Introduction

Kevin Barge’s research interests center on developing a social constructionist approach to leadership, articulating the connections between appreciative practice and organizational change, as well as exploring the relationship between discourse and public deliberation, specifically practices that facilitate communities working through polarized and polarizing issues.

Bio

Kevin Barge (Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1985) is Professor and Head of Communication at Texas A & M University and an Associate with the Taos Institute. He is also a member of the planning team for the Aspen Conference, a community of engaged organizational communication scholars focused on developing practical theory and collaborative research that bridge academic-practitioner interests.  He is the 2016 recipient of the Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Research given by the National Communication Association as well as the 2017 recipient of the Central States Communication Hall of Fame Award.  He is a former president of the Central States Communication Association.

Kevin’s major research interests center on developing a social constructionist approach to leadership, articulating the connections between appreciative practice and organizational change, as well as exploring the relationship between discourse and public deliberation, specifically practices that facilitate communities working through polarized and polarizing issues. Other research interests include investigating the role of reflexivity in leadership and management practice, examining ways to develop effective academic-practitioner collaborations, and developing practical theory.

He has published articles on leadership, dialogue, and organizational change in The Academy of Management Review, Management Communication Quarterly, Human Relations, Communication Theory, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Monographs. Kevin has served on a number of national and international editorial boards for journals such as Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Human Relations, and Journal of Management Studies.

Courses Taught

COMM 305: Theories of Communication
COMM 324: Communication Leadership and Conflict Management
COMM 447: Communication, Group Processes and Collaboration
COMM 620: Communication Theory
COMM 631: Group Communication
COMM 632: Communication and Conflict
COMM 637: Organizational Communication Seminar: Leadership and Communication
COMM 637: Organizational Communication Seminar: Collaborative Research Methods

Representative Publications

• Barbour, J. B., Gill, R., & Barge, J. K. (2018). Organizational communication design logics: A theory of communicative intervention and collective communication design. Communication Theory, 28, 332-353.
• Barge, J. K. (2017). Making the case for academic and social impact in organizational communication research. In P. Salem & E. Timmerman (Eds.), Transformative practices and research in organizational communication (pp. 235-254). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Barbour J. B., Ballard, D. I., Barge, J. K., & Gill, R. (2017). Making time/making temporality for engaged scholarship. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 45, 365-380.
• Hedman, E., & Barge, J. K. (2017). Facilitating team reflexivity about communication. Small Group Research, 48, 255-287.
• Barge, J. K. (2016). Crossing boundaries between communication activism research and applied communication. International Journal of Communication, 10, 400-408.
• Barge, J. K.  (2015).  Consulting as collaborative co-inquiry.  In G. Bushe & R. Marshak (Eds.), Dialogic organizational development:  Theory and practice (pp. 177-196).  San Francisco:  Berrett-Koehler.