Specific Communication Practices Research Articles

Public Discussions on Climate Crisis in the "New Media of Government": Trends, Dilemmas, and Pathways

In the ever-changing era of all-media development, the new government media has accelerated its development and played an irreplaceable role in promoting the openness of government affairs and guiding online public opinion. However, as a product of the integration of government agencies and new media, new government media has encountered difficulties and challenges in specific communication practices. This paper analyses the dilemmas encountered by new government media in climate crisis communication and proposes solutions regarding role positioning, content improvement, and increasing public participation in climate crisis public issue discussions.

ОКУПАЦІЙНИЙ УРБІЦИД: МІСЬКИЙ ДОСВІД І ПОВСЯКДЕННІ ПРАКТИКИ НАСЕЛЕННЯ (ПРИКЛАД ХЕРСОНА, УКРАЇНА

Wars, occupation regimes, and all other forms of political violence have a multidimensional and singular impact on all aspects of human life. In the spatial and temporal dimension, cities are always the primary targets of military interventions. The concept of urbicide as a specific violent policy against cities identifies direct or indirect destructive consequences for the physical and spatial structure of the city, urban experience, and urban identity. The article analyzes the changes in the functioning of Kherson and the everyday practices of its population aimed at surviving the occupation. It is determined that during the occupation, one of the «soft» scenarios of indirect urbicide was applied to the city with selective terror of the population and economic decline of the city. The post-occupation urbicide has all the signs of a more severe model of direct urbicide due to the constant shelling of the city, numerous damages to infrastructure, and further deterioration of the demographic structure and psycho-emotional state of the city's residents. The coexistence of citizens with the occupiers has been identified as one of the key challenges: 1) the militarization of urban space and a widespread sense of disenfranchisement with blatant human rights violations; 2) the absence of humanitarian aid deliveries, the cessation of local business, the banking system, and the introduction of the Russian ruble; 3) the elimination of access to Ukrainian communications and media, the occupation of the information space, and the transformation of urban identity; 4) the massive departure of the population from the occupied city. The study summarizes the strategies of the population's response to the challenges of wartime and the occupation regime. Under the influence of the restrictions of the military occupation regime, the city's population has actualized and developed specific security, adaptation, altruistic, communication and infrastructure everyday practices. In the active phase of hostilities during russia's current large-scale military intervention, this transformation of everyday practices has become the basis for mechanisms of survival, moral and civil resistance.

Micro-moments of social support: Self-service-occasioned offers at the family dinner table

ABSTRACT Extending work on the everyday communication practices through which relationships are constituted, we examined the micro–moments of food service and the provision of social support in field recordings of everyday family life. We found that frequently when communicators serve themselves an item at the dinner table they offer that item to others, even when there is no indication that the other needs it. We revealed specific communication practices through which social support is implemented when offering food to others during self–service, indicating that in delivering tangible social support one may also provide emotional social support. Additionally, we showed that precisely where the offer is produced during self–service further impacts the relational implications of this support.

Physiotherapists’ Approaches to Patients’ Concerns in Back Pain Consultations Following a Psychologically Informed Training Program

Guidelines advocate a combined physical and psychological approach to managing non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP), referred to as psychologically informed practice (PIP). PIP is underpinned by patient-centered principles and skilled communication. Evidence suggests that a physiotherapist-focused style of communication prevails in physiotherapy. There is a recognized need for observational research to identify specific communication practices in physiotherapy interactions. This observational study explored the interactional negotiation of agenda setting following a PIP training intervention, by identifying and describing how physiotherapists solicit and respond to the agenda of concerns that patients with NSCLBP bring to primary care initial encounters. The research setting was primary care. Nineteen initial physiotherapy consultations were video-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using conversation analysis, a qualitative observational method. These data revealed a patient-focused style of communication where trained physiotherapists demonstrated a collaborative and responsive style of verbal and nonverbal communication to solicit, explore, and validate patients’ concerns.

Getting the Message Right: Evidence-Based Insights to Improve Organizational Return-to-Work Communication Practices

Purpose There is an absence of evidence-based guidance to support workplace stakeholders in the effective delivery of return-to-work (RTW) messages. Our study examines the specific RTW communication practices and their impact on the management of work disability. Methods Within two large and complex healthcare organizations, semi-structured interviews were conducted with workplace stakeholders (e.g., supervisors, union representatives, disability management professionals and workers’ compensation representatives) and workers who had previously experienced sickness absence related to an occupational injury or illness. For workplace stakeholders interview questions asked about their roles and responsibilities in the RTW process, and specific communication strategies and messages that were used at different phases of the RTW process. For worker participants, interview questions explored RTW experiences and the impact of communication on work re-integration. An interpretative descriptive approach was used to inductively examine themes from interviews to create ways of understanding phenomena that yielded applied findings. Results Forty participants were interviewed including workplace stakeholders and workers. Participants frequently described effective RTW communication as messages that were delivered by a workplace stakeholder that included the content required by an injured worker to navigate the organizational disability management process and utilized specific strategies to address the perceived attitudes and perceptions held by an injured worker regarding work re-integration. Workplace stakeholders described five specific communication strategies including relaying messages of support, optimizing the timing of communication, careful word choice, framing messages, and tailoring communication to the injured worker. Conclusion RTW communication is an active process that requires a strategic approach. Effective communication practices represent an important strategy for workplace stakeholders to address the barriers held by injured workers and foster early and sustained RTW.

Structuring Courses with Agile Research Studio: Five Components and Four Pedagogical Values

Structuring Courses with Agile Research Studio:Five Components and Four Pedagogical Values E.B. Hunter (bio) Introduction This essay describes how I adapted a system called Agile Research Studio (ARS) to design courses wherein students create projects, either individually or in groups. Originally developed at Northwestern University to manage a STEM research lab (Delta Lab),1 ARS is an academic research version of the "agile development" approach to project management. This approach, which originated in the software industry, now dominates several sectors (Rigby et al.; Nyce). In essence, ARS is a system of specific technologies (like Google Sheets and Slack) and communication practices (like student-to-student help-giving and –seeking) that train students how to self-direct complex projects. It is therefore well-suited to designing courses that incorporate project-based learning.2 Despite the many differences among my teaching context, the software industry, and ARS's birthplace, I have found the system an excellent cultivator of pedagogical values that transcend disciplinary boundaries: effective planning, community-building, and transferrable skills. To design courses with ARS, I use five components, the implementation of which I describe in a later section: 1) a semester divided into one- or two-week "sprints" of work; 2) theme-based Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that students join to frame their engagement with course content; 3) a collaborative spreadsheet that students use to plan and track their tasks during each sprint; 4) an online journal, where students reflect on their own work from the previous sprint; and 5) an online messaging forum like Slack, where students can plan, ask for help from classmates, give help to classmates, and generally create community around the projects they are making. But why use project-based learning in the first place? When compared to content delivery and exams, project-based learning has long been shown to improve knowledge acquisition, promote more robust critical thinking, and increase affinity for the subject material (McCarthy and Anderson; Flores et al.; Gauci et al.; Watkins et al.). Despite these benefits, obstacles to adopting project-based learning exist for both instructors and students. Instructors often worry that such an approach will require unsustainable mentoring and monitoring (Felder and Brent). Students across disciplines often resist projects that involve group work, citing inequitable labor distribution and an absence of teammate accountability (ibid.). And, confoundingly, new research shows that many students simply feel like they learn more when courses are comprised mostly of entertaining lectures, even though their performance on assessments demonstrates otherwise (Deslauriers et al.). ARS addresses these challenges by training students to take control of their projects' workflows without increasing the time instructors spend on management. Although ARS uses software that is free, the system does assume student access to a smartphone and internet connectivity, at minimum—an assumption shared by much of higher education, as the current circumstances of distance learning have illuminated. Just as important to note is that while many students enjoy screen-based technology, few arrive to university already adept at leveraging it as a learning tool.3 Consequently, ARS works best if an instructor is comfortable using ARS's technolo- gies. [End Page 31] This familiarity is necessary not only to facilitate course design, but also so that the instructor can provide the in-the-moment troubleshooting many students may need to avoid computer-user frustration. With these limitations in mind, this essay is geared toward instructors who already use tools like Slack and Google's online software. Not incidentally, ARS's deep integration of these technologies makes the system a highly effective disaster pedagogy. As I discovered in spring 2020, an on-campus course designed in this way is not hard to transfer online with only a few days' notice, because it relies upon tools, workflows, and communication practices that can exist asynchronously and online. ARS made spring 2020's shift to emergency remote learning less chaotic than I expected, because students had already spent six weeks practicing the fundamentals of project management and learning how to use distance-learning technologies. ARS can also help lessen the anxiety that accompanies a sudden global or personal disruption, because the system gives students concrete steps to follow. As the sections below explain...

Introducing an interactional approach to exploring facilitation as an implementation intervention: examining the utility of Conversation Analysis

BackgroundThe widely adopted integrated-Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework identifies facilitation as a ‘core ingredient’ for successful implementation. Indeed, most implementation scientists agree that a certain degree of facilitation is required to translate research into clinical practice; that is, there must be some intentional effort to assist the implementation of evidence-based approaches and practices into healthcare. Yet understandings of what constitutes facilitation and how to facilitate effectively remain largely theoretical and, therefore, provide scant practical guidance to ensure facilitator success. Implementation Science theories and frameworks often describe facilitation as an activity accomplished in, and through, formal and informal communication amongst facilitators and those involved in the implementation process (i.e. ‘recipients’). However, the specific communication practices that constitute and enable effective facilitation are currently inadequately understood.AimIn this debate article, we argue that without effective facilitation—a practice requiring significant interactional and interpersonal skills—many implementation projects encounter difficulties. Therefore, we explore whether and how the application of Conversation Analysis, a rigorous research methodology for researching patterns of interaction, could expand existing understandings of facilitation within the Implementation Science field. First, we illustrate how Conversation Analysis methods can be applied to identifying what facilitation looks like in interaction. Second, we draw from existing conversation analytic research into facilitation outside of Implementation Science to expand current understandings of how facilitation might be achieved within implementation.ConclusionIn this paper, we argue that conversation analytic methods show potential to understand and refine facilitation as a critical, and inherently interactional, component of implementation efforts. Conversation analytic investigations of facilitation as it occurs in real-time between participants could inform mechanisms to (1) improve understandings of how to achieve successful implementation through facilitation, (2) overcome difficulties and challenges in implementation related to interpersonal communication and interaction, (3) inform future facilitator training and (4) inform refinement of existing facilitation theories and frameworks (e.g. i-PARIHS) currently used in implementation interventions.

Student pharmacist opioid consultations with standardized limited English proficiency patients: A pre-post educational intervention study

Background and purposeThis study explored the effect of a structured educational intervention for student pharmacists to counsel limited English proficiency (LEP) patients on risks and safety of opioid medications for chronic pain. Specific aims were to compare 2018 pre-intervention versus 2019 post-intervention groups regarding: (1) dose and side effects discussed, (2) opioid risks and safety measures covered, and (3) LEP specific communication practices. Educational activity and settingThird-year student pharmacists (P3s) in a required communications course consulted LEP standardized patients (SPs) on opioid medications in 2018 and 2019. An educational intervention for the 2019 P3s consisted of a 50-min lecture, pre-lab instructions about techniques for communication about opioid risks and safety, and for LEP specific communication stressing teach-back. All consultations in the pre- and post-intervention phases were video recorded and quantitatively coded for verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact tests were conducted on data. FindingsTwenty-three consultations were recorded in 2018 for the pre-intervention phase and 49 consultations were recorded in 2019 for the post-intervention phase. Only 17% of students in the pre- intervention phase called the medication an “opioid” or “narcotic” in the consultation as compared to 84% in the post-intervention phase. While 100% of students in the post-intervention phase used teach-back, only 61% did so in the pre-intervention group. Significant differences between the two groups were observed for minimizing dependency and overdose, offering naloxone, teach-back, integrating a patient handout into the consultation, and discussing use of alternate pain medications.

Pharmacy Student Opioid Consultations with Standardized Limited English Proficiency Patients

IntroductionLimited healthcare studies have analyzed communication practices with limited English proficiency (LEP) patients. Empirical literature lacks evidence about LEP patient-pharmacist communication about opioid risks. This study aimed to (1) explore topics discussed in opioid medication consults, (2) assess if students inform patients about dependency and overdose risks associated with opioid use and the manner in which those risks were introduced and discussed, and (3) assess LEP specific communication practices. MethodsThird-year pharmacy students in a required communications course consulted LEP standardized patients (SPs) who spoke 30% English and 70% non-English language. The SP followed a script simulating an encounter between a pharmacist and patient picking up a new, month long prescription of oxycodone. All consultations were video recorded and quantitatively coded for verbal and non-verbal communication skills. ResultsTwenty-three pharmacy students conducted consultations with LEP SPs. The majority of students discussed common side effects, but only a few discussed severe side effects. Four of 23 students named the medication as an “opioid” or “narcotic” and described dependency, overdose, or other opioid specific risks. Students used several filler words, long sentences, and a fast pace. A majority of students used teach back methods to identify patient understanding. Students expressed the need for more structured education and training in providing patient counseling for opioids and communicating with LEP patients. ConclusionsPharmacy students lack confidence and skills in communicating with LEP patients regarding opioid-specific risks, suggesting structured training is needed.

Judicious antibiotic prescribing in ambulatory pediatrics: Communication is key

Children in outpatient clinics are prescribed over 15 million courses of unnecessary antibiotics annually. Clinicians have identified parent pressure for antibiotics, parent satisfaction, and time constraints as the primary drivers of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing. Over the past decade, parents have become more aware that antibiotics only treat bacterial infections, yet continue to report an expectation for antibiotics in 50-65% of acute care visits. Parental expectations for antibiotics stem from parental concerns about symptom severity and a desire to alleviate symptoms. Clinicians can address parental concerns when they assess the severity of illness through a physical exam, provide a clear explanation for the symptoms, recommend ways to alleviate the symptoms, and provide council on when to be concerned. When clinicians fail to address parental concerns, parents are more likely to challenge the diagnosis or treatment recommendations, clinicians are more likely to perceive that parent as expecting an antibiotic, and antibiotics are significantly more likely to be prescribed. Parents that expect antibiotics are more likely to communicate using a 'candidate diagnosis' (e.g., "Johnny has strep throat.") and resist the diagnosis or treatment given. Clinicians can recognize these parental communication patterns and use specific communication practices shown to decrease unnecessary antibiotic prescribing. When parents expect antibiotics, clinicians should (1) review physical exam findings using 'no problem' commentary (e.g., "This ear is just a little red."), (2) deliver a specific diagnosis (e.g., avoid 'a virus'), (3) use a two-part negative/positive treatment recommendation (e.g., "On the one hand, antibiotics will not help. On the other hand, ibuprofen can help with pain."), and (4) provide a contingency plan. Clinicians should feel comfortable discussing the risks and benefits of antibiotics. Effective communication between parents and clinicians in outpatient clinics leads to more judicious antibiotic prescribing, higher parent satisfaction scores, and more efficient clinic visits.

Black Female Pilot Communicative Experiences: Applications and Extensions of Co-Cultural Theory

ABSTRACTThe study investigates the ways in which Black female pilots experience and manage their elite status as airline transport pilots (ATPs) and as co-cultural group members. Accordingly, Orbe's (1998b) co-cultural theory is used as a frame to understand how women of color negotiate workplaces where White male cultural norms are omnipresent. Using a phenomenological approach, the communicative lived experiences of two Black female ATPs are analyzed to reveal specific co-cultural communication practices enacted. The study is offered here as a testament to engaged research—that which advances theory (i.e., extending co-cultural theorizing in a new setting) and provides pragmatic insight into important contemporary issues (i.e., increased diversity in a historically White male profession).

Health Information Seeking, Source Trust, and Culture: A Comparative Analysis of Health Information Trends and Needs Between Guam and the United States

The Guam population offers a unique glimpse into Americans of Pacific Island ancestry and their communication and information-seeking behaviors, experiences, and needs relevant to cancer. National surveys do not typically include the U.S. territories, so there are limited data on the health and cancer information–seeking behaviors of these populations, in which health disparities persist. To fill this information gap, we conducted a survey on health communication in Guam using a modified version of the Health Information National Trends Survey instrument supplemented with items measuring specific cultural factors and communication practices. The results of the survey (N = 511) revealed some differences in health and cancer information–seeking patterns in Guam and the mainland United States. Sociodemographic variables, including sex, age, education, income, and employment, were significantly associated with health and cancer information seeking and Internet use. Levels of trust in various information sources were differentiated in the Guam and mainland U.S. samples. Logistic regression models revealed differences in factors predicting health and cancer information seeking and Internet use. The results suggest that these health information–seeking patterns and factors should be taken into account when developing communication strategies for more effective prevention and control programs.

Patient Health Literacy and Perception of Provider Communication: Is there a Link?

Inadequate health literacy is a common problem that contributes to poor patient-provider communication. Health literacy screening and specific provider communication practices may be important in clinics where patients are at high risk for inadequate health literacy. This study assessed patients’ health literacy and their perception of provider communication practices in a primary care residency program clinic serving an urban multi-ethnic population. A convenience sample of 324 patients in an urban-based primary care practice was surveyed for health literacy and their perception of physician communication using validated instruments. Of the patients surveyed, 37% had inadequate health literacy. There was high internal consistency of our validated screening questions for health literacy (p < .0001). Overall, the patients surveyed rated the quality of their provider’s communication very highly. We found no statistically significant relationship between patients’ health literacy and their perception of provider communication, suggesting provider communication may be independent of patient understanding in this cohort. Effective communication from providers may compensate for lack of understanding with patients with inadequate health literacy in urban primary care practices.

Feelings of Pride and Respect as Drivers of Ongoing Member Activity on Crowdsourcing Platforms

ABSTRACTCrowdsourcing platforms are online organizations that organize work by sourcing tasks to their members. As participation on crowdsourcing platforms is completely voluntary, getting members to actively participate in tasks on an ongoing basis is essential for the survival of these online platforms. Why members would be active on an ongoing basis, however, is currently not well understood. To understand ongoing member activity on crowdsourcing platforms, we build on the group engagement model, which postulates that feelings of pride and respect influence engagement because they foster identification with the group. We argue that, although in general the nature of crowdsourcing platforms limits the effects of identification processes on member behaviour, feelings of pride and respect will still play central roles in such online organizations, because feelings of pride and respect can directly drive members’ cooperative behaviors towards the platform organization. Moreover, we posit that the way in which platform organizations communicate with their members affects these feelings of pride and respect. We test these ideas in a longitudinal, multisource field study and find that feelings of pride drive ongoing member activity on an online crowdsourcing platform directly and that platform management can increase members’ feelings of pride and respect by engaging in specific organizational communication practices.

Constructing the story: How nurses work with families regarding withdrawal of aggressive treatment in ICU – A narrative study.

Specific communication practices used by experienced intensive care nurses who are comfortable working with dying patients and their families in ICU to reach consensus on withdrawal of aggressive treatment and shift to palliative care are lacking in the literature. However, there are seven international qualitative studies relevant to this research. Important themes related to communication were composed of four elements: general communication and relationship building, recognizing the need to transition to palliative care, facilitating palliative care, and providing dignified care through to death. To describe the specific communication practices experienced intensive care nurses' comfortable working with dying patients' use with families to negotiate consensus on withdrawal of aggressive treatment and/or shift to palliative are at end of life. A qualitative narrative study. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit nineteen experienced intensive care nurses. A narrative approach was used for data collection and analysis. Consistent with narrative inquiry the results describe an overall plot: "constructing the story" and five subplots that identify and describe communicative actions relevant to the plot. The five subplots are: (A) organizing and interpreting knowledge of different kinds from different sources; (B) learning who the patient is as a person and putting the medical diagnosis into the biographical life of the patient; (C) helping families see the deteriorating status of the patient; (D) imagining and acting on moral possibilities for end of life care; and (E) facilitating saying goodbye – the end of the story. Findings from this study enrich the understanding of how experienced nurses who are comfortable with dying patients communicate with families as they navigate the difficult path of transitioning from aggressive care to palliative care for their significant other in the intensive care unit. This research provides a beginning language that can enable caregivers to talk about and reflect on the complex communication necessary for good end of life care. The findings of this study have major implications for clinical practice and interdisciplinary education.

Capsule commentary on Nápoles et. al, Physician counseling on colorectal cancer screening and receipt of screening among Latino patients.

In this cross-sectional study, Napoles and colleagues conducted a telephone survey to identify high-yield physician colorectal cancer (CRC) screening counseling behaviors among Latino patients, a population with known CRC disparities and relatively low screening rates. Perceived strength of physicians’ recommendations for CRC screening was associated with patients’ reported CRC screening completion; explanation of CRC risks and tests was also associated with endoscopy screening. These findings have important practice implications; specific physician communication practices may improve CRC screening completion among Latinos, in addition to strategies addressing barriers such as lack of access to care, knowledge, and language concordance.1 This study is limited by its focus on the role of physicians rather than the health care team. A recent study noted that the number of times a patient encounters a health message is positively associated with uptake.2 Does the message have to come from the physician? As the authors acknowledge, physicians face significant time pressures during primary care visits. The study could have been strengthened by assessing CRC screening counseling behaviors by not only physicians, but also other members of the health care team such as physician assistants, nurses, and medical assistants. While the strongest association was found between strength of physician recommendation and CRC screening completion, a decision still must be made regarding the type of screening. In a team-based approach, the physician or another health care provider could guide patients using a culturally and linguistically adapted CRC screening decision aid.3,4 A study by Hawley et. al found that both race/ethnicity and test attributes (e.g., accuracy and frequency) were associated with patient preferences for CRC screening tests. This study asked patients whether the physician discussed potential barriers to CRC screening but did not ask whether the physician explained different test options and helped the patient choose one or whether the patient would make the same decision again. Future research could investigate whether shared decision making incorporating patient values, preferences, and priorities as well as provider knowledge of local resource constraints would help increase completion of CRC screening by average-risk Latino patients.

Participative Democracy and Voice: Rethinking Community Collaboration Beyond Neutral Structures

Decision-making in community-based, interorganizational collaboration often influences educational, environmental, and other civic policies thereby constituting it as politically and socially consequential. As such, we rethink collaboration through the lens of participative democracy rather than as a neutral organizational structure or process. We sought to understand how participative democracy was hindered and accomplished in an interpretive case study of two community collaborations. Data indicate the normative processes and structures of communication practiced by stakeholders primarily deterred voice and participation by prioritizing information exchange, practicing invisible decision-making, and emphasizing harmonious relationships. These findings: (1) add to theories of interorganizational collaboration by establishing voice as both a discursive and political feature of shared decision-making; (2) provide empirical exemplars that extrapolate political and social implications from specific communication practices; and (3) inform the development of a heuristic to improve collaborative participation and increase political accountability. Flowing from these data, we recommend practitioners utilize the heuristic of VOICE—promoting visibility and ownership of decision-making processes, less emphasis on informing, and purposeful fostering of gracious contestation—ultimately delimiting expressive modes of communication that decrease participative democracy and political accountability.

The architecture of provider-parent vaccine discussions at health supervision visits.

To characterize provider-parent vaccine communication and determine the influence of specific provider communication practices on parent resistance to vaccine recommendations. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study in which we videotaped provider-parent vaccine discussions during health supervision visits. Parents of children aged 1 to 19 months old were screened by using the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines survey. We oversampled vaccine-hesitant parents (VHPs), defined as a score ≥50. We developed a coding scheme of 15 communication practices and applied it to all visits. We used multivariate logistic regression to explore the association between provider communication practices and parent resistance to vaccines, controlling for parental hesitancy status and demographic and visit characteristics. We analyzed 111 vaccine discussions involving 16 providers from 9 practices; 50% included VHPs. Most providers (74%) initiated vaccine recommendations with presumptive (e.g., "Well, we have to do some shots") rather than participatory (e.g., "What do you want to do about shots?") formats. Among parents who voiced resistance to provider initiation (41%), significantly more were VHPs than non-VHPs. Parents had significantly higher odds of resisting vaccine recommendations if the provider used a participatory rather than a presumptive initiation format (adjusted odds ratio: 17.5; 95% confidence interval: 1.2-253.5). When parents resisted, 50% of providers pursued their original recommendations (e.g., "He really needs these shots"), and 47% of initially resistant parents subsequently accepted recommendations when they did. How providers initiate and pursue vaccine recommendations is associated with parental vaccine acceptance.

Being Nonprofit-Like in a Market Economy

Nonprofit organizations experience a tension between pursuing their social missions and meeting the demands of a market economy. This mission-market tension is an everyday, practical concern for nonprofit practitioners. Yet, scholars know very little about how nonprofit practitioners define and manage this tension. Drawing on contradiction-centered perspectives of organizing, data from an ethnographic study of a single U.S. nonprofit organization demonstrate that the mission-market tension was defined and managed by organizational members as both a contradictory and interconnected phenomenon. This framing was enabled by specific communication practices that supported a productive and generative relationship between these seemingly incompatible goals. Findings suggest that the mission-market tension is an inherent condition of nonprofit organizing and highlight the central role of communication in successfully managing mission and market concerns.

The Historical Development Of Strategic Planning Theories

This paper discusses both broad historical and philosophical theories of strategic management, as well as specific communication and human resource management theories and practices. It concludes with an application chapter emphasizing how the Roman Catholic Church needs to develop a strategy to integrate learning and innovation in order to reconcile and communicate its central message locally. Although built upon a hierarchical and organizational culture, where strict obedience to institutional directives dominates the communities it serves, the diversity within the Church is forcing the Vatican to ensure specialized sub-cultures are not polarized.