New explorations in organizational relationships: An expectancy model of human symbolic activity

The role of superior and subordinate relationships in successful organizational functioning has been a primary concern of communication researchers for decades. However, two important issues have been neglected in the past: (1) the dimensions of congruent communicative expectations in supervisor and subordinate relationships; and (2) the focus upon symbolic exchanges between supervisors and subordinates from a communicative perspective. This paper first addresses the dimensions of expectancy theory as it interfaces with human communicative behavior, and second, examines human expectancies from a communicative perspective. Finally, it proposes an expectancy model of human symbolic activity centering communicative expectancies with supervisor and subordinate relationships.