Communication design work in the professional practice of association management.

摘要

Association management companies are professional service organizations that provide administrative services through association managers for non-profit professional societies and trade associations. Association managers function as outside contractors to the association and have tenures across multiple volunteer leadership administrations. Five key literatures informed this study of communication as design: neo-institutionalism, professional communities, interorganizational communication, grounded practical theory, and communication as design.;Using Grounded Practical Theory (GPT) and Communication as Design (CaD), this study reconstructs association managers' communication practice. Association managers were the primary data source. Observations and industry literature provided secondary sources. Data collection methods were interviews, participant observations, and a review of industry literature. The GPT practice reconstruction revealed communication dilemmas, techniques, and situated ideals. The process of examining CaD work "articulates the tools, ideals, and knowledge of intervention work and then reconstructs the practical theory of communication" (Aakhus, 2007a, p. 116). This study focuses on several key tenets of CaD. The tenets include: (a) interventions, (b) inventions, (c) managing of identity goals, (d) shaping interactivity, and (e) a practical theory of interaction. The research interviews seek to uncover the communication knowledge and practices they employ in shaping interactional spaces. This study explores how a community of professionals chooses to shape interactivity through interventions, inventions, management of identity goals, and implementation of their practical theory of communication.;Findings revealed: 1) association managers establish their role through the authority of documents and continuity and history; 2) association managers protect their identity as transparent, neutral, non-conflictual outsiders and exercise their professional role through backstage work, peer-to-peer communication and strategically chosen interventions; 3) association managers coordinate collaborative action through an operational dialogue; 4) association managers' practical theory of communication (fairness, preparation, backstage positioning, professional positioning, and peer-to-peer communication) governs implementation of the operational dialogue; and 5) association managers utilize an operational dialogue to exercise unobtrusive control through a unique process of inverted control.;An operational dialogue is foundational to a unique form of unobtrusive control the author identifies as inverted control. The communication design work of association managers is tightly integrated into an operational dialogue that guides the association's governance and management activity.