Abstract

Commentary on Goodall Rhetoric and the Display of Organizational Ethnographies CHARLES CONRAD Texas A&M'University ROFESSOR Goodall's essay raises at least four important issues facing scholars who are interested in developing interpretive accounts of sym­ bolic action in formal organizations. First, his focus on "nonverbal" elements of organizations comments upon and adds to a growing literature that has examined the cultural implications of the physical trappings of various organiza­ tional ceremonies (Smircich, 1983; Walter, 1983), the ways in which nonverbal displays support the dominant metaphors of organizations (Barley, 1983), the ways in which "physical humor" contributes to the meanings employees attach to work (Boland & Hoffman, 1983), and the impact that change in physical environment has on the taken-far-granted assumptions of a culture and on patterns of com­ munication (Wilkins, 1989). Although the essay does not provide as extensive an analysis as Rosen's (1985) classic study of the ways in which organizational power relationships are simultaneously revealed and reinforced by physical displays, it establishes a potentially productive direction for communication scholars. Second, presenting the softball team as a representative anecdote (Burke, 1945a) of the organization's overall culture, Goodall raises important questions about how researchers should grapple with organizational actors' simultaneous