[Ethnocomm] EC studies on organizational communication

[Kellie Brownlee]

Hi Sunny and Trudy,

I have done a fair amount of research on LSI and org comm literature for my dissertation. I think there are some really interesting connections to consider, especially related to the theoretical distinction or overlap between what counts as a speech community and what counts as an organization. 

As far as EC studies go, here is a summary paragraph I wrote where I list some key EC studies in organizational contexts:

The ethnography of communication provides a foundation for studying organizations in a culture-centered way. EC studies on organizations include cultural tensions at a U.S. television station (Carbaugh, 1988), interpersonal networks in an industrial Mexican organization (Covarrubias, 2002), trainings in an online language-learning for-profit (Hart, 2016), act structures in town hall meetings (Townsend, 2009), and narrative practice in Quaker meetings (Molina-Markham, 2012). Although these studies focused on organizational sites, they did not analyze specific processes of organizing or structural features of the organizations. Instead, the authors focused on each site as a unique speech community and explored the cultural dimensions of language use among members.

Two authors who specifically focused on the connections between EC and org comm theory are Peters and Ruud. Here are the sources I found useful:

Peters, K. (2017). The Meeting Revisited: Emergent Events, (Dis)order, and Cultivating Organization. Retrieved from CU Scholar, Communication Graduate Theses & Dissertations. 70. https://scholar.colorado.edu/comm_gradetds/70

Ruud, G. (1995). The symbolic construction of organizational identities and community in a regional symphony. Communication Studies, 46(3-4), 201-221.

Ruud, G. (2000). The symphony: Organizational discourse and the symbolic tensions between artistic and business ideologies. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 28(2), 117-143.

Trudy’s book on Nonprofit Organizations was also very helpful, but I’m sure you have that on your list already! Good luck with the project, it sounds amazing and I can’t wait to hear more about it.

Best,
Kellie Brownlee
Doctoral Candidate & Graduate Instructor
Lead Graduate Student Fellow, CTL <https://www.colorado.edu/center/teaching-learning/>
Department of Communication, University of Colorado Boulder
she / her / hers










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