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Michael Kramer

Dr. Michael Kramer's research centers on three main areas: employee transitions in organizational settings, emotion management in organizations, and group communication processes, particularly in non-profit organizations such as community theater, although he has recently begun investigating the relationship of researchers to institutional review boards. His work on employee transitions examines newcomers, transferees, recently promoted employees, employees being dismissed, and employees experiencing a merger or acquisition. He has typically focused on uncertainty reduction theory as part of this research. His book, Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication, presents his conceptualization of uncertainty in human interaction (2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers). Michael is extremely diverse in the research methods he uses, ranging from quantitative research, to content analysis, to ethnographic work. His research has been published in Communication Monographs, Human Communication Research, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Management Communication Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Small Group Research, and more.

Michael Kramer has been recognized for both his excellence in teaching and his outstanding research. His superior skills in the classroom earned him recognition with MU's Provost Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award in 1995 and the prestigious William T. Kemper Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1999. His dissertation won the ICA W. Charles Redding Dissertation Award for best organizational communication dissertation in 1991, he has won 6 top-four paper awards at national and international conferences, and his article on group dialectics was named the Outstanding Article in Group Communication for 2005 by the Group Communication Division of the National Communication Association.

Frequently Taught Courses
Com 4476 - Organizational Communication
Com 4974 - Senior Project
Com 8123 - Seminar in Quantitative Research Methods
Com 8420 - Seminar in Group Communication
Com 9430 - Topics in Organizational Communication (Socialization)

Research Interests
Organizational socialization and assimilation
Emotion management
Group communication processes, especially in volunteer organizations including leadership and decision-making
Institutional review boards

Selected Recent Publications
Dougherty, D.S., Kramer, M.K., Hamlett, S.R., & Kurth, T. (Accepted 2008). Language convergence and meaning divergence: An examination of language and meaning for social-sexual behaviors in organizations. Communication Monographs.

Kramer, M.W. (2008). The year of the newborns: A department chair's reflections. Women's Studies in Communication, 31, 196-202 .

Aubrey, J.S., Click, M.A., Dougherty, D.S., Fine, M.A., Kramer, M.W., Meisenbach, R.J., Olson, L.N., & Smythe, M.J. (2008). “We do babies!”:  The trials, tribulations, and triumphs of pregnancy and parenting in the academy. Women's Studies in Communication, 31, 186-195 .

Click, M.A., & Kramer, M.W. (2007). Reflections on a century of living: Gendered differences in popular songs. Journal of Popular Communication, 5, 241-262.

Kramer, M.W., Hess, J.A., & Reid, L.D. (2007). Trends in communication scholarship: An analysis of four representative NCA and ICA journals over the last 70 years. Review of Communication, 7, 27-238.

Kramer, M.W., Benoit, P.J., Dixon, M.A., & Benoit-Bryan, J.M. (2007). Group processes in a teaching renewal retreat: Functions and dialectical tensions. Southern Communication Journal, 72, 145-168.

Prentice, C.M., & Kramer, M.W. (2006). Dialectical tensions in the classroom. Southern Communication Journal, 71, 145-168.

Kramer, M.W. (2006). Shared leadership in a community theater group: Filling the leadership role. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34, 141-162 .

Dougherty, D.S., & Kramer, M.W. (2005). Organizational power and the institutional review board. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 33, 277-284.

Michael Kramer
Michael Kramer

Professor and Department Chair

appleWilliam T. Kemper Fellow for Excellence in Teaching

education: PhD, University of Texas (1991)
email: KramerM@missouri.edu
office: 115 Switzler Hall
phone: 573-882-6980
focus area: Organizational Communication
web: http://web.missouri.edu/~kramerm/