Understanding the communicative processes of baby boomer women adjusting to retirement: Connecting micro and macro discourses

Baby Boomers are changing the face of retirement in the United States. For example, retirement traditionally refers to the time when an individual who has worked full-time for the majority of her life chooses to entirely and permanently exit the workforce, but now includes a range of formations (e.g., bridge employment). Baby Boomer women are most affected by this “new” retirement because they have worked a broader range of jobs for longer periods of time than ever before. Transitioning to retirement implicates processes of adjusting beyond just a change in one’s employment status as retirees potentially confront instrumental (e.g., where to live), relational (e.g., changes in routine with spouse/partner) and identity (e.g., aging) shifts. This study pairs organizational discourse perspectives and the normative theory of social support to analyze micro and macro discourses about how Baby Boomer women experience the transition to retirement. Regarding micro-discourses, retirees often experience retirement as part of a couple since most have a self-defined partner. Hence, retirement involves communicative processes of adjusting as partners (re)negotiate roles and behaviors that have existed for many years. Regarding macro-discourses, the unprecedented nature of today’s retirement likely encourages women and their partners to look to and be influenced by media representations of retirement and respond to these representations in a range of ways. The multilevel nature of this project necessitated two types of data. Semi-structured interviews with women who retired in the past three years and their partners represented micro level discourses (N = 35; 19 females, 16 males), whereas media texts from sources like AARP The Magazine reflected macro level Discourses (N = 100). Analysis techniques included grounded theory methods, thematic analysis, dyadic qualitative data analysis methods, as well as innovative approaches for linking multiple levels of data. Findings from interviews resulted in a framework which reveals that retirement becomes “meaning-ful” for women when situated between their pre-retirement lives and the uncertainty that surrounds the future. Seven aspects become salient during the transition to retirement including (a) finances, (b) how to spend time, (c) where to live, (d) changes in friendship relationships, (e) valuing relationships with family members, (f) loss of professional identity, and (g) age/aging. Each of these areas implicates instrumental, relational, and identity meanings. Analysis of interviews with men does not fit the framework developed from women’s interviews, suggesting the gendered nature of retirement. Discourses associated with the transition to retirement in media texts included: (a) the “new” retirement, (b) finances in retirement, (c) you need to stay physically, mentally, and socially active in retirement, (d) retirees relocate and you probably should, too, and (e) aging in America. Tensions emerged between Discourses. In addition, most media texts did not articulate ways that forms of difference (e.g., gender) influence retirement. In terms of exploring the transition to retirement as individual and/or dyadic, Discourses tended to emphasize individual aspects while participants themselves framed it as both individual and dyadic. Indeed, variation in how couples treated relevant issues resulted in four couple types (individual decision/individual transition, dyadic decision/individual transition, individual decision/dyadic transition, dyadic decision/dyadic transition). Moreover, four dilemmas emerged that reflect participants’ attempts to pursue conflicting goals via interaction with their spouses: (a) I love you but I don’t want to spend (all) my time with you, (b) Retirement is enjoyable for everyone but you aren’t enjoying it, (c) (Good) parents to X in retirement but you’re doing Y, and (d) Retirement means freedom from work but you’re still “working.” Couples reported several strategies employed to manage dilemmas. Finally, analysis identified a range of connections between levels of D/discourse such as “The lucky ones: Baby Boomers with enough money to retire,” which suggests alignment between D/discourses that financial preparation for retirement is an individual responsibility. These connections tap into broader dialectics (e.g., certainty v. uncertainty). Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed and future research directions are noted

Communication Concepts in Action: Best Practices in Case Study Pedagogy in the Organizational Communication Course

Analyzing case studies is a useful way to assist students in drawing connections between organizational communication concepts and real-world experiences. As faculty members who teach organizational communication, we regularly use case study pedagogy. Case study pedagogy provides a rich narrative through which complex organizational communication concepts can be identified, analyzed, and reflected upon. This article provides 10 best practices for utilizing and assessing case study pedagogy in the organizational communication course. These practices include: to make clear connections between case studies and course materials, scaffold learning, choose a mix of cases, cultivate a sense of community in the classroom, enable self-directed learning, vary assessment formats, welcome ambiguity, evaluate analyses and provide directed feedback, use varied case study formats, and encourage students to write case studies

Examining commitment, satisfaction, equity and relational maintenance in formal youth mentoring relationships

Formal youth mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America are an increasingly popular intervention used to address a variety of challenges encountered by at-risk youth. The formation of an enduring relationship between a mentor and mentee has been associated with a range of academic, psychosocial, and behavioral benefits for youth. However, some youth involved in mentoring relationships that end prematurely can experience negative outcomes. Utilizing a social exchange perspective, this study surveyed 145 mentors from four different mentoring programs to understand how mentoring relationships develop and persist by examining commitment, satisfaction, equity, and relational maintenance. Overall, results confirmed the hypotheses derived from the Investment Model, but the degree to which satisfaction, alternatives, and investments predicted commitment in mentoring relationships differed somewhat from patterns found in other relational contexts. Next, mentors in equitable relationships reported higher levels of satisfaction and commitment than mentors who reported being underbenefitted in their relationships with mentees. However, equity did not predict reported use of relational maintenance strategies as a whole. Commitment predicted use of maintenance strategy subscales, with the exception of social networks. Furthermore, the set of Investment Model variables (i.e., satisfaction, investments, quality of alternatives) predicted all seven relational maintenance strategy subscales. The discussion highlights both theoretical and practical implications of the current, as well as continued, study of mentoring dyads

Raising Awareness of Campus Diversity and Inclusion: Transformationally Teaching Diversity through Narratives of Campus Experiences and Simulated Problem Solving

Courses: Organizational Communication, Intercultural Communication Objectives: This activity encourages students to learn collaboratively about diversity through the sharing of student experiences; deepen and complicate their understanding of organizational diversity; and enhance their ability to apply course material to increasingly complex organizational environments