Organizations are groups with a formal governance and structure, and organizational communication is the interaction necessary to direct an organization toward multiple sets of goals.
The classical management approach to managing organizations focuses on making the organization run like an efficient machine, based on the concepts of a division of labor and hierarchy.
A division of labor is the assumption that each part of an organization must carry out a specialized task in order for the organization to run smoothly.
Hierarchy refers to the layers of power and authority in an organization.
The human relations approach to management considers the human needs of organizational members.
Managers express more interest in employees and their lives
Employees have a greater sense of belonging to a larger purpose.
The human resources approach considers organizational productivity from the workers’ perspectives and considers them assets to the organization who can be fulfilled by participating and contributing useful ideas.
The systems approach views the organization as a unique whole made up of important members who have interdependent relationships in their particular environment. This approach has two important components.
Openness refers to an organization’s awareness of its own imbalances and problems.
Adaptability refers to the organization’s allowance for change and growth.
Ask Yourself:
Which approaches to management did various organizations you worked for or belonged to take?
Do you feel they were effective or ineffective? Why?
Organizational culture consists of an organization’s unique set of beliefs, values, norms, and ways of doing things. Communication plays a pivotal role in both the shaping and expression of organizational culture.
Organizational storytelling is the communication of a company’s values through stories and accounts, both to members and to the outside world.
Metaphors are figures of speech that liken one thing to something else in a literal way (for example, “This department is a family”).
Organizational heroes are individuals who have achieved great things for the organization through persistence and commitment, often in the face of great risk.
Organizational assimilation is the process by which newcomers learn the nuances of the organization and determine if they fit in.
Ask Yourself:
Can you think of stories that you were told about an organization that helped you learn the ropes of the dynamics within the organization? Who told them?
Can you think of who was involved? Who was the hero, and who was the villain?
Why is this important?
Organizations contain several important relational contexts in which communication occurs.
In supervisor-supervisee relationships, the supervisor has power and influence over the supervisee.
In mentor-protégé relationships, the mentor is a seasoned, respected member of the organization and serves as a role model for a less experienced individual, the protégé.
Peer relationships are the friendships, crushes, romances, and so on, that form between colleagues in an organization resulting from peer communication between individuals at the same level of authority.
Ask Yourself:
Have you ever had a mentor? How did this help you function better in the organization?
Have you ever been a mentor? How did the experience affect you?
Today’s organizations face new and important challenges.
Workplaces today require employees to be able to work—often closely—with a variety of colleagues who may differ in culture, religion, race, ethnicity, age, gender, and sexual orientation. This may result in conflict and unconstructive responses.
Criticism involves attacking another’s personality or character, rather than focusing on his or her bothersome behavior, while defensiveness is a self-protective response to another’s actions or accusations.
Contempt includes communicating with truly negative intent and may include insults, sarcasm, name-calling, ridicule, hostile humor, and/or body language such as rolling one’s eyes.
Stonewalling often occurs after contempt and involves creating physical and/or psychological distance from people (or the larger organization) by being unresponsive to efforts to communicate—in other words, withdrawing.
Advances in communication technology enable members of organizations to communicate more easily, particularly with clients and colleagues who work offsite or in home offices, but they can also create challenges.
Employees must consider the most appropriate channel to communicate messages to other members of their organization. Use of enterprise social media is rapidly increasing in the workplace.
Concerns over employee Internet use have led to an increase in workplace surveillance—the monitoring of workers to see how they are using technology.
Globalization, the growing interdependence and connectivity of societies and economies around the world, has both broken down barriers and opened the door to unethical practices.
It reduces barriers between countries for business.
It opens opportunities for global social enterprises, which attempt to help underdeveloped economies reach greater potential.
Employees may struggle with work-life balance, finding a balance between their work and their personal life and achieving success in both.
Many workers take on too many responsibilities or work long hours.
There are a number of tips to relieve burnout and assist with work-life balance.
Keep a log to determine which activities are nonnegotiable.
Manage your time.
Leave work at work.
Nurture yourself.
Get enough sleep.
Sexual harassment—unwanted verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that affects an individual’s employment—creates a hostile or offensive environment and can result in an adverse employment decision.
Computer-mediated communication in the workplace is creating new opportunities for sexual harassment.
Women are most commonly the victims of sexual harassment, but men can also experience its negative effects.
Sexual harassment costs organizations millions of dollars every year and robs individuals of opportunities, dignity, and their sense of self-worth.
Ask Yourself:
How have these forces shaped your participation and communication within an organization?
How might you manage some of the more negative effects of organizational life, such as burnout or harassment?