Faith-Based Organizational Communication and its Implications for Member Identity

Abstract

This study demonstrates inherent tensions in the organizational communication practices of churches and links to members' individual and organizational identities. Ethnographic data from a large Baptist church revealed three competing speech codes which comprised the discourse of church meetings: keep the faith (emphasizes R/S values and spiritual disciplines such as prayer), secular thinking (stresses business concerns/trends and lauds codified standards/goals for decision-making), and business as usual (underscores mechanistic routines). This study offers insight into how these codes are negotiated by pastors, staff, and congregational leaders through processes described as code jumping, compartmentalizing, and trumping. Finally, this study advances practical understandings of the role that interaction in formal meetings (i.e., a situated activity) has in shaping the identities of pastors and non-pastors.

Keywords:

• Faith-Based Organizations
• Religion
• Spirituality
• Organizational Identification
• Individual Identity

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr. Laura Stafford and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback in bringing this manuscript to publication. The data included in this manuscript were drawn from the author's dissertation project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lacy G. McNamee

Lacy G. McNamee (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Baylor University