Interpreting Nicknames: A Micropolitical Portal
基于美国六个案例，研究发现职场绰号并非无意义，而是用于社会控制、社交、划界、建立友谊、表达不满等复杂微观政治活动，对组织行为研究者有启发。
Perhaps due to their ubiquitous and seemingly nonsensical nature, workplace nicknames have received little analytic attention to date. This exploratory study based on six case scenarios from the United States reveals nicknames often convey potent meanings. These monikers are found to have a wide variety of purposes: including among others, furthering social control, contributing to socialization, marking group boundaries, building camaraderie, catalysing joking, conveying discontent, cathartically venting frustrations, equalizing social exchanges and adjusting to labelling. Although the nicknaming and collateral social processes we encountered were not the product of formal planning, they are a complex and highly organized set of micropolitical activities. In the future, nicknames should be thought of as key symbols that can unlock many meanings when they are properly interpreted