Putting Coworkers in the Limelight: New Challenges for Communication Professionals

摘要

Coworkers have received remarkably little attention in research and in practice within the field of strategic communication. The heroic view of leadership has nourished a view of coworkers as passive recipients rather than active and influential communicators. The first aim of this article is to illuminate how coworkership can be described and understood from a communication perspective. A greater focus on coworkers in strategic communication research will give a better understanding of the complex relationship between communication and organizing as coworker interpretations and actions constitute an organization. A second aim is to discuss new challenges for communication professionals resulting from coworkership.When communication professionals also support coworker communication processes, they will be perceived as a natural part of basic organizational processes. This conceptual paper emanates from the CCO (Communication Constitutes Organizing) perspective as a general meta-theory. We argue that coworkers must be put in the limelight since changes in organizational life have resulted in new demands on coworker communication practices and skills - not only in relation to their manager, but also in relation to colleagues and in relation to their employer as ambassadors. The article concludes with a discussion about five challenges for communication professionals.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2011.605777