Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2017
Keywords
communicative labor, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Brazil, organizational communication, tensional approach, paradox, resilience, engaged scholarship
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017709325
Abstract
Through our case study of a Brazilian not-for-profit focused on sustainability initiatives, we expand knowledge about communicative labor in different Brazilian organizational environments, especially in the third (nonprofit/nongovernmental) sector. Based on a case study for which thematic analyses of in-depth interviews with the entire nongovernmental organization (NGO), including its board and staff, were conducted, we found three communicative labor processes that displayed how members entered into, thought about, performed, embodied, and sustained interaction in ways that are considered to be a hallmark of the particular Brazilian third-sector organization that we studied. The three processes of communicative labor—depicting NGO work as meaningful labor, producing commonality and difference, and transcending contradictions—enabled NGO members to withstand difficulties and engage productively in the tensions of doing communicative labor in Brazilian environmental work. Despite the volatile political-economic and diverse cultural environment in Brazil, the NGO’s communication enabled them to adapt to and proactively shape environmental efforts, thus modeling sustainability and resilience.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
SAGE Open, v. 7, issue 2, p. 1-11
Scholar Commons Citation
Marchiori, Marlene and Buzzanell, Patrice M., "NGO Organizing for Environmental Sustainability in Brazil: Meaningful Work, Commonality, and Contradiction" (2017). Communication Faculty Publications. 718.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/spe_facpub/718
