Abstract: This article extends recent developments in critical‐interpretive approaches to organizations by examining the relationship between power, ideology, and organizational narrative. It is argued that the production of organizational reality can be explained in terms of its structuration through ideological meaning formations; such meaning formations simultaneously produce and are created by the structure of power interests in organizations. Organizational narrative is examined as one of the principal symbolic forms through which organizational ideology and power structures are both expressed and constituted.

Abstract: Triandis' (1986) refined conceptualization of individualism‐collectivism suggests that this dimension of culture influences individuals’ behavior with members of their ingroups and outgroups. Drawing on his analysis, predictions were made regarding the influence of individualism‐collectivism on the degree of personalization, synchronization, and difficulty that occurs in ingroup and outgroup relationships. The predictions were tested using data on perceptions of communication in relationships with strangers (outgroup) and classmates (ingroup) in Japan, Korea, and the United States. The results indicated that individualism‐collectivism was related systematically to perceptions of communication in ingroup relationships, but its relationship to perceptions of communication in outgroup relationships was more complicated. To explain the link between individualism‐collectivism and perceptions of personalization, synchronization and difficulty in communication with members of outgroups, it appears that it is nec...

Abstract: In this article we respond to James Stiff's (1986) recent critique of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981, 1986b). In particular, we make the following corrections to Stiff's misrepresentation of the model: (1) Many variables other than “involvement”; can affect the elaboration likelihood and thus the route to persuasion, (2) variables can serve in multiple roles under specifiable conditions, and (3) the ELM does not preclude multi‐channel information processing. After correcting these misperceptions of the ELM, we critique Stiffs meta‐analyses comparing the ELM predictions with those he derives from Kahneman's (1973) elastic capacity model. His analysis of message factors is critiqued on the grounds that some of the message factors included in the analysis are capable of affecting attitudes via either the central or the peripheral route. His analysis of source factors is critiqued on the grounds of insufficient sample size, lack of statistical significance, and po...

Abstract: This is paper describes the development of a system for analyzing the management of multiple communicative goals in interpersonal arguments. The message analysis system was designed to classify conversationally produced messages in terms of (1) the communicative role of the message producer; (2) the position taken toward the issue on the floor; (3) the explicitness with which conflict is acknowledged; and (4) the manner in which the subsidiary communicative goals of face protection and interaction maintenance are managed. In an initial investigation using this system, differential reliance on goal management strategies was associated, on the one hand, with individual differences in construct differentiation, and on the other hand, with differing degrees of interpersonal success. Associations among the four dimensions of the message analysis system were also observed, and were consistent with a rational goal‐based analysis of communication.

Abstract: This paper examines the dimensionality of compliance‐gaining message use ratings. Data from three studies are reanalyzed. The reanalyses suggest that the multidimensional solutions presented in these studies are spurious. Instead, a unidimensional model is shown to fit the data. This model predicts a nonlinear regression of compliance‐gaining message use ratings onto total compliance‐gaining message use score. Nonlinearity causes the regression of one compliance‐gaining message use rating onto another to be nonlinear. The degree of nonlinearity is a function of the discrepancy between the mean ratings for the two messages. Nonlinearity affects the correlations between messages, so that messages with similar mean ratings correlate more highly with one another than with messages with dissimilar mean ratings. This result introduces variance into the correlation matrix, which in turn produces spurious multidimensional solutions. The implications of this result for research concerning the antecedents of compli...

Abstract: This essay critically analyzes the recent work of Walter. Fisher on the “narrative paradigm.”; While Fisher's work has undeniable value, the implications of it have not been completely considered. This essay proposes three limitations on the narrative paradigm. First, Fisher's definition of narrative is too broad, encompassing nearly all discourse. Using Fisher's example of The Fate of the Earth, a case is built for the claim that a more limited definition of narrative is needed. Second, the view that there is an independent standard of narrative rationality that can be distinguished from the “rational world paradigm”; is considered and rejected. Finally, the claim that the proper role of the expert in the public sphere is that of story teller is also considered and rejected.

Abstract: Despite the persistence of sex‐typed images of the expressivity of wife and husband, past observational studies have given little indication of sex‐linked differences in marital communication. Thus, we proposed that inter personally negotiated role expectations would be a better predictor of communication about marital conflict than sex. However, we also proposed that there might be sex differences within particular clusters of couples who endorse sex‐differentiated role expectations. Couples were classified into groups using Fitzpatrick's (1983) typology. The results of two studies indicated that couple type was significantly related to communication about marital conflict; however, there were neither any clear overall sex differences in communication nor sex differences within couple types. Rather, the results indicated that conflict styles are so strongly reciprocal that mutual influence within conversations tends to remove individual speaker differences. The research suggests that mutual influence pro...

Abstract: This study investigated the role of importance, novelty, and plausibility of message information in producing belief change. Participants in the study were 224 university students who read messages...

Abstract: Subjective message construct theory maintains that the underlying constructs, or cognitive tests, that receivers apply to persuasive messages require that message information be perceived as important, novel, and plausible for belief change to occur. In three different studies a total of six complete replications of the theory were performed. For each replication respondents indicated their subjective beliefs in the probability of the claim, datum, claim given the datum, and claim if not the datum. These subjective probabilities were subsequently placed in a mathematical formulation that represented a multiplicative combination of importance, novelty, and plausibility. The results from six replications indicated that between 25 and 50% percent of the variance in belief change can be explained by subjective message construct theory. Additionally, the results from validity checks indicated that subjective probabilities can be used to construct valid operational measures of importance and novelty.

Abstract: (1987). A reply to Stiff and Boster. Communication Monographs: Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 257-263.

Abstract: This investigation examined the relationship between interpersonal orientation (IO) and speech behavior levels and adaptations. Speech behaviors studied included turn duration, vocalization duration, internal pause duration, response latency, speech rate, and interruptive and non‐interruptive simultaneous speech frequencies. Twenty low IOs (10 males and 10 females) and 20 high IOs (10 males and 10 females) participated in 25‐minute conversations with a same‐sex confederate. The results indicated that: (1) low IO males were least vocally active and expressive and least consistent in their speech performances, and (2) high IO males and low IO females tended to demonstrate greater speech convergence than the other two groups. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Abstract: Although numerous studies have examined the evaluative consequences of topic‐ or self‐disclosure reciprocity, none has examined the combined consequences of topic‐and self‐disclosure reciprocity. This study focuses on the combined evaluative consequences. It was hypothesized that messages which reciprocated both topic and intimacy would be more positively evaluated than messages which reciprocated only topic or intimacy. In turn, messages which reciprocated only topic or intimacy would be more positively evaluated than those reciprocating neither. An experimental study supported the hypothesis for initial low intimacy messages, and partially supported it for initial high intimacy messages. The results are examined in terms of competing interactional goals in a self‐disclosure context.

Abstract: This study investigated the influence of communicator gender and cultural ancestry on the selection of intense language for use in persuasive messages. Men and women of Caucasian, Chinese, and Japanese ancestry completed proattitudinal persuasive messages. As predicted, gender and cultural background interacted to influence the intensity of language chosen. Specifically, men of Chinese and Japanese ancestry produced significantly more intense messages than did their female counterparts, while no significant differences were apparent between the messages produced by Caucasian men and women.

Abstract: Prior research indicates that when a bargaining representative is held accountable by a constituency, tough, distributive bargaining is often the result and deadlocks become more probable. This study focuses upon two variables that have been hypothesized to mitigate against such debilitating effects: authority to reach agreements and self‐monitoring. The results confirmed the debilitating effects of accountability. Bargainers held accountable made more extreme initial offers, thought they were perceived to be less cooperative, took more time to negotiate, were more likely to deadlock, and were less satisfied with the outcomes than bargainers not held accountable. Authority interacted with accountability to influence straying from the group's aspiration level on initial and final offers. When accountable, bargainers with authority initially strayed further from the group's position but deviated less on their final offer than bargainers without authority. Delegated authority significantly reduced the number...

Abstract: The Fishbein‐Ajzen behavioral‐intentions model separates attitudinal and normative influences on behavioral intent. However, some investigations employing this model have obtained strong correlations between the attitudinal and normative components of that model, whereas others have reported no such result. The issue of the relatedness of attitudinal and normative determinants of intent is important to theorists of social behavior and the many researchers who employ the Fishbein‐Ajzen model, as well as to scholars of persuasion. Relying on constructivist theory and research, this investigation hypothesized that an individual difference variable, construct differentiation, mediates the degree of association persons are likely to exhibit between attitudinal and normative beliefs. Investigating the domain of politics and voting behavior, this study found support for that general hypothesis: persons with relatively undifferentiated political construct systems exhibited substantial collinearity between attitud...

Abstract: Self‐monitoring is one of the most popular individual difference variables in communication research. High and low self‐monitors are held to differ in terms of the social knowledge at their disposal. This paper reports a study undertaken to investigate these differences in social knowledge. The study revealed some support for the self‐oriented representations of low self‐monitors and the other‐oriented representations of high self‐monitors, but generally showed that self‐in‐situation information is more readily accessible for both high and low self‐monitors. In addition to these analyses involving the total self‐monitoring scale, parallel analyses are reported for the acting, extroversion, and other‐directedness subscales.

Abstract: The literature on conversational coherence is filled with devices that are believed to be the bases of coherence, but no test has been performed to determine if those devices are found more frequently in coherent than incoherent messages. This research was designed to find out how coherence is cued between turns in conversations. In Phase 1, the assumption that conversations contain explicit cues to coherence was tested by asking subjects to reconstruct conversations from randomized constituent remarks. Only if connections between turns were explicitly cued would subjects have any basis for placing turns together beyond levels expected by chance. The findings indicated that turns were consistently paired well beyond chance, suggesting that explicit cues to connections between turns in conversations do exist. The next step was to determine what those cues were. In Phase 2 a coding system was developed and applied to the pairs of turns identified in the reconstruction task as either coherent or incoherent. ...

Abstract: This paper presents a five‐step procedure for identifying metaphorical concepts guiding the rhetorical invention of three Cold War idealists”;: Henry Wallace, J. William Fulbright, and Helen Caldicott. The source of their collective failure to dispel threatening images of Soviet savagery is located in a recurrent system of metaphorical concepts (including MADNESS, PATHOLOGY, SICKNESS, AND FORCE) that promotes a reversal of the enemy‐image rather than its transcendence. By decivilizing America's image, “idealists”; turn the victimage ritual inward upon a self‐righteous nation and provoke “realists”; to regress further into decivilizing images of the Soviet Union.

Abstract: The present study investigated variations in emotional disclosures when making requests of one's spouse Unpleasant emotions are often thought of as “taboos,”; but this study demonstrated that, from the hearer's perspective, all unpleasant emotions are not equally negative In fact, in comparison to messages that were devoid of emotions and other types of unpleasant emotions, disclosing vulnerabilities and hostilities toward persons other than the hearer often prompted hearers to respond with more positive messages and to report a more positive attitude toward request compliance, one's relationship with the requester, and oneself Respondents, however, did not report any difference in the likelihood with which they would comply with requests on the basis of variations in emotional disclosures The hypotheses and the results are discussed in terms of the face‐needs of communicators

Abstract: This field study uses metaphor analysis to illuminate recent conflicts at Disneyland. A 30‐year change of emphasis of root‐metaphors from “drama”; to “family”; reflects fundamental differences in world‐view between management and employees. Recently, economic problems brought some of these differences to the surface, triggering a complex confrontation involving first‐ and second‐order issues. The implications of this confrontation for the future of Disneyland are discussed. Metaphor analysis is offered as one potentially useful method for studying the symbolic, dynamic aspects of organizational conflict.

Abstract: This article examines the speech “Atoms for Peace,”; delivered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 8, 1953. The author demonstrates how a complex rhetorical situation resulted in the crafting and exploitation of a public policy address. Far from serving as a precursor to nuclear disarmament, the speech functioned to bolster the international image of the United States as a peacemaker, to warn the Soviets against a preemptive nuclear strike, and to alert the American public to the dangers of a nuclear exchange.

Abstract: Six themes of physicians' relational communication were hypothesized to predict patients' satisfaction and compliance, to relate to strategies used by physicians to gain compliance, and to relate to frequency of physician‐patient contact. Telephone interviews with 234 adults who had seen a primary care physician within the previous six months confirmed that perceived relational communication was strongly related to affective, cognitive, and behavioral satisfaction. More expressions of receptivity, immediacy, composure, similarity, and formality and less dominance by the physician were associated with greater patient satisfaction. Only perceived similarity related to patient‐reported compliance. Several relational message themes were associated with physicians’ use of 17 verbal compliance‐gaining strategies. More prior contact also was associated with more perceived use of immediacy and receptivity messages by the physician and with more satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction was modestly correlated with comp...

Abstract: This study investigated the possibility that persuasive agents’ inability to obtain their goals symbolically is the major factor underlying their decisions to use direct coercion as a compliance‐gaining tactic. Several higher‐order interactions were tested to determine the joint effects oj persuasive agents’ communicative failure, persuasive agents’ and persuasive targets’ gender, and the nature of their relationship on agents’ decisions to use violence as a means of achieving their persuasive ends. Results confirmed the hypothesis that males were more likely than females to use violence against a noncompliant male persuasive target in a noninterpersonal relational context. Males were also more likely than females to use direct coercion against persistently noncompliant and noninterpersonal persuasive targets in relational contexts with short‐term consequences.

Abstract: An examination of American public discourse about civil rights in national magazines from 1939–1959 indicates three stages in the controversy: a positive re‐characterization of Blacks, an inclusion of Blacks under the nation's ideographs through an appeal to “law,”; and a final contest between segregationist and integrationist rhetorics. In this last stage, the universalizing influence of public argumentation favored the success of the more inclusive and universal integrationist rhetoric. The study indicates the potential for rhetorical analysis—the use of empirical case studies to develop historical and critical theories of the influence of rhetoric on social processes.

Abstract: The logic and procedures of causal modeling can help researchers avoid errors arising in more traditional analyses in a number of commonly occurring cases. A table of cases requiring causal modeling, or an equivalent technique, is presented. Nine years of published research in communication journals are reviewed to assess the adequacy of analysis in these situations. Standards for the conduct and reporting of causal modeling are also offered along with a review of their use in published causal modeling. These reviews indicate a number of areas demanding increased methodological rigor and sophistication in communication research.

Abstract: This paper provides the rationale for a systematic study of regional patterns of communication in the United States (US). Regionalism is conceptualized, regional influences on communication are examined, and their significance is established. Next, the regional development of the US is described through an account of regional history and an examination of forces that cause the decay, maintenance, and reestablishment of distinct regions. Finally, a program of regional research on US communication is proposed. Deficiencies in prior research are examined, rudimentary research efforts are considered, boundaries are described, and future research directions are provided.