My dissertation at the University of Southern California/Annenberg School researched perceptions of workplace justice among members of the communications workers’ union in two large Los Angeles companies. (I intrigued my committee by approaching first the union, and after that, the companies, in gaining permission for the study). The dissertation combined philosophy and social theory on the theme of justice, and used survey research, social network analysis, structural modeling, and some qualitative research as I completed it. It earned the W. Charles Redding dissertation award from the International Communication Association the year I finished.
I worked as a professor at the State University of New York/Albany first, and then at the University of Texas/Austin. After the study of unions for my dissertation, I continued to publish work on the communication dynamics of social movements like environmentalism and animal rights activism, later on topics of workplace sexual harassment and family/work “balance.” Most of my work was inspired by “institutional theory,” which explores the ways in which organizations, people, and ideas gain, lose, and sometimes regain, social credibility, and the role of communication in these processes.
As a professor, I also wrote and taught on topics of communication ethics in personal, collective, and mediated contexts.
Dayna Finet 