What is Dialectics

This case illustrates the communication processes involved in developing resilience when facing cancer diagnosis and treatment in the workplace. Beyond just the initial decision about whether to share the news of cancer, individuals enact ongoing communication behaviors that may enhance or detract from their ability to build resilience when going through this level of hardship, loss, and trauma. The case describes communication choices made and the dialectics faced by two women during breast cancer treatment in two different workplaces. The five communication processes of Patrice Buzzanell's communication theory of resilience are described in some detail and applied to these cases. The goal is for managers and others in workplace settings to gain a better understanding of ways to communicate that help someone going through a hardship, loss, or trauma build higher resilience and to better understand the communal nature of resilience in organizational settings.