HOUSEKEEPING
Questions, Changes to Syllabus,
Grade Reporting Sheet, Article
Reports
WHAT IS
ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION?
Recap of Chapters 1, 2, and PDF
FIRST, WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
 Information
 Sending and Receiving
 Meaning
 Context
 Level of significance
 Frame of reference
 Transaction
 Verbal
 Nonverbal
(Papa, Daniels, & Spiker, 2008)
VERBAL AND NONVERBAL
 Verbal (communicating with words)
 Language

Symbols
 Representational
Freely created
 Culturally transmitted

 Nonverbal (communicating without words)
 Paralanguage
 Body Movement (Kinesics)
 Space (Proxemics)
 Use of Time (Chronemics)
 Touch (Haptics)
 Appearance
 Important Role in Organizations?
(Papa, Daniels, & Spiker, 2008)
FUNCTIONS
Traditional
Interpretive
Critical
Concerned with information flow
(breakdowns, distortions), strategies,
group problem solving, etc.
Concerned with Culture and
Individuals’ Experiences
Concerned with Oppression and
Discrimination
• Production
• Maintenance
• Innovation
• Uncertainty and Information
Accuracy
• Social Capital
• Symbolic Interactionism
(Mead)
• Construction of reality
(Berger and Luckmann)
• Source of Control and
Manipulation
(Papa, Daniels, & Spiker, 2008)
SIGNIFICANT FACTORS TO CONSIDER
 Change with change
 Globalization
 Diversity
 Communication technologies
 The Urgent Organization
 Advantages? Disadvantages?
 Identity theft
 Explore during Week 10
(Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2014)
SIGNIFICANT FACTORS TO CONSIDER
 Communication networks
 Informal and formal
 Will explore other weeks; especially with “Teams and Networks”
 The meaning of work
 The new social contract
 Quality of life
 Flexible work programs, community service, job as fulfilling
 Google Workplace
 Need for continuous learning, networking, and strong work relationships
 Possible distrust?
 Identity Thief (Film clip: Example)
(Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2014)
APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION
 Communication as information transfer (linear model of
communication)
 Typical communication problems: information overload, distortion, ambiguity
 Communication as transactional process
 Importance of nonverbal communication
 Emphasis on creation of shared meaning
 Communication as strategic control
 Communication = tool  influence and shape environment
 Strategic ambiguity
 Good or bad? Or both?
 Ethical concerns?
(Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2014)
APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION
 Communication as balance of creativity and constraint
 “…communication is the moment-to-moment working out of the tension between
individual creativity and organizational constraint” (p. 38)
 Combining macro and micro perspective; individuals controlled/constrained/molded
by society/social institutions and individuals as active agents
 Communication helps find balance
 Communication process:
 “what employees say to one another inside organizations…”
 “how people organize real and symbolic resources, deal with conflicting goals in relation to
those resources, manage multiple meanings, and content with an ongoing stream of
information, ambiguity, an change, all of which impact organizational outcomes”
(p. 38)
(Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2014)
ORGANIZATIONS AS DIALOGUES
 “balanced communication, or communication in which each individual has a chance
to both speak and be heard” (p. 46)
 This should include:
 Mindful communicators

Promotes exchange of ideas, builds trust, promotes accountability
 Equitable transactions

Voice
 Empathic conversations

Promotes understanding, helps with diversity

Collective mindfulness
 Real meetings

Respect for subjectivity and worldview
 Role of context
 Situated individuals
(Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2014)
IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS
 Golden rule: DWYSYWD
 Ties to organizational alignment (discussed later in semester)
 “Trust one another, treat one another with respect, recognize the value
of each individual, keep our word, tell the truth, act with integrity, be
open to change, risk failing in order to get better, learn/try new things”
 (Harshman & Harshman, 1999, p. 15, as cited in Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2014,
p. 53)
Class Example
WAL-MART
ACT #1
Job/Industry
You
Other
Other
Other
Quality of life; How does
job contribute? How should
it contribute?
Importance of Lifelong
Learning? Ways to do so?
What makes for good
organizational
communication?