Interpreting Nicknames: A Micropolitical Portal

Bruce Fortado

Journal of Management Studies, 1998, vol. 35, issue 1, 13-34

Abstract: Perhaps due to their ubiquitous and seemingly nonsensical nature, workplace nicknames have received little analytic attention to date. This exploratory study based on six case scenarios from the United States reveals nicknames often convey potent meanings. These monikers are found to have a wide variety of purposes: including among others, furthering social control, contributing to socialization, marking group boundaries, building camaraderie, catalysing joking, conveying discontent, cathartically venting frustrations, equalizing social exchanges and adjusting to labelling. Although the nicknaming and collateral social processes we encountered were not the product of formal planning, they are a complex and highly organized set of micropolitical activities. In the future, nicknames should be thought of as key symbols that can unlock many meanings when they are properly interpreted

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00082

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:35:y:1998:i:1:p:13-34

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... s.asp?ref=00022-2380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Timothy Clark, Steven W. Floyd and Mike Wright

More articles in Journal of Management Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().