This chapter introduces organizational communication and defines key concepts. It discusses organizations as communicative structures that aim to control tensions between individual and organizational goals. Organizational communication is defined as the process of creating and negotiating collective meanings to achieve organizational ends. The chapter frames four major theoretical perspectives that study organizational communication differently based on their assumptions about knowledge, communication, and reality: functionalism, interpretivism, critical theory, and postmodernism. It concludes by noting feminism also analyzes issues of gender, power, and voice in organizations.

1. +
Chapter One
Introducing Organizational
Communication
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach
©SAGE Publications 2012

2. +
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter you should:
1.
Understand the idea of organizations as
communicative structures of control
2.
Understand the defining elements of organizations
3.
Be able to define “organizational communication”
4.
Understand the multiple theoretical perspectives in
the field of organizational communication
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

3. +
Organizations as Communicative
Structures of Control
 Capitalism
as dominant economic system
 Problem
of addressing “human relations” in
authoritarian settings
 Tensions
between individual and organizational
goals
 Central
role of control in resolving tensions
 History
of management thought as history of
development of increasingly complex forms of
control
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

4. +
Organizations as Communicative
Structures of Control (Continued)
 Organization
implies control (Tannenbaum)
 But
control always implies struggle
 Dialectical process of struggle between
organizational control mechanisms and
employee autonomy and creativity
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

5. +
Defining “Organizational
Communication”
 Interdependence
 All
complex organizations made up of intricate
webs of communication activities
 No member can function without affecting, or
being affected by, other members
 Differentiation
of Tasks and Functions
 Division of labor as defining principle
 Adam Smith and manufacturing pins
 Goal
Orientation
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

6. + Defining “Organizational
Communication” (Continued)
 Control
1.
2.
3.
Mechanisms
Direct Control
 close supervision of employees
Technological Control
 Controls speed of work
 Ford’s moving production line
 Both workers and customers subject to
technological control
Bureaucratic Control
 System of rules and formal structures
 Defining feature of modern organizations
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

7. + Defining “Organizational
Communication” (Continued)
 Control
4.
5.
Mechanisms (Continued)
Ideological Control
 Identification with beliefs & values
 Little direct supervision necessary
 “Corporate culture”
Disciplinary Control
 “Bottom-up” form of control
 Focus on “self” as a project
 Self as “subject” and “object” of knowledge
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

8. + Defining “Organizational
Communication” (Continued)
 Communication
Processes

“Communication constitutes organization”

Definition of communication:
 The dynamic, ongoing process of creating and
negotiating meanings through interactional
symbolic (verbal and nonverbal) practices,
including conversation, metaphors, rituals, stories,
dress, and space”
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

9. +
Defining “Organizational
Communication” (Continued)
 Communication
Processes (continued)
 Definition of Organizational Communication
 The process of creating and negotiating
collective, coordinated structures of meaning
through symbolic practices oriented towards
the achievement of organizational goals
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

10. +
Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
 Develop
“Metatheoretical Framework” to make
sense of different theoretical perspectives
 What assumptions are made about knowledge?
 What assumptions are made about
communication?
 What assumptions are made about reality?
 “Crisis
of Representation” occurs at 2 levels:
 Epistemology
(What do we know?)
 Voice (Who gets to speak about what we know?)
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

11. + Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
1.
Functionalism—Discourse of Representation
 Focus on process of discovery
 Dominant discourse of social sciences
 Perspective of most management theory
 Predict, control and generalize about human
behavior
 Conduit model of communication dominates
 Communication as information transfer
 E.g., Shannon & Weaver
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

12. +
Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
2.
Interpretivism—Discourse of Understanding
Social constructionist perspective
 Humans create realities collectively as they interact
together
 Communication does not occur in organizations;
communication creates organizations
 Research focus on organizational cultures
 Use of qualitative methods
 Focus on stories, symbols, metaphors, etc.
 Study of members’everyday sense-making

Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

13. + Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
3.
Critical Theory—Discourse of Suspicion
 Social constructionist perspective
 Focus on power
 Organizations as political structures
 Critique of how organizations create systems of
control
 Examination of “corporate colonization”
processes (Deetz)
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

14. + Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
4.
Postmodernism—Discourse of Vulnerability
 Rejection of universal truth
 Postmodernity=historical period after
modernity
 Demise of rational planning of modernity
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

15. +
Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
4.
Postmodernism—Discourse of Vulnerability
(Continued)
 Postmodernism=way of thinking about the world
 Challenges idea that science leads to progress
 “No foundations”
 Challenge to Western canon of knowledge
 No single “grand narrative”; many “little stories”
 “There is nothing outside the text”
 E.g., Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashiam
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

16. +
Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
4.
Postmodernism—Discourse of Vulnerability
(Continued)
 Study
of Organizations as sites of discipline
 “Post-Fordist” Organizations (see Ch. 8)
 Focus on “culture of enterprise” (self-branding of
employees)
Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012

17. + Framing Theories of Organizational
Communication
5.
Feminism—Discourse of Empowerment
Focus on gender and voice
 Address traditional exclusion of women’s voices from
organizations
 Focus on relation of gender, power and organization
 Explore how both men and women are “prisoners of
gender”
 Multiple feminist perspectives (see Ch. 9)

Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach ©SAGE Publications 2012