3: Ch Four Perspectives on Organizations & Communication
Theory can be anything from simple ideas to formal systems of hypotheses that aim to
explain, predict, and control
Historical: product of time in which it emerged, reflecting the culture
Metaphotical: uses language to suggest comparisons
Theories are resources for enhancing our ability to explain and to act on practical issues
3 Ps
Partial
Each account only contains part of the story and there can be no full account or complete
story of organizational com
Partisan
The story we tell is one that represents our views in ways that favor our interests; it is one
that we favor
Problematic
The account asks more questions that it can answer, and the answers it provides are based
on what is currently known rather than on all that could be known
Classical management approaches share the underlying metaphor of organizations as
efficient machines
From empires to hierarchies (18th-19th century)
Corporations were seen as extensions of government
Ben Frankling popularized the notion of hard work
Frederick the Great utilized a model of organizational action based on the division of
labor and machine-like efficiency
The classical theory of management is characterized by:
Division of labor separation of tasks into discrete units
Hierarchy vertical arrangemnt of power and authority that distinguishes managers
from employees
Ch 3: Four Perspectives on Organizations & Communication
Employees werent always willing to passibely accept the authority of managers
Resistance to domination any action on the part of oppressed individuals to lessen the
contraints placed on them by those in power
Hidden transcripts themes and arguments that are well known by members of an
oppressed group but kept out of the public eye for fear of reprisal from those in power
Frederick Taylors scientific management is based on the assumption that management is
a true science resting on clearly defined laws, rules, and principles
Scientific management management-oriented, production-centered view of
organizations and communication
Its ideal is the efficient machine and holds that humans function as components or parts
Henri Faylos classical management consists of 5 key elements:
Planning
Organizing
Commanding (goal setting)
Coordinating
Controlling (evaluating)
Katherine Miller groups Fayols principles into 4 categories:
Structure
Strick hieratchy with a clear chain of command
Power
Centralization of decision-making and respect for authority
Reward
Fair remuneration for well-desired efforts
Attitude
Employees should subordinate their personal interests to those of the organization
Ch 3: Four Perspectives on Organizations & Communication
Bureaucracy came about in response to particularism (the ability of bosses to hire and
fire employees at their will) and has the following characteristics:
A fixed division of labor among participants
A hierarchy of offices
A set of general rules that govern performance
A rigid separation of personal life from work life
The selection of personnel on the basis of technical qualifications and equal treatment of
all employees
Participants view of employment as a career; tenure protecting against unfair arbitraty
dismissal
Max Weber (an advocate for universalism) believed bureaucracy was not without fault
but that it was still technically superior to all other forms of orgs
There are 3 main reasons that the ideal bureacracy cannot exist:
It is impossible to rid organizations of all extra-organizational influences on member
behavior
Bureacracy doesnt deal well with non-routine tasks
People vary in terms of rationality
The Human Relations Approach emphasizes the interpersonal and social needs of
individuals and assumes that all people want to feel bound to a cause greater than
themselves
World events in the 1st half of the 20th century called the perceived benefits of scientific
management and classical approaches into question
The Great Depression led to a surplus of workers, and thus an expansion of labor unions
that advocated human rights, fair wages, and improved working conditions for the labor
force
WW2 placed academic researchers, managers, and military personnel in direct
communication with one another, inspiring new ideas about organizing and work
Mary Parker Follet (democratic pragmatist) used her work as a social worker to develop
new ideas about leadership, communication, social processes, and community. She
believed:
Cooperation among people working together in groups under visionary leadership
produced excellence in the workplace, neighborhood, community
Management should share information with workers to empower them
Cooperation helps to solve problems
Ch 3: Four Perspectives on Organizations & Communication
Organized teams were critical to task accomplishment
Elton Mayo (Harvard professor) focused on critiquing and extending scientific
management by stressing the limits of individual rationality and the importance of
interpersonal relations. May believed that:
Society comprises groups, not isolated individuals
Individuals are swayed by group norms and dont act alone in accord with self-interests
Individual decisions are not entirely rational; they are also influenced by emptions
Chester Barnard (executive & author) asserted the importance of cooperation in
organizations. He believed:
The key to cooperation lay in persuading individuals to accept a common purpose, from
which all else followed
The role of managament was largely communicative and persuasive
There was value in the contributions of informal contacts to overall organizational
effectiveness
Effective managers were those who communicated in ways that encouraged workers to
identify with the organization
The Hawthorne Studies (Mayo, Roethlisberger, Dickson) were landmarks in developing
the human relations perspective by addressing concerns about employee dissatisfaction,
high turnover rates, and reduced plant efficiency. These studies led to these conclusions:
Increased attention given to workers raises productivity (H effect)
Informal group norms can have a positive effect on productivity
Little empirical evidence supports the effectiveness of human relations approach,
particularly the claim that positive employee morale fosters productivity
The Human Resources Approach concerned with the total organizational climate as
well as with how an organization can encourage employee participation and dialogue
Abraham Maslow best known for his hierarchy of needs, which states that in order
for humans to achieve their full potential, they must have their basic needs satisfied
Douglas McGregor shared Maslows view that classical management theory fails to
address important individual needs:
Theory X is the bureaucratic control-oriented, style of management that assumes people
will dislike work, will try to avoid it, and must be coerced and controlled in order to
achieve organizational objectives. This theory assumes that people prefer to be directed,
want to avoid responsibility, and have little ambition aside from attaining security
McGregor advocated for Theory Y assumes that work is a natural part of human
existence and that employees are autonomous, responsible, self-directed, and innovative
participants in organizations
Rensis Likerts principle of supportive relationships holds that all interactiong within
an organization should support the individual self-worth and importance, with emphasis
on the supportive relationships within work groups and open communication among
them. 4 types of systems based upon participation:
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System 1: exploitative/authoritative
System 2: benevolent/authoritative
System 3: consultative
System 4: participative
While human resources theory emphasizes employee participation in organizational
decision-making, it does not explain the pragmatics or the politics in establishing such a
voice for employees
The Systems Perspective emphasizes the difference between a disconnected set of
parts vs. a collection of parts that work together to create a functional whole
System a complex set of relationships among interdependent parts
Organizations are open systems and do not exist in isolation; open systems theory
encourages individuals, departments, and organizations to be mindful of the overall
health of their industry environment
Interdependence refers to the wholeness of the system and its environemnt and to the
interrelationships of individuals within the system
Interdependent relationships between people are established and maintained through
communication
Failure to recognize interdependency and the weight of consequences of ones actions can
devastate both the individual and the collectivity
Division of labor can distort peoples perception about the interdependent nature of their
work
Since no one part can stand alone in an interdependent system, any breakdown in
communication in the system can be negative for the whole
Goals are important to the systems perspective:
They are negotiated among interdependent factions in the organizations
They are heavily influenced by the organizations environment
Goals of individuals are personal and highly variable, whereas goals individuals have for
their organization are more likely to be shared
Goals can differ across systems levels
A system is also an interdependent collection of processes that interact over time
Feedback is defined as a system of loops that connect communication and action
Ch 3: Four Perspectives on Organizations & Communication
Negative or deviation-counteracting feedback (cybernetic) functions to reestablish the
original goals
Positive or deviation-amplifying feedback (second cybernetic) is deigned to find new
avenues of growth and development
A more contemporary application of feedback loops focuses on counter-networking
This approach suggests reversing the advice given to promote successful businesses in
order to introduce insecurity and chaos into a network
Notions of counter-networking might be of particular use for destabilizing terrorist
networks
The diverse environments across industries, companies, and regions often require unique
organizing principles and solutions to accommodate various contextual and
envioronmental factors
Contingency Theory is based on the idea of equifinality (the same goal may be reached
in multiple ways) and can be summarized as follows:
There is no best way to organize
All ways of organizing are not equally effective
Systems theory appeals to those who study organizational communication bc:
Is emphasizes the importance of communication processes in organizing
Unlike earlier theories, is it theoretically capable of capturing the complxity of these
communication processes
Systems theory has been disappointing in 2 ways:
Researchers have had difficulty translating the concepts into research designs
Based on the rarity of actual studies, systems theory has been characterized as an
appealing but abstract set of concepts with little practicality to actual theory or research
Peter Senge (management theorist) has 5 features of learning organizations:
Systems thinking
Combines holism and interdependence and claims that for any 1 member to success, all
members must succeed
Personal mastery
Means that all members share a personal commitment to learning
Flexible mental models
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Members of learning organizations must engage in self-reflection, allowing them to 1st
understand and then to change the mental models that tend to guide their thinking
Shared vision
Tight hierarchial control is replaced by concertive control whereby members act in
concert because they share a common organizational vision and understand that their own
work helps to build on that shared vision
Team learning
Dialogue is emphasized as the key to team learning, allowing members in a learning
organization to communicate in ways that lead the team in good decisions
Karl Weick explanation of sense-making has helped to reinvigorate systems theory by
connecting it with issues of senf making, meaning, and communication
He believes that organizations exist in complex and unpredictable environments. The job
of organizing involves making sense of the uncertainties in these environments through
interaction or equivocality reduction
His model of organizing consists of 3 parts:
Enactment process by which organizational members create their environments through
their actions and patterns of attention
Selection collective sense-making that is accomplished through communication
Retention final stage of the model facilitates remembering developed interpretations
for future use
An underlying assumption is that sense-making is retrospective
People act first and later examine their actions to explain meaning
7 properties of sense making
Identity construction
Retrospection
Enactment
Socialization
Continuation
Extracted cues
Plausibility
Importance of communication at work connections between people in organizations
vary in intensity and are often loose/weak
Loosely coupled systems can be advantageous in the longer term:
Mutliple goals of an organization can be coordinated without extensive communication or
consensus
Better able to withstand environmental jolts
Weick uses the theory of partial inclusion to explain that certain
strategies for motivating employees are ineffective bc only some of their
behaviors are partially included in the workplace