Linda L. Putnam is professor of organizational communication in the Department of Communication at Texas A & M University. Her current research interests include negotiation, organizational conflict, gender and negotiation, and language analysis in organizations. Putnam received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She is the coeditor of four books, including Communication and Negotiation (1992). She is a past president of the International Communication Association, a past president of the International Association of Conflict Management, and a past board member-at-large of the Academy of Management. She is a fellow of the International Communication Association and a distin­guished scholar of the National Communication Association.