Publication Date
5-2020
Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)
3-6-2020
Type of Culminating Activity
Thesis
Degree Title
Master of Arts in Communication
Department
Communication
Supervisory Committee Chair
John McClellan, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Matthew Isbell, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Pei-Lin Yu, Ph.D.
Abstract
The National Park System in the United States is a unique work environment filled with tension, organizational complexity and challenges. Scholars often argue that these types of organizational complexities should be addressed by increasing social capital. Social capital scholars direct practitioner attention toward relational connection as a means of increasing social capital, however without delving into the communicative processes of connecting with others. In this thesis, I embrace a communication as constitutive of organization (CCO) perspective with a focus on dis/organization to investigate “messiness” of employee expressions of social capital in a large western national park. Engaging in qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, this study reveals expressions of social capital as constituted in dialectical tensions. These findings direct scholars and practitioners interested in social capital toward the dis/organizing processes in which social capital is constituted.
DOI
10.18122/td/1677/boisestate
Recommended Citation
Harms, Blake Allen, "Dis/organizing Social Capital: Tension in a U.S. National Park" (2020). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. 1677.
10.18122/td/1677/boisestate