Managing Risk in Communication Encounters: Strategies for the Workplace

The first theory-driven, narrative-based examination of risky communication interactions in the workplace

"The book does a fine job of incorporating research into a narrative framework that should be accessible for students and individuals in the business community. … The most impressive aspect of the textbook is the use of specific, ′everyday person′ narratives to ground the concepts."―Mary Helen Brown, Auburn University

"The advice provided in the book goes beyond simple advice on what or what not to say, but also advises individuals on how to manage the entire process. The book will be well-received in the classroom setting and by practitioners who encounter difficult interpersonal workplace challenges every day." ―Patricia M. Sias, Washington State University

This book focuses on the types of risky interactions that threaten identities, relationships, and sometimes careers, including voicing dissent, repairing broken relationships, managing privacy, responding to harassment, offering criticism, and communicating emotion. Each chapter is grounded in real-life organizational scenarios, includes recent research, applies a standard theoretical framework, and illustrates a full range of communicative tactics and discourse practices. Throughout the book, authors Vincent R. Waldron and Jeffrey W. Kassing provide examples to spur thinking, raise questions, and help readers understand how organizations benefit when employees communicate in ways that manage risk.

Key Features

• Ethically challenging and personally risky work situations are closely examined to help students understand the types of situations they will encounter in their working lives.

• Vivid examples and narratives illustrate the inevitable tensions that emerge among ethical, relational, and performance obligations in the workplace.

• The roles of discourse, interaction, and communication tactics in managing risk, constructing role identities, and promoting ethical workplaces are explained.

• Real-life organizational scenarios and research on the lived experiences of workers help students understand how individual, organizational, and cultural forces shape workplace communication.

• A theoretical model helps students and scholars integrate existing research, analyze situations, and generate new questions.

Intended Audience

Managing Risk in Communication Encounters: Strategies for the Workplace is intended for use as a supplemental text for undergraduate and graduate courses in organizational communication, business and professional communication, leadership communication, managerial communication, and supervisory communication

Vincent R. Waldron is Professor of Communication Studies at Arizona State University, where he teaches courses on communication in work and personal relationships. Professor Waldron received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1989. Dr. Waldron’s research explores how employees manage difficult workplace encounters, such as expressing intense emotion, exercising upward influence, and repairing damaged relationships. The author of two previous books on these subjects, Professor Waldron has published his work in such outlets as the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Management Communication Quarterly, and Communication Yearbook. Vince Waldron has been recognized as a Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is chair-elect of the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association. With his wife Kathleen and daughters Emily and Laura, Vince Waldron resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jeffrey W. Kassing  is a professor, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in research methods, organizational communication and sport studies. In addition, he has developed study abroad courses in the United Kingdom and Spain. 

Dr. Kassing is a pioneering and prominent scholar in the area of organizational dissent. He has developed several measurement tools (e.g., The Organizational Dissent Scale, The Upward Dissent Scale) and has published both quantitative and qualitative research that explores how employees express dissent about workplace policies and practices.  Professor Kassing also explores various aspects of communication within the context of sport. He has conducted research that examines communication between coaches and athletes, parents and youth athletes, and fans and athletes. He published an early series of studies examining athletes and fans use of what were at the time new emerging social media platforms (e.g., blogs, Twitter). More recently, he has considered the implications and enactment of athlete activism.

Of late, his work has focussed primarily on the socio-cultural aspects of soccer, featuring in publications that consider fan identity expressed through social media use and stadium displays within a global perspective. Dr. Kassing is the Co-Director of the Sport, Media, and Culture Research Group at ASU. He appeared in the Amazon Prime docuseries Good Rivals (2022) that explores the US/Mexico soccer rivalry.