Understanding the Western Herald's Newsroom Culture
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 6-2008 Organizational Culture and Change: Understanding the Western Herald's Newsroom Culture Sarah Ling Wei Lee Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Organizational Communication Commons Recommended Citation Wei Lee, Sarah Ling, "Organizational Culture and Change: Understanding the Western Herald's Newsroom Culture" (2008). Master's Theses. 4092. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/4092 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE: UNDERSTANDING THE WESTERNHERALD'S NEWSROOM CULTURE by Sarah Ling Wei Lee A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillmentof the requirements forthe Degree of Master of Arts School of Communication WesternMichigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan June 2008 Copyright by Sarah Ling Wei Lee 2008 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to begin by acknowledging staffers at the Western Herald for providing me with the opportunity to learn about their organization, and also the staffers' kind support and participation in my study. Without their openness and receptiveness to my study, the work contained in this thesis would not have been possible. Secondly, I would like to thank the people who took time to discuss with me their perceptions of the topics contained herein, specifically Dr. Maureen Taylor, Dr. Kathleen Wong (Lau), Dr. Leigh Ford, and Siobhan Keenan. I also thank the members of my graduate committee, Dr. Sandra Borden, Dr. Julie Apker, Dr. Jennifer Machiorlatti, and Sue Ellen Christian. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Sandra Borden for editing my manuscript and bringing some cohesiveness to the material I am presenting. Her help in coalescing my ideas into something substantive has simply been invaluable. Lastly, I would like to thank my fiance, Chancellor, for his love and support throughout my graduate education, especially putting up with the many late hours I took working through the night I would also like to thank my family, fiance's family, friends and colleagues for their constant support and taking the time to listen and learn about my research interests in graduate school. Sarah Ling Wei Lee .. ll ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE: UNDERSTANDING THE WESTERNHERALD'S NEWSROOM CULTURE Sarah Ling Wei Lee, M.A. Western Michigan University, 2008 The purpose of this study is to explore organizational culture and change in a college newspaper's newsroom. Student journalists often use college newspapers as a means to get editorial experience and also to get published. Even so, the college newspaper newsroom is unlike a typical metropolitan or local community newspaper's newsroom in the way that it experiences change. College newspapers encounter organizational change as part of the newsroom's inner workings constantly because of frequent turnover and other factors. As a result, they are suitable for understanding how staff members make sense of newsroom culture in a dynamic,._ changing environment. Two methods were used to gather data for this study: observations and long interviews. A textual analysis using Baxter and Montgomery's (1998) dialectical framework was used to analyze the interview transcripts. The findings suggest that editors and staffers at the Herald experience change as inherently contradictory and ineffective. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTI ON..................................................................................... Purpose and Assumptions .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 II. LI TERATURE REVIEW........................................................................... 12 Organizational Culture........................................................................ 13 DefiningOrganizational Culture .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 15 Newsroom Culture as Organizational Culture............................. 21 Professional Culture .. .. .. ............ .. .... ..... ........ .. ............................. 23 Organizational Development and Change.......................................... 26 Defining Organizational Development and Change.................... 27 Types of Organizational Change: College Newspapers v. Professional Newspapers....................... 28 Three Levels of Organization Change......................................... 32 Sensemaking in Organizations........................................................... 33 Forms of Sensemaking................................................................ 37 Dialectical Theory............................................................................... 40 Four Core Assumptions............................................................... 41 Six Dialectical Tensions.............................................................. 42 111 Table of Contents-Continued CHAPTER III. METHOD ........................................................................................................ 46 Research Participants and Research Site........................................... 47 Becoming the Human Instrument................................................ 47 Research Site ............................................................................... 49 Negotiating Entry into the Newsroom......................................... 50 Recruiting Participants................................................................. 52 Protection of Human Subjects..................................................... 54 Data Collection and Analysis .......................... ........ .......... ......... ..... .. 56 Conducting and Analyzing Observations ............................... ..... 56 Long Interviews........................................................................... 61 Coding the Interview Data........................................................... 62 Evaluating Reliability and Validity . .. .. .... .. .... ....... .... .. ..... ..... ...... ... .... 65 Reliability .................................................................................... 65 Validity........................................................................................ 66 Limitations of Methods...................................................................... 68 IV. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS...................................................................... 71 Cultural Changes Experienced by Herald Staffers............................ 71 Making Sense of Cultural Changes: Dialectical Tensions and Praxis .......................................................................................... 78 General Newsroom Tensions....................................................... 81 College Newspaper Tensions ...................................................... 86 IV Table of Contents-Continued CHAPTER Herald Newspaper Tensions........................................................ 94 Praxis: How Herald Staffers Cope with Dialectical Tensions .......... 105 Reaffirmation............................................................................... 105 Recali bra tion................................................................................ 106 Integration.................................................................................... 106 Negative Case Analysis ..................................................................... 107 V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ......................................................... 111 Limitations of the Study .................................................................... 112 Suggestions for Future Research ............ ....... .............. ............. ......... 114 College Workplace Friendships................................................... 114 Multiple Temporary Roles........................................................... 115 College Student Leadership......................................................... 116 Human Resources Departments in College Newspapers............. 116 The Dialectical Tension Between Professional Newspapers and College Newspapers.............................................................. 118 Defining a College Student's Understanding of "A Real Job"................................................................................ 119 Conclusion......................................................................................... 120 REFERENCES.............. ......................................................................................... 123 ENDNOTES ........................................................................................................... 136 V Table of Contents-Continued APPENDICES........................................................................................................ 137 A. Observations Consent Form ...... ..... ......... .. ................ ..... .. ............. ... .......... 137 B. Re-approved Observations Consent Form.................................................. 140 C. Long Interviews Consent Form .................................................................. 143 D. Interview Protocol .... ..... ..... .. .. .. .... ........... .... ....... .. ..... .. ... .................