC (Affect, Behavior, Cognition) model of ambivalence that integrates recent insights into the affective, behavioral, and cognitive consequences of ambivalence. This research shows when and why ambivalence leads to negative affect and that this affective response is Advances in Experimental Social Psychology # 2015 Elsevier Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • CHRONIC PAIN, ANGER, AMBIVALENCE OVER EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION & INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS a Thesi
    CHRONIC PAIN, ANGER, AMBIVALENCE OVER EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION & INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Fullerton _____________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Psychology (Clinical) _____________________________________ By: Purnima Jain Approved by: Barbara Cherry, Department of Psychology, Chair Jennifer Trevitt, Department of Psychology William Marelich, Department of Psychology Summer, 2017 ABSTRACT There is growing research interest in studying the role of ambivalence over emotional expression (AEE) and anger in adjustment to symptoms of chronic pain. The present research involved studying the mediating effect of AEE between anger and chronic pain in a target sample of patients with FM, and the interaction between intrusive thoughts and AEE in predicting pain. Participants completed standardized measures of AEE, pain, and anger. The variables age, duration of FM, depression, and pain disability were controlled for their effects on the outcome variable of pain magnitude. The present thesis had statistical analyses based on 21 female participants with FM with a mean age of 52.62 with an average of 12.77 years of diagnosis with FM. Correlation analyses showed that there were significantly positive correlations between: anger and pain, AEE and anger, AEE and pain. However, there was no significant correlation between intrusive thoughts and pain or intrusive thoughts and AEE. Baron and Kenny’s model of mediational analysis (1986) and Olkin and Finn’s test of mediation (1986) were used to test the relationship between AEE, anger, and pain. Olkin and Finn’s test of mediation revealed that AEE mediated the relationship anger and pain.
    [Show full text]
  • Resolving Ambivalence and Tipping the Balance Toward Change
    Resolving Ambivalence and Tipping the Balance Toward Change Doug Kleintop Leslie Stapleton Review of Workshop #1 – Switching from a Problem-focused to a Strength-based Approach Strength-based Problem-focused approach approach People have the capacity to Helping is focused on learn, grow, and change. problems and their causes. The attention is on strengths The person being helped needs “fixing.” rather than deficits. The helper is an expert with The participant is seen as the skills to identify what needs to director of his or her life. change and find solutions. The partnership between the Individuals are viewed through case manager and the the “filter” of the agency – its participant is a catalyst for language and requirements. discovering strengths and mobilizing resources. All environments, even the most bleak, contain supports and resources. Review of Workshop #2 – Coaching to Motivate and Build Solutions A coaches role is to support and assist Express empathy Develop discrepancy Roll with resistance Support self-efficacy Solution-oriented strategies to respond to resistance Core value of respect Listening for values Where Are We Headed? Strategies for Change Talk Techniques to Resolve Ambivalence and Build Motivation Partner exercise Giving Information and Advice Resolving Ambivalence Signals of change: When you see a participant weighing the pluses and minuses of a possible change Your goal: • Prompt a commitment to change • Use what you know about their values or find out more Ambivalence Defined Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone. - Jim doesn’t want his kids to take the bus so he drives them to school everyday, which makes him late to work and causes him to lose his job.
    [Show full text]
  • Workshop 1: Principles of Motivational Interviewing
    BASIC VOLUME Elements of Drug Dependence Treatment Module 2 Motivating clients for treatment and addressing resistance Basic counselling Special Principles of skills for drug considerations motivational dependence when involving interviewing treatment families in drug dependence treatment Workshop 3 Principles of motivational interviewing Training objectives At the end of this workshop, you will be able to: ► Understand the nature of motivation as it influences behavioural change ► Understand the role of the clinician and the patient/client when using motivational strategies for behavioural change ► Understand the Stages of Change Model and be able to identify a minimum of 3 components ► Identify a minimum of 3 principles of motivational interviewing An introduction to motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change Motivating clients: Definition Motivational interviewing is a client-centred style of interaction aimed at helping people explore and resolve their ambivalence about their substance use and begin to make positive changes. 6 In other words… Many people who engage in harmful substance use do not fully recognise that they have a problem or that their other life problems are related to their use of drugs and/or alcohol. It seems surprising… That people don’t simply stop using drugs, considering that drug addiction creates so many problems for them and their families. 7 However… People who engage in harmful drug or alcohol use often say they want to stop using, but they simply don’t know how, are unable to, or are not fully ready to stop. Understanding How People Change: Models ► Traditional approach ► Motivation for change 8 Traditional approach ► Change is motivated by discomfort ► If you can make people feel bad enough, they will change ► People have to “hit bottom” to be ready for change ► Corollary: People don’t change if they haven’t suffered enough 9 Traditional approach If the stick is big enough, there is no need for a carrot.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Ambivalence, Shame and Guilt: Perceptions Regarding Termination of Pregnancy Among South African Women
    EDITORIAL Of ambivalence, shame and guilt: Perceptions regarding termination of pregnancy among South African women Termination of pregnancy (TOP) for health or other With regard to the question ‘What were your thoughts after the reasons is an emotive and contentious issue, steeped in procedure?’, ambivalence was again a common theme. Regarding the context of a political, moral and religious climate. respondents’ experience of the actual procedure, the theme of For most women, the decision to have a TOP is not ambivalence was once again prominent. Negative feelings about the easy, regardless of the reason. While early literature[1-3] experience were mainly personal feelings of guilt and shame and supported the notion that that there is little in the way of negative pain. Many women expressed surprise that there was so much pain, sequelae following TOP, more recent long-term studies[4-6] have suggested and wished that they could have been offered more pain relief, while that negative sequelae may be more common than was previously others believed that they ‘deserved’ to be experiencing pain. Positive thought. Risk factors for the development of negative sequelae include the feelings were those of relief, feeling supported and happy, and feeling attitude projected by those providing the procedure (negative attitudes that they were treated well in a non-judgemental environment. It was of providers tend to promote emotional sequelae in women undergoing important that they were managed in a safe environment, that the TOP), previous psychological/psychiatric history (associated with higher treating person was sympathetic and that they were told what to rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression[6] following expect and how to relax.
    [Show full text]
  • ANONYMOUS COMMUNICATION in ORGANIZATIONS 159 Mously (D
    “The findings in these two studies 10.1177/0893318905279191MANAGEMENTNOVEMBERScott,ORGANIZATIONS Rains / ANONYMOUS2005 COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY IN / suggest that there ANONYMOUS COMMUNICATION is an important IN ORGANIZATIONS place for at least Assessing Use and Appropriateness some forms of CRAIG R. SCOTT anonymous University of Texas at Austin communication in STEPHEN A. RAINS University of Arizona organizations.” AUTHORS’NOTE: A previous version of this work was pre- sented on the Top Paper Panel of the Organizational Com- munication Division at the November 2002 Convention of the National Communication Association in New Orleans, LA. We would like to thank the journal reviewers for this arti- cle, whose appropriate use of anonymous feedback was help- ful in revising this work and focusing our ideas. Please direct all correspondence concerning this article to Craig R. Scott, Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; e-mail: [email protected] .edu. Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2, November 2005 157-197 DOI: 10.1177/0893318905279191 © 2005 Sage Publications 157 158 MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY / NOVEMBER 2005 The two exploratory studies reported here examine use and appropriatenessof anonymous communication in the workplace and how they relate to key demo- graphic and organizational variables. In Study 1, use of traditional suggestion boxes, written feedback, and caller-identification blocking were the three most used forms of anonymous communication. In addition, open-ended responses suggested several situations and explanations for anonymity appropriateness. Study 2 identified six types of situations that differ in the extent to which anony- mous organizational communication is appropriate (from highest to lowest): organizational surveys and/or assessments, formal evaluations, use of technol- ogy, informal evaluations, general use, and firing.
    [Show full text]