Can rest offer individuals the reserves necessary to be resilient? The present study surveyed working adults (N = 381) about their own weekly rest practices, communicative resilience, and advice they would give others about rest. Content and statistical analyses revealed that both the (a) number and (b) multimodality of rest practices spontaneously reported by participants were significantly associated with communicative resilience. Furthermore, results indicated modality of rest practices reported were differentially related to resilience, such that some modes of rest were associated with resilience, while others were not. Inductive qualitative analysis of participants' rest advice provided insights into what differentiates advice about rest between employees who score high and low in communicative resilience. Implications for expanding the communicative theory of resilience (CTR) beyond its social constructionist assumptions are discussed.

This forum joins communication researchers who explore high reliability organizations (HROs) and teams to discuss the communicative foundations of HRO. We argue that organizational communication researchers can make meaningful contributions to present challenges in HRO research. These challenges include (1) HRO’s focus on organizations versus processes of organizing, (2) tensions in defining success and failure to create reliability, and (3) the privileging of rational thought patterns and communication over emotional and care-centered communication. The authors in this forum push boundaries around organization types, consider overlooked and obscured knowledge, and question the role of power and materiality in HROs. Together, the forum advocates for the unique contributions organizational communication scholars can make to the study of HRO and, just as significantly, what HRO theorizing can contribute to organizational communication.

Imagined interactions (IIs) are conversational daydreams communicators can use to envision how interactions might unfold prospectively or how they might have unfolded differently in retrospect. In this study, imagined interactions with the boss (IIB) were investigated alongside employees' upward dissent and silence. Analyses of survey responses from U.S. working adults (N = 322) revealed that three functions (rehearsal, relationship management, and compensation) and three characteristics (frequency, proactivity, and specificity) of IIB were associated with various upward dissent or defensive silence strategies. The general pattern of findings indicated that when employees reported rehearsal or relationship management IIB, they tended to select communicatively-competent dissent strategies (e.g., prosocial dissent). The study is the first of its kind to associate IIB with upward dissent selection. Implications for theory and practice conclude the paper.

This paper reports on the development and validation of a communication measure designed to assess how military veterans feel toward civilian communication. Specifically, we theorize that some veterans experience a mild negative moral emotion (i.e., contempt) toward civilians' communication habits. The emotion is likely a consequence of intense professional socialization and membership in a totalistic organization. Veterans who served in the military since September 11, 2001 (N = 215) responded to items, which were factor analyzed. Then, in a second study, the scale was validated using another sample of post-9/11 veterans (N = 466). Together, these studies contribute an original communication measure that could help identify whether a veteran will have difficulty reintegrating into civilian work life. The scale could be useful in developing interventions to aid veterans in successful reintegration. Ultimately, the measure holds the potential to promote workplace diversity through the successful inclusion of more veterans in the workforce.