Listening as an Organizational Construct

Abstract

Abstract A review of contemporary research and theory on listening reveals that researchers typically define listening as an individual skill, attribute, attitude, or characteristic. Listening is often conceptualized as something that occurs in a context. Alternatively, listening can be conceptualized as a characteristic of context. Specifically, listening may be conceptualized as a characteristic of organizational culture. Data collected from 50 subjects working in 41 organizations indicated that organizational members do attribute listening as an organizational characteristic and describe their attributions in organizational, rather than individual, terms. This finding has substantial implications for efforts to improve listening in organizations and for future research on listening in organizational contexts.