Organizing for Health

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Research in the area of health communication has burgeoned over the past several decades. This research has advanced our understandings of campaigns, patient/provider interactions, social support, and many other areas as well. One area of health communication research that has not advanced as rapidly as others is the area of health, organizations, and organizing processes. Organizations are routinely engaged in processes and actions that directly affect or attempt to influence our health behaviors and decisions. Often times, multiple organizations must coordinate to answer some of the most pressing health issues of our time. Indeed, organizations are a key source of health information and an area where health behaviors are promoted or inhibited, but little theorizing about health from an organizational perspective has occurred. This void in the literature is important to fill as we attempt to address the health challenges pervasive in our society through various organizations and organizational processes. This panel begins to fill this void by focusing on large-scale efforts at organizing for health and advocates for further research in this area. To do so, participants in this panel will present their current theorizing on how we organize leaders, groups, advocates, networks, and organizations to improve health processes and outcomes in a variety of contexts. Several of the contributions in this panel draw upon long term research projects exploring issues of social networks, the role of social capital and inter-organizational cooperation, and the design of complex health systems. Each paper presented in the panel represents a chapter in the forthcoming book Organizations, Communication, and Health, edited by Tyler Harrison and Elizabeth Williams. This panel hopes to fulfill the primary goal to encourage further theorizing and empirical research by scholars and practitioners on the processes associated with organizing these settings where health communication processes occur—issues such as organizing NGOs, processes of collaboration, network development, leadership, and coalition building.

Sub Unit

• Organizational Communication

Chair

• Tyler R. Harrison, U of Miami

Individual Presentations

• Organizing Transdisciplinary Research: A Breast Cancer and Environment Collaborative Model - Kami J. Silk, Michigan State U; Sandi W Smith, Michigan State U

• Using Social Capital to Build Global Health Initiatives: Connecting Organizations and Citizen-Stakeholders Through Social Media - Lisa Volk Chewning, Pennsylvania State U - Abington

• Networked Forms of Organizing, Disaster, and Public Health - Marya L. Doerfel, Rutgers U

• Leading Inter-Organizational Health Collaborations: The Importance of Leader-Leader Relationships - Elizabeth Ann Williams, Colorado State U

• Designing Complex Health Systems - Mark Aakhus, Rutgers U; Tyler R. Harrison, U of Miami