The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication
- Boris H. J. M. Brummans - Université de Montréal, Canada
- Bryan C. Taylor - University of Colorado Boulder, USA
- Anu Sivunen - University of Jyväskylä, Finland
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication is a state-of-the-art resource for scholars, students, and practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding and expertise in this dynamic field.
Written by a global team of established and emerging experts, this Handbook provides a comprehensive exploration of the field’s foundational traditions of epistemology and theory, as well as its latest methodologies, methods, issues, and debates.
The volume reflects a diverse range of approaches (e.g., mixed-methods, ethnographic, rhetorical, pragmatist, phenomenological, feminist, critical race, postcolonial, queer, and engaged), and covers a broad spectrum of topics ranging from data collection and analysis, to representation.
Additionally, this Handbook addresses emerging trends such as digital forensics, post-qualitative research, and the transformative impact of COVID-19 on the conduct of qualitative research in organizational communication.
As the first volume of its kind in this field, The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication is a cornerstone text for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in understanding the vital role of communication in organizational life.
Part 1: Approaches to Qualitative Organizational Communication Research
Part 2: Data Collection in Qualitative Organizational Communication Research: Methods and Issues
Part 3: Data Analysis and Representation in Qualitative Organizational Communication Research: Methods and Issues
Part 4: The Future of Qualitative Organizational Communication Research
Organizational communication is not only a discipline, but also a community. It has its meeting places, such as the annual conventions of the National and International Communication Associations. It has its rituals, such as business meetings and award ceremonies during these conferences. Unfortunately, however, the field has few outlets to showcase its research. Management Communication Quarterly is the field’s only flagship journal. Moreover, for a long time, The Sage Handbook of Organizational Communication (Putnam & Mumby, 2013), which has gone through several editions, was the only comprehensive volume presenting the discipline’s “state of the art.”
Recently, this has started to change. In 2017, Craig Scott and Laurie Lewis edited the impressive International Encyclopedia of Organization Communication (Scott & Lewis, 2017). In 2021, Franc¸ois Cooren and Peter St€ucheli- Herlach edited the Handbook of Management Communication (de Gruyter) (Cooren & St€ucheli-Herlach, 2021). And in 2022, Jo€elle Basque, Nicolas Bencherki, and Timothy Kuhn edited The Routledge Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organization (Basque et al., 2022). In addition, Vernon Miller and Marshall Scott Poole are about to publish a new Handbook of Organizational Communication (in press).
So, do we need another handbook?
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication shows that the answer to this question is unequivocally yes.
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication is an essential resource for management scholars, practitioners, and students alike. This groundbreaking handbook is a comprehensive guide that navigates the vast landscape of qualitative research within the realm of organizational communication. With contributions from leading experts in the field, it provides invaluable insights, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks helping to understand the complex dynamics of communication in organizational settings. It offers a diverse range of perspectives and approaches, inviting readers to explore the intricacies of organizational communication through a qualitative lens. This handbook is an indispensable companion for anyone seeking to delve deeper into this fascinating field.
Handbooks capturing a particular segment of a field have become abundant on the
academic landscape of late. Publishers have come to favor this form because they’re profitable
vehicles, despite the challenging economics of the publishing business. But their proliferation
should urge us to ask about the need for any additional ones. That’s the question I brought to
reading the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication.
Any skepticism I harbored evaporated immediately. The expert guidance of editors Boris
Brummans, Bryan Taylor, and Anu Sivunen makes this an essential volume, one that does
significantly more than mark the maturity of the (sub-)field, as the late James Barker celebrates
in his Foreword. The Handbook is clearly aimed at an organizational communication readership,
but it is equally essential for (and speaks meaningfully to) the broader organization studies field,
as reflected in Silvia Gherardi’s Afterword regarding its appeal for management scholars.
Communication scholars have developed many rich and rigorous qualitative methods for capturing, analyzing, and interpreting the communicative aspects of organizing. It is exciting to see these methods brought together in a comprehensive handbook that features both classical approaches and reflections on new forms of data and analysis. Boris Brummans, Bryan Taylor, and Anu Sivunen have put together a truly wonderful resource that I will return to again and again.
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication
edited by Boris H.J.M. Brummans, Bryan C. Taylor, and Anu Sivunen,
is the first of its kind. The 680-page handbook written by 82 scholars offers
34 chapters to trace, explain, and reflect on the approaches, data collection,
data analysis, and the future of qualitative research in the field of organizational
communication. As Barker noted in the Foreword, “now, we have
reached the point at which our qualitative research, our collective work,
warrants a handbook” (p. xxviii). Indeed, centering organizational communication
traditions, scholarships, as well as disciplinary debates and calls, this
handbook is “a marker of field maturity” (Barker, p. xxviii). Not only serving
as a comprehensive guidebook for various qualitative methodologies, the
handbook also provides a “genealogy,” “charge to go forward” (Barker,
p. xxix), as well as “methodological lingua franca” (Editors, p. xxx) for
scholars to have productive dialogues about doing qualitative research in
organizational communication.
This handbook is an authoritative survey of qualitative approaches to organizational communication that summarizes the state of the art and advances new insights and ideas. Its authors span the panoply of takes on qualitative research on organizational communication and are literally an all-star cast. Experienced academics and graduate students alike will benefit from its many perspectives and inquiries into key issues.
This comprehensive handbook has all the ingredients to become the main go-to resource for qualitative research in organizational communication studies. I highly recommend it to anyone who aims to broaden their horizon and expand their methodological tool kit, whether scholars, students, or practitioners.
