Communication Consultants as Organizational Sensemakers: Applying the Team Metaphor
Date
1998Author
Gribas, John
Giordano, Joseph
Sims, Judy
Publisher
The Speech Communication Association of Pennsylvania, Inc.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study concerns an organizational communication intervention in which researchers explored the role metaphor plays in organizational development and change. Specifically, the team concept as a strategically ambiguous metaphor was applied as an interpretive approach to an intervention involving staff in an office providing support services for students at a medium-sized public university in the upper Midwest of the U.S. A survey questionnaire, administered through face-to-face interviews, served as the primary analysis tool. The questionnaire, which functioned as an interview guide, was designed based on discussions between the three researchers, the office director, and information from a recent annual report written by the office director. Open and closed-ended questions were designed, for example, to investigate communication patterns and networks existing among the office staff; the impact of numerous recent changes; the nature of job satisfaction; descriptions of critical incidents that had occurred with the past calendar year; and perceptions of “teamness” among office staff. Researchers met to review and interpret the data; responses for each question were organized into thematic categories. Recommendations were presented to the office staff. Feedback from the staff revealed the team metaphor functioned as a relevant and helpful framework for understanding shared experiences. Approximately one year later, follow-up interviews were conducted with the staff. Overall, responses indicated the staff continued to view the intervention as a positive and beneficial experience; they seemed to support the utility of the team metaphor, strategic ambiguity, and overall interpretive approach. This study illustrates the problems arising from different understandings of the team metaphor, the utility of the team metaphor as a means of therapeutic perceptual reframing, and the overall value of interpretive techniques for organizational assessment and intervention.
Subject
Communication networks
Communication patterns
Critical incidents
Face-to-face interviews
Framework for understanding shared experiences
Interpretive approach to intervention
Job satisfaction
Organizational assessment
Organizational change
Organizational communication intervention
Organizational development
Perceptions of teamness
Survey questionnaire
Team concept
Team metaphor
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/78845Citation
Gribas, J., Giordano, J. & Sims, J. (1998). Communication consultants as organizational sensemakers: Applying the team metaphor. The Pennsylvania Speech Communication Annual, LIV, 39-56.
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