Org Comm chapter 1

Task time

refers to an organic sense of time where work is shaped by the demands of the tasks to be performed

Clock time

was not only crucial for the development of mass-production techniques but also as a means of controlling a workforce for whom independent work was the norm

Communication

is the dynamic, ongoing process of creating and negotiating meanings through interactional symbolic (verbal and

nonverbal) practices, including conversation, metaphors, rituals, stories, dress, and space.

organizational communication

the process of creating and negotiating collective, coordinated systems of meaning through symbolic practices oriented toward the achievement of organizational goals

direct control

a. Direct employees in explicit ways and then monitor their behavior to make sure they are performing adequately.

b. Close supervision is not a relic of 19th and early 20th century factories.

c. One limitation is that supervisors are not always able to directly control worker productivity.

technological control

a. Implementation of various forms of organizational technology to control worker productivity.

b. As our economy has shifted from heavy production to a service economy, the forms of technological control have changed.

c. In a service-oriented economy, customers are subject to technological control.

d. Technological control in the form of electronic surveillance is widespread in organizations.

bureaucratic control

a. Defining feature of Western democratic societies, enabling organization members to gain advancement on merit rather than based on one's connections.

b. Bureaucratic control mechanisms involve systems of formal rules, structures, job descriptions, and merit systems.

c. Bureaucracies tend to promote taken for granted ways of behaving.

d. Bureaucratic systems can also be very alienating

ideological control

a. Corporate development of a system of values, beliefs, and meanings with which employees are expected to identify strongly.

b. Emerged along with the corporate culture movement that became popular in U.S. organizations in the 1980s.

c. Focuses more on the values, meanings, and emotions connected to work than it does on the technical aspects of work.

d. Oppressive since it asks the employee to invest his or her very identity, or sense of self, in the company

biocratic control

a. "Biocracies" (Fleming, 2014b) focuses on the idea that in the current, post-Fordist organization, it is "life itself" (bios) that companies are attempting to capture.

b. Organizations have largely erased the distinction between work and home or leisure, capturing parts of our lives not typically associated with work.

c. Emerged with the greater instability in the job market.

d. Our entire lives are framed through work since everything we do is extension of our desire to be economically competitive

organizational control

require a similarly sophisticated understanding of the role of communication in these control processes

Time, Space, and the Emergence of the Modern Organization

1\. The idea of working for an organization and earning a wage is an idea of recent invention.

2\. The shift from a society consisting of workers to one consisting of managers and employees is key to understanding the historical transformations that led to the emergence of an organizational society.

3\. The transformation from an agriculturally based to an industrial society required workers who embodied different work habits.

4\. Task time refers to an organic sense of time where work is shaped by the demands of the tasks to be performed

clock time includes

1\. In the struggle between employers and employees in early industrial capitalism, time proved to be the significant point of contention.

2\. The introduction of clock time into the workplace marked a period of considerable struggle between employers and employees.

3\. Clock time was not only crucial for the development of mass-production techniques but also as a means of controlling a workforce for whom independent work was the norm.

4\. Today, an employee's level of power and prestige is at least partly reflected by how independent he or she is from the clock

authoritarian setting

1\. Researchers have primarily focused on workplace as an "authoritarian setting" (Perrow, 1986).

2\. One of the defining features of an organization is that it coordinates the behaviors of its members so that they can work collectively.

Organizations as Communicative Structures of Power

tensions between employee autonomy and organizational control

1\. Several points of tension exist between employees who want autonomy and organizations that want to control them.

2\. Tensions must be resolved in ways that are consistent with organizational rather than individual goals.

3\. Members do not passively accept these various efforts to control their behavior

Organizations as Communicative Structures of Power

the communication-organization relationship

Communication in organizations

a. This perspective views organizations as relatively stable, physical structures within which communication occurs.

b. Some of the main questions at issue here are as follows:

i. How can communication be made more accurate?

ii. How do communication breakdowns occur?

iii. How can we make sure that the message sent is the message that is received?

iv. What is the most appropriate medium through which to send messages?

Defining Organizational Communication

limitations to this perspective include:

i. Downplays the significance of communication in the optimal performance of organizations.

ii. Overlooks the complexity of the communication process.

iii. Has a sense of who we are, our connections to others, and our place in the world because we are communicating beings.

iv. Tends to treat organizations as given

Defining Organizational Communication

organizations as communication

a. This perspective argues that communication constitutes organization—an idea referred to by some organizational communication scholars as the CCO approach to organizations.

b. Communication activities are the basic, defining "stuff" of organizational life. Without communication, organizations cease to exist as meaningful human collectives.

c. Organizations are complex patterns of communication habits.

d. Communication does not just describe an already existing reality but creates people's social reality.

e. Communication is the dynamic, ongoing process of creating and negotiating meanings through interactional symbolic (verbal and

nonverbal) practices, including conversation, metaphors, rituals, stories, dress, and space.

f. Organizational communication is the process of creating and negotiating collective, coordinated systems of meaning through symbolic practices oriented toward the achievement of organizational goals

interdependence

1\. Organizations exhibit interdependence insofar as no member can function without affecting, and being affected by, other organization members.

2\. Large organizations depend on a complicated array of subsidiaries, outsourcing processes, communication technologies, and leveraged financial structures in order to flourish

differentiation of tasks and functions

1. All organizations operate according to the principle of division of labor, in which members specialize in tasks and the organization is divided into various departments.
2. Two complementary systems for organizing work: Scientific management(developed by Fredrick Taylor) and bureaucracy (developed as a universal set of organizing principles by German sociologist Max Weber).

goal orientation

1\. Goals coalesce members into something more than a random group of individuals.

2\. Organizations often have multiple and competing goals.

3\. Goals can conflict with those of other interest groups, such as community members, employees, or shareholders

summary of the five forms of control

a. Many organizations use multiple forms of control at the same time.

b. Forms of control operate with decreasing levels of direct coercion and increasing levels of participation by employees—in other words, control occurs via active consent.

c. Each form of control tends to develop in response to the failure of earlier forms of control to adequately deal with employee autonomy and resistance.

d. Increasingly sophisticated forms of organizational control require a similarly sophisticated understanding of the role of communication in these control processes

the place of work in our lives

1\. Work is a defining feature of our lives (think about one of the first questions you ask when you meet someone).

2\. Dominant part of the social imaginary that shapes who we are and our connection to the broader society in which we live (Weeks, 2011).

3\. Contradiction—we are heavily invested in and defined by our work, but we are dissatisfied with the work we do.

4\. Basic contradiction: On the one hand, work in the gig economy is insecure but we want work to be meaningful

connecting work to communication issues

1\. We both make sense of work through communicative processes and do work through communication.

2\. The ways in which we experience them are not natural and inevitable