Dennis Mumby

Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor

Area of Study: Organizational Communication

Email: mumby@email.unc.edu
Office: 210 Bingham Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11-12PM
Curriculum Vitae

Biography

B.A., Sheffield Hallam University, U.K

M.A. and Ph.D., Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Dennis K. Mumby is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Communication at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. His research focuses on the communicative dynamics of organizational control and resistance under neoliberalism. He is a Fellow of the International Communication Association, and a National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar. He has authored or edited 8 books and over 60 articles in the area of critical organization studies, and his work has appeared in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Management Communication Quarterly, Organization Studies, Organization, and Human Relations. He is past chair of the Organizational Communication Division of NCA, and an 8-time winner of the division’s annual research award. He has served as chair of the Organizational Communication Division of the International Communication Association, and is a recipient of the division’s Fredric M. Jablin Award for contributions to the field of organizational communication.

Research Interests

My current research focuses on the relationships among discourse, power, and organizing. I am particularly interested in processes of control and resistance, and the ways in which this dialectic is discursively produced, maintained, and transformed.  Relatedly, I am interested in exploring the relationship between gender and identity, and examining how processes of organizational control and resistance are tied to gendered organizational identities.  More recently I have become interested in issues of power and identity in the context of post-Fordist organizing processes.  I recently completed a textbook on Organizational Communication, written for an undergraduate audience, and I am currently co-editing the third edition of the Sage Handbook of Organizational Communication.

Recent Publications

Mumby, D. K., & Kuhn, T. (2019). Organizational Communication: A Critical Introduction (2nd Edition). Los Angeles, CA: Sage
Mumby, D. K. (In Press). Work:What Is It Good For? (Absolutely Nothing)—A Critical Theorist’s Perspective. Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Mumby, D. K., Thomas, R., Martí, I., & Seidl, D. (2017). Resistance Redux. Organization Studies, 38, 1157-1184.

Mumby, D. K. (2016). Organizing Beyond Organizations: Branding, Discourse, and Communicative Capitalism. Organization, 23, 884-907.

Mumby, D. K. (2019). Communication Constitutes Capital: Branding and the Politics of Neoliberal Dis/Organization. In C. Vásquez & T. Kuhn (Eds.), Dis/organization as Communication: Exploring the Disordering, Disruptive, and Chaotic Properties of Communication (pp. 125-148). New York: Routledge.

Mumby, D. K., & Plotnikof, M. (2019). Organizing Power and Resistance. In J. McDonald & R. Mitra (Eds.), Movements in Organizational Communication Research: Current Issues and Future Directions (pp. 35-55). New York: Routledge.

Mumby, D. K. (2018). Targeting Alex: Brand as Agent in Communicative Capitalism. In B. Brummans (Ed.), The Agency of Organizing: Perspectives and Case Studies (pp. 98-123). New York: Routledge.