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...project examines a school board's discussion of a communication policy as a way of understanding the communication problems that the board had recently experienced. A relationally responsive social constructionist perspective is applied to analyze board members' talk during a meeting and how meanings of communication and the communication problem are discursively negotiated in the interactions of board members. The analysis describes differing contexts of accountability to which board members orient in their organizational communication practices; these contexts consist of the organizational and the political.
Keywords: meetings; social constructionism; school boards; metacommunication; problem formulation
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On June 5, 2002, Midwest Unified School District (1) (MUSD) Superintendent A resigned his position in a dramatic close to a school board meeting. As described the following day in the local newspaper,
[A], hired as interim chief in late July 2001, said he became frustrated Tuesday night during a board meeting called to consider budget cuts. He wrote his resignation out long-hand on a sheet of yellow legal paper and handed it to board president [B] when the meeting ended after midnight Wednesday.
During the months following the resignation, the MUSD school board received increasing criticism, internally and externally, of its communication. Superintendent A had described the communication problems as being that school board members showed "a lack of respect and [have] been verbally abusive." The board also received criticism for micromanaging through the direct involvement of board members in the operation of schools, thereby undermining the administration. In August 2002, the new interim superintendent, C, presented a proposal to the school board to change the current policy on communication procedures between the district staff to the school board to address some of the communication problems in the organization.
School boards are an example of a hybrid organizational group in which membership consists of individuals representing diverse backgrounds and stakeholders. Examples of these groups include governing boards, cross-functional organizational teams, and interorganizational collaborations. All of these groups face the similar challenge of needing to act as a unit to accomplish organizational goals while at the same time consisting of members from diverse backgrounds who may have their own individual goals and/or assumptions that they bring to bear from their other group identities. These differences in turn can result in communication problems.
The purpose of this project is to apply a relationally responsive social constructionist approach, as articulated by Shotter and associates (Cunliffe, 2001, 2002; Shotter, 1993a, 1993b, 2004, 2005) in the analysis of a school board's discussion of a communication policy. Generally, a constructionist perspective assumes that social reality is created, maintained, and negotiated through the interactions and discursive practices of social actors (Burr, 1995). The relationally responsive perspective highlights the interconnection between interaction, context, and social accountability, making it particularly apropos for understanding group meetings in which multiple contextual factors are at play. The discussion of a communication policy provides an exemplary discursive site for describing participants' conceptualizations of communication and of their problems associated with communication.
The main rationale for this project is that understanding assumptions related to communication is crucial for understanding how communication may be used to maintain or change conflicts among board members and other groups with diverse representation. Although this study focuses on a school board, the results from this project can be used to understand the communication dynamics of other boards and hybrid decision-making groups more generally.
In the following sections, I further situate the research context by reviewing other studies related to hybrid groups. The second section describes the relationally responsive social constructionist approach and presents conceptual framing for the social construction of communication problems. These concepts are then applied to a case study of a school board's discussion of an organizational communication policy. In applying the relationally responsive social constructionist approach, I identify how school board members with divergent positions present themselves as socially accountable by orienting to different contexts of accountability that include the organizational and political.
COMMUNICATION IN HYBRID ORGANIZATIONAL GROUPS
In describing related studies on hybrid organizational interactions, I review studies that focus on language use and social interaction in intraorganizational and interorganizational meetings. Collectively, these studies highlight how communication problems in these meetings can be understood in terms of differences in discourse communities, codes of communication, cultural logics, and/or language use. In other words, they highlight how assumptions regarding communication are interrelated with misalignments in communication.
Palmeri (2004) describes a discourse community as consisting of "a group of people who share common assumptions about the discourse conventions and standards of evidence that must be employed for a written text to claim authority as knowledge" (p. 39). In examining interprofessional collaborative writing in a law firm oriented toward medical cases, Palmeri describes how the different discourse communities of the legal professionals, medical professionals, and writers presented challenges when members worked together on collaborative writing projects. These differences included preferences regarding quantity of writing, types of details to convey, and writing style. According to Palmeri, because of their different discourse communities, writing team members had different criteria for what and how to write. Expectations for appropriate ways to communicate were contingent on the background discourse community of the organizational member.
In a similar vein, ethnographers of communication have examined organizational interactions in times of disagreement. These disagreements can be understood through the different codes of communication used by organizational members. For example, Baxter (1993) identified competing codes of collegiality versus bureaucracy regarding university governance among faculty and administration. Carbaugh (1988), in examining communication at a public television station, analyzed how members of the station viewed others at the station in different group categories.
One commonality in examining organizational communication differences in terms of discourse communities and codes of communication is the emphasis on organizational culture. More broadly, other studies have identified how differences in culture or cultural logics can be used to understand conflicts in hybrid groups. Miller (1994) identified how ethnic cultural differences regarding the meaning of meetings were related to misunderstandings among Japanese and American coworkers. Bennington, Shetler, and Shaw (2003) and Gephart, Steier, and Lawrence (1990) each examined interorganizational interactions related to public discussions of environmental problems. Both also described the conflicts among various organizational members in terms of cultural differences or cultural logics.
Some studies also identified how, more generally, language use can help in understanding problematic communication situations in hybrid group interactions. Milburn, Kenefick, and Lambert (2005) analyzed the challenges associated with collaboration during a board of directors' retreat for a family center. In particular, the criticisms and style of speaking of one individual caused difficulties in achieving a collaborative frame during the retreat. Mehan (1983) examined school meetings among teachers, counselors, and parents to determine whether certain children should be placed in special education classes. Mehan noted various language styles used by participants and how decisions tended to correlate with the wishes of individuals who used more professional sounding language.
The work of Tracy and associates (Tracy & Ashcraft, 2001; Tracy & Muller, 2001; Tracy & Standerfer, 2003) is most relevant to this project given their focus on school board interactions and problematic communication. Developing and applying an action-implicative discourse analytic approach, Tracy and associates described the interconnection between communication practices, problems of communication, and situated ideals. With regard to communication problems, at play in this area for Tracy and associates' research subjects is identity presentation while balancing multiple goals.
One exception to the focus on identifying problems of communication in hybrid groups is Cooren (2004a, 2004b). In examining discussions of a board for a drug rehabilitation center, Cooren identified how the board achieves "collective minding." Of particular note from Cooren's study was that coordination among board members was not a pre-existing state but was instead worked out in the process of discussion, turn by turn.
The preceding studies collectively illustrate the prevalence of hybrid group interactions in a range of organizational contexts. In addition, they show the significance of language use, interaction, and culture or community in understanding conflict and communication problems. A relationally responsive social constructionist approach adds another layer of understanding to the described studies by focusing on context and accountability. The relationally responsive approach will be explained in greater detail to elaborate on how this approach can contribute to the understanding of hybrid group interactions.
THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMING
Relationally Responsive Social Constructionism
Social constructionism as a general perspective views reality as created, maintained, and/or transformed through...
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