Crafting Social Issues at Work

Abstract

I present and test a model of issue crafting, in which individuals shape the meaning of social issues by intentionally using language in public that portrays those issues in ways that differ from the individuals' private understandings of the issues. Using statements collected with an experimental design, I found that the public language individuals used was more economic and less normative than were their private understandings. Issue crafting varies with organizational values and power relationships. It calls attention to the use of language for seeking influence and extends theories of influence, including sensegiving, issue selling, and influence tactics.