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Chapter 11
Communicating in
Organizations
Introduction to Communication Panama
.
Organization
Defined: A human group that has been
deliberately designed so as to achieve a
desired objective.
Introduction to Communication Panama
• Your life is shaped by organizations
everyday
• Organizations influence individuals;
individuals influence organizations
• Understanding organizations enhances
professional success
Introduction to Communication Panama
Introduction to Communication Panama
Organizational Communication
Defined: The transmission of messages
through both the formal and informal
channels of a relatively large, deliberately
designed group, resulting in the
construction of meanings that have
influences on its members, both as
individuals and on the group as a whole.
•
Organizations are the set of interactions that members of groups use to
accomplish their individual and common goals
•
•
Communication Functions
–
Production
–
Maintenance
–
Innovation
–
Downward
–
Upward
–
Horizontal
–
Formal
–
Informal
Communication Structure – occurs within hierarchy
Introduction to Communication Panama
• Organizational culture is a pattern of shared beliefs,
values, and behaviors within a given organization
– Composed of languages, habits, rituals, ceremonies,
etc
– Develop to integrate new members
• To understand organizational culture, look to
– Artifacts
– Stated beliefs
– Underlying values
Introduction to Communication Panama
Introduction to Communication Panama
• Processes that influence individuals in
regard to their participation/membership
with an organization
– Organizational identification – when individual
values overlap with organizational values
– Processes can be active, passive, and
interactive information-seeking strategies
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• Semantic-Information Distance
– Information/Understanding Gaps
– Upward Distortion
• Perceptual Co-Orientation
• Successful Supervisor-Subordinate
Communication
–
–
–
–
–
Openness
Supportive
Motivation
Empowerment
Ingratiation
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• Horizontal
Communication
• Formal/Professional
• Informal/Personal
• Supervisors can
encourage effective
coworker
communication
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• Emotion Labor
– Requirement to display specific emotions
– Rmotional display rules
• Stress/Burnout
–
–
–
–
Emotional exhaustion
Lack of sense of personal accomplishment
Depersonalization
Role conflict/confusion/ambiguity
• Work-Life Conflict
– Balance issues
– Pressure to prioritize work
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Introduction to Communication Panama
The
new social contract
◦More change for employees
• Contingent employees
– Work in temporary,
part-time, or
subcontractor
positions
– “Disposable
workforce”
• Urgent organizations
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• Organizational Communication and Power
– Bullying
– Sexual Harassment
– Employee Privacy and Monitoring
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• One of the most important societal factors
• Increasing connectedness (economic,
political, cultural) to others around the
globe
• More intercultural contact
• Homogenizing effects on organizational
practices
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• Repeated, hostile behaviors
• Occurring over an extended period
• Intended to do harm to parties who can’t
defend themselves
• 30% of workers have been bullied
• Few strategies are successful in managing
bullies
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Unwanted sexual attention that interferes w/
ability to do one’s job
• Quid pro quo,
inappropriate displays
– Touching, names, date
requests, displays w/ sexual
content
• Primarily a communicative
behavior
• Responses
–
–
–
–
Confronting harasser
Complain to HR or supervisor
Legal
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Leaving
• 76% of employers monitor workers web
connections
• Also includes drug testing,
• Video, e-mail, instant message, phone,
location monitoring,
• Personality & psychological testing
• Keystroke logging
• Monitoring can decrease morale &
increase worker stress
Introduction to Communication Panama
Sociocultural Situations
• People get together in organizations in
carefully organized patterns so as to
accomplish certain goals that could not be
attained in alternative groups settings
• The needs of a population
are provided not only by
an economic system, but
also by social institutions
Social Institution
• Defined: A broad configuration of closely
related cultural elements and organized
social activities that are essential to
fulfilling a perceived basic need of the
social order.
Society’s Need for Organizations
• Every society has basic social institutions
–
–
–
–
–
–
Educational
Government
Religious
Economic
Family
Many Others
Bureaucracy as a Prerequisite
Bureaucracy: A deliberately
designed plan of the goals,
norms, roles, ranks, and
controls in an organization
Bureaucracy as a Prerequisite
• Why do you need it?
– Group size
– Task complexity
Bureaucracy as a Prerequisite
An effective organization must have a formal
communication network that will maintain
group cohesion as well as facilitate attaining
the group’s goals.
Big Boss
Underboss
Peon
Peon
Underboss
Underboss
Peon
Peon
The Classical Theory of
Bureaucracy
Max Weber
Max Weber, a German
social scientist
The Emergence of Rational Society
• Social order held together by rational lines of
thought
The Emergence of Rational Society
Leadership is based legal-rational power and not
on tradition or charisma
The Emergence of Rational Society
• Nobody has a “legitimate” right to leadership;
technical managerial skills is the key to good
leadership
Weber’s Principles
1. Fixed Rules
2. A rationally defined division of labor
3. A clear graded hierarchy of power and
authority
4. A fixed and universalistic system of
sanctions
Three General Theories of
Organizational Design, Management,
and Communication
1. Human Use Perspective
2. Human Relations Perspective
3. Human Resources Perspective
Human Use Perspective
Developed between 1800s and late 1920s
Wage Formula
Adam Smith
Scottish Economist
1723-1790
Wealth of Nations
“Wage-incentive-system”
•
•
•
•
Wages were the only means to motivate employees
Production norms established
Bonuses were tied to norms
Very popular system
– Employers loved it
– Employees hated it
“Scientific Management”
• Time and Motion studies
• First person to use a
scientific approach to
the study of production
Organization Chart
Manager
Worker
Peon
Worker
Peon
Worker
Peon
Low Peon
• French engineer, Henri Fayol
• Communication should be restricted to the tasks
and operations related to the work being done
Weber, Taylor, Fayol
• Attention on the essential nature of
deliberate planning while designing
communication systems within
organizations
Human Relations Perspective
1920s – 1960s
Hawthorne Studies
1924-1932
• Effects of lighting on working conditions
• Personal and social characteristics of
workers are crucial factors in the work
process
• Perceived attention is powerful
• Informal communication plays an
important part in worker productivity
Hawthorne Studies
1924-1932
• Managers must design communication
systems in organizations that will produce
high job satisfaction
Hawthorne Effect
The phenomenon in which subjects in
behavioral studies change their
performance in response to being
observed.
Hawthorne Conclusions
1. The aptitudes of individuals are imperfect
predictors of job performance.
2. Informal organization affects productivity.
3. Work-group norms affect productivity..
4. The workplace is a social system.
Decline of the
Human Relations Perspectives
“Caring” and
“Sympathetic” was
sometimes construed
as “Weak” and
“Indecisive”
Decline of the
Human Relations Perspectives
Was the perspective too idealistic?
Human Resources Perspective
Human Resources Perspective
W. Edwards Deming
American Statistician
Deming’s Objective
• Produce goods of
maximum quality
• Loyalty and
dedication are
keys
Quality Control Circle
Frequent
discussions with
employee input;
management
listens
Human Resources
vs.
Human Relations
• Employees viewed as potential resources
for the organization
• Management tries to minimize
communication barriers
• Management motivates workers toward
quality, not just output
A Contemporary Perspective:
Systems Theory
•
•
•
•
Mutual Dependence
Synergy
Balance
Communication
as ‘glue’
The design for the content, transmission,
and reception of messages dictates who
can say what to be received by whom
about specific kinds of topics by
communication with what medium in order
to achieve specified types of goals
The Flow of Messages
in Large Organizations
1. Formal Communication through official
channels
2. Informal communication in organizational
settings
3. Distortion of messages in the grapevine
4. Consequences of formal and informal
communication
Formal Communication
through Official Channels
• Vertical transmission
Boss
Manager
Worker
Manager
Worker
Peon
Worker
Peon
Peon
Manager
Worker
Peon
Worker
Peon
Peon
Worker
Peon
Upward Flowing Messages
1. Routine operational
messages
2. Assessment by
experts
3. Feedback on
completion of tasks
4. Reports on
problems
Downward Flowing Messages
1. Requests
2. Specific orders and
instructions
3. Operating guidelines
4. Policy-shift
directives
Critical Importance
of Some Messages
Mistakes?
Accuracy and Distortion
Upward Messages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Condensed
Simplified
Standardized
Idealized
Synthesized
Downward Messages
Selective exposure
Downward Messages
Selective attention and listening
Downward Messages
Selective perception
Downward Messages
Selective retention and recall
Downward Messages
Selective action
Downward Messages
Vocabulary differences
Informal Communication
in Organizational Settings
Socially validated
constructions of
meanings
Informal Communication
in Organizational Settings
•
•
•
•
•
Speed
Rumors
Gossip
Speculation
Interpretations
Distortion of Message
in the Grapevine
Two general patterns of distortion
1. Embedding
2. Compounding
Embedding
• Leveling
• Sharpening
• Assimilation
Compounding
• Original story is
relatively brief
• Original story is of a
threatening or
disturbing nature
Grapevine and Managers
• Accept it and don’t try to eliminate it
• Acknowledge that it should remain
unrestrained
• Do not underestimate its power
• Use it
• Maintain all formal channels of
communication
• Remind organizational members to
question and assess its accuracy
Consequences of Formal
and Informal Communication
Unique organizational cultures
develop from two basic sources
1. Official organization as it functions with its
carefully defined channels of formal
communication
2. Micro subcultures of many spontaneously
formed peer groups among the workers
Consequences of Formal
and Informal Communication
Conflicting Cultures
Potential for differences
between subgroups
within an organization is
always there.
Consequences of Formal
and Informal Communication
Organizational Cohesion
(Features of the organization that keep it together)
1.
Dependency-based cohesion
2.
Division of labor
3.
Formal Communication
• Ethics and Organizational Communication
– Individual Perspective – ethical demands on
the individual
– Communal Perspective – ethical demands on
all members
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• We tend to focus on individual rights &
responsibilities
• Communal approach focuses on the common
good
– Morality is based on consequences for the group
• But when organizations are unethical, no
individuals may be held responsible
• Most ethical approach considers needs of
individual & community and holds community
and leaders responsible
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• Managing conflict with coworkers
– Prepare for the conflict, use strategy control
– Decide if the issue is worth confronting right
away or at all
– Try to understand each party’s goal
– Plan the interaction before engaging in it
Introduction to Communication Panama
End of Session