FICS Theses and Dissertations
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Theses and dissertations by graduate students from the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies.
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ItemThe Communicative Constitution of Hospitality Organization: A Ventriloquial Analysis of Guest Service( 2019)Seeking a form of knowledge that explains the communicative constitution of hospitality organization, I observed, figured out, and made sense of the service interaction that occurred in an actual unscripted conversation between the frontline staff (FLS) and the guest at the hotel front desk. I observed how agents and figures make a difference, how they act, speak, perform and deliver guest service on behalf of their principal. I framed the research problems in terms of incarnating/embodying figures and agents in the hospitality organization within the organizational communication discourse: How is hospitality organization incarnated/embodied in the guest service interaction? What is the configuration of agents in hospitality organization? How agents expressed themselves in the guest service interaction? I booked an overnight stay at a hotel in South Korea to undergo the check-in procedure. I requested a colleague to video record my check-in activity. The service interaction between the frontline staff (FLS) and I served as data for my study. Drawing from Cooren's (2010) ventriloquism that applies in the context of an organization, I explained how intangible and tangible agents manifested and found voice or agency in organizational interaction. I uncover agents and figures who took part in the emergence of hospitality organization and completion of guest service. The hospitality organization was incarnated through communication. It was embodied through a hybrid agency of Human, Intangible and Iangible agents. The human, intangible and tangible agents that configure the hospitality organization expressed themselves in the Traditional welcome, Touch of service and Tokens for service. From this data, I developed a theory of guest service that draws from a communicative constitutive understanding of hospitality organizations. Guest service materialized, actualized, presented, embodied itself through all the beings -human, intangible or tangible forms, organizational, structural and technological agents. Communicating amounts to ventriloquizing all these beings that animate and express themselves with and through the FLS. They convey an attachment and passion that were recognizable as embodied in and through the way the FLS talk, act, perform and conduct himself. A series of entities and figures are convoked, invoked, and evoked in their interaction. The significance of providing excellent guest service is an important decision for business performance in the hospitality industry because the satisfaction of guests on the hotel's products and services is indivisible in their mind, it forms a coherent whole with human, intangible and tangible agents collectively accomplishing and delivering guest service.
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ItemStudents' Confessions Page as Spokesthing: A Ventriloquial Analysis( 2024)This study used the paradigm of Communicative Constitution of Organizations (CCO) in examining an underexplored site of naturally occurring interactions - Students’ Confessions Page. It specifically used the Montreal School’s notions of sociomateriality, ventriloquism, agency, and spokesthing to reveal the various human and nonhuman agents that participate in organizational communication. This study utilized a 24-hour data collection through screen capture of confessions from the confessions page of students of a private higher educational institution (HEI) during the second semester of academic year 2023-2024. Nine confessions that are representative of student life in their HEI were analyzed using the methodological framework for ventriloquial analysis from Nathues, van Vuuren and Cooren (2021). Embedded links and page administrator posts were also examined. From empirical data, three main voices or agents that participate in the activities of a Confessions Page were identified– the voices of the Higher Educational Institution (HEI) agents, the voices of student agents, and the voices of technology agents. From analysis of figures and vents, a Confessions Page is revealed to be a university organization’s spokesthing of accountability, affect, and authority. A Confessions Page is thus theorized as a site where a university organization emerges from communicative interactions. This paper demonstrated how to pragmatically investigate organization as a dynamic of four translations by identifying figures, vents and spokesthings from informal text of an online communication platform of students. The study contributes to CCO research in demonstrating the richness of a confessions page as a research site for advancing studies on sociomateriality and in presenting data that can be further analyzed in future studies using affect theory.
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ItemA Grounded Theory of Developer Communication in Extreme Programming Practices( 2024)There is evidence that Extreme Programming (XP) software development practices are still actively used by Information Technology (IT) projects under the Agile methodology, one of the famous software development life cycle (SDLC) models. However, more information about the communication between programmers or developers for these XP practices is needed. Thus, this study, employing a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) design which emphasizes the construction of knowledge through the interpretation of data, was conducted to explore developer communication for significant XP practices. For the initial data, the researcher was fortunate to have the participation of eleven out of fifteen IT professionals, each with at least a decade of work experience. Their expertise was invaluable in shaping the direction of the research. Three out of four identified developers also participated in a follow-up questionnaire. Subsequently, semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted, focusing on their top three practices: Planning Game, Test-Driven Development (TDD), and Small Releases, which were selected based on their perceived importance in IT projects. During the interviews, it became evident that the developers play multiple roles, each significantly influencing communication. These fourteen identified roles highlight their work’s diverse and complex nature: Assessor, Collaborator, Coordinator, Designer, Developer, Documenter, Interpreter, Learner, Mentor, Negotiator, Presenter, Researcher, Tester, and Translator. The developers interacted with seven teams categorized into four groups based on their modes of communication: Direct Managers and Change management under Linear-Interactional, Business Team under Interactional, External Developers, Functional Resources, and Technical Team under Interactional-Transactional, and Transactional-Interactional for Internal Developers. With all the combined practices, roles, and interactions, this study has proposed an XP Developer Communication (XPDC) model. This framework can serve as a guide for understanding and improving developer communication in XP projects. For instance, it can help identify the key roles and their communication needs or guide the selection of appropriate communication modes for different teams. Although not all XP practices are covered, the components are enough to cover all the essential developer communication practices in XP.
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ItemSurfacing Communication in Extension: A Phenomenological Study of Communication Experiences of University Extension Project Beneficiaries in Cagayan Valley( 2023)This study explores the dynamics of communication within the context of a university's extension project in the Cagayan Valley Region, with the aim of gaining insight into the nature of extension communication. Transcendental phenomenology was employed to investigate the lived experiences of beneficiaries participating in an extension project focusing on communication phenomena that have been termed as "Communication peripheralization with instances of centricity." Through in-depth thematic analysis, six emergent themes illuminate the communication experiences of beneficiaries, ranging from communication dynamics to temporal and spatial factors, errors of omission and commission, domestication aspects, critical reflectivity, and views on extension communication. These themes collectively depict the interplay between peripheralization and centricity in communication. The study also clarifies extension communication positioning it as a specialized form that emphasizes empowerment and participation, contextual sensitivity, critical introspection, genuineness, and sustainability & coherence. The study also challenges traditional extension paradigms, emphasizing nurturing communication principles' transformative potential.
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ItemAgile Communication in an International Educational Organization: A Phenomenological Study( 2023)Using phenomenology, the researcher explored staff members' experiences in an international educational organization and made sense of the dynamic nature of their communicative practices in an ever-changing work environment. Based on the Husserl and Habermas frameworks, the study provided a comprehensive understanding of communication practices and organizational dynamics in the context of agile communication and the staff’s lifeworld. Through in-depth interviews and employing the Discourse of Understanding grounded on the Phenomenological Tradition of Communication, the researcher made sense of the experiences of selected staff members, resulting in an emergent communication-centric concept of Agile Communication. The inquiry revealed that Agile Communication is flexible, adaptive, and stakeholder-centered, enabling quick response to changing circumstances and delivering value to stakeholders. It is a collaborative, innovative, and iterative process that promotes efficient work environments by working hand-in-hand with the iteration process. Agile communication is direct and transparent, promoting simple, face-to-face interaction that leads to consistent feedback loops. It is embedded in organizational culture and process, allowing for pivot strategies, structures, and processes. Finally, it maintains the quality of work outputs, enabling stakeholders to respond to changes without compromising quality and ensuring the timely delivery of projects. Hence, Agile Communication is a flexible, user-centric, collaborative, and transparent approach that prioritizes organizational quality. It lies in the social interaction and communicative activities of people within the organization, which allow the utilization of appropriate strategies, processes, and tools in managing and responding to change. More importantly, the study revealed that agile communication had become a concept that limits the systems to colonize the staff members' lifeworld.