Scholarship
Research Talk: May 3, 2023 - University of Kansas
Transitioning toward Financial Literacy: A Community Engaged Mixed-methods Inquiry |
Research Talk: October 10, 2019 - Eckerd College
Socially Supportive Communities: Communication While Facing Upward and Downward Social Mobility |
Published Scholarship
Tracy, S. J. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (in press). Qualitative Methods. In. V. D. Miller & M. S. Poole (Editors) (2023). De Gruyter’s Handbook of Organizational Communication. De Gruyter.
Gist-Mackey, A. N. & Compton, C. (in press). Ethnography. In. B. Brummans, B. Taylor, & A. Sivanen (Editors) (2022). SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Communication. Sage.
Tracy, S. J., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Dehnert, M., (in press). Phronetic Iterative Qualitative Data Analysis. In. B. Brummans, B. Taylor, & A. Sivanen (Editors) (2023). SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Communication. Sage.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Williams, S. E., & Jewell, A. (2024). Whitewashing the Walls: Leading Organizational Change from Cultures of Mistrust to Celebrating Sisterhood. In B. Van Gilder, J. Austin, J. Bishop (Editors) (2024). Communication and Organizational Changemaking for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Case Studies Approach. Routledge.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Piercy, C. W., & Bates, J. M. (2023). Pharmacy work: Intrinsic motivation and external rewards across role and setting. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2023.11.008 (open access article)
- Visit local NPR News coverage of this study
- Visit KU Today news coverage of this study
Gist-Mackey, A. N. & Dougherty, D. S. (2023). Unemployment & Food (In)security: (Un)just governance in unemployment organizations In S. Dempsey (Editor) (2023). Organizing Eating: Communicating for Equity across U.S. Food Systems. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003190578-5
Gist-Mackey, A.N., & Oliha-Donaldson, H. (2023). Black Lives Matter as Postcolonial Organizing. In M. Pal, M., J. Cruz, D. Munshi (Eds) Organizing at the Margins. Theorizing Organizations of Struggle in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22993-0_12
Zhang, Y. B., Muyidi, A., & Gist-Mackey, A. (2023). Women journalists’ contact quality with male coworkers, Affective attitudes toward men and intention to quit: Intergroup anxiety in Saudi Arabia. Communication Studies, 74(3), 217-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2201464
Williams, S. E., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Jewell, A. (2023). Colorblind on the color line: Critical ethnography of racial inequity in a human service organization serving a community of families at the margins. Human Communication Research, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqad014
Valiavska, A., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Holloway, M. (2023). A Decade of Race Publications: Meta Content Analysis of Race in Communication Scholarship from 2010-2020. Howard Journal of Communications. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2023.2178267
Pal, M., Kim, H., Harris, K. L., Long, Z., Linabary, J., Wilhoit Larson, E., Jensen, P. R., Gist-Mackey, A. N., McDonald, J. Nieto-Fernandez, B., Jiang, J., Misra, S., & Depsey, S. E. (2022). Decolonizing organizational communication. Management Communication Quarterly, 36(3), 391-577. https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189221090255
Wiley, M. L. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2022). Photovoice. In E. Ho, C. Bylund, & J. van Weert (Editors). Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Wiley. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119678816
Underhill, G. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2022). Grounded Theory. In E. Ho, C. Bylund, & J. van Weert (Editors). Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Wiley. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119678816
Muyidi, A., Zhang, Y. B., & Gist-Mackey, A. (2023). The Influence of Gender Discrimination, Supervisor Support, and Government Support on Saudi Female Journalists’ Job Stress and Satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 37(2), 207–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189221103623
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Hall, A. R., & Davis, S. M. (2022). Being Black in the ivory: Telling our truth and taking up space In. J. Bauer & S. Blithe (2022). Badass Feminist Politics: Exploring Radical Edges of Feminist Theory, Communication, and Activism. Rutgers University Press.
Piercy, C. W., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Status shields and pharmacy work: Differences among workers by role and context. Social Science & Medicine, 293, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114671
Kingsford, A. N., Gist-Mackey, A. N., Pastorek, A. E. (2021). Welfare Recipients Communicated Pathways to Resilience during Stigma and Material Hardship in the Heartland of America. Journal of Applied Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2021.1987504
Piercy, C. W., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Automation anxieties: Perceptions about technological automation and the future of pharmacy work. Human-Machine Communication, 2, 191-208. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.2.10 (open access article)
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Kunkel, A. D., & Guthrie, J. (2021). Surviving communicative labor: Theoretical exploration of the (In)visibility of gendered faculty work/life struggle. Academic Labor: Research and Artistry, 5(3), 20-48. (open access article)
Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Experiencing Symbolic and Linguistic Violence at Predominately White Institutions as Student and Professor. In H. Oliha-Donaldson (Ed.) (2021). Confronting Critical Equity and Inclusion Incidents on Campus: Lessons Learned and Emerging Practices. Routledge.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Dougherty, D. S. (2020). Sociomaterial struggle: An ethnographic analysis of power, discourse, and materiality in a working class unemployment support organization, Communication Monographs, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2020.1818801
Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2020). The Pain of Performative Professionalism: Emotionally Embodying Business As Usual. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 9(2), 140-143. https://doi.org/10.1525.dcqr.2020.9.2.140
Gist-Mackey, A. N. & Kingsford, A. N. (2020). Linguistic inclusion: Challenging classed communication bias implicit in interview methods.
Management Communication Quarterly, 34(3), 402-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318920934128
Jensen, P., Cruz, J., Eger, E., Hanchey, J., Gist-Mackey, A. N., Ruiz-Mesa, K., & Villamil, A. (2019). Pushing Beyond Positionalities and Through “Failures” in Qualitative Organizational Communication: Experiences and Lessons on Identities in Ethnographic Praxis. Management Communication Quarterly, 34(1), 121-151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318919885654
Byrd, G., Zhang, Y. B., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2019). Interability contact and the reduction of interability prejudice: Disability salience, intergroup anxiety, and relational solidarity. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 38(4), 441-458. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19865578
Pastorek, A. E. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2019). Leaving College for the Fast Track: Assimilation Experiences during Multiple Transitions. In R. S. Bisel & M. W. Kramer (Eds.) (2019). Case Studies in Organizational Communication: A Life-Span Approach. Oxford University Press.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Guy, A. (2019). “You get in a hole, it’s like quicksand”: A grounded theory analysis of social support amid materially bounded decision-making processes. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 47(3), 237-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2019.1617430
- Visit feature story on this article here: National Communication Association's Communication Currents
- Visit feature story on this research in KU Today
- Visit local NPR segment featuring this research: KUCR 89.3
Dougherty, D. S., Schraedley, M., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Wickert, J. E. (2018). A Photovoice Study of Food Insecurity, Unemployment, and the Discursive-Material Dialectic. Communication Monographs, 85(2), 443-466. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2018.1500700.
Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2018). (Dis)embodied job search communication training: Comparative, critical ethnographic analysis of materiality and discourse during the unequal search for work. Organization Studies, 39(9), 1251–1275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617736936
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Wiley, M., & Erba, J. (2017). “You’re Doing Great. Keep Doing What You’re Doing”: Socially-Supportive Communication During First-Generation College Students’ Socialization. Communication Education, 67(1), 52-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2017.1390590
- Visit feature story on this article here: National Communication Association's Communication Currents
- Visit feature story on this article here: KU Today
Gist, A. N. (2017). “I Knew America Was Not Ready For a Woman to Be President”: Commentary on the Dominant Structural Intersections Organized around the Presidency and Voting Rights. Women’s Studies in Communication, 40, https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2017.1302261
Gist, A. N. (2017). Social Class and Organizing. In C. R. Scott & L. Lewis (Eds.) (2017). International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Wiley.
Gist, A. N. & Goldstein Hode, M. (2017). Race and Organizing. In C. R. Scott & L. Lewis (Eds.) (2017). International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Wiley.
Gist, A. N., Jensen, P. R., Wickert, J. E., & Meisenbach, R. M. (2016). Working with Stigma: Identity Management in the Quest for Employment in J. P. Fyke, J. Faris, & P.M. Buzzanell (Eds.) Cases in organizational and managerial communication: Stretching boundaries. Routledge.
Gist, A. N. (2016). Challenging Assumptions Underlying the Metamorphosis Phase: Ethnographic Analysis of Metamorphosis Within an Unemployment Organization. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 16(1), 15-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2015.1088891
Gist, A. N. (2015). Volunteering in the Age Old Search for Work in J. Mize Smith, & M.W. Kramer (Eds.), Case Studies in Volunteering and NGOs. Peter Lang Publishing.
Gist, M., & Gist, A. N. (2013). Self-Efficacy. Oxford Bibliographies Online: Management. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0043
Tracy, S. J. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (in press). Qualitative Methods. In. V. D. Miller & M. S. Poole (Editors) (2023). De Gruyter’s Handbook of Organizational Communication. De Gruyter.
Gist-Mackey, A. N. & Compton, C. (in press). Ethnography. In. B. Brummans, B. Taylor, & A. Sivanen (Editors) (2022). SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Communication. Sage.
Tracy, S. J., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Dehnert, M., (in press). Phronetic Iterative Qualitative Data Analysis. In. B. Brummans, B. Taylor, & A. Sivanen (Editors) (2023). SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Communication. Sage.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Williams, S. E., & Jewell, A. (2024). Whitewashing the Walls: Leading Organizational Change from Cultures of Mistrust to Celebrating Sisterhood. In B. Van Gilder, J. Austin, J. Bishop (Editors) (2024). Communication and Organizational Changemaking for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Case Studies Approach. Routledge.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Piercy, C. W., & Bates, J. M. (2023). Pharmacy work: Intrinsic motivation and external rewards across role and setting. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2023.11.008 (open access article)
- Visit local NPR News coverage of this study
- Visit KU Today news coverage of this study
Gist-Mackey, A. N. & Dougherty, D. S. (2023). Unemployment & Food (In)security: (Un)just governance in unemployment organizations In S. Dempsey (Editor) (2023). Organizing Eating: Communicating for Equity across U.S. Food Systems. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003190578-5
Gist-Mackey, A.N., & Oliha-Donaldson, H. (2023). Black Lives Matter as Postcolonial Organizing. In M. Pal, M., J. Cruz, D. Munshi (Eds) Organizing at the Margins. Theorizing Organizations of Struggle in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22993-0_12
Zhang, Y. B., Muyidi, A., & Gist-Mackey, A. (2023). Women journalists’ contact quality with male coworkers, Affective attitudes toward men and intention to quit: Intergroup anxiety in Saudi Arabia. Communication Studies, 74(3), 217-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2201464
Williams, S. E., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Jewell, A. (2023). Colorblind on the color line: Critical ethnography of racial inequity in a human service organization serving a community of families at the margins. Human Communication Research, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqad014
Valiavska, A., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Holloway, M. (2023). A Decade of Race Publications: Meta Content Analysis of Race in Communication Scholarship from 2010-2020. Howard Journal of Communications. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2023.2178267
Pal, M., Kim, H., Harris, K. L., Long, Z., Linabary, J., Wilhoit Larson, E., Jensen, P. R., Gist-Mackey, A. N., McDonald, J. Nieto-Fernandez, B., Jiang, J., Misra, S., & Depsey, S. E. (2022). Decolonizing organizational communication. Management Communication Quarterly, 36(3), 391-577. https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189221090255
Wiley, M. L. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2022). Photovoice. In E. Ho, C. Bylund, & J. van Weert (Editors). Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Wiley. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119678816
Underhill, G. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2022). Grounded Theory. In E. Ho, C. Bylund, & J. van Weert (Editors). Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Wiley. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119678816
Muyidi, A., Zhang, Y. B., & Gist-Mackey, A. (2023). The Influence of Gender Discrimination, Supervisor Support, and Government Support on Saudi Female Journalists’ Job Stress and Satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 37(2), 207–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189221103623
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Hall, A. R., & Davis, S. M. (2022). Being Black in the ivory: Telling our truth and taking up space In. J. Bauer & S. Blithe (2022). Badass Feminist Politics: Exploring Radical Edges of Feminist Theory, Communication, and Activism. Rutgers University Press.
Piercy, C. W., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Status shields and pharmacy work: Differences among workers by role and context. Social Science & Medicine, 293, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114671
Kingsford, A. N., Gist-Mackey, A. N., Pastorek, A. E. (2021). Welfare Recipients Communicated Pathways to Resilience during Stigma and Material Hardship in the Heartland of America. Journal of Applied Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2021.1987504
Piercy, C. W., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Automation anxieties: Perceptions about technological automation and the future of pharmacy work. Human-Machine Communication, 2, 191-208. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.2.10 (open access article)
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Kunkel, A. D., & Guthrie, J. (2021). Surviving communicative labor: Theoretical exploration of the (In)visibility of gendered faculty work/life struggle. Academic Labor: Research and Artistry, 5(3), 20-48. (open access article)
Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Experiencing Symbolic and Linguistic Violence at Predominately White Institutions as Student and Professor. In H. Oliha-Donaldson (Ed.) (2021). Confronting Critical Equity and Inclusion Incidents on Campus: Lessons Learned and Emerging Practices. Routledge.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Dougherty, D. S. (2020). Sociomaterial struggle: An ethnographic analysis of power, discourse, and materiality in a working class unemployment support organization, Communication Monographs, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2020.1818801
Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2020). The Pain of Performative Professionalism: Emotionally Embodying Business As Usual. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 9(2), 140-143. https://doi.org/10.1525.dcqr.2020.9.2.140
Gist-Mackey, A. N. & Kingsford, A. N. (2020). Linguistic inclusion: Challenging classed communication bias implicit in interview methods.
Management Communication Quarterly, 34(3), 402-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318920934128
Jensen, P., Cruz, J., Eger, E., Hanchey, J., Gist-Mackey, A. N., Ruiz-Mesa, K., & Villamil, A. (2019). Pushing Beyond Positionalities and Through “Failures” in Qualitative Organizational Communication: Experiences and Lessons on Identities in Ethnographic Praxis. Management Communication Quarterly, 34(1), 121-151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318919885654
- Awarded the 2020 Best Article of the Year award for the National Communication Association's Ethnography Division
Byrd, G., Zhang, Y. B., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2019). Interability contact and the reduction of interability prejudice: Disability salience, intergroup anxiety, and relational solidarity. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 38(4), 441-458. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19865578
Pastorek, A. E. & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2019). Leaving College for the Fast Track: Assimilation Experiences during Multiple Transitions. In R. S. Bisel & M. W. Kramer (Eds.) (2019). Case Studies in Organizational Communication: A Life-Span Approach. Oxford University Press.
Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Guy, A. (2019). “You get in a hole, it’s like quicksand”: A grounded theory analysis of social support amid materially bounded decision-making processes. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 47(3), 237-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2019.1617430
- Visit feature story on this article here: National Communication Association's Communication Currents
- Visit feature story on this research in KU Today
- Visit local NPR segment featuring this research: KUCR 89.3
Dougherty, D. S., Schraedley, M., Gist-Mackey, A. N., & Wickert, J. E. (2018). A Photovoice Study of Food Insecurity, Unemployment, and the Discursive-Material Dialectic. Communication Monographs, 85(2), 443-466. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2018.1500700.
Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2018). (Dis)embodied job search communication training: Comparative, critical ethnographic analysis of materiality and discourse during the unequal search for work. Organization Studies, 39(9), 1251–1275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617736936
- Awarded the 2019 Best Article of the Year award for the National Communication Association's Ethnography Division
Gist-Mackey, A. N., Wiley, M., & Erba, J. (2017). “You’re Doing Great. Keep Doing What You’re Doing”: Socially-Supportive Communication During First-Generation College Students’ Socialization. Communication Education, 67(1), 52-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2017.1390590
- Visit feature story on this article here: National Communication Association's Communication Currents
- Visit feature story on this article here: KU Today
Gist, A. N. (2017). “I Knew America Was Not Ready For a Woman to Be President”: Commentary on the Dominant Structural Intersections Organized around the Presidency and Voting Rights. Women’s Studies in Communication, 40, https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2017.1302261
Gist, A. N. (2017). Social Class and Organizing. In C. R. Scott & L. Lewis (Eds.) (2017). International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Wiley.
Gist, A. N. & Goldstein Hode, M. (2017). Race and Organizing. In C. R. Scott & L. Lewis (Eds.) (2017). International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Wiley.
Gist, A. N., Jensen, P. R., Wickert, J. E., & Meisenbach, R. M. (2016). Working with Stigma: Identity Management in the Quest for Employment in J. P. Fyke, J. Faris, & P.M. Buzzanell (Eds.) Cases in organizational and managerial communication: Stretching boundaries. Routledge.
Gist, A. N. (2016). Challenging Assumptions Underlying the Metamorphosis Phase: Ethnographic Analysis of Metamorphosis Within an Unemployment Organization. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 16(1), 15-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2015.1088891
Gist, A. N. (2015). Volunteering in the Age Old Search for Work in J. Mize Smith, & M.W. Kramer (Eds.), Case Studies in Volunteering and NGOs. Peter Lang Publishing.
Gist, M., & Gist, A. N. (2013). Self-Efficacy. Oxford Bibliographies Online: Management. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0043
RESEARCH AGENDA
Focus of Research Program
Communication is key to navigating major changes and adversities in life. My research explores, critiques, and explains the power of communication and the way communication is used by, for and against marginalized people experiencing social mobility. As an organizational communication scholar, my research is interdisciplinary, exploring two dominant aspects of social mobility: (a) social (i.e., stigma, American Dream, networking relationships) and (b) material (i.e. compensation, food, transportation). The majority of my publications identify how people communicate during social mobility in relation to their identities (i.e. race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability) and issues of power (i.e. bias, discrimination, inequity, prejudice, privilege). I have developed two related lines of inquiry: (a) unemployment as downward mobility and (b) barriers to upward mobility. Overall, my research demonstrates the way macro and micro level communication perpetuate, maintain, and transform systems of social inequity.
Major Accomplishments
This research program has yielded 35 scholarly publications including journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries published in highly ranked outlets. Also, my scholarship showcases qualitative methodological expertise in ethnography, grounded theory, photovoice, phenomenology, narrative, and case study methodologies. In line with my commitment to graduate education, eight of my publications include doctoral student co-authors whom I mentored through the publication process.
My first line of inquiry explores unemployment, which often causes downward social mobility. I have comparatively analyzed experiences of unemployed blue-collar and white-collar populations, which has been published in top journals: Communication Monographs (Gist-Mackey & Dougherty, 2020; Dougherty et al., 2018) and Organization Studies (Gist-Mackey, 2018), the latter won the 2019 Best Journal Article of The Year Award from the ethnography division of the National Communication Association. These studies uncovered deeply embedded classed and racial biases regarding perceptions of identity and (in)appropriate communication behaviors during job search processes. In addition, my first-authored publication in Communication Monographs contributes the concept sociomaterial struggle by analyzing the experiences of blue-collar job trainees in a vocational training program. My work has taken an in-depth approach to studying job search communication within either middle-class and working-class groups and has been published in a series of book chapters (Gist, 2015; Gist, 2016a; Gist et al., 2016) and one journal publication (Gist, 2016b) in Qualitative Research Reports in Communication. Further, I have also explored the stigma of welfare in relation to joblessness in a new publication exploring the resilience of welfare recipients (Kingsford, Gist-Mackey, & Pastorek, 2021) published in Journal of Applied Communication Research. This research illustrates how downwardly mobile unemployed people, across social classes, both use and are trained to use communication to navigate joblessness and job seeking in ways that, unfortunately, often perpetuate or sustain downward mobility and stigma.
My second line of inquiry explores barriers to upward mobility, a crucial issue contributing to generational inequity. I led a research team that studied the experiences of First-Generation College Students (FGCS) (Gist-Mackey et al., 2017). This manuscript, published in the national journal Communication Education, explored the socially supportive communication behaviors of FGCS, who believed going to college would help them grasp upwardly mobile futures. Subsequently, I examined social mobility, social support, and decision making in a study published in one of our discipline’s most prestigious outlets the Journal of Applied Communication Research. This manuscript contributes a novel concept, “materially-bounded decision making” (Gist-Mackey & Guy, 2019), which addresses the way material circumstances (i.e., lack of resources like money, transportation, or shelter) constrain decisions that would support upward mobility. Findings revealed that social support systems can alleviate constraints fostering temporary financial stability, keeping downward mobility at bay.
Since the majority of my scholarship employs qualitative methodology, I have also been publishing in this area as well. I was invited to co-author three different chapters about qualitative methods in the forthcoming De Gruyter’s Handbook of Organizational Communication and the forthcoming SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Communication. These will support my already published work that explores class biases in communication expectations for interview research, which was published in Management Communication Quarterly (Gist-Mackey & Kingsford, 2021). These publications continue to grow my reputation and expertise in qualitative methodology.
Overall, my program of research reflects my commitment to engaged scholarship, by partnering with local organizations serving populations navigating issues of social mobility. This commitment requires negotiating access, co-designing research with community organizations, and presenting findings and recommendations for each community partner. For instance, in 2017 the United Community Services of Johnson County used our findings as part of their strategic planning initiative for county-wide employment planning. In addition to the theoretical and practical importance of this line of inquiry, I have also made contributions to the qualitative methodology literature with two publications in Management Communication Quarterly. (Jensen et al., 2019; Gist-Mackey & Kingsford, 2020) addressing the role of researcher identity during engaged qualitative research.
Future Research Trajectory
A number of current projects, establish a clear future trajectory. Consistent with my existing research, I will explore how social mobility and power complicate communication during organizational life (i.e. workforce, non-profits, and education). My future research is best characterized by the manuscripts I currently have under review, studies nearing completion, and research in development. I have five manuscripts in various stages of the review process and several projects under way.
To continue my line of research regarding downward mobility, one manuscript is being revised for the Western Journal of Communication, which explores the tension filled language of welfare recipients. A second explores the inequitable work conditions of pharmacy workers in collaboration with Dr. Cameron W. Piercy and Dr. Jessica Bates.
Second, I am analyzing data about the intersecting gendered and classed communication biases of hiring managers, which was funded by a grant from the American Association of University Women. We also have manuscript about first-generation college students and their media consumption during college preparation (Erba et al., 2020). These projects extend my line of inquiry regarding barriers to upward mobility.
Third, I have ongoing collaborations with colleagues in the discipline of communication. Collaborations are beneficial given the wide-reaching theoretical/practical importance of research about social mobility. First, I am leading a research team of seven in collaboration with Dr. Alesia Woszidlo. This longitudinal, mixed-methods research explores a financial literacy program serving low-income families. We are analyzing data for this project, which will likely yield a book publication. This is also a grant funded project, we received $14,750 from the National Communication Association’s Cultivation Grant.
Finally, I plan to explore communication across rural, urban, and suburban geographic spaces. Most research about social class focuses on a single geographic area, yet communication dynamics in these spaces are often distinct. My expertise in the sociomaterial nature of social class will contribute to this literature. I intend to pursue grants, including the Ford Foundation, United Way, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which are committed to understanding and minimizing societal inequity. Overall, my scholarship will contribute to scholarly knowledge and local community programming regarding how social class inequity is produced, resisted, and/or mitigated through communication and organizing.
Summary
Simply put, my scholarship lives is focused on issues of communication, power and social mobility. I seek to produce knowledge about organizational communication that promotes an expansion of theoretical and practical knowledge. My scholarship situates me at a crossroads of the academy and community. The nature of my research will ideally continue to place me in an ethnographic role as I collaborate with additional local organizations partnering with them to conduct engaged scholarship.
© 2023 All Rights Reserved - Dr. Angela Gist-Mackey
Communication is key to navigating major changes and adversities in life. My research explores, critiques, and explains the power of communication and the way communication is used by, for and against marginalized people experiencing social mobility. As an organizational communication scholar, my research is interdisciplinary, exploring two dominant aspects of social mobility: (a) social (i.e., stigma, American Dream, networking relationships) and (b) material (i.e. compensation, food, transportation). The majority of my publications identify how people communicate during social mobility in relation to their identities (i.e. race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability) and issues of power (i.e. bias, discrimination, inequity, prejudice, privilege). I have developed two related lines of inquiry: (a) unemployment as downward mobility and (b) barriers to upward mobility. Overall, my research demonstrates the way macro and micro level communication perpetuate, maintain, and transform systems of social inequity.
Major Accomplishments
This research program has yielded 35 scholarly publications including journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries published in highly ranked outlets. Also, my scholarship showcases qualitative methodological expertise in ethnography, grounded theory, photovoice, phenomenology, narrative, and case study methodologies. In line with my commitment to graduate education, eight of my publications include doctoral student co-authors whom I mentored through the publication process.
My first line of inquiry explores unemployment, which often causes downward social mobility. I have comparatively analyzed experiences of unemployed blue-collar and white-collar populations, which has been published in top journals: Communication Monographs (Gist-Mackey & Dougherty, 2020; Dougherty et al., 2018) and Organization Studies (Gist-Mackey, 2018), the latter won the 2019 Best Journal Article of The Year Award from the ethnography division of the National Communication Association. These studies uncovered deeply embedded classed and racial biases regarding perceptions of identity and (in)appropriate communication behaviors during job search processes. In addition, my first-authored publication in Communication Monographs contributes the concept sociomaterial struggle by analyzing the experiences of blue-collar job trainees in a vocational training program. My work has taken an in-depth approach to studying job search communication within either middle-class and working-class groups and has been published in a series of book chapters (Gist, 2015; Gist, 2016a; Gist et al., 2016) and one journal publication (Gist, 2016b) in Qualitative Research Reports in Communication. Further, I have also explored the stigma of welfare in relation to joblessness in a new publication exploring the resilience of welfare recipients (Kingsford, Gist-Mackey, & Pastorek, 2021) published in Journal of Applied Communication Research. This research illustrates how downwardly mobile unemployed people, across social classes, both use and are trained to use communication to navigate joblessness and job seeking in ways that, unfortunately, often perpetuate or sustain downward mobility and stigma.
My second line of inquiry explores barriers to upward mobility, a crucial issue contributing to generational inequity. I led a research team that studied the experiences of First-Generation College Students (FGCS) (Gist-Mackey et al., 2017). This manuscript, published in the national journal Communication Education, explored the socially supportive communication behaviors of FGCS, who believed going to college would help them grasp upwardly mobile futures. Subsequently, I examined social mobility, social support, and decision making in a study published in one of our discipline’s most prestigious outlets the Journal of Applied Communication Research. This manuscript contributes a novel concept, “materially-bounded decision making” (Gist-Mackey & Guy, 2019), which addresses the way material circumstances (i.e., lack of resources like money, transportation, or shelter) constrain decisions that would support upward mobility. Findings revealed that social support systems can alleviate constraints fostering temporary financial stability, keeping downward mobility at bay.
Since the majority of my scholarship employs qualitative methodology, I have also been publishing in this area as well. I was invited to co-author three different chapters about qualitative methods in the forthcoming De Gruyter’s Handbook of Organizational Communication and the forthcoming SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Communication. These will support my already published work that explores class biases in communication expectations for interview research, which was published in Management Communication Quarterly (Gist-Mackey & Kingsford, 2021). These publications continue to grow my reputation and expertise in qualitative methodology.
Overall, my program of research reflects my commitment to engaged scholarship, by partnering with local organizations serving populations navigating issues of social mobility. This commitment requires negotiating access, co-designing research with community organizations, and presenting findings and recommendations for each community partner. For instance, in 2017 the United Community Services of Johnson County used our findings as part of their strategic planning initiative for county-wide employment planning. In addition to the theoretical and practical importance of this line of inquiry, I have also made contributions to the qualitative methodology literature with two publications in Management Communication Quarterly. (Jensen et al., 2019; Gist-Mackey & Kingsford, 2020) addressing the role of researcher identity during engaged qualitative research.
Future Research Trajectory
A number of current projects, establish a clear future trajectory. Consistent with my existing research, I will explore how social mobility and power complicate communication during organizational life (i.e. workforce, non-profits, and education). My future research is best characterized by the manuscripts I currently have under review, studies nearing completion, and research in development. I have five manuscripts in various stages of the review process and several projects under way.
To continue my line of research regarding downward mobility, one manuscript is being revised for the Western Journal of Communication, which explores the tension filled language of welfare recipients. A second explores the inequitable work conditions of pharmacy workers in collaboration with Dr. Cameron W. Piercy and Dr. Jessica Bates.
Second, I am analyzing data about the intersecting gendered and classed communication biases of hiring managers, which was funded by a grant from the American Association of University Women. We also have manuscript about first-generation college students and their media consumption during college preparation (Erba et al., 2020). These projects extend my line of inquiry regarding barriers to upward mobility.
Third, I have ongoing collaborations with colleagues in the discipline of communication. Collaborations are beneficial given the wide-reaching theoretical/practical importance of research about social mobility. First, I am leading a research team of seven in collaboration with Dr. Alesia Woszidlo. This longitudinal, mixed-methods research explores a financial literacy program serving low-income families. We are analyzing data for this project, which will likely yield a book publication. This is also a grant funded project, we received $14,750 from the National Communication Association’s Cultivation Grant.
Finally, I plan to explore communication across rural, urban, and suburban geographic spaces. Most research about social class focuses on a single geographic area, yet communication dynamics in these spaces are often distinct. My expertise in the sociomaterial nature of social class will contribute to this literature. I intend to pursue grants, including the Ford Foundation, United Way, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which are committed to understanding and minimizing societal inequity. Overall, my scholarship will contribute to scholarly knowledge and local community programming regarding how social class inequity is produced, resisted, and/or mitigated through communication and organizing.
Summary
Simply put, my scholarship lives is focused on issues of communication, power and social mobility. I seek to produce knowledge about organizational communication that promotes an expansion of theoretical and practical knowledge. My scholarship situates me at a crossroads of the academy and community. The nature of my research will ideally continue to place me in an ethnographic role as I collaborate with additional local organizations partnering with them to conduct engaged scholarship.
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