4. The Concept of
Organization
• Humans organize to get things done
• Organizations affect many aspects of life
• Organizations as containers
• Organizations as a set of discursive practices
5. The Concept of
Communication
• The process of creating shared meanings
among people
• Constructing social realities in ways that are
actively coordinated and managed
6. The Concept of
Communication
• Studying Organizational Communication
• Understanding Organizations
• Awareness of Skills
• Career Opportunities
• Development of the Field
• Relationship to Other Fields
7. Studying Organizational
Communication
• Improve your understanding of organizations
and your own experiences as an
organizational member
• Develop awareness of the kinds of
communication skills that are important in
organizations
• Considering a career as a communication
professional or academic scholar in the field
8. Understanding
Organizations
• Because organizations are constituted through
communication, studying organizational
communication helps us to understand virtually
every human process in organizations
• Conflict, cooperation, decision-making, the use of
power and authority, compliance gaining,
resistance, innovation and change, morale and
cohesion, relational development, the creation
and maintenance of organizational culture
9. Awareness of Skills
• Well-developed communication skills
are essential to personal effectiveness
in organizations
• Public speaking, interviewing, group
discussion, writing, etc.
10. Career Opportunities
• Writers
• Editors
• Media Specialists
• Training and Development Professionals
• Management
• Consultants
11. Development of the Field
• Business Speech and Industrial
Communication - 1950s
• Skills focus
• Relationship between Organizational
Communication and other Disciplines
• Establishing a Unique Identity
12. Relationship to Other Fields
Organizational Psychology
Organizational Sociology
Organizational Behavior
Psychology
Sociology
Social Psychology
Management
14. Traditional Perspective
Early Views
• Relationship between Communication and
Organizational Effectiveness
• Organization as Machine
Later Views
• Organization as Living System
• Conflict
• Change
15. Interpretive Perspective
• Organizations as Cultures
• Subjective versus Objective Views of
Organizations
• Organizational Reality is Socially
Constructed through Communication
16. Critical Perspective
• Organizations as instruments of
privilege and oppression
• Oppression in systems of language and
meaning (sexual harassment)
• Structures of oppression (glass ceiling)
