Forum Introduction

Abstract

The emergence of the organizational communication (OC) field in Latin America is intrinsically related to the development of Latin American communication scholarship. Originally influenced by two paradigms-North American positivism and European critical thinking-Latin American communication scholars have moved beyond these foreign approaches to propose theoretical frameworks that contribute to the uniqueness of Latin American communication scholarship (e.g., Latin American social theory, see Martín Barbero, 1990). Marques de Melo (1999), one of the pioneers and foremost promoters of a distinctive Latin American approach to communication, identifies four features that characterize the field: (a) the fusion of foreign and local theories; (b) the methodological hybridity that derives from a transdisciplinary approach to communication; (c) the ethics and political commitment of the researcher, characterized as an agent of social change; and (d) the extranational dimension of research that addresses regional issues from a critical standpoint. Although the OC field in Latin America is young, we can currently observe signs of expansion and transformation that follow the lines of the aforementioned characteristics of Latin American communication scholarship (Kaplún, 2012).

Extending Discourse of Renewal to Preparedness: Construct and Scale Development of Readiness for Renewal

“…Our 15-item questionnaire could be used with other measures of precrisis assessment (e.g., Cloudman & Hallahan, 2006; Fowler et al, 2007) for business and managerial researchers who are interested in incorporating readiness for renewal into their work. These researchers can also draw connections between the Discourse of Renewal theory and climate, culture, and communication flow instruments (Clampitt, 2009) to establish further connections between crisis and organizational communication theories, and engage with organizational and managerial communication researchers in Latin American countries (Vásquez & Velásquez, 2016).…”