Bureaucratic work situations, particularly those with commercial goals, rationalize not only people's work tasks, but their social demeanor and behavior. This study examines the impact of such rationalization of appearance and interaction on clerical workers in several branches of a large bank. (Author/AM)

The purpose of this study was first to map the functional communication structure of a 142-member formal organization, then to analyze that structure to identify work groups (Cliques) and interlinking liaison role persons, and finally to describe certain differences between liaison persons and nonliaison members of the work groups as perceived by…

The article views power as a potential tool for human resource development (HRD) practitioners and focuses on personal power (the ability to influence others) rather than on role power (the right to influence others). Manipulation is discussed as a way to exercise personal power. (Author/BP)

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Assoc. (San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 29, 1967)

Three potentially useful perspectives for the scientific development of human communication theory are the law model, the systems approach, and the rules paradigm. It is the purpose of this paper to indicate the utility of the rules perspective. For the purposes of this analysis, human communication is viewed as the successful transfer of symbolic…

Argument of this article is that the instrumental approach to communication, or as authors label it, the rhetorical approach, best promises to facilitate human understanding and to effect social cohesion. (Editor/MB)

Other-directed (interpersonally sensitive) or inner-directed (interpersonally less sensitive) students (N=80) observed a videotape of a person acting in either a role-consonant or a role-deviant manner. As expected, there was significantly less variance among the ratings when other-directed observers viewed role-deviant behavior than in the other…

Three potentially useful perspectives for the scientific development of human communication theory are the law model, the systems approach, and the rules paradigm. It is the purpose of this paper to indicate the utility of the systems approach. The first section of this paper provides a brief account of the systems view of the world. Outlined in…

The concept of social role range (SRR) deals with the magnitude of an individual's repertoire of different interpersonal behavior patterns and exhibits the properties of a personality trait. Over a broad range of interpersonal settings, individuals tend to be consistent in the magnitude of their SRR's. A role play technique was devised for…

This study examines the effects of sex upon the perception, evaluation and reciprocation of self-disclosing behavior. Subjects were 68 Rutgers University undergraduates who responded to a written statement attributed to either a male or female. The statements varied according to level of intimacy; some disclosed intimate information, while others…

Included in a current genre of studies on dyadic interaction (i.e., communication involving only two people), the study reported herein focuses on dyadic verbal, nonverbal, and proxemic behaviors and their meanings. The study is inductive in nature and is, by intent, descriptive and analytic rather than predictive. The subjects for the study were…

A study was conducted to examine whether androgynous individuals would view out-of-role implicit behavior by both male and female managers more positively than would either masculine or feminine individuals and whether low status behavior by the managers would be rated as being more considerate than high status behavior. Two weeks after completing…

In this speech delivered to the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, the author reviews five papers presented for discussion, and integrates them into treatment of the family, gender role and sexuality. She further indicates theoretical flaws and weaknesses, as well as problems in the fieldwork on data accumulation. (MML)

An experiment was devised to apply role theory to the prediction of communication behavior by observing dominance behavior as a function of gender and attitudes toward sex role stereotypes. Task type was used as an exploratory variable. The hypothesized interaction of gender and sex role attitudes did not occur, and the hypothesis that men would…