CHAPTER 12Theories of

Organizational Communication

Metaphors for Studying Organizational Communication machine: highlights rational decision making,

concerned with functionality and goals of the organization as a whole

system: highlights interconnection and interdependence within and among subsystems and supersystems and environment

culture: highlights meaning and values, stories, rituals (grounded in local interactions, interpretive)

instruments of domination (critical)

Weick’s Theory of Organizing

Weick’s work considers the intersection of organizing and communicating through a consideration of sense-making in the organization context

Difference between social psychology of organizations and social psychology of organizing (not a container in which comm. happens but mutual influence between communicating and organizing).

Weick:The Process of Organizing

Enactment processes: Members constitute social environment through a

process of “bracketing”They notice and respond to elements in the

environment (other person’s behaviors or events) that subsequently influence behaviors and then fold back into (constitute) the environment

Weick, cont. Selection processes: Sense-making through

selecting, organizing, and framing events to construct meaningEquivocality: multiple interpretations of same

event○ Not too little information coming in, but too

muchSense-making occurs through the use of

recipes (for unequivocal information environments) or through

communication negotiation (for equivocal information environments)

Weick, cont. Retention processes: interpretive schemes (recipes)

are stored for future useInterpretive schemes are stored in the form of

causal maps (if I do X, Y will follow)○ Causal maps provide a link back to earlier phases of

Weick’s model○ Stored maps and recipes are the source of culture and

strategy for organizations and identities and continuities of individuals within organizations.

Structuration Theory: Giddens Duality of structure –

actions produce and reproduce social structures,

and then are enabled and constrained by those structures

Structure Action

Structuration Theory, cont.

Agency: We are active agents who produce and reproduce the social worldWe make rule-guided and creative choices about

how to act. These choices are constrained by our circumstances

Structuration Theory, cont.

Reflexivity: As agents in the social world, we can observe what we are doing, give accounts of situations, and act creatively

Dialectic of Control: As reflexive agents, we always have the capacity to make a difference in the social worldwe operate within structures, but are able to

change those structures.

Structuration Theory, cont. Structures: Rules and resources that constrain

and enable action in the social world.Rules: Typically unstated and routinized

procedures for how to get things done (more or less durable).

Resources: The capabilities social actors draw on to get things done: allocative (material) or authoritative (status/position)

highly routinized practices = social systems highly routinized rules and resources = institutions

(p. 216 bottom)

Structuration Theory in Organizational Communication

Structurational studiesOrganizational form

○ structure = rules and resources that org. members use to coordinate their interactions

Organizational climate○ “intersubjective” and “created through

discourse” (e.g., friendly, competitive)

Structuration Theory in Organizational Communication

Studies of organizational communication genres such as memos (email? State Farm)Genre structures influence, but do not dictate

practice Studies of organizational (or professional)

identification and ideologyTransitions during organizational mergersAA group meetings (alcoholic self is both agent

and outcome as it evolves through recursive group practices and individual actions)

The Text and Conversation of Organizing (Taylor)

Organizations and communication produce each other in reciprocal process (in contrast to “container” metaphor or causal view)

Text -- the content of interaction (can be made available through face-to-face interaction or alternative media).

Conversation is the communicative interaction itself—what is happening behaviorally between two or more people.

Translation Process:From Text to Conversation

Text is meaning; conversation is activity. Conversation is a string of texts

collaboratively produced Conversation and Text work together in two

“translations” which are:Recursive (reciprocal)Simultaneous

Translation Process: (Simultaneous and Recursive)

Translations: One: From text (meaning) to conversation

○ Borrows from speech act theory –illocutionary force or intended “action” of speaker

○ Intent, context, relationshipTwo: From conversation to text (reduce the

conversation to a text or summary)○ Like “episodes” from CMM, or “bracketing” of

events

From Text and Conversation to Organizational Communication

So—how does this apply to organizations? Organizational communication is formalized

through processes of distanciation: Distance between intended meaning of speaker

and what is created and retained from the interaction

From Text and Conversation to Organizational Communication

Degrees of separation:○ Distance of a particular communication act from

original intent of speaker○ Cycles of movement between text and

conversation○ “Layered objectification” of meaning and

interaction in increasingly abstract, formalized and procedural forms

From Text and Conversation to Organizational Communication The Degrees of Separation

○ 1st degree—speaker intent into conversation○ 2nd degree—conversation translated into

narrative representation.○ 3rd degree—text is transcribed (objectified)

e.g., minutes of a meeting Table 12.2 (p. 222)

Unobtrusive and Concertive Control Theory (Barker, Cheney, Tompkins)

Traditional ways of looking at control: simple control (direct and authoritarian exertion of

power) technological control (physical technology used in

an org.—from assembly line to computer technology)

bureaucratic control (not an individual but of a system of rules that control rewards and punishments)

Unobtrusive & Concertive Control Theory

Barker et al. Identification refers to a sense of connection that

develops between an individual and a social group (e.g., organizations, work groups, and other social collectives)

Discipline refers to using the norms and values of the organization as a guide for behavior

Unobtrusive & Concertive Control Theory

Identification with an organization leads members to adopt (internalize) the organization’s standards

Unobtrusive control occurs when decisions of the individual are premised on organizational values (parallel to “control by consent,” self-censorship)

Concertive control occurs when members of work group reward and punish each other for conformity to group values (similar to peer pressure)

Closing Question

What examples of the following types of control do you see/experience in the graduate program?simple controltechnological controlbureaucratic control concertive controlunobtrusive