Organisation and
Management
BA-Siv, 3rd semester
Managing Communications
Managing Communications
 From rhetoric (Aristotle, Socrates, Platon) via studies of
propaganda (early 20s century) towards a
communication science.
 From the idea of transmission to the idea of interaction
(influenced by cybernetics = the study of electronic and
mechanical devices compared to biological systems)
 The concept of feedback (communication as an
interactive circle involving sender, receiver, message,
media and feedback loops)
Managing Communications
Main theories
 Organisational communication as ’the
giant hydra’ (from Greek mythology ’the
Lernæan Hydra’ = a watersnake with 9
heads)
Different departments of an organization
may tell different stories due to
conflicting interests, e.g. the unions, the
employees, gossip in markets, etc.
Main theories: Organisational
Behaviour
Different perspectives on organisational
behaviour with the emphasis on:
 Culture (shared meanings through
communication)
 Human relations (openness, trust,
collaboration)
 Power (communication used to promote certain
views and interests)
 Discourse theory (discourse shapes and
constructs organisational reality).
Main theories: Organisational
Behaviour
 Storytelling as an example of discourse
(how do employees represent the
organisation to the outside world on the
basis of internal and external
communication?)
 ’One cannot not communicate’
(meaning?)
(= implicit communication, e.g. through
images. Look at images on p. 48 and
comment)
Levels of Communication
 Dyadic communication (between two people)
 Small group communication
 Organisational communication (a culturally
driven process of sensemaking)
 Mass communication
Based on personal and social involvement
(Littlejohn 1989).
Levels of Communication: Dyadic
communication, interpersonal or impersonal
What is signalled in the two commands:
a) ’You have until Monday to write this
report’
b) ’Would it be possible to have your
report by Monday’?
 What is understood by ’the vicious
circle of control’ (e.g. Weick’s ’double
interact’) – p. 50
 Call Centres (any disadvantages?)
Levels of Communication
 Small group communication
 Groupthink (any disadvantages?)
 Shared meanings (predictable communication
patterns develop in organizations and reduce
equivocality)
’All organisational reality is constituted and
constructed through communication and
miscommunication’ (Clegg et al 2005, p. 53)
Levels of Communication:
mass communication
 The church as the earliest form of mass
communication (through iconic symbols)
 Modern mass marketing (TV advertising,
billboards, Web sites, newspapers,
sponsorship of events)
Levels of Communication:
Organisational Communication
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

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Four functions in organisational communication:
Informative function (to generate action)
Systemic function (the glue for social
interaction)
Literal function (not just fact transmission but
also sensemaking)
Figurative function (linkage to wider
environment  identity, mission and purpose.
Audiences
 Internal audiences (Intraorganisational
communication to employees)
 Other organisations (Interorganisational
communication to partners, suppliers,
etc.)
 Communication to the wider society
(markets, society, press, etc.)
Internal audiences:
Intraorganizational
Communication
The importance of integrated communication (the
same message communicated by everybody in
a company).
An example: (quotation from Ginger Graham,
CEO at a US company)
’I’ve always heard about what a wonderful
company ACS is, but frankly, that’s not what I
see’ (what role can openness and honesty
play?)
Interorganisational Communication: Cooperation with other organizations
 Why do organisations co-operate with others?
 Networks, boundary spanners and interlockers?
 Communication with stakeholders (identity
creation – the example of Nike in Mexico and
The Body Shop)
 Drawing a border-line between marketing and
organisational communication (how can
marketing be a communication exercise?)
Communication as marketing
and branding
 Marketing communication (advertising, sales
promotion, public relations, personal selling and
direct marketing)
 The importance of communicating an image
rather than the benefits of a product (e.g.
Benetton)
 The importance of branding (to communicate
your organisation, to facilitate choice, to create
personal identity) social responsibility
 Negative aspects of branding (negative image
of an old brand stays, strong brands make
companies vulnerable to public critique)
Managing the multiheaded
hydra
 The expressive organisation’s primary
communication purpose is to manage
symbolic and emotional capital and thus
to ’manage meanings’.
 Three organisational features: vision
(strategy), culture (employees) and
image (brand).
 Three gaps (the vision-culture gap; the
image-culture gap and the image-vision
gap)
Deconstruction to reconstruct
 Managing organisations polyphonically
(listening to and respecting the many
voices expressed in stories about the
organisation).
 Deconstructing the language games by
questioning the taken-for-granted.
 Deconstruction as a precondition for
change.