Owen McAlister-Lopez
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Research Mentor(s): Elizabeth Trinh
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Management and Organizations / Business
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Owen McAlister López, Elizabeth Trinh
Presenter: 54
Abstract
Communication in the workplace is essential, as all the leaders of organizations and businesses will confirm. It can play a significant role in a company’s success or oftentimes be the reason behind a failure, as studies have shown (e.g. Barry & Grant, 2000). So naturally, it is not only an intriguing point of study, but it is also a crucial point of study when trying to understand the inner workings of organizations. Our project is centered around the idea that information does not always get passed down from the employers to the employees, a phenomenon that is named ‘leader information withholding’ when this suppression of information is intentional. In order to gain results, we started by conducting a literature review of previous studies that have investigated communication in the workplace to give us a background on the topic. Through a series of interviews and surveys from leaders, we will next analyze a set of qualitative data to know more about information withholding and about how communication can be a fundamental pillar of any organization. We predict that leaders will share with us that withholding information is a common part of their job. Certain information, especially negative or distressing information, may not be relevant to employees, which is why it is not always necessary to share that information with them. We hope to correlate our findings to the organization of hierarchy in the workplace and in the roles that leaders must play to keep a business efficient and productive.
Social Sciences
