Management Communication Quarterly

Workplaces are increasingly full of complex technologies embedded in dynamic infrastructures demanding workers to assess and understand unanticipated problems. In order to comprehensively appraise the role of technological complexity and the uncertainties it affords in a complex, high-stakes setting, we interviewed and observed members of three interdisciplinary STEM laboratories. Findings revealed that organizational members navigated uncertainty by cultivating ignorant expertise (i.e., not knowing but figuring it out). This form of expertise emerged as a combination of two practices: the practice of emergent troubleshooting and the practice of negotiating new practices. In discussing these findings, we offer three key takeaways. We demonstrate that ignorant expertise: (a) operates as a dialectic of hesitancy and boldness and is mobilized through ignorant yet knowledgeable actions; (b) is communicatively performed through think-out-loud and storytelling techniques, and developing interpersonal rapport with organizational members; and (c) establishes technological complexity as a catalyst for organizing processes.

Despite evidence indicating that some front-line employees account for their service failures by undermining coworkers or blaming customers, previous service-recovery research in the restaurant industry has virtually ignored the effects of such actions. This lack of attention is unfortunate considering possible threats to employees’ images and incomes, and to the success of restaurants. This study addressed this issue. Participants (N = 604) viewed videos of hypothetical restaurant encounters in which food servers offered various accounts for service failures (i.e., delivering incorrect orders) to customers. While imagining they were the customers, participants rated servers (e.g., likeability, credibility, predicted tip) and the restaurant (e.g., likelihood of returning and recommending to others). Accounts that blamed mistakes on others (i.e., customers or coworkers) or minimized mistakes were predicted to be significantly less effective than more traditionally studied account types (e.g., apologies) in repairing the image of servers and the restaurant. Despite notable exceptions, these predictions were supported. Additionally, given a double-bind effect reported in past studies, we predicted, but did not find, that females would be less successful than males when blaming others. Theoretical and practical implications for service industry managers and workers are discussed.

Contemporary organizations increasingly embrace multiple identities, but such hybridity may fuel innovation. This research examines communicative drivers of organizational hybridity (i.e., network, community, and institutional) and how plural organizational identities relate to the creation of novel ideas. Research composed of survey, archival, and expert evaluation data from 293 U.S. nonprofits highlights the influence of institutional factors on the development of hybrid social-business organizational identities. Moreover, the availability of charitable donations in the local community and institutional demands from the market are positively related to an organization’s innovativeness orientation and/or social innovation novelty, and the nonprofit commercialization environment of the local community is also positively related to social innovation novelty. Findings suggest nonprofit and business orientations are not necessarily contradictory, and that organizations can realize innovation through blending dual identities. This study advances research on hybrid organizing, organizational identity, and social innovation and offers implications for leveraging hybrid identities for social impact.

Metrics are increasingly used by organizations to communicate and evaluate how employees’ actions align with organizational goals. In practice, metrics provide a mechanism for making some work visible, but in doing so can create a paradox whereby it is more difficult to understand what behaviors are contributing to outcomes. This study focused on the use of TechMetric, a composite score reflecting online behaviors at Beta Corp., a large multinational technology-consulting organization. Ethnographic research captured the communication surrounding the introduction of TechMetric. Our findings showed that the implementation of TechMetric created situations in which the use of metrics communicated a shift in what managers prioritized and ultimately discouraged desired behaviors and undermined optimal work routines. This research makes an important contribution to the study of organizational metrics by illustrating how the measurement of workers’ behaviors can enact distinct tensions. Further, the communicative efforts to navigate those tensions can produce paradoxical outcomes.

Purpose: This study investigates the phases of voicing processes and associated communicative strategies in the context of the renewable energy industry in Kenya. Data collection and findings: Drawing on in-depth interviews (N =23), we propose a communicative model of voicing that consists of the fundamental voicing phases of ideating, planning, initial enactment, reflexive enactment, and outcome. These phases are co-constructed in ongoing interactions among organizational members, challenging the assumption that voicing is an individual, one-shot endeavor. From the perspectives of both supervisors and subordinates, our findings unveiled a spectrum of communication strategies utilized throughout the voicing phases. Implications: Our study advances voice scholarship by reconceptualizing constructive employee voice as an interactive, ongoing, and processual communicative act. Further, our findings contribute to voice scholarship by elucidating: (a) how voicers navigate the risks associated with voicing, (b) how power and status disparities influence the choice of communication strategies across the voicing phases, and (c) the ways voicers’ peers contribute to the voicing process. Our study offers practical insights for voicers, voicers’ peers, recipients, and organizations into how to cultivate effective and meaningful voicing.

This forum joins communication researchers who explore high reliability organizations (HROs) and teams to discuss the communicative foundations of HRO. We argue that organizational communication researchers can make meaningful contributions to present challenges in HRO research. These challenges include (1) HRO’s focus on organizations versus processes of organizing, (2) tensions in defining success and failure to create reliability, and (3) the privileging of rational thought patterns and communication over emotional and care-centered communication. The authors in this forum push boundaries around organization types, consider overlooked and obscured knowledge, and question the role of power and materiality in HROs. Together, the forum advocates for the unique contributions organizational communication scholars can make to the study of HRO and, just as significantly, what HRO theorizing can contribute to organizational communication.