Connected contradictions: An exploration of identity, translation, and trust in employee participation practices

This dissertation develops an interactive theory of employee participation in organizations that expands both existing communication theory and the practice of participation in organizations. Concepts of identification, translation, contradiction, and trust are combined in a qualitative study of participatory practices in a large public transit agency. Results support the formation of a theory of employee participation in which contradictions are shown to be connected in the interactive processes within participatory practices and between participatory practices and organizational context. The interactive theory of employee participation reveals both how contradictions are produced and reveals choices to practitioners that may have previously been obscured.; The rationale for this study arises from challenges to participation in practice and from the inability of existing theory to explain contradictory outcomes that are common in participatory organizations. Although participatory outcomes and forms have been studied extensively, most research to date has treated organizational context as either an independent or confounding variable within a causal model. This study examines participation and context together, in interaction with each other, and focuses on outcomes of the interaction between participatory practice and organizational context.; This study highlights cross-functional task teams in the study organization to explore the interaction between a particular participatory practice and the organization within which it occurs. Individual interviews, focus group interviews, work site observation, task team observation, and document review capture interactive processes both retrospectively and dynamically.; Results include a thorough description of identification within the organization, a summary of when and how trust operates in the organization, and a presentation of sense-making structures and rules used in the organization. These findings are then used to analyze the interaction between cross-functional task teams and the organizational context. The organization's task teams provide novel environments for identification, create new situations for fostering both trust and mistrust, and challenge the sense-making structures that exist in the organization. Contradictory outcomes are shown to have connections in the interactive processes between participatory practice and organizational context.; An interactive theory of employee participation is proposed. As explained within the framework of this theory, study findings point to choices available to organizational members. By revealing the interactive sources of connected contradictions, practical choices for organizational members are presented. Implications for future research and for practice within the study organization are presented.