Association management companies are professional service organizations that provide administrative services through association managers for non-profit professional societies and trade associations. Association managers function as outside contractors to the association and have tenures across multiple volunteer leadership administrations. Five key literatures informed this study of communication as design: neo-institutionalism, professional communities, interorganizational communication, grounded practical theory, and communication as design. Using Grounded Practical Theory (GPT) and Communication as Design (CaD), this study reconstructs association managers’ communication practice. Association managers were the primary data source. Observations and industry literature provided secondary sources. Data collection methods were interviews, participant observations, and a review of industry literature. The GPT practice reconstruction revealed communication dilemmas, techniques, and situated ideals. The process of examining CaD work “articulates the tools, ideals, and knowledge of intervention work and then reconstructs the practical theory of communication” (Aakhus, 2007a, p. 116). This study focuses on several key tenets of CaD. The tenets include: (a) interventions, (b) inventions, (c) managing of identity goals, (d) shaping interactivity, and (e) a practical theory of interaction. The research interviews seek to uncover the communication knowledge and practices they employ in shaping interactional spaces. This study explores how a community of professionals chooses to shape interactivity through interventions, inventions, management of identity goals, and implementation of their practical theory of communication. Findings revealed: 1) association managers establish their role through the authority of documents and continuity and history; 2) association managers protect their identity as transparent, neutral, non-conflictual outsiders and exercise their professional role through backstage work, peer-to-peer communication and strategically chosen interventions; 3) association managers coordinate collaborative action through an operational dialogue; 4) association managers’ practical theory of communication (fairness, preparation, backstage positioning, professional positioning, and peer-to-peer communication) governs implementation of the operational dialogue; and 5) association managers utilize an operational dialogue to exercise unobtrusive control through a unique process of inverted control. An operational dialogue is foundational to a unique form of unobtrusive control the author identifies as inverted control. The communication design work of association managers is tightly integrated into an operational dialogue that guides the association’s governance and management activity.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Communication, Information and Library Studies
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_5000
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
xi, 280 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Joseph Dwight Anderson
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Communication--Methodology
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Associations, institutions, etc.--Management
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.