FUNCTION OF COMMUNICATION
Chapter 2 Recap/Discussion
FIRST, WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
 Information
 Sending and Receiving
 Meaning
 Shared meaning
 Meaning within context
 Level of significance
 Frame of reference
 Transaction
 Verbal
 Nonverbal
VERBAL
(COMMUNICATING WITH WORDS)
 Language
 Symbols
 Representational
 Freely created
 Culturally transmitted
 Important Role in Organizations?
 Interpretivists and Critical theorists -- ‘structures our experiences of organizational
life’ (p. 23)
 Example: Root Metaphors
 Ambiguity and Group Restricted Codes
NONVERBAL
(COMMUNICATING WITHOUT WORDS)
 Paralanguage
 Body Movement (Kinesics)

Emblems

Illustrators

Regulators

Affect Displays

Adaptors
 Space (Proxemics)

Relationship between status and territory

Fixed feature space

Semifixed feature space

Informal space
 Use of Time (Chronemics)
 Touch (Haptics)
 Appearance
FUNCTIONS
(CONSIDER HOW EACH PERSPECTIVE VIEWS ORGANIZATIONS)
Traditional
Concerned with information
flow (breakdowns,
distortions), strategies, group
problem solving, etc.
• Production
• Maintenance
• Innovation
• Dance and Larson
• Linking
• Mentation
• Regulatory
• Uncertainty and Information
Accuracy
• Social Capital
Interpretive
Concerned with Culture and
Individuals’ Experiences
• Symbolic Interactionism
(Mead)
• Construction of reality
(Berger and Luckmann)
Critical
Concerned with Oppression
and Discrimination
• Communication as Dialogic
• Source of Control and
Manipulation
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Traditional
• Assist with
functions of
communication
such as linking,
mentation,
regulating,
uncertainty
reduction,
information
adequacy, building
social capital
Interpretive
• Helps create shared
meaning, construct
reality, and provide
context for
meaning systems
Critical
• Contest meanings,
establish control,
manipulate power
CLASS EXAMPLE: WAL-MART
 http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/working-at-walmart