Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication

264 Pages·2014·4.985 MB·English

by  Kramer, Michael W

Managing Uncertainty
in Organizational
Communication
Michael W. Kramer
*
MANAGING UNCERTAINTY
IN ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION
LEA’s Communication Series
Jennings Bryant/Dolf Zillmann, General Editors
Selected titles in Organizational Communication (Linda Putnam, Advisory
Editor) include:
Geist/Hardesty • Negotiating the Crisis: DRGs and the Transformation of Hospitals
Haslett • Communicating and Organizing: An Integrated Framework
Taylor/Van Every ♦ The Emergent Organization: Communication as Its Site
and Surface
Nicotera/Clinkscales/with Walker • Understanding Organization Through
Culture and Structure: Relational and Other Lessons From the African American
Organization
For a complete list of titles in LEA’s Communication Series, please contact
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers at www.erlbaum.com
MANAGING UNCERTAINTY
IN ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION
Michael W. Kramer
University of Missouri-Columbia
O Routledge
Taytor S. Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2004 by
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430
This edition published 2013 by Routledge
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
711 Third Avenue 2 Park Square, Milton Park
New York, NY 10017 Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
First issued in paperback 2013
ISBN 13: 978-0-805-84920-2 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-64989-6 (pbk)
Cover design by Sean Sciarrone
Library of Congress Catalog!ng-in-Publication Data
Kramer, Michael W.
Managing uncertainty in organizational communication / Michael W.
Kramer.
p. cm. — (LEA’s communication series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-4920-3 (alk. Paper)
1. Communication in organizations. 2. Uncertainty (Information the­
ory) I. Title. II. Series.
HD30.3.K7 2004
658.4’5—dc21 2003061663
CIP
To students
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Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction and Rationale 1
2 Uncertainty Reduction Theory in Interpersonal Contexts 8
3 Uncertainty in Group and Organizational Contexts 33
4 A Theory of Managing Uncertainty: A New Model 64
5 Cognitive and Behavioral Processes for Managing Uncertainty: 114
A Qualitative Study of Car Salespeople
6 The Influence of Competing Motives on Managing Uncertainty: 150
Responses to Organizational Scenarios
7 A Textual Analysis of Managing Uncertainty: A Reanalysis 171
of the Lucille Burger Story
8 Implications and Conclusions 189
References 219
Appendix 231
Author Index 233
Subject Index 239
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Preface
My sense of prefaces and acknowledgments in books is that we respond to them like
we do to many of the Academy Award acceptance speeches. We usually consider
them too long and frequently ignore them as a result. Therefore, I will be brief.
I began the process of developing this model of managing uncertainty by scrib­
bling some notes on the back of a conference paper (notes that I still have) while
being inattentive to another presenter. I am not sure what inspired me; it was not
the other presenter. Some credit for my initial thoughts should go to Petty and
Cacioppo (1981) for their elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In the same
way that they argue that there is more than one path to persuasion, I felt that there
is also more than one way that people manage uncertainty. Bob McPhee’s an­
nouncement of the Arizona State University Organizational Communication
Prize Lecture Conference motivated me to turn those brief notes into a manu­
script. This eventually led to the development of a tentative model of motivation
to reduce uncertainty that I presented and that was later published (Kramer,
1999). Positive response to it led me to pursue writing this volume.
The model that is presented in chapter 4 represents some of the many ways
that people respond to uncertainty in their lives. It attempts to demonstrate some
of the complexity of issues involved in organizational communication. The
model should be viewed as a model in progress that will need to be changed as
new research and insights build on it. The studies I conducted as part of this vol­
ume have already modified the model. It is my hope that it will assist readers in un­
derstanding and researching this important topic more thoroughly so that
additional changes can be suggested.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I will not attempt to thank all of the people who encouraged me to write this or in­
fluenced my thinking about the topic. Instead I will focus on a few key individuals.
Certainly my department chair, Pam Benoit, provided me with a great deal of
support to begin the project and also to complete it, including reading drafts of
early chapters of the manuscript. Fredjablin, my PhD advisor, not only helped me
ix