Noting that the encouragement of employee commitment to the organization is a top-priority item across much of corporate America, this paper focuses on numerous rhetorical employee identification strategies utilized by USAir, one of America's largest airlines. After a brief synopsis of the history of USAir, the paper first reports on an…

Analyzes (using flight attendants) hidden transcripts--interactions, stories, myths, and rituals in which employees participate beyond direct observation--to provide an avenue to identify resistance and change in the organizing process. Challenges the outdated ideal of transmissional meaning, questions organizational power by including the…

Provides an examination of management and employee values as influential for organizational rule formation. Demonstrates that management values are directly related to employee values but indirectly influence the evolution of organization rules. Supports a view of rule emergence based on management and employee values. (HB)

Examines some examples of discourse practices among managers and employees in the customer service department of a large manufacturing firm. Shows how knowledge of the ways that language can both include and exclude people from cultural groups in the worksite can help professional communicators facilitate more effective and responsible…

Finds that coworker conversations regarding differential treatment serve two primary functions: they create perceptions of differential treatment, and they reinforce preexisting perceptions of differential treatment. Shows that members tend to emphasize the subordinate's role in the incident over the supervisor's and rely heavily on equity…

The primary intent of this paper is to provide an ideological critique of one instance of "union talk," which the paper takes to be representative of organized labor discourse at large. To reach this goal, the question of the need for and value of unions is specifically addressed in the paper, and a review of the studies existing within…

Examines the communicatively constructed nature of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and gender. Analyzes actual routine work conversations to produce 12 discourse patterns that discriminated between high, medium, and low LMX relationships. Focuses on the functioning of the patterns and the influence of gender in the construction of high, medium, and…

A study was conducted to explore the language or discourse of the administrative assistant in an effort to gain insight into the development of the superior/subordinate relationship. The study also explored differences in gender-based behavioral expectations identified through a content analysis of administrative assistants' messages. The…