Administrative Communication

1. MANAGING
ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION
SAR-ANAM. MISUARI
Discussant

2. • HANDLING ORGANIZATIONAL
DIVERSITY
a. Women and Minorities;
b. Multicultural Groups,
Differently-abled Employees
• ORGANIZATIONAL CHANNELS
a. Formal channels - horizontal,
vertical and diagonal

3. • As we move further into the twenty-first century, the
workforce continues to reflect the dramatic demographic
changes that began many years ago. Women continue to
join the workforce in increasing numbers and are now
entering careers that were once exclusive bastions of men.
• Various factors have contributed to these changes over the
last several decades, including increased career
aspirations, changes in educational systems and the
development and growth of workplace support schemes,
such as child care and flextime. Changes in workforce
demographics are also found along racial and ethnic lines.
• In short, the organizations of today and tomorrow are and
will continue to be populated by men and women from a
wide range of racial, ethnic and cultural groups.
Background…

4. WOMEN AND
MINORITIES IN
TODAY’S
ORGANIZATIONS

5. • Women and people of color are entering the
workforce in increasing numbers.
• (Allen, 2000; Gates, 2003) noted that
experiences of women and people of color
are different from that of white men.
• Commentators have talked about the
phenomenon that has come to be known as
the glass ceiling.

6. • Morrison and Von Glinow (1990) explain that the
glass ceiling is a concept popularized in the
1980s to describe a barrier so subtle that it is
transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women
and minorities from moving up in management
hierarchy.

7. • Schwartz (1989) differentiated between
women on a career track and women on a
mommy track who were assumed to
want flexible work and family support in
exchange for fewer opportunities for
advancement.

8. Stereotyping and Discrimination
• Prejudice refers to negative attitudes toward an
organization member based on his/her culture
group identity.
• Discrimination refers to observable behavior for
the same reason (Cox, 1991).
• The stereotyping of women and minorities in the
workplace is not always overt and simplistic.
Osland and Bird (2000), for instance note that
people in organizations often move beyond
irrational stereotypes

9. 1. There is compelling evidence that women and
ethnic minorities experience limited access to or
exclusion from informal communication
networks.
Ibarra (1993) notes “Limited network access
produces multiple disadvantages, including restricted
knowledge of what is going on in their organizations
and difficulty in forming alliances, which in turn are
associated with limited mobility and glass ceiling
effects.

10. Rational Barriers
in Organizational
Systems

11. • 2. The second relational experience that is different for
white men and women and people of color involves that of
establishing mentor-protégé relationships (Noe, 1988; Ragins
& Cotton, 1991).
Kram (1985) was one of the first researchers to discuss the
importance of mentoring relationship, defining mentor as “an
experienced, productive manager who relates well to a less-
experienced emlployee the benefit of the inidvidual as well as
that of the organization.
Indeed, research indicates that women who have been
successful in breaking into executive positions at large
companies rank “having an influential mentor” as a critical
component for career advancement (Ragins et.al., 1998).

12. • 3. The third systemic aspect of organizational life that
confronts women and minorities is Tokenism.
In many organizations, white males represent the vast majority of employees,
especially among the ranks of management. Thus, women and people of color
in managerial positions are often tokens or highly visible representatives of
their gender or ethnic minority (Ilgen & Youst, 1986; Kanter, 1977).
According to Morrison and Von Glinow (1990), “Tokens’ performances are
hindered because of the pressure to which their visibility subjects them and
because members of the dominant group exaggerate differences according to
stereotypes” (p. 203). For example, Janna Levin—an astronomer who studies
the origin of the universe—was asked for years about what it was like to be a
woman scientist. She’s now rejected that role as a spokesperson: “It took me
10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 and to realize that I didn’t want
to deal with gender issues. And I didn’t have to. Why should curing sexism be
yet another terrible burden on every female scientist?” (Levin, 2006, p. 72).

13. BEYOND WOMEN
AND MINORITIES

14. • Diversity in the workplace also accounts for
others who is some way are “different”
from the norm. Orbe (1998) calls these
groups “co-cultural groups” in moving
beyond issues of race and gender to
consider groups such as employees with
disabilities and lesbians, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) employees.

15. • The Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) was enacted in 1990, and major
amendments to the act were added in 2008.
• This legislation prohibits discrimination based
on disability and requires that organizations
make “reasonable accommodations” for
disabled workers. The ADA has had historical
effects on access in public and workplace, but
scholars and activists note that there is still
work to be done, as “these solutions have yet
to alter fundamentally the social motifs of
public life” (Harter, Scott, Novak, Leeman &
Morris, 2006, p. 4). Activist Joel Solkoff believes
that this is because “institutions often strive to
follow the legal letter of the ADA but not its
inclusive spirit” (Phillips, 2010).

16. • For LGBT organizational members, however, there has not been wide-
ranging legislative action similar to the ADA, and National Public Radio
recently labeled being “gay in the office” the “last frontier of workplace
equality” (“Being Gay,” NPR, 2010).
• Individual states began instituting anti-discrimination laws regarding sexual
orientation in 1982, and in 2010, twenty-one states prohibited
discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. At the
national level, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that was
first introduced as in Congress in 1994 was still being discussed in
committee at the end of 2009. Even without legislative mandate, though,
many businesses have included sexual orientation in their non-
discrimination policies.
• Reasons for taking this lead include both fairness and business concerns.
For example, a Hewlett-Packard vice president stated that “in terms of the
types of benefits we provide, we know it really is smart business and gives
us a competitive advantage to have the LGBT community included in our
non-discrimination policies” (Joyce, 2005).

17. The Multicultural
Organization

18. Morrison and Von Glinow (1990) have described three phases
of workplace development in the area of cultural and gender
diversity.
• In the first stage—first-generation affirmative action—the
organization is concerned with meeting legally mandated
requirements for gender and ethnic diversity. Unfortunately,
“simply responding to legislative mandates does not seem to
automatically result in greater minority inclusion” (Gilbert &
Ivancevich, 2000, p. 93).
• Indeed, the focus on numbers and quotas in these firms can
lead to intergroup conflict, distrust, and hostility.

19. • In the second stage of development, organizations reach
second-generation affirmative action. At this stage,
the firm has met affirmative action goals in terms of
numbers, and the emphasis shifts to supporting female and
minority employees.

20. • Finally, a multicultural organization
moves beyond the concept of support
for minority members to the
institution of policies that deliberately
capitalize on cultural and gender
diversity.
• As Gilbert and Ivancevich (2000, p. 93)
contend, “[R]ather than simply making
a commitment to valuing diversity,
creating an atmosphere of inclusion
requires change on many fronts,
including fairness, empowerment, and
openness.”

21. From Cox, T. H. (1991). The multicultural organization. Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 34–47. Reproduced
with permission of the Academy of Management (New York).
Dimension
• 1. Acculturation
• 2. Structural integration
• 3. Informal integration
• 4. Cultural bias
• 5. Organizational identification
• 6. Intergroup conflict
Definition
• Modes by which two groups adapt to
each other and resolve cultural
differences
• Cultural profiles of organization
members, including hiring, job
placement, and job status profiles
• Inclusion of minority-culture members
in informal networks and activities
outside of normal working hours
• Prejudice and discrimination
• Feelings of belonging, loyalty, and
commitment to the organization
• Friction, tension, and power struggles
between cultural groups
Dimensions for Describing a Multicultural Organization

22. The Diverse
Organization:
Opportunities

23. • In the second stage of development, organizations
reach second-generation affirmative action. At this
stage, the firm has met affirmative action goals in
terms of numbers, and the emphasis shifts to
supporting female and minority employees.

24. From Cox, T. H. (1991). The multicultural organization. Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 34–47. Reproduced
with permission of the Academy of Management (New York).
• 1. Cost argument
• 2. Resource-acquisition
argument
• 3. Marketing argument
• 4. Creativity argument
• 5. Problem-solving argument
• 6. Systems flexibility argument
• As organizations become more diverse, the cost of a poor job in
integrating workers will increase. Companies who handle diversity
well will create cost advantages over those that do not.
• Companies develop reputations as prospective employers for
women and ethnic minorities. Those with the best reputations for
managing diversity will win the competition for the best personnel.
As the labor pool shrinks and changes composition, this edge will
become increasingly important.
• For multinational organizations, the insight and cultural sensitivity
that members with roots in other countries bring to the marketing
effort should improve that effort in important ways. The same
rationale applies to marketing in subpopulations within domestic
operations.
• Diversity of perspectives and less emphasis on conformity to
norms of the past (which characterize the modern approach to
management of diversity) should improve the level of creativity.
• Heterogeneity in decision-making and problem solving groups
potentially produces better choices through a wider range of
perspectives and more critical analysis of issues.
• An implication of the multicultural model for managing diversity is
that the system will become less determinant, less standardized,
and therefore more fluid. The increased fluidity should create
greater flexibility to react to environmental changes (i.e., reactions
should be faster and at less cost).
Dimensions for Describing a Multicultural Organization

25. The Diverse
Organization:
Challenges

26. Avoiding Negative Effects of Diversity Management Programs
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 marked the beginning of programs
designed to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace. The
affirmative action programs that stemmed from this act aim “to
remedy discrimination and increase the representation of designated
disadvantaged groups, namely, women and ethnic minorities”
(Heilman, 1994, p. 126).
• First, affirmative action programs can affect how an individual
benefitting from the program views his or her competence, and this
self-view of competence can in turn impact work behavior and
communication.
• Second, affirmative action leads others in the workplace to stigmatize
as incompetent those individuals assumed to have benefitted from
these programs.
• Third, individuals who feel they have been unfairly bypassed by
affirmative action programs perceive injustice in hiring and promotion
procedures.

27. • Sexual Harassment
• In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) specified that sexual
harassment is a kind of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature
constitute sexual harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or
condition of an individual’s employment, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as
the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of
substantially interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive
working environment. (Federal Register, 1980, p. 25025)
• It is enough to believe that sexual comments or behaviors create a work environment that
is clearly hostile. Thus, understanding and recognizing sexual harassment in the workplace
is rarely clear-cut. This is because “sexual harassment is not a purely objective
phenomenon but one based on an individual’s perception of another’s behavior, which may
be affected by any of a number of factors that make up a situational context” (York, 1989,
p. 831). That is, one person may be offended by “girlie” calendars hanging on the wall;
another might not even notice them. What one person sees as an innocent flirtation,
another may construe as sexual harassment. Although quid pro quo harassment is probably
much more rare than hostile work environment harassment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964
makes it clear that all forms of harassment must be taken seriously.

28. • Finally, Bingham (1991) has looked at communicative strategies
for dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace. Bingham
notes that women (and, less often, men) who are being harassed
face multiple communicative goals. The desire to deal with the
harassment sometimes competes with the goal of keeping a
good job and saving face. Thus, Bingham suggests that there is
rarely an ideal way of dealing with harassment. Directly
confronting the harasser in an assertive fashion is often the best
strategy, but there are times when a victim of sexual harassment
should use other strategies (e.g., directly reporting the
harassment or dealing with the harasser in a less confrontational
manner).

29. Balancing Work and Home
• Individuals and organizations are increasingly faced with the
daunting challenge of balancing the needs of work and home.
More and more women are entering in the workforce—some
for their entire lives and others for shorter time periods
throughout the life span. The needs of older women in the
workplace might be quite different from those of younger
women or of midlife men. For example, younger women have
serious concerns with the logistics of child care and the
creation of flexible work plans. For older women, the concerns
often shift to balancing the needs of child care, elder care, and
self-care and to planning for future retirement. Furthermore,
both women and men may now find themselves trying to make
sense of the “work” of staying at home with children.

30. APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY
Approach How Diversity Would Be Considered
• Classical Because diversity would limit the homogeneity of the workforce
and hence be distracting or detrimental to morale, diversity would
be strongly discouraged.
• Human relations Diversity would be neither encouraged nor discouraged. Emphasis
would be placed on meeting the needs of women and ethnic
minorities, even if those needs diverged from those of majority
employees.
• Human resources Diversity would be encouraged because increased creativity and
new ideas would increase the competitive advantage of the
organization. Emphasis would be placed on maximizing the potential
of women and minorities to contribute to the goals of the
organization.
• Systems Diversity would be seen as one important avenue for the
organization to adapt effectively to a turbulent global environment.
Systems scholars might address the integration of women and
minorities into formal and informal communication networks.
• Cultural Diverse organizations would be seen as important places where
organizational culture intersects with national, ethnic, and gender-
based culture. Emphasis would be placed on the process through
which the intersection of cultural values is negotiated through
communicative interaction.
• Critical Diverse organizations would be seen as the arena in which
subjugated groups (e.g., women and people of color) must deal with
the dominant class. Emphasis would be placed on the ways in which
interaction among members of various cultures serves to perpetuate hegemonic relationships.

31. Organizational Channels
Communication channels are the means through which people in an
organization communicate. Thought must be given to what channels are used to
complete various tasks, because using an inappropriate channel for a task or
interaction can lead to negative consequences. Channels can be formal and informal.

32. • Communication can be characterized as vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.
• Vertical communication
• This is the type of communication in which flow of information comes from the top to
the bottom and vice versa. The vertical channel of communication can be divided into
two – downward communication and upward communication.
• A downward communication is defined as the type of communication in which flow of
information in an organization comes from the top management down to those at the
lower levels in the organization or establishment.
• Some examples of downward communication include the following: memorandums,
directives, management policies, policy statements etc. For example if the Director
General of a company communicates to the accountant of a company, we can call that a
typical example of a downward communication.
• The upward communication can also be called the bottom-up communication. It is the
exact opposite of the downward communication in the sense that it is the flow of
information from subordinates to managers all of who work within the same
organization. A good examples of an upward communication for example is when an
employee leaves a suggestion for top managers through a suggestion box.

33. • Horizontal communication
• The horizontal type of communication can also be called the
lateral communication. It is a type of communication
in which workers or managers who have the same level of
authority in an organization communicate directly among
themselves. For instance, a good example of a horizontal
communication can be as follows: When a Human Resource
manager communicates directly to a Production Manager.
These two are people at the same level of authority within the
organization or business.

34. • Diagonal communication
• A diagonal communication in an organization is the process
whereby the flow of information is between people who work
in different departments and are at different levels of the
organization.
• A good example of a diagonal communication is – an instance
where a Human Resource Manager is sending out information
to an accounts officer in the Accounting Department. Some
experts in this field also define Diagonal communication as
the process of sharing information between different
structural levels within an organization or establishment.

35. Conclusion:
Effective communication skills are the foundation of a project
manager's success. Understanding the different types of
communication is important for making sure your project
communication is successful.