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Michael Kramer
Professor and Department Chair
William 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
web: http://web.missouri.edu/~kramerm/

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
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.

Kramer, M.W. (2004). Toward a theory of dialectics in group communication: An ethnographic study of a community theater group. Communication Monographs, 71, 311-332 .

Kramer, M. W., Dougherty, D. S., & Pierce, T. A. (2004). Communication during a corporate merger: A case of managing uncertainty during organizational change. Human Communication Research, 30, 71-101.

Michael Kramer