ABSTRACT
I N the past 25 years the large number of women enteringorganizations and assuming occupations and positions ofauthority once thought to be male domains has dramatically changed the work force of most organizations. Males take orders from females, females do physical labor right alongside males, and traditionally employed females such as office workers negotiate collectively with their male bosses. Males also enter nursing and office work, traditional female domains. Men and women fight, negotiate, exploit each other, perform tasks, form friendships, and fall in love on the job. They communicate differently and more often than their counterparts in the past; they are changing the social order at work. Both the research community (for example, see recent reviews by Larwood & Lockheed, 1979; Nieva & Gutek, 1981; O'Leary, 1974; Putnam, 1979; Schein, 1978; Terborg, 1977; Wortman, 1982) and the popular press (for example, see Harragan, 1978; Hennig & Jardim, 1977; Horn & Horn, 1982) have addressed this change; yet empirical research is diverse and loosely organized, and surfaces in a variety of disciplines, often with inadequate attention paid to communication. The following essay provides a review and interpretation of what is known about male-female communication in work contexts and offers some suggestions for the conceptual and methodological improvement of future research in this area.
