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Critical Theory and Communication Dysfunction

The Case of Sexually Ambiguous Behavior

Florida International University

Dolores Brosnan

Florida International University

The incidence and frequency of sexual harassment in work organizations is often framed in terms of how such actions violate the victim's basic human rights via manipulation by the powerful of the powerless. However, sexual harassment also can be viewed as a "test case" for how people in organizations rationalize social relations through their endorsement of certain modes of speech, thought, and action to the exclusion of others. Building on Habermas's critical theory perspective and Forester `s typology of communication distortion, sexual harassment is viewed as symptomatic of communication dysfunction in macrocosm. The article concludes by recommending several approaches to change, including structurational analysis of communication.

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