Linda Putnam

Linda Putnam is an American scholar and professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is known for her theories on organizational communication and her publications focused on conflict management and negotiation, discourse and interaction analysis and organizational paradoxes and dilemmas. Her early work fostered the interpretive turn in the field, as an approach that focuses on sense-making, language, and meaning. This research led to the 1993 Charles H. Woolbert Award from the National Communication Association for original research that had stood the test of time. The Organizational Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) named its ''Linda L. Putnam Early Career Award'' after her. Putnam is a past-president of the International Association for Conflict Management (1993-1994), the ICA (2000-2003), and the Council of Communication Associations (2000-2002).

Putnam has conducted studies on multiparty environmental disputes, negotiation teams, and labor conflicts. Her discourse studies are focused heavily on tensions and contradictions and also incorporate metaphors, narratives, discursive framing, and arguments. Putnam's work also focuses on the contradictions within the arenas of work-life issues within organizations, organizational change and open office environments. Provided by Wikipedia