Synopses & Reviews
Given the increasingly diverse terrain of 21st century organizational life, researchers and studentsaare exploring theoretical frameworks and analytic tools that attempt to understand organizing processes in all of their richness and complexity. As such, there is widespread recognition of the need to examine organizations as constructed through, and repositories of, difference; that is, as complex intersections of discourses of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other markers of difference. In this sense, organizations are one of the principal sites where odifferences that make a differenceo (Bateson) are produced and reproduced.Communication is not something that simply occurs in organizations; rather, organizing processes are constituted and made meaningful by the mundane communication practices of its members. The purpose of Organizing Difference, then, is to examine difference as a communicative phenomenon: a The odifferences that make a differenceo are social and material constructions that can be productively understood by examining them as communicatively accomplished. All of the scholars in this volumeaexplore difference from a variety of perspectives, each of which examines systematically the relationships among communication, organizing, and difference.KEY FEATURES &BAD: amp; BENEFITS: Organizing Difference explores the relationships among communication, organizing, and difference through three foci: a (1) Research, (2) Pedagogy, and (3) Practice.--In Section I-Researching Difference, organizational communication scholars explore a number of ways in which difference can be critically examined as a communicative phenomenon, with the goal being to demonstrate the importance of odifferenceo as a constructua sensitizing deviceuthrough which the complexities of organizational communication processes can be examined and better understood.--In Section II-Teaching Difference, chapters move beyond oteaching diversity in the workplaceo and instead explore how students can learn to appreciate difference as an endemic feature of work environments as well as organizing processes writ large.--In Section III-Practicing Difference, chapters explore difference not simply in terms of oworkplace diversityo initiatives, but examine it more broadly as a communicative mechanism through which organizations enable some possibilities and exclude others.Contributors represent a Who's Who of both established and emerging scholars in this area, including Stan Deetz, Linda Putnam, Gail Fairhurst, Brenda Allen, Patrice Buzzanell, Karen Ashcraft, Sarah Dempsey, Erika Kirby, Lynn Harter, and William Rawlins.
Synopsis
Bringing together prominent scholars in the field of organizational communication to examine the relationship between difference and organizing, this book explores the concept in a comprehensive and systematic way. Part I explores numerous ways in which difference can be critically examined as a communicative phenomenon; Part II addresses how best to teach difference, including pragmatic recommendations for explaining the topic and making it relevant to students lives; and Part III broadly examines difference as a central construct in applied organizational communication research. Ultimately, the book serves to carve out a new agenda for studies of difference and organization, and it challenges instructors and students alike to think about and explore difference in a more complex and productive manner.