Organizations Communication And Health

Organizations, Communication, and Health focuses on theories and constructs of organizational communication and their relationship to health. The goal of the volume is to offer a current picture of organizational and organizing processes and practices related to health. Research in the area of health communication has expanded in recent years, and this research has advanced understandings of campaigns, patient/provider interactions, and social support. However, a gap in the area of health, organizations, and organizing processes emerged, a niche this volume fills. It does so by having chapters identify an organizational theory or organizing process and how aspects of that theory relate to health. Chapters discuss how to marry theory to practice and the other factors (e.g., organizational structure, role, occupation, industry, or environment) that need to be considered in the process of utilizing the theory in organizations. This volume, aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying health communication, as well as health professionals, provides useful theory and practice related the organizations and health, and issues a call for further theorizing on the practice of health communication in organizations.

Communication in Health Organizations explores the communication processes, issues, and concepts that comprise the organization of health care, focusing on the interactions that influence the lives of patients, health professionals, and other members of health institutions. This book integrates scholarship from communication, medicine, nursing, public health, and allied health, to provide a comprehensive review of the research literature. The author explains the complexities and contingencies of communication in health settings using systems theory, an approach that enhances reader understanding of health organizing. The reader will gain greater familiarity with how health institutions function communicatively, and why the people who work in health professions interact as they do. The text provides multiple opportunities to analyze communication occurring in health organizations and to apply communication skills to personal experiences. This knowledge may improve communication between patients, employees, or consumers. Understanding and applying the concepts discussed in this book can enhance communication in health organizations, which ultimately benefits health care delivery. Communication in Health Organizations offers students, researchers, and health practitioners a unique multi-disciplinary perspective that invites stimulating reflection, discussion, and application of communication issues affecting today's health system.

This volume examines this rapidly growing and changing field by applying a unified framework that integrates both interpersonal and mass communication investigations into theoretical and applied issues. Using a systems perspective as the organizational framework, relevant issues in the communication of health care, ranging from micro to macro levels, are discussed. The contributors recognize communication as a major factor affecting health today and therefore go beyond examinations of health communication as simply a dissemination of information regarding diseases, diagnoses, and treatments to show it as a much larger and more complex field with applications to all levels and forms of communication. Communication and Health has as its three main objecties: * providing a comprehensive, detailed, and up to-date picture of health communication * applying an integrated, logical structure to the field * making a clear, strong statement regarding the state of health communication and examining its future prospects The contributors address such issues as provider-patient communication, health care teams, health care organizations, public health campaigns, and health education, and then discuss the factors that affect the processing of health information. Also included are examinations of changes in communication use within interpersonal, small group, and organizational health care contexts as well as the use of mass media and other sources for public health campaigns and for raising public awareness of health issues on a day-to-day basis. Communication and Health fills a void in current literature on this field by serving as both a reference for professionals and researchers and as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate level students in a multitude of courses.

This book explores the unique contribution that critical communication studies can bring to our understanding of health. It covers several broad themes: representing and mediating health; marketing and promoting health, co-producing health; and managing health crises and risks. Chapters speak to moral and social regulation through health communication, technologies of health, healthism and governmentality. They engage with historical and contemporary issues, offering readers theoretically grounded perspectives. At base, the book explores what a critical communication approach to health might look like, revealing in important—and sometimes surprising—ways how communication sits at the centre of understanding how health is constructed, contested, and made meaningful.

This book provides insights into the complexities of multicultural relations in health care and demystifies the many cultural influences on health and health care to achieve its ultimate goal - to help people get the most they can out of health care and facilitate the promotion of public health.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the leader-member exchange relationship. Employees who share a high-quality relationship with their leader are more likely to earn a higher salary, climb the ranks more quickly, and report higher life satisfaction levels than their peers who have a less copasetic leader-member relationship. While Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) research addresses the impact that the leader-member relationship has on the individual employee experience, much of this scholarship overlooks or obscures the vital role that communication plays in the development and maintenance of workgroup relationships. Much of extant literature also glosses over the role that communication plays in workgroup collaboration. Using a communicative lens, this text illustrates the complex theoretical underpinnings of LMX theory, such as the importance of social interaction and relationship building and maintenance necessary to achieve organizational goals. We explore how an employee’s relationship with their leader also shapes their peer relationships and their overall standing within their workgroup. Further, the text examines the potential dark side of LMX theory, such as the tendency towards demographic and trait and state similarity. Employing a communicative perspective emphasizes the extent of position and personal power both leaders and members have in engineering the quality of the relationship they desire. Integrating and applying once disparate lines of academic literature, this book offers employees, students, and teacher-scholars pragmatic yet research-based insights into developing and maintaining successful, healthy workplace relationships.

Effective communication through the media is an essential responsibility of public health officials, particularly during emergencies. Urgent high-concern situations present a unique communication challenge. Recent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza, releases of anthrax and sarin, and the tsunami disaster in South-east Asia underline the importance of communication during public health emergencies. Poor communication can erode public support, fan emotions, undermine confidence, and amplify social and economic costs. Effective communication can rally support, calm a nervous public, provide much-needed information, encourage cooperative behaviors, and help save lives. This handbook presents an integrated principle-based approach to media communication for those dealing with public health emergencies. Topics covered include how journalists gather and process information about public health emergencies, steps for planning and implementing an effective media communication program, identifying and reaching target audiences, conducting media interviews, avoiding traps and pitfalls, and preparing key messages. It is designed to improve those skills needed for preparing and delivering public health messages during an emergency. It will be useful to public health and government officials, senior managers in public and private sector organizations, hospital managers, public information officers, and experts responsible for communicating with the media. The Field Guide produced as a separate book summarizes the practical steps that can be taken to strengthen and enhance efforts made in this area. The target audiences for the Field Guide are WHO offices field personnel and public health officials who are unfamiliar with media interactions or who wish to sharpen their skills in this area. Companion volume link: Field Guide

An authoritative survey of different contexts, methodologies, and theories of applied communication The field of Applied Communication Research (ACR) has made substantial progress over the past five decades in studying communication problems, and in making contributions to help solve them. Changes in society, human relationships, climate and the environment, and digital media have presented myriad contexts in which to apply communication theory. The Handbook of Applied Communication Research addresses a wide array of contemporary communication issues, their research implications in various contexts, and the challenges and opportunities for using communication to manage problems. This innovative work brings together the diverse perspectives of a team of notable international scholars from across disciplines. The Handbook of Applied Communication Research includes discussion and analysis spread across two comprehensive volumes. Volume one introduces ACR, explores what is possible in the field, and examines theoretical perspectives, organizational communication, risk and crisis communication, and media, data, design, and technology. The second volume focuses on real-world communication topics such as health and education communication, legal, ethical, and policy issues, and volunteerism, social justice, and communication activism. Each chapter addresses a specific issue or concern, and discusses the choices faced by participants in the communication process. This important contribution to communication research: Explores how various communication contexts are best approached Addresses balancing scientific findings with social and cultural issues Discusses how and to what extent media can mitigate the effects of adverse events Features original findings from ongoing research programs and original communication models and frameworks Presents the best available research and insights on where current research and best practices should move in the future A major addition to the body of knowledge in the field, The Handbook of Applied Communication Research is an invaluable work for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars.