Brenda Berkelaar
Biographic Data
| ID | 1321088 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brenda Berkelaar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brenda |
| FAMILY NAME | Berkelaar |
| SIGNATURE | BERKELAAR B |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7613-1363 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The communicative constitution of calling
Precarious employment, artificial intelligence (AI), and disengagement are eroding work’s role as a reliable source of meaning—namely, that one’s work is or should be one’s calling. Although psychological research typically frames calling as stable, beneficial, and individual; communication theory reveals it as collectively co-authored, relationally sustained, and thus inherently fragile and open to disruption. This tension raises the question of…
Democratic Disarray
The Iowa caucuses are the inaugural event of the American presidential nomination process. When the state Democratic Party failed to report the 2020 caucus results in a timely manner, researchers began to assess how party and press officials co-constructed the events. This research presents an in-depth case of the Iowa state and local Democratic Party's public communication response regarding an event described by the Des Moines Register as "hell…
Different ways new information technologies influence conventional organizational practices and employment relationships
Cybervetting – employers’ use of online information from social media and search engines to evaluate job candidates – may displace, supplement or shape conventional personnel selection and employment relationships in unexpected ways. Analysis of 45 interviews suggests that typically extractive approaches to cybervetting have the potential to displace less recognized, yet valuable, relational functions of more interactive practices depending on th…
How implicit theories help differentiate approaches to online impression management
This article proposes an empirically-grounded typology to describe how people approach online impression management across multiple digital sites given employers’ use of online information for personnel selection. Qualitative analysis revealed four primary online impression management types: acceptor, dissident, scrubber, and strategist. The four types are primarily differentiated based on people’s relatively fixed or relatively flexible implicit…
Bait and switch or double-edged sword? The (sometimes) failed promises of calling
How people talk about their work and careers matters. Desiring meaningful work, people increasingly describe work and careers as a calling. Such callings may be secular or sacred. Popular ways of talking about calling often create problematic, rather than positive, career and life outcomes. In this article, we examine five common, historically influenced assumptions underlying contemporary talk about secular and sacred callings: necessity; agency…
The worker as politician
Employers’ use of increasingly visible online information extends when, where, and in what role contexts personnel selection—and correspondingly career management—occurs. Data from 59 employers suggest the use of a new lens to evaluate workers: the worker as politician. By appropriating strategies from electoral contexts to “vote” on job candidates, employers are (unintentionally) reimagining personnel selection. Participants report seeking appro…
Joining and Leaving Organizations in a Global Information Society
Social, political, economic, and technological changes are reshaping how people join and leave organizations, a process called organizational socialization. In light of these changes, there is a need to extend and challenge existing scholarship, while also considering the multiple organizational memberships that shape human experience (e.g., educational, healthcare, political, religious, terrorist, volunteer). Taking into account macro-through mi…
From the Mouths of Babes
Families' communication with young children about work and careers has not been the focus of much systematic investigation. We contribute to family communication scholarship both by providing an overview of career socialization research involving children, and by presenting findings from a multinational (China, Lebanon, Belgium, and the United States) investigation of 800 children's discursive, cultural, and material socialization. Using a ground…
Discourse, Gender, and the Meaning of Work Rearticulating Science, Technology, and Engineering Careers Through Communicative Lenses
In this chapter, we offer communicative perspectives and challenges related to gender representation and the gendered organizing and career processes in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) areas. We focus on the meaning of work in STEM and how these meanings are (re)created and communicated through d/Discourses. Using a discursive approach, new perspectives on the issue of the underrepresentation of women in STEM careers derive from…
Bait and switch or double-edged sword? The (sometimes) failed promises of calling
How people talk about their work and careers matters. Desiring meaningful work, people increasingly describe work and careers as a calling. Such callings may be secular or sacred. Popular ways of talking about calling often create problematic, rather than positive, career and life outcomes. In this article, we examine five common, historically influenced assumptions underlying contemporary talk about secular and sacred callings: necessity; agency…
Different ways new information technologies influence conventional organizational practices and employment relationships
Cybervetting – employers’ use of online information from social media and search engines to evaluate job candidates – may displace, supplement or shape conventional personnel selection and employment relationships in unexpected ways. Analysis of 45 interviews suggests that typically extractive approaches to cybervetting have the potential to displace less recognized, yet valuable, relational functions of more interactive practices depending on th…
The worker as politician
Employers’ use of increasingly visible online information extends when, where, and in what role contexts personnel selection—and correspondingly career management—occurs. Data from 59 employers suggest the use of a new lens to evaluate workers: the worker as politician. By appropriating strategies from electoral contexts to “vote” on job candidates, employers are (unintentionally) reimagining personnel selection. Participants report seeking appro…
From the Mouths of Babes
Families' communication with young children about work and careers has not been the focus of much systematic investigation. We contribute to family communication scholarship both by providing an overview of career socialization research involving children, and by presenting findings from a multinational (China, Lebanon, Belgium, and the United States) investigation of 800 children's discursive, cultural, and material socialization. Using a ground…
How implicit theories help differentiate approaches to online impression management
This article proposes an empirically-grounded typology to describe how people approach online impression management across multiple digital sites given employers’ use of online information for personnel selection. Qualitative analysis revealed four primary online impression management types: acceptor, dissident, scrubber, and strategist. The four types are primarily differentiated based on people’s relatively fixed or relatively flexible implicit…
Discourse, Gender, and the Meaning of Work Rearticulating Science, Technology, and Engineering Careers Through Communicative Lenses
In this chapter, we offer communicative perspectives and challenges related to gender representation and the gendered organizing and career processes in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) areas. We focus on the meaning of work in STEM and how these meanings are (re)created and communicated through d/Discourses. Using a discursive approach, new perspectives on the issue of the underrepresentation of women in STEM careers derive from…
Joining and Leaving Organizations in a Global Information Society
Social, political, economic, and technological changes are reshaping how people join and leave organizations, a process called organizational socialization. In light of these changes, there is a need to extend and challenge existing scholarship, while also considering the multiple organizational memberships that shape human experience (e.g., educational, healthcare, political, religious, terrorist, volunteer). Taking into account macro-through mi…
Discourse, Gender, and the Meaning of Work Rearticulating Science, Technology, and Engineering Careers Through Communicative Lenses
In this chapter, we offer communicative perspectives and challenges related to gender representation and the gendered organizing and career processes in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) areas. We focus on the meaning of work in STEM and how these meanings are (re)created and communicated through d/Discourses. Using a discursive approach, new perspectives on the issue of the underrepresentation of women in STEM careers derive from…
From the Mouths of Babes
Families' communication with young children about work and careers has not been the focus of much systematic investigation. We contribute to family communication scholarship both by providing an overview of career socialization research involving children, and by presenting findings from a multinational (China, Lebanon, Belgium, and the United States) investigation of 800 children's discursive, cultural, and material socialization. Using a ground…
Joining and Leaving Organizations in a Global Information Society
Social, political, economic, and technological changes are reshaping how people join and leave organizations, a process called organizational socialization. In light of these changes, there is a need to extend and challenge existing scholarship, while also considering the multiple organizational memberships that shape human experience (e.g., educational, healthcare, political, religious, terrorist, volunteer). Taking into account macro-through mi…
The worker as politician
Employers’ use of increasingly visible online information extends when, where, and in what role contexts personnel selection—and correspondingly career management—occurs. Data from 59 employers suggest the use of a new lens to evaluate workers: the worker as politician. By appropriating strategies from electoral contexts to “vote” on job candidates, employers are (unintentionally) reimagining personnel selection. Participants report seeking appro…
Bait and switch or double-edged sword? The (sometimes) failed promises of calling
How people talk about their work and careers matters. Desiring meaningful work, people increasingly describe work and careers as a calling. Such callings may be secular or sacred. Popular ways of talking about calling often create problematic, rather than positive, career and life outcomes. In this article, we examine five common, historically influenced assumptions underlying contemporary talk about secular and sacred callings: necessity; agency…
How implicit theories help differentiate approaches to online impression management
This article proposes an empirically-grounded typology to describe how people approach online impression management across multiple digital sites given employers’ use of online information for personnel selection. Qualitative analysis revealed four primary online impression management types: acceptor, dissident, scrubber, and strategist. The four types are primarily differentiated based on people’s relatively fixed or relatively flexible implicit…
Different ways new information technologies influence conventional organizational practices and employment relationships
Cybervetting – employers’ use of online information from social media and search engines to evaluate job candidates – may displace, supplement or shape conventional personnel selection and employment relationships in unexpected ways. Analysis of 45 interviews suggests that typically extractive approaches to cybervetting have the potential to displace less recognized, yet valuable, relational functions of more interactive practices depending on th…
Democratic Disarray
The Iowa caucuses are the inaugural event of the American presidential nomination process. When the state Democratic Party failed to report the 2020 caucus results in a timely manner, researchers began to assess how party and press officials co-constructed the events. This research presents an in-depth case of the Iowa state and local Democratic Party's public communication response regarding an event described by the Des Moines Register as "hell…
The communicative constitution of calling
Precarious employment, artificial intelligence (AI), and disengagement are eroding work’s role as a reliable source of meaning—namely, that one’s work is or should be one’s calling. Although psychological research typically frames calling as stable, beneficial, and individual; communication theory reveals it as collectively co-authored, relationally sustained, and thus inherently fragile and open to disruption. This tension raises the question of…
Sociology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Public relations (5 works) · Knowledge Management and Sharing (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Employer Branding and e-HRM (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Social science (3 works) · Agency (philosophy (2 works)