Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2025
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication Studies
First Advisor
Charles Lubbers
Abstract
The “MUM effect," a social phenomenon in which people prefer to avoid sharing bad news, can cause “upward distortion,” as employees give incomplete information to their supervisors to avoid reprisal. Organizations require upward communication to transmit critical information, and disruptions to this process have implications for both workplace efficiency and job satisfaction. Strauss (2011) developed the Upward Communication Distortion Index (UCDI) to measure the propensity of individuals to distort upward organizational communication. The UCDI was compared with the subscales for LMX (leader-member exchange) and Locus of Control. This project analyzed upward distortion in American businesses, specifically how four different organizational cultures contribute to the upward distortion through the hierarchical MUM effect. Survey respondents (n=351) were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing marketplace and completed an online survey. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine if employees in organizations with high scores for the four different types of organizations (clan, hierarchical, adhocracy, market) on the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument would (1) have a lower propensity to distort upward communication as indicated on the UCDI instrument, (2) exhibit high scores of leader-member communication (LMX), and (3) exhibit strong locus of control scores.
Subject Categories
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Keywords
Communication Distortion Organizational Culture
Number of Pages
57
Publisher
Uiversity of South Dakota
Recommended Citation
Gellerman, Benjamin, "Upward Distortion and Organizational Culture" (2025). Dissertations and Theses. 366.
https://red.library.usd.edu/diss-thesis/366