Introduction and History of Organizational Communication by Nauman Khan

1. Introduction and
History of
Organizational
Communication
Assigned By: Mr. Ramzan Azhar
Presented By: Nauman Khan (MS-II).

2. Definition:
• The Exchange of Information, Orders,
Views, Ideas, Policies, Feedback and any
type of communication held within and
outside of an organization.

3. Nature of Organizational Communication:
• Human beings are Social animal and therefore they
interact/Communicate with each other to fulfil
their basic needs.
• So is the case in organizational communication,
where in an organization people communicate on
different level for different purposes.

4. Organizational Communication relates to:
Press
Employees
Customer
Potential
Employees
Future
Prospects.

5. Importance:
• Information.
• Management-Staff Relations.
• Team Work.
• Motivation.
• Higher Efficiency.
• Training and Development.
• Clarification (Orders, Policies and Rules and Regulations).
• Social Interaction.
• Communication encourages innovation.

6. Importance:
• Social Interaction.
• Communication encourages innovation.
• Effective Communication enhances relationships within and outside
organization.
• Effective Communication build a better organizational image.
• Effective Communication ensure optimum use of resources.

7. Purpose of Communication:
• To establish and Disseminate the goals.
• To develop plans for their achievements.
• To organize human and other resources in the most effective and
efficient way.
• To select, develop, and appraise members of the organization.
• To lead, direct, motivate and create a climate in which people want
to contribute.
• To control performance.

8. Communication moves in Three Directions:
• Downward.
• Upward.
• Horizontally.

9. History:
• Communication study is deeply entrenched in the oral
rhetorical traditions of ancient Rome and Greece.
• Similar to the many of the early concepts that shaped the
discipline, some of the founding principles of
organizational communication originated in the East.
• As early as the fourth century, Chinese scholars
concentrated on the “problems of communicating within
the vast government bureaucracy as well as between the
government and the people” (Murphy, Hildebrandt &
Thomas 4).

10. History:
• Henri Fayol (1916): he developed a management
theory, in which he define “ Authority” (the right to
give orders and power to get obedience in return).
• Herbert A. Simon (1960): he developed “ Rational
Decision Making Model”, decision-making is a
process with distinct stages. He suggested for the
first time the decision-making model of human
beings.

11. History:
• Ancient eastern scholars focused on information flow, message
fidelity, and quality of information within their governmental
bureaucracy (Krone, Garrett & Chen; Paraboteeah).
• Like most of our field’s specializations, organizational
communication began in the mid 20th century with the work of P. E.
Lull and W. Charles Redding (Father of Organizational
Communication) at the University of Purdue (Putnam & Cheney).
• During the industrial age, the focus of organizational
communication was on worker productivity, organizational
structure, and overall organizational effectiveness.
• Through this work people were interested in higher profits and
managerial efficiency.

12. History:
• Follett is often referred to as the first management consultant in the
United States (Stohl).
• She focused specifically on message complexity, appropriate
channel choice, and worker participation in organizations.
• Bernard placed communication at the heart of every organizational
process, arguing that people must be able to interact with each
other for an organization to succeed.

13. History:
• As a specialization in our field, organizational communication can
arguably be traced back to Alexander R. Heron’s 1942
book, Sharing Information With Employees that looked at
manager-employee communication (Redding & Tompkins; Meyers
& Sadaghiani).
• Putnam and Cheney stated that the specialization of “organizational
communication grew out of three main speech communication
traditions: public address, persuasion, and social science research
on interpersonal, small group, and mass communication” (131).

14. History:
• Redding and Thompkins identify three periods in the development
of organizational communication.
• During the Era of Preparation(1900 to 1940) much of the
groundwork was laid for the discipline that we know today.
• Scholars emphasized the importance of communication in
organizations.
• The primary focus during this time was on public address, business
writing, managerial communication, and persuasion.

15. History:
• Redding and Thompkins identify three periods in the development
of organizational communication.
• The Era of Identification and Consolidation (1940-1970) saw the
beginnings of business and industrial communication, with certain
group and organizational relationships being recognized as
important.
• During the Era of Maturity and Innovation (1970-
present), empirical research increased, “accompanied by innovative
efforts to develop concepts, theoretical premises, and philosophical
critiques”.

16. History:
• As with other specializations over the last century, organizational
communication has evolved dramatically as dialogue between
business and academic contexts.
• Redding and Thompkins conclude that “by 1967 or 1968,
organizational communication had finally achieved at least a
moderate degree of success in two respects: breaking from its
‘business and industrial’ shackles, and gaining a reasonable
measure of recognition as an entity worthy of serious academic
study”.
Thank You