Boek Corporate Communicatie
Summary Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes
CH 1 The challenge of organizational communication
Our Complicated World
There are four aspects that dominate our thinking and our news coverage.
Globalization
Globalization has led to outsourcing: businesses move manufacturing and service centers to
countries where labour is cheap. Next to that globalization has created a lot of multinational or
international companies where employees of a single organization are found in multiple countries as
well are the companies.
Terrorism
Terrorism is a set of strategies that involves the use of unpredictable violence against individuals and
thus creates ongoing fear and suspicion among large groups of people.
The implications of terrorism are everywhere but can be seen in two wide-spread areas:
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War on terror
Homeland security
Organizational communication scholars see raise questions in how to approach the war on terror:
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How terrorist organizations recruit and socialize their members
How terrorist cells make decisions and develop leadership
How terrorist networks form interconnections through technology and interpersonal contact
On the war on terror the following questions are considered:
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The complex communication processes involved in military actions and bureaucracy
The complexities of dealing with military personnel and their families during and after their
service
The complex political negotiations with a wide range of government entities
The creation and dissemination of organizational rhetoric to connect institutional goals with
public opinion
Considering homeland security:
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How do we develop communication systems to enhance border security
Improve tracking of possible terrorist activities
Develop the ability of first-response organizations to act quickly and appropriately in case of
terrorist threats and attacks
Climate change
At first it was intended by Al Gore that humanity’s role in climate change is an issue that must be
addressed by governments, businesses and individuals. However now scholars think that recent
changes in our climate can be attributed to the activities of individuals and organizations
The role of organizational communication in climate change is to look in the past how it has come to
this and to see how other countries are developing now and what kind of consequences this has for
the environment. Organizational communication scholars have the task to raise the environmental
responsibility at companies and government.
Changing Demographics
Demographics refer to statistical descriptions of characteristics of population. It describes who we
are in the most basic of terms and so have a foundational impact in how we communicate with each
other.
Changing demographics creates challenges for organizational communication. It can result in
multicultural workplaces, workers with increasing responsibilities to aging family members etc.
Meeting these challenges:
Organizational communication can be conceptualized as a means for approaching the challenges of
today’s world.
Requisite variety: Concept that suggests that successful organizations and groups need to be as
complicated as the problems that confront them. So an easy problem needs an easy group and a
difficult problem needs a difficult group.
Complicating our thinking about Organizations
Several ways of complicating our thinking about organizational communication:
1. Complicate our thinking about organizations.
2. Acknowledge that organizations are not ‘simple’ sites where goals are accomplished through
straightforward cooperation in well-defined structures
According to scholars organizational communication must be approached with paradox,
irony and contradiction.
Complicating our thinking about Communication
Early communication thought that it would be easy with a simple
SourceMessageChannelReceiver structure. However it fails to encompass the varying ways we
need to think about communication.
Craig (1999) proposed a model that helps to sort out the various aspects of communication.
There is a distinction between the classis SMCR model (transmission model) and the constitutive
model communication is seen as a process that produces and reproduces shared meaning.
Craig states that we should see the constitutive model as a meta-model, an overarching way of
thinking about communication. He also sees certain flaws in this model therefore the meta-model of
communication can help us to meet the practical challenges of today’s organizational world.
Craig also proposes seven domains of how communication works in the world:
1. See table 1.1 page 13
Chapter 2 Classical Approaches
The Industrial Revolution in the late nineteenth century methods of producing goods began to
change. Instead of cottage industries, increased mechanization and industrialization led to the
organization of larger groups of people in factory and assembly-line settings. Scholars, consultants in
the early twentieth century tried to make sense of these new organizational forms and to provide
business and industry with advice about how best to organize in light of these new developments.
Three of the more important ones are Henri Fayol’s Theory of Classical Management, Max Weber’s
Theory of Bureaucracy, and Frederick Taylor’s Theory of Scientific management.
The Machine Metaphor
A metaphor suggests that we can learn something about organizations by considering a disparate
object that an organization “is like”. A metaphor can also de-emphasize aspects of an organization.
That is, a metaphor is a “partial view” of an organization that will both reveal and obscure important
aspects of organizing.
The machine metaphor consists of multiple aspects:
1. Specialization: Every person of an organization has a special function which creates the
organizations. This specialization of tasks – sometimes called division of labor – illustrates
one way in which organizational functioning can be seen as machinelike.
2. Standardization/replaceability: When conceptualizing organizations as machines, the same
principle holds for the human “parts” that work in the organization. So if a worker on an
assembly line quits, a machinelike organization can easily replace that worker. Personal is
interchangeable because they represent the “cogs” of the machine.
3. Predictability: An organizations organization conceived as a machine has the same qualities.
It runs according to specific rules and standards, and if the organization is dysfunctional, it
can be fixed by a rational consideration of the manner in which the rules and standards are
being applied or misapplied.
Henri Fayol’s theory of classical management
Two aspects of Fayol’s (pre-scriptive) theory that have been particularly influential are his
consideration of the element of management and his consideration of the principles of management.
The elements of management deal with the what and the principles of management concerns about
the how.
Elements of Management
Fayol proposes five fundamental elements of management:
1. Planning: Involves looking to the future to determine the best way to attain organizational
goals.
2. Organizing: The arrangement of human resources and the evaluation of those employees.
3. Command: The element through which managers set tasks for employees in order to meet
organizational goals.
4. Coordination: The separate activities of an organization must be harmonized into a single
whole
5. Control: The comparison between goals and activities to ensure that the organization is
functioning in the manner planned.
All the elements require communication between management and workers. Thus, communication
can be seen as an implicit part of Fayol’s theory elements of management.
Principles of Management
Principles of management can be grouped into different sets, each of which deals with a different
aspect of how an organization should be managed.
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Many of Fayol’s principles of management concern how the parts of an organization should
be put together. Six principles deal specifically with organizational structure (principles of
organizational structure):
o Scalar chain: Proposes that an organization should be arranged in a strict vertical
hierarchy and that communication should be largely limited to this vertical flow.
o Unity of command: Proposes that an employee should receive orders regarding a
particular task from only one supervisor.
o Unity of direction: Proposes that work can best be accomplished if employees are
assigned to a limited number of specialized tasks
o Division of labor: Proposes that work can best be accomplished if employees are
assigned to a limited number of specialized tasks
o Order: Proposes that there should be an appointed place for each employee and task
within the organization.
o Span of control: Proposes that managers will be most effective if they have control of
a limited number of employees.
All taken together Fayol proposes an organization that is highly structured and hierarchical. Fayol
proposes a structural “gangplank” that would horizontally link employees at the same hierarchical
level. He proposes that such a link should be used only when authorized by a manager at the next
highest level but should be used whenever such communication would aid in the accomplishment of
organizational goals.
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Principles of Organizational Power:
o Centralization: Proposes that organizations will be most effective when central
management has control over decision making and employee activities. Fayol
believed that contingency such as firm size and the personal characteristics of the
managers and employees could influence the optimal level of centralization
o Authority and responsibility: Proposes that managers should hold authority that
derives from both their position in the organization and their personal
characteristics.
o Discipline: Proposes that all organizational members should be obedient to the rules
of the organization and to the managers who enforce them.
Fayol suggests that power should be relatively centralized in the managers, and the employees
should then submit to the rules and orders of the managers
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Principles of organizational reward: regarding appropriate rewards in organizations
o Remuneration of personnel: Proposes that employees should be rewarded for their
work with appropriate salaries and benefits.
o Equity: Proposes that in remuneration employees should be treated justly
o Tenure Stability: Proposes that the organization should guarantee sufficient time on
the job for employees to achieve maximum performance. However too much tenure
stability could be counter-productive.
Fayol’s principles of management suggest that emplo0yees are rewarded within the organization by
the knowledge that their jobs are relatively secure and by the fair application of monetary rewards.
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Principles of Organizational Attitude
o Subordination of individual interest to general interest: Proposes that an
organization can be effective only when the interests of the whole take precedence
over the interest of individuals. Thus, individuals must always consider organizational
goals first
o Initiative: Proposes that managers should value and direct an employee’s efforts to
work in the best interest of the organization
o Esprit de corps: Proposes thata there should be no dissension in the organizational
ranks.
Max Weber’s theory of Bureaucracy
Weber takes a scholarly approach. Weber describes an ideal type theory. Weber enumerates the
characteristics of a particular form of organization, the bureaucracy. Six facets of bureaucracy are
mentioned:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Clearly defined hierarchy
Division of labor
Centralization of decision-making and power
Closed systems: a bureaucracy will shut itself off from influences of the outside environment,
because environmental interruptions could hamper its smooth functioning.
5. Importance of rules: rules should rationally established and that there should be a rule for all
possible contingencies I the organization.
6. Functioning of authority: authority is based on three possible grounds:
a. Traditional authority: power based on long-standing beliefs about who should have
control and is often vested in particular position within an organizational hierarchy.
b. Charismatic authority: power based on an individual’s personality and ability to
attract and interact with followers. Highly unstable as followers may become
disenchanted with the leader’s charismatic qualities.
c. Rational-legal authority: power based on the rational application of rules developed
through a reliance on information and expertise. Power rests not in the individual
but in the expertise and rationality that have created a system of rules and norms.
Weber states that rational-legal authority as the type of power that dominates in the bureaucratic
system. Traditional and charismatic power rely on the position or the individual holding the position
to define authority.
Frederick Taylor’s theory of scientific management
Taylor also has a prescriptive approach for how organizations could be better run. Taylor focuses,
contrary to Fayol, on the micro level of organizational functioning. He is concerned about the
relationship between manager and employee.
Impetus for the Theory of Scientific Management
Taylor developed this because he was frustrated with typical industry operations at the turn of the
century. Several issues concerned him:
1. Most tasks were learned by newcomers watching more experienced workers at a particular
job. He believed that learning tasks in this way could lead to work of uneven quality in the
organization
2. The manner in which individuals were rewarded for their work. More productive workers,
than the status quo, became known as “rate busters” because managers would often lower
piecework pay as a result of their productivity.
Workers wanted to avoid having the piecework pay scale lowered and therefore workers would
pressure each other to keep rate busting to a minimum. Taylor called this “systematic soldiering”
Scientific Management
Four major tenets:
1. There is one best way to do every job: this broke down the first point in the impetus. The
best way to do every job can best be determined through time and motion studies. A critical
aspect of implementing his system is determining the most time-efficient way to accomplish
the task at hand.
2. Proper selection: Workers should be scientifically selected and trained for each job and that
only “first-class workers” should be retained.
3. Training workers: If no “proper job” could be found for the inefficient bricklayer, he should
be fired
4. Inherent difference between management and workers: Organizational managers are best
suited for thinking, planning, and administrative tasks. In contrast, organizational workers are
best suited for laboring. Therefore there must be a strict division of labor between
management and laborers.
The organization functions by maintaining a strict distinction between workers and managers. The
problem of uneven work would be eliminated by instituting the scientific investigation of work
procedures through time and motion studies. The problem of systematic soldiering would be
combated in two ways:
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Taylor proposes that the piece rate should be based on minimum standards set through time
and motion studies
The social pressure of systematic soldiering would be diluted by selecting specific workers for
specific jobs.
Communication in classical approaches
In the former theories we have discovered that general principles are represented by the more
specific ideas of organizational structure, power, work design, and attitude. Communication
processes take particular characteristics in these machinelike organizations. Therefore we will
consider several aspects of communication.
Content of Communication
From Fayol’s theory of subordination of individual interest to general interest we can say that
communication within the organization should be focused on task-related topics. Classical
communication also makes the differences between innovation-related communication, task-related
communication, maintenance-related communication. Thus social and innovation communication
(because of Taylors theory that the best way already is determined scientifically) is discouraged in
classical communication.
Direction of Communication Flow
There are a number of possible directions in which communication can flow.
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In the classical approach from Fayol, Weber and Taylor the most important route for
communication is the vertical flow of information along the scalar chain of the organizational
hierarchy. The vast majority flows downward in the form of orders, rules, and directives.
Horizontal and free-flowing communication does almost not occur in classical
communication only when it is work-related.
Channel of communication
A variety channels can facilitate communication flow. The written mode of communication is the
most prevalent. The theory that there is “one best way” to do every job in scientific management
lends itself to the production of written employee handbooks and instructions. The principle of
“order” advocating a specified place for all employees and tasks in the organization would also
suggest the importance of written instructions and guidelines.
Style of Communication
Communication will tend to be top-down, written, and task-related. The tone can be highly formal.
The formality of communication style in a classical organization might also be seen in nonverbal
communication such as dress styles, where suits and ties or uniforms will be favored over more
casual or individualized forms of attire.
Classical management in organizations today
Your daily activities reveal the widespread use of classical principles in today’s organizations. There
are two specific ways in which the tenets of classical management are in popular use today.
Classical structure in today’s organizations
Classical structures as scalar chain, unity of command, and span of control are the basis of organizing
the military but also in many manufactures and service organizations.
On the other hand in many organizations, division of labor is blurred through the use of crossfunctional teams or through the ‘matrixing’ and tasks.
Classical job design and rewards in today’s organizations
In today’s organizations we are often looking for the “one best way” to accomplish tasks.
Organizations today also often follow Taylor’s ideas about fitting the job to the individual, especially
in terms of the match between the job and the psychological profile.
Money will probably always be a critical factor in both recruiting employees and rewarding them,
and commentators today debate about the extent to which carious pay structures are worth it for
the bottom line of a company.
Chapter 3 Human Relations and Human Resource Approaches
The human relations approach emphasizes the importance of human needs in the workplace
Human resource approaches considers developments that concentrate on the contribution of all
employees in reaching organizational goals.
The Human relations approach
From classical theory to human relations: the Hawthorne studies
The researcher from this study (Mayo) was primarily interested in how changes in the work
environment would impact the productivity of factory work. That is the research team attempted to
discover aspects of the task environment that would maximize worker output and hence improve
organizational efficiency.
Four major phases in the study:
1. The illumination studies: Were designed to determine the influence of lighting level on
worker productivity. The test group and the control group did not have great differences.
Except when workers were laboring in near darkness, productivity tended to go up in both
groups under all conditions.
2. The relay assembly test room studies: A group of women at the telephone relay system had a
number of changes as rest pauses temperature, humidity, work hours etc. Productivity went
up in a wide variation of situations. The researchers concluded that social satisfaction arising
out of human association in work were more important determinants of work behavior in
general and output in particular than the physical or economic impacts.
3. The interview program: because of the relay assembly test the researchers conducted a
series of interviews with a lot of employees at the Hawthorne plant. Although the goal of
these interviews was to learn more about the impact of work condition most employees
talked about their feelings. The major finding of this stage was that emotion played a bigger
part than the situation the workers were placed.
4. The Bank wiring room studies: This research saw that workers had norms concerning the
“proper” level of productivity and exerted social pressure on each other. The conclusion was
drawn that the social group’s influence on worker behavior exceeded the leverage exerted
by the formal organizational power structure.
Explanations of findings in the Hawthorne studies:
A number of classical explanations can be drawn from these findings.
1. Productivity increases were often associated with changes in the work environment
2. Productivity also increases when pay incentives were offered to workers (relay assembly)
Also a number of emotional explanations can be drawn from this:
1. Worker output increased as a direct result of the attention paid to workers by the
researchers. This phenomenon whereby mere attention to individuals causes changes in
behavior is known as the Hawthorne Effect.
2. Worker output was increased through the working of informal social factors.
3. Management style can adjust the productivity of workers.
Although the Hawthorne studies lack the scientific value and interpretive rigor, the sociological
impact of the investigations cannot be underestimated.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Maslow proposes that humans are motivated by five basic needs (1,2,3, lower-level 4,5 higher level)
1. Physiological needs: The needs of the human body (sleep, food water etc.) In an
organizational context this can be seen as “living wage”  money for food, clothing etc.
2. Safety needs: Include the desire to be free from danger and environmental threats.
Organizational procure shelter from element and working condition which are healthy.
3. Affiliation needs (or belonging needs/love needs): refers to the necessity of giving and
receiving human affection and regard. Organizational social relationships with co-workers
and manager
4. Esteem needs: Refers to the desire of individuals to feel a sense of achievement and
accomplishment. In an organization  internal esteem is someone who rewards your work
but also by work that challenges and provides employees with the opportunity to achieve
and excel. External esteem is a bonus pay.
5. Need for self-actualization: this is characterized as the desire to trying to “be all that you van
be”. An organization can facilitate the satisfaction of this need through the provision of jobs
that allow an individual to exercise responsibility and creativity in the workplace.
Maslow states that those five types of needs are arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency. Which
suggests that lower-level needs must be satisfied before an individual can move to higher level
needs. However Maslow does not take the social interaction and managerial attention in account
which is why researchers criticize him.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
This theory represents the divergent assumptions that managers can hold about organizational
functioning. Theory X represents the manager influenced by the most negative aspects of classical
management theories. Theory Y represents the manager is one who adheres to the precepts of the
human relations movement.
There are three propositions of the typical Theory X manager. These propositions argue that
1. management is responsible for organizing money material, and people for economic ends;
2. that people must be controlled and motivated to fit organizational needs;
3. that without intervention and direction, people would be passive or resistant to the
achievement of organizational needs.
The theory also postulates that theory X managers think that:
1. The average man is by nature indolent – he works as little as possible
2. He lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, and prefers to be led
3. He is inherently self-centered and indifferent to organizational need
4. He is by nature resistant to change
5. He is gullible, not very bright, and the ready dupe of the charlatan and the demagogue
McGregor says that these beliefs are held by managers but are not true. Instead McGregor thinks
that managers should think the other way around and that employees are motivated by Maslow’s
higher-order needs. This comes to theory Y:
1. The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about
effort toward organizational objectives. Man will exercise self-direction and self-control in
the service of objectives to which he is committed.
3. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.
4. The average human being learns under proper condition not only to accept but also to seek
responsibility
5. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in
the solution of organizational problems is widely not narrowly distributed in the population.
6. Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average
human being are only partially utilized.
The theories of Maslow and McGregor create a new metaphor. Instead of the Machine Metaphor the
theorists now create a family. A family thrives when needs are fulfilled and opportunities are
provided for self-actualization. Human relations theorists share an allegiance to principles that
highlight human needs and the satisfaction of those needs through interaction with others in the
workplace and through the choices managers make about motivating and rewarding employees.
The Human Resources Approach
The Human Resources approach acknowledges contributions of classical and, especially human
relations approaches to organizing. They recognize that individuals in organizations have feelings and
recognize individual labor is an important ingredient for meeting organizational goals. On the other
hand they recognize that employees make cognitive contributions with their thoughts
Impetus for the Human Research approach
When looking at the Hawthorne studies people thought that this model was insufficient for
describing, explaining and managing the complexities of organizational life. Especially the question
arose whether human relations principles really worked and whether they could be misused by
organizational practitioners.
Do Human Relations Principles Work?
The theories of human relations are great however when empirically tested. At its most basic level,
the human relations approach posits that higher-order needs can be satisfied through job design,
management style, and other organizational factors. When these higher-order needs are satisfied
employees should be happier and so more productive.
Work Factors
Satisfaction of
Higher-Order
needs
Job satisfaction
Productivity
Flow-chart of Human Relations Principles
Considering the first link one can see that job characteristics can serve as motivational factors,
although this may vary per person. Thus this link seems to hold up. However the last link does not
hold up. The satisfied worker is not more productive because the reward of satisfaction is not as high
as the financial reward or threat of punishment.
Misuse of Human Relations Principles
Also the misuse must be spoken of. If a manager assumes theory X and applies theory Y to gain more
control over the workforce there is a misuse. Because this “pseudo-participation” is not based on a
solid foundation of human relation principles it is likely that it backfires. It those cases the behaviors
and beliefs of managers do not match.
About participation: A human relations manager would institute participation to satisfy employee
needs for affiliation and esteem and hope that this need satisfaction would lead to higher levels of
productivity. On the contrary a human resources manager would institute participation to take
advantage of the innovative ideas held by subordinates. Miles first raised the issue of misuse of
employees. Wendt however first came with the paradox of participation. He argues that the team
worker who constantly participates and contributes to problem solving but who, in the final analysis,
has no control over the decision-making process becomes frustrated by a paradoxical dimension of
empowered organizing.
Theories about fundamental change of assumptions about organizational functioning and
fundamental changes in organizational structure:
Blake and Mouton’s managerial Grid
Blake and Mouton created a grid as a tool for training managers in leadership styles. They began with
the assumption that leaders will be most effective they exhibit both concern for people and concern
for production (combining classical management with human relations)
Blake and Mouton distinguished five prototype management styles:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Impoverished management: low concern for people and a low concern for production
Country club management: high concern for people and low concern for production
Authority-compliance: Low concern for people and high concern for production
Team management: high concern for people and high concern for production
Middle-of-the-road management: average concern for people and production
Likert’s System IV
Likert works to specify the details of the organizational form that will incorporate the ideals of the
human resources movement. He theorizes that there are a number of forms an organization can take
and that these various forms are more or less effective in satisfying organizational and individual
goals. He created 4 systems:
1. System I: Exploitive authoritative organization: characterized by motivation through threats
and fear, downward and inaccurate communication, top-level decision making etc. All worst
features of classical and scientific management
2. System II: Benevolent authoritative organization: Characterized by motivation through
economic and ego rewards etc. more or less the same as system 1 but does not exploit
people.
3. System III: Consultative organization: Before decisions are made employees are consulted
and their views are taken into consideration. Goals set after discussion and high level of
communication moving both up and down the hierarchy
4. System IV: Participative organization, decision making is performed by every organizational
member. Control is exercised at all levels of the organization, and communication is
extensive.
The human resources management is the same as the classical management approach because
effectiveness and productivity are benchmarks. It is an extension of human relations as higher-order
human needs for challenge and self-actualization are fulfilled through organizational activities.
However it differs in two ways:
1. It aspires to maximize both organizational productivity and individual need satisfaction
2. In order to optimize both goals, the human resources approach emphasizes the contributions
that employee ideas can make to organizational functioning.
Communication in Human Relations and Human Resources organizations
Content of Communication
Human relations: Task-related communication but accompanied by communication that attempts to
maintain the quality of human relationships within the organization (maintenance communication)
Human resources: Interaction between the different layers of the hierarchy. Because the human
resources approach to organizing places a premium on input from employees, the innovation
content of communication is critical (innovation communication)
Direction of communication flow
Human relation: do have vertical communication flow but also horizontal. Important need is
communication between employees.
Human resources: goal is to encourage the flow of ideas from all locations throughout the
organization. Multidirectional communication flow takes place in team-based settings in human
resources organization.
Channel of communication
Human relations: Face-to-face communication for more immediate feedback more consideration of
nonverbal cues.
Human resources: No particular preferences for a channel because they desire to maximize the
productivity of the organization through the intelligent use of human resources. They match the
communication channel at hand.
Style of communication
Human relations: break down the status differential between managers and employees as a means
of satisfying social needs.
Human resources: Have dual goals of enhancing organizational effectiveness and fulfilling human
needs. An informal style is most likely to satisfy needs for affiliation. However one would not eschew
the use of a formal style if it were the most appropriate.
Human relation and Human resources organizations today
These days the human relation theory is widely applied. However the human resource managers are
all over. Two of the most important developments in this area are the consideration of organizations
as learning systems and the development of systems of knowledge management. Senge has made a
distinction between learning organizations and learning disabilities.
Learning organizations are those that emphasize mental flexibility, team learning etc. Learning
organizations can be promoted through participation and dialogue in the workplace.
Knowledge management sees the organization as embodying a cycle of knowledge creation
development and application.
The “what” of Human Resources Programs
The goal is generally one of creating a “knowledge-enabled organization” in which the collective
knowledge of workers facilitates high performance. Employee involvement is often fostered through
team structures. Pfeffer labels the principle of maximizing the contribution of employees, both
individually and collectively, as “putting people first” He highlights seven practices of successful
organizations that serve as useful summary of “what” is done in organizations today that follow
Human resources principles. TABLE 3.3
The “how” of Human Resources Programs
The chance of failure with human resources efforts can be seen in specific programs (Like Total
Quality Management). It appears that more than a belief in human resources principles is required
for the success of human resources programs. The following points are some points that can lead to
success:


Know when team-based management is appropriate
Consider the attitudes of top-management


Deal with cynicism about change
Facilitate the translation process.
Chapter 4 System Approaches
The systems metaphor views organizations not as self-contained and self-sufficient machines but as
complex organisms that must interact with their environment to survive.
The system metaphor and system concepts
The study of systems was eagerly adopted by organizational theorist (it originated in the biology).
Katz and Kahn argue that organizations should be conceptualized as complex open systems requiring
interaction among component parts and interaction with the environment in order to survive.
Almost all systems theories embrace certain aspects of the systems metaphor.
System components
At its most basic level a system is an assemblage of parts, or components. In a biological system,
these parts include cells and organs. In an organizational system these components are the people
and departments that make up the organization. In short the first task of a system theorist is to
identify the relevant components that comprise the system. After that it is interesting to see how
these components are arranged and how they work.
Three concepts characterize system components:



Hierarchical ordering: System components are arranged in highly complex ways that involve
subsystems and supersystems, a hierarchical order. A classical theorist sees hierarchy as the
relatively straightforward lines of authority represented by the organizational chart. In
contrast, hierarchical ordering within systems theory means that when we look at any
system we can see how that system is made up of smaller subsystems and is embedded
within a larger supersystem.
Interdependence: Implies that the functioning of one component of a system relies on other
components of the system. This interdependency can be found everywhere even between
the global multinationals.
Permeability: a characteristic of system components is that they have permeable boundaries
that allow information and materials to flow in and out. It refers both to the system as a
whole – which must be open to its environment – and to the components within the system.
However permeability can also be toxic to an organization. If the wrong components enter
the system the permeability is too high
System Processes
At the most basic level systems are organized through input-throughput-output processes. Two kinds
of processes characterize the input-throughput-output operations. The process of exchange is
apparent in both input and output. Both the input and the output require a process of exchange with
the environment outside the system.
The second type of process – feedback – is critical to the throughput portion of organizational
functioning. Throughput involves the interdependent components a system acting together.
Feedback is information that helps to facilitate the interdependent functioning of system
components.
Two types:


Negative/corrective/deviation-reducing feedback: helps to maintain steady system
functioning.
Positive/growth/deviation-amplifying feedback: Information that serves to change system
functioning through growth and development.
The negative side of interdependence is codependence
System properties:
From the interaction of these components and processes emerge four components:
1. Holism: suggests that a system is more than the sum of its parts. Systems have this property
because of the interdependent nature of their components and the information that flows
through the processes of feedback and exchange.
2. Equifinality: States that a system can reach the same final state from differing initial
conditions and by a variety of paths. This is a result of the interdependent operation of
system components. Because the components of the system are integrated in highly complex
ways, a variety of means exist to reach any system goal.
3. Negative entropy: Entropy is the tendency of closed systems to run down. Open systems are
characterized by negative entropy, or the ability to sustain themselves and grow. Negative
entropy is possible because of the flow of information and materials between the
environment and the system. The principle of negative entropy in action means that a
system fights off deterioration and perhaps thrives through active exchange with the
system’s environment.
4. Requisite variety: states that the internal workings of the system must be as diverse and
complicated as the environment in which it is embedded. This matching complexity allow the
organization, or team or group within the organization to deal with information and
problems in the environment.
To summarize see TABLE 4.1
Three system theories
Three theories that emphasize different aspects of systems theory and principles:
Cybernetic Systems theory
Cybernetics theory: deals with the process through which physical, natural and organizational
systems are steered toward reaching system goals. (Norbert Wiener)
A cybernetic system consists of several interrelated components:
1. System goal: a target for a particular aspect of system operation.
2. Mechanisms: helps to maintain the system goal.
3. Feedback: process when the system behavior does not match the system goal.
Cybernetics emphasizes some aspects of systems theory and de-emphasizes others. It emphasizes
the role of feedback in maintaining system functioning. It also emphasizes the interdependence of
system parts because the mechanisms are intimately related to the goals. De-emphasizing is the
growth of systems and it does not incorporate the role of the environment in influencing system
processes.
Karl Weick’s theory of organizing
This model seeks to illuminate the process of organizing and he draws on a variety of theories in
developing his perspective. He defines the process of organizing as the resolving of equivocality in an
enacted environment by means of interlocked behaviors embedded in conditionally related
processes.
His idea is that organizations live in an environment. However this is not a physical environment but
an information environment. Individuals create the environment that confronts them through the
process of enactment. The process of enactment suggests that different organizational members will
imbue information inputs with different meanings and hence create different information
environments.
The major goal of organizing is the reduction of equivocality (interpretation) in the information
environment. Weick proposes that organizational members use assembly relus and communication
cycles.
Assembly rules: procedures that can guide organizational members in set patterns of sense making.
(Low equivocality like a résumé)
Communication cycles: organizational members introduce and react to ideas that help to make sense
of the equivocal environment (high equivocality situations)
When sensemaking is effective, Weick proposes a retention process in which rules and cycles are
saved for future organizational use. In this process rules and cycles can be retained in the form of
causal maps that are used to make of future equivocality. See figure 4.2.
New Science System theory
The heart of new science ideas is the notion that not all systems in nature and society are like those
described by classical physics. That is, systems in the new sciences are not seen as necessarily linear
and striving toward equilibrium. New science systems are complex and adapticve systems in which
order can emerge from disorder, in which time makes a difference, in which complex systems are
often preserve etc.
New science systems are not always logical and they are not always predictable and can explain the
innovativeness that can emerge when a system is at “the edge of chaos”.
Ideas for organizational communication from the new science:




The importance of relationships in organizations. (interconnectedness and interdependence)
The importance of participation in organization processes
The appreciation or organizational change and instability (small group can make change)
The importance of being open to the information environment. In new sciences, change
occurs in the edge of chaos when we are open to the swirl of ideas around us
The new sciences emphasize not the logic of organizational systems, but rather the
interconnectedness of systems, their openness to the environment, and the interdependence that
must be acknowledged in both physical and social systems.
Methods for studying organizational systems
Several research techniques have emerged that are appropriate for the investigation of systems
explanations or organizational functioning:
Network analysis
One of the hallmarks of system theory is the denotation of the interconnections among system
components and the arrangement of those components into sub-and supersystems. Network
analysis provides a means for creating and analyzing the maps of relationships. The purpose of
network analysis is to map out the flows that move among network members. Positional tradition is
the formal organizational chart that defines the prescribed flow of communication within an
organization. The relational tradition considers the actual communication relationships that emerge
through the activity of the organizational system:


Properties of network: There are a number of ways we can characterize a network as a whole
o Network content: refers to the “stuff” that is flowing through the linkages in the
network
o Network Mode: refers to the communication medium through which network
linkages are maintained.
o Density: A network can be characterized through its density. A highly dense network
in which there are many interconnections among network members, whereas a less
dense network is more loosely interconnected
o Level of analysis: intraorganizational networks will look at connections among
individuals within a given organization, whereas interorganizational networks will
consider links among many organization.
Properties of network Links: It is also possible to characterize the connections that link
members of a network together
o Link strength: a strong link might be one in which there is a great deal of
communication flowing between two people, oen that has endured over a long
period of time, or one in which the exchange is deemed imporatant by network
participants
o Symmetry: refers to whether the two people involved in the link have the same kind
of relationship with each other.
o

Multiplexity: refers to the number of different kinds of content that flow through a
particular link
Network roles: It is possible to look at the individual actors within a network. Each “node”
within a network can be described in a variety of ways. Network roles define the ways in
which individuals are connected with each other.
o Isolate: one who is not connected to someone in the network
o Group members: a group of people who are highly interconnected
o Bridge: a person who is the contact for the ones outside the network
o Liaison: a person who is connected to people with radically different connections.
Modeling techniques
System theories incorporate complex processes of behavior. To understand how this works scholars
have turned to statistics which are called modeling techniques. This technique allows researchers to
assess complex relationships among variables through the evaluation of causal models. For example
computer simulations of organizational communication in a self-organizing system which cannot be
explained by network analysis.
Case Analysis
Some scholars say that complex systems are best understood through individual cases. A case
analysis approach suggests that the richest understanding of organizational systems can be obtained
by closely observing specific organizations grappling with specific issues.
Chapter 5 Cultural Approaches
The cultural approach derives from anthropology and views organizations as cultures
Prescriptive views of culture
The concept of culture took the business and academic community by storm for several reasons:



The metaphor of culture clearly resonated with both academics and practitioners. It made
sense to see organizations as complex arenas of stories and values rather than as entirely
rational institutions
The cultural metaphor opened up new and fruitful areas of research
Culture quickly became a part of everyday talk. (“The culture in our company is very good” )
Deal and Kennedy’s “Strong Cultures”
Deal and Kennedy argue that business success can be enhanced through the development of a
“strong” culture therefore four components are needed.




Values are the beliefs and visions that members hold for an organization. (Value for
innovation, value for stability etc.)
Heroes are the individuals who come to exemplify an organizations values (Steve Jobs)
Rites and Rituals are the ceremonies through which an organization celebrates its value. (The
start of a new employee etc.)
Cultural network is the communication system through which cultural values are instituted
and reinforced. (newsletters, interactions of employees etc.)
Peters and Waterman’s “Excellent Cultures”
Like Deal and Kennedy, Peters and Waterman were attempting to identify aspects of organizational
culture that were prevalent in high-performing companies. They identified themes that characterized
the cultures of organizations. These themes emphasize the importance of people and downplay
bureaucratic structure and values SEE TABLE 5.1
Both books underline the intangibles, such as values and heroes, and signal a move away from
strictly rational models. However they were not embraced because they prescribed organizational
management instead of descriptions or explanations for organizational life.
This is called by scholars value engineering because it espouses the belief that effective cultural
leaders could create strong cultures built around their values. Others have emphasized that this
integration approach to culture is only one lens through which a culture might be viewed.
Prescriptive approaches to culture also all short in two important respects:
1. It is naïve to assume that there is a single cultural formula for achieving organizational
success. The prescriptions for the correct culture oversimplify the complexities of
organizational life
2. Prescriptive approaches treat culture as something that an organization has. However when
we objectify culture we de-emphasize the complex processes through which organization is
created and sustained.
Alternative approaches to culture
Today scholars do not see culture as a prescriptive thing that can and should be managed but as the
emerging and sometimes fragmented values, practices, narratives, and artifacts that make a
particular organization what it is.
Putnam introduced this interpretative approach which states that we must consider the way
individuals make sense of their world through their own communicative behaviors.
Four issues highlight the distinction between prescriptive approaches to culture and the approaches
taken by most cultural scholars today:
1 Organizational cultures are complicated
The complexity of organizational culture is demonstrated by the wide variety of markers that
scholars use to investigate it:
 Trices argues that an organization’s culture is revealed through its rites
 Dandridge look at organizational ceremonies as indicators of culture
 Quinn and McGrath focus on the role of values and belief system for organizational culture
 Smith and Eisenberg consider metaphors of employees and management
 Boje and Meyer consider stories that organizational members tell
Etc. etc.
They all are just a few windows through which researchers gain a glimpse of an organization’s
culture. Some concentrate on one marker others try to flow them together. This makes it so difficult.
2 Organizational cultures are emergent
Cultures are socially created through the interaction of organizational members. So culture is not
merely created through communication but communication is constitutive of culture. Some scholars
say that to study organizational communication one must focus on the communication process
through which culture is created. They see this process as performances which are:
 Interactional: they require the participation of multiple organizational members
 Contextual: they are embedded in organizational situations and history
 Episodic: they are nameable as distinct events
 Improvisational: there are no scripts that guide organizational members.
3 Organizational cultures are not unitary
Scholars agree that it is impossible to characterize an organization as having a single culture. The
multitude of subcultures co-exist in harmony, conflict, or indifference to each other.
Martin highlights this as differentiation in which inconsistencies among cultural views are expected
and often seen as desirable.
Louis describes where these subcultures can be found and how they work. He first argues that there
is a vertical slice (divisions) and a horizontal slice (hierarchical level or a specific work group where
these subcultures can arise. Martin points out that they might emerge around networks of personal
contacts or demographic similarity.
An additional consideration of nonunitary nature of organizational culture is that carious subcultures
within an organization may represent important differences in power and in interests (difference
between e.g. students, staff and management)
4 Organizational cultures are often ambiguous
Scholars claim that there is not always a clear picture of the organization’s culture or subcultures.
Martin describes this as the fragmentation perspective and argues that fragmentation studies will
see an ambiguous culture as a normal, salient, and inescapable part of organizational functioning in
the contemporary world.
The notion of ambiguity is most important when taking into account that organizations are rapidly
changing. Ambiguities are particularly challenging for individuals as they try to forge their own
identification within these reconfigured organizational cultures.
Schein’s model of organizational culture
Schein is a management scholar and consultant interested in the role of leaders in the development
and maintenance of organizational culture.
A definition of culture
Schein defines the culture of a social group in the following way:
A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external
adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and,
therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to
those problems.
However there are several critical issues:
1. Schein defines culture as a group of phenomenon. An individual cannot have a culture
because cultural formation depends on communication. However cultural groups can exist
on many different levels, from countries to workgroups. Schein acknowledges that groups
are often fragmented, still he believes that it is important to highlight the human need for
stability, consistency and meaning.
2. Schein defines culture as a pattern of basic assumptions, suggesting that the beliefs that
make up culture are relatively enduring and difficult to change. However rules and physical
artifacts, values and behavior also define culture, still he believes that the core of culture is
its basic assumptions and that the other things are merely a reflection of the culture.
3. Schein sees culture as an emergent and developmental process. Cultures are learned or
invented as a group meets internal and external challenges. What must be added is that
culture is shaped by the circumstances of the organization and its environment.
4. Schein’s definition highlights the socializing aspect of culture. Though it is enough to point
out that when individuals enter an organization, a major part of learning the ropes consists
of developing an understanding of the assumptions and values that make up that
organizations culture. Schein believe that in many cases the new members’ interaction with
old members will be more creative process of building a culture.
A model of culture
After his definition Schein presents a model which sorts out the various elements of culture into
three distinct levels. See figure 5.1
LEVEL 1 ARTIFACTS:
The physical and social environment that organizational members have created is the most visible
level. On this observable level the most obvious of those cultural indicators are artifacts or things
displayed by organizational members and the overt behavior of organizational members. (SEE TABLE
5.2)
Schein notes that is it quite easy to recognize them it is much harder to find out what they mean,
how they interrelate and what deeper patterns they reflect. This outer layer is difficult to decipher.
To get a better understanding of those artifacts we have to move on to the second layer.
LEVEL 2 ESPOUSED VALUES
Values represent preferences or what “ought” to happen. This level of culture represents a mosaic of
beliefs about how things ought to be done in an organization. Several interesting points should be
raised about this second level of culture:
1. Organization do not have values but individuals do. There can be various values which create
the subcultures mentioned before. The value of the CEO plays a critical role in shaping the
organizational culture. Still founder values have an even higher weight that CEO’s values.
2. Schein emphasizes that stated value and behavior of an employee do not always match
(therefore Espoused Values. E.g. Manager values the input of the employees but makes all
decisions without consulting his employees).
It short, it is important to look at the correspondence between the behaviors and artifacts of Level 1
and the Values of level 2. If there is a strong match it is likely that the behavior and the values are
indicators of cultural assumptions. However if values do not match artifacts and behavior it is most
likely that the values are rationalizations or aspirations for the future.
Because of the contradictions is it important to look to the third level.
LEVEL 3 BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
The third level of culture is the core assumptions that individuals in a group hold about the world and
how it works. These assumptions have been taken for granted because the group deals with internal
and external problems. They are hard to point out because it has become part of the way we are or
“the way we do things around here”.
Schein defines six areas around which these basic assumptions typically resolve.
These areas are assumptions about the nature of:
 Reality and truth
 Time
 Space
 Human nature
 Human activity
 Human Relationships
These assumptions deal with how people view the world and humanity’s relationship to it.
Schein believes that an examination of the basic assumptions might reveal a coherent paradighm
that guides a strong and united culture. When those assumptions contradict or are fragmented it
points to problems of adapting to external and internal organizational problems.
SEE FIGURE 5.2
When the espoused values do not follow the assumptions or when the artifacts do not follow the
espoused values might indicate the existence of fragmented subcultures or an organization which is
changing form one set of assumptions and values to another. Furthermore underlying assumptions
can lead to dysfunctional behaviors or can fail to shift as the contingencies of the organizational
environment change.
Schein’s model of course oversimplifies the nature of organizational culture and the influence of
communication.
Methods for studying organizational culture
When researching organizational culture scholars believe that a qualitative method is most
appropriate since the metaphor of culture was borrowed from anthropology a lot of scholars have
turned to anthropological methods or ethnographies for the study of culture.
Ethnograpy means the writing of culture and ethnographic methods vary from traditional social
science techniques. An ethnographer approaches an organizational culture as text to be read. In
order to decipher this text he need to get immersed in organizational life.
The goal of this is to minimize the distance between the researcher and the culture being
investigated. Through the observation of organizational behaviors and artifacts and discussion about
organizational values the research develops ideas about the assumptions that drive organizational
members.
Once a cultureal researcher has developed a grounded (mini-) theory about an organization’s culture,
the ethnography of the culture can be written. This does not look like a traditional social science
article rather the ethnographer is trying to tell a ‘cultural tale’ to help the reader understand the
organization in all of its rich and varied detail. This can be done in three ways:
1. Realist tale: like a documentary where the ethnographer tries to provide a complete and
relative objective account of what is observed in the organization.
2. Confessional tale: the researcher talks personally about how he or she experienced the
culture under investigation
3. Impressionist tale: a narrative in which information about the culture is slipped into a story
that could stand on its own dramatic merits.
4. Critical tales are narratives with the express goal of uncovering the deep power structures
implicit in organizational functioning could also be added.
Chapter 6 Critical Approaches
Common threads underlie in the previous theories:
 Political frame of reference used to understand the organization. Burrell and Morgan
distinguish several frames of reference:
o Unitary: emphasis is placed on common organizational goals. Conflict is rare and
negative and power is the natural prerogative of management. (Classical Approach,
human resources and approaches)
o Pluralist: The group exists of many groups with divergent interests. Conflict is seen
positively as an inherent and ineradicable characteristic of organizational affairs.
(System and cultural approaches)
o Radical: a battleground where rival forces (e.g. management and unions) strive for
the achievement of largely incompatible ends. Conflict is seen as reflections of large
class struggles in society. (Critical approach)
 The role of the theorist in approaching organizational life.
o For classical theory, human resources and approaches the scholar is looking at the
most effective way of organizing.
o Systems and cultural scholars try to understand or explain organizational
communication phenomena.
Critical approaches
Roots of this approach can be found in the work of Karl Marx who examined the relationship
between owners and workers in a capitalist society and theorized that there was an inherent
imbalance in this relationship which can lead to revolts. Critique would lead to revolution because it
would reveal fundamental truths about the human social condition.
Critical theorist (mainly form the school of Frankfurt) try to do the following things:
1. They believe that certain societal structures and processes lead to fundamental imbalances
of power
2. These imbalances of power lead to alienation and oppression for certain social classes and
groups.
3. The role of the critical theorist is to explore and uncover these imbalances and bring them to
the attention of the oppressed group.
The pervasiveness of power
Power is very important to critical theorist. Power can be conceptualized in three different ways:
1. Traditional approach: Power is a relatively stable entity that people or groups possess.
Scholars often equate power with control over resources or with hierarchical status in the
organization. (classical and human relation theories)
2. Symbological approach: views power as a product of the communicative interactions and
relationships. Researchers taking this approach are interested in how communication
constitutes understanding of power trough socially constructed organizational relationships
(cultural approach)
3. Radical-critical approach: The theorist is concerned with the ‘ deep structures’ that produce
and reproduce relationships in organizational life. They also state that there is an inherent
contradiction between the ‘surface structure’ and ‘deep structure’ of power that must be
explored.
What are the structures that serve to shape power relationships in the organization? SEE TABLE 6.1
Highlighting two sources:


Control of modes and means of production (classical Marxist approach, traditional approach)
Examines the ways in which capitalist owners have control over the modes and means of
production in the workplace. The modes and means of production constitute the
substructure of society.
The term modes of production refers to the economic conditions that underlie the
production process. The surpluses that managers make over their personnel are hidden and
this hidden imbalance will create conflict between worker and owner. This continuing
existence of this conflict (thesis) would lead to the revolt of the working class (antithesis) and
a transformation of the economic system (synthesis).
The term means of production refers to actual work processes. Through the industrialization
and new technology workers get more unskilled and alienated from the product.
In short, critical theorist belief that when owners and managers have control over workplace
processes and technologies (means of production) the workers will be oppressed and
alienated.
Alienization through the same work day after day and oppression when they know workers
can be replaced by machines.
Control of organizational discourse (Cultural approach)
Critical scholars argue that power relationships are produced and reproduced through
organizational discourse. Organizational reality is structured by communicative interaction.
Critical researches go further than the cultural researchers. They state the reality created
through discourse is the site of domination. There are a number of ways in which
organizational discourse can be seen as creating and recreating power structures in the
workplace.
o The use of particular phrases to describe work (‘when are you getting a real job?)
o Stories people tell make sense of the organization in a way that often supports the
dominant organizational coalition. See page 105 bottom for example
o Decision premises serve as a source of unobtrusive control in organizational life.
o Entire industries can be influenced by the discursive constructions found in
regulatory material. Organization can rephrase for example illness so that they are
not related to the workplace and so creates safety for the management.
Ideology and hegemony
What are the outcomes of control structures and processes? Critical theorist argue that these
processes of control will lead to a shaping of ideology and to hegemony.
Ideology refers to ‘the-taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of
situations and events’ This knows several important facets:
1. Ideology refers to more than a set of attitudes or beliefs. It structures our thoughts and
makes us understand reality.
2. Ideology involves assumptions that are rarely questioned or scrutinized. (Hierarchy within an
organization is never questioned)
3. Ideology can influence our behaviors. The power of ideologies is related to the way in which
they are used to justify and legitimize actions.
For critical theorist ideology is not a neutral concept but is intimately tied to systems of power and
domination which leads to hegemony.
Hegemony refers to a process in which a dominant group leads another group to accept
subordination as the norm. Hegemonic control is typically accomplished by shaping ideology in such
a way that the controlled group accepts and actively participates in the control process.
According to the critical theorist social structures and processes allow the dominant class to shape
organizational ideology. The result of this ideological monopoly is a hegemonic relationship in which
one group is controlled by another by coercion, acceptance or participation. Critical theorist say that
through emancipation and activities of resistance will break down these social imbalances.
Emancipation
Emancipation is described as the liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive traditions,
ideologies, assumptions, power relations etc. that inhibit or distort opportunities for autonomy,
clarification of genuine needs and wants, and thus greater and lasting satisfaction.
Habermas made the comparison with a social psychologist who only needs to create the insight to
the patient and the patient can cure itself. Critical theorist state that the their role is to reveal the
social structures and processes that have led to ideological hegemony. When people realize that they
are oppressed emancipation is possible. Critical theorist’ role is then to create fora where everyone
can participate and communicate about their oppression.
Giddens argues that relations of autonomy and dependence are never fixed; ie.e. subordinates can
always excerc ise some control over the conditions of hegemonic reproduction.
Resistance
Critical scholars have been moving from how control and domination was created in the
organizational process towards the point where the workers can exert counterpressure on this
exercise of power and control.
Everyone knows the resistance of strikes etc. but organizational communication scholars are more
interested in the individual. From joking with the rules and decorations in office cubicle with funny
texts.
Two Critical approaches in communication
The underlying assumptions of critical approaches provide a view that is both sobering and hopeful.
Sobering because it highlights the many ways that individuals van be controlled and dominated in
organizational settings.
Hopeful because its ultimate aim is the emancipation of oppressed groups through critical reflection
and action, and because avenues of resistance are revealed that provide insight into the tension
inherent in workplace domination processes.
Theory of concertive control
As described in the human resources principles a team-based structure within an organization
facilitates a more democratic organizational form. But is this right? (The underlying question of this
theory)
The theory tries to explain how power relationships can be transformed in an era of team-based and
alternative form organization. Three concepts are particularly important to understand this:
1. Control: According to Edwards there are three broad strategies for exerting control in the
modern organization:
a. Simple control: direct and authoritarian exertion of control in the workplace
b. Technological: control exerted through technological workplace processes such as
assembly lines or computer programmes
c. Bureaucratic control: based on the power of hierarchical structure and the rationallegal rules from Weber.
These three forms of control have long exemplified typical forms of power in organizations.
However scholars say that there is a new kind of control namely concertive control which is
defined as:
The locus of control shifts from manager to workers, who collaborate to create rules
and norms that govern their behavior. The top management is to provide a valuebased corporate vision that ‘team members’ use to infer their norms and rules that
guide their day-to-day action.
2. Identification: Refers to the perception of oneness with or belongingness to a collective,
where the individual defines him or herself in term of the collective in which he or she is a
member. So when an individual identifies him/herself with a group or organization. The
concerns of that particular group/organization become the concerns of the individual. Thus,
within a concertive control system the individual will act according to the values of the
group/organization even without the three different sorts of power mentioned above.
3. Discipline: Through communicative interaction, work groups develop techniques to reward
and punish behavior that conforms with or derivates from the calues identified as important
by the group.
To conclude a concertive control system is established in which workers identifuy with organizational
values and then discipline behavior in accordance to these values.
Feminist theories of organizational communication
Feminist scholars believe that women in organizations can become marginalized in organizational life
because of the dynamics of gender relationships within patriarchal organizational structures.
There are however different views from feminist who state that one should look at the roots of the
feminist organizational communication studies within the larger feminist movement as this
movement emphasizes activism.
Several different feminist ideas:
 Liberal feminist: think that women should work to gain their fair share of control in
institutions currently run by men.
 Radical feminists: believe that emancipation for women can occur only through the
destruction of male-dominated institutions or through the total separation of women from
these institutions.
 Standpoint feminist: work to enhance the opportunity for a variety of marginalized voices to
be heard within societal dialogue
 Postmodern feminists: attempt to deconstruct male-dominated meaning systems in order to
highlight women perspective.
FURTHER READING FOR EXAMPLES ON PAGE 114+115
Research methodology in the critical approach
The research methodology used by critical theorist is ideology critique.
They try to show how spevific interests fail to be realized owing partly to the inability of people to
understand or act on those interests. Quantitative data can contribute to critiques by showin how
resources are distributed in organizations and how individuyals perceive their lives within
organizations. However critical scholars most of the time use interpretive research techniques as
described in chapter 5.
A unique research technique used by critical theorist is deconstruction.
Deconstruction involves taking apart a text in order to reveal social and political meanings. In any
text certain meanings and interpretations are privileged while others are marginalized. (in a
handbook describing the manager as a “he” etc) After that deconstruction involves dismantling the
apparent fixed meaning of a text (SEE TABLE 6.3)
Chapter 7 Assimilation processes
Assimilation refers to those ongoing behavioral and cognitive processes by which individuals join,
become integrated into, and exit organizations. It is a dual process; on the one hand the organization
is trying to influence the adaptation of individuals through formal and informal socialization
processes. On the other hand. The employee may try to change some aspect of the organization to
better suit his or her needs, abilities or desires. This happens through the process of individualization.
Socialization and individualization get created over time and become part of an organization.
Models of organizational socialization
A number of scholars have attemteed to better understand organizational socialization by developing
theories that model portions of the socialization process.
Phases of socialization
When an employee joins an organization adaptation is not immediate or automatic. Adjusting to
organizational life takes place gradually. This gradual adjustment have been described in three
different phases of socialization.
1. Anticipatory socialization: refers to socialization processes that occur before an individual
actually enters an organization. The meaning of work is often something that we grow up
with.
a. Children: nature of work by doing chores and participating isn the household
b. 8-year old needs to get his homework done which is part of understanding work
Etc. etc.
However this early stage of knowing what work is also has a downside because work is
phrased as we know it in our capitalist society.
Anticipatory socialization also involves ideas about the nature spevific careers and
occupations. From childhood on when someone asks you what you want to be later we get
socialized into an occupational role.
The third portion of anticipatory socialization involves learning about a particular
organization. Before one goes on a job-interview one knows a lot about the company already
and so is socialized in this company.
2. Encounter: The first step into the company. This is described as the experience as one of
change, contrast and surprise and the newcomer must work to make sense of the new
organizational culture. The encounter phase encompasses learning about a new organization
and role, and letting go of old values, expectations, and behaviors.
3. Metamorphosis: Occurs when the new employee has made the transition from outsider to
insider. The relationship between the individual and the organization is, however, still static
because there is always some measure of flux and uncertainty in employees’ understandings
off organizational roles and culture.
This flux is demonstrated by Kramer who states that a job transfer within an organization can
be a lot more difficult. Because one is not particularly new the job requirements and people
are new to him therefore communication with supervisor and co-workers can ease the
transition process and can decrease the flux.
Content of Socialization
Next to the socialization process over time scholars also looked at the content of socialization. Louis
distinguishes two different classes of information that must be grasped.
1. Role-related information: encompasses the information, skills, procedures, and rules that
individual must grasp to perform on the job.
2. Organizational culture: cultural norms and values within the company can only be
experienced. The culture of the organization is not in official documents. Therefore
organizational culture is often more hard to grasp than role-related information.
Summary of socialization models
A variety of models have been proposed to help us better understand the organizational socialization
process. Phase models of socialization help us understand the ‘when’ of socialization and content has
taught us the ‘what’ of socialization.
Communication processes during assimilation
The employment interview
In an employment interview, an organizational representative and a potential employee come
together for questions, answers and conversation. With different settings where it takes place and
different outcomes the employment interview remains very important in the anticipatory
socialization process.
The employment interview serves three basic functions:
1. The interviewer is using the interview to recruit potential employees and make decisions
about the quality of those recruits
2. The applicant is using the interview as a way to find out more about the organization
3. The interview serves as a socialization tool i.e. as a way to facilitate the adaptation of the
application should he or she be hired
Henceforth those three points will be discussed
The interview as a recruiting and screening tool
The main function of the employment interview is the recruiting and screening of potential
employees. There are different patterns in which an interviewer is recruiting. However there is a sum
of patterns that almost every interviewer uses:
1. Most interviewers gather information in relatively structured ways. Scholars have found that
highly structured interviewers are better predictors. Many interviews follow an invertedfunnel approach in which closed-ended questions are used at the beginning of the inter
followed by open-ended questions as the interview progresses
2. Research suggests that interviewers often ‘ cue’ applicant about appropriate responses
through the use of directed or leading questions.
3. A great deal of variability marks the content of interview questions among different
employers and industries. I.e. some interviewers focus on college courses and activities
where others might ask more about behavior using cases from the company. A third
approach is the more abstract approach where the applicant is asked to describe a sunset
o.i.d. This variability is very important for recruiters however one skill they all want to see is
communication.
The interview as an information-gathering tool
Satisfaction with the interview by potential employees is a good predictor of the acceptance of a
second interview. Most applicants see the interview as a very passive way of gathering information
because it is not regular that the applicant asks questions, however the interviewer forms
impressions during the interview.
The interview as a tool for socialization
The employment interview can serve to ease a newcomer’s adaptation to the organization should
he/she be offered a job. Wanous develops this position in his support of realistic job preview (RJP).
The idea behind this theory is that if new recruits are provided a realistic picture of their new job,
they will be less disappointed when inflated expectations are not met.
The effectiveness of RJP may depend on what information is communicated during the interview and
how the interaction occurs. Using the realistic view the interviewers take a risk that someone is not
interested anymore but recruiters find this, highlighting the negative aspects of a job, a nice way of
self-selection.
Newcomer information-seeking tactics.
A second communication process critical to the adaptation of newcomers occurs primarily during the
encounter phase of socialization and emphasizes the pro-active role of organizational newcomers.
Newcomers get their information about norms and values from interaction and partially from
handbooks etc.
Miller and Jablin have created the most complete typology of newcomer information seeking. They
distinguish seven modes through which newcomers seek information SEE TABLE 7.2.
According to Miller and Jablin use of these information-seeking tactics will vary depending on the
extent to which uncertainty needs to be reduced the social costs of seeking information.
Social costs include embarrassment, fear of irritating co-workers etc.
Role development processes
The final communication process is an ongoing one that begins at organization entry and continues
through the metamorphosis stage of socialization. This process is concerned with how individuals
interact to define and develop their organizational roles.
Graen developed this model and assumed that organizational members accomplish their work
through roles which are created through interaction. . The supervisor-subordinate dyad is very
important because the role of the subordinate is created through a social exchange process with
his/her leader. Hence this theory is called LMX theory, this theory divides role development into
three interrelated phases:
1. Role-taking phase: the sampling phase wherein the superior attempts to discover the
relevant talents and motivations of the member through iterative testing sequences. During
this phase the leader will request a variety of activities of the member. When the leader
evaluates those activities he/she can see where the talent of the member is.
2. Role –making phase: In this phase there is an evolution from the ‘giving-role’ from the
supervisor and the ‘taking-role’ from the subordinate towards a process in which the
member seeks to modify the nature of the role and the manner in which it is enacted. This
phase involves a social exchange in which both parties must see each other as valuable and
must see the exchange of information equitable and fair. The member can offer time, skills
and effort to the role-making process and the supervisor can offer formal rewards but also
informal rewards. Through these negotiations (exchange of info, giving support and
attention) leader and member work together to develop the member’s organizational role.
3. Role-routinization phase: represents the point at which the role of the subordinate and
expected behavior of the supervisor are well understood by both parties. However every role
development process is unique and a leader creates different relationships with their
employees. Some scholars, however, place the role development progress in a continuum
SEE FIGURE 7.1
The variation of in-group and out-group members can be attributed to the role-negotiations
process. Role negotiation is the interactive process through which individuals create and alter
expectations about how a job is to be done.
4. Beyond the leadership dyad: Next to the importance of LMX it is also very important to take
the workgroup into account. Myers and McPhee found that workgroup communication was
particularly important to assimilation in high reliability organizations where trust among
crewmembers is critical. So when jobs are complex and stressful the process of role
development is one that cannot involve supervisor and subordinate but also roledevelopment within the team.
Organizational exit
A consideration of organizational disengagement is particularly important during the twenty-first
century. This is true for demographic, economic and social reasons.
Demographically we must consider the retirement of the baby-boom generation. So disengagement
through retirement becomes more important.
Economically it is not going very well on the market because of a lot of mergers and bankruptcies. So
organizational exit is also precipitated to a large extent by downsizing.
Finally we are all job-hopping. Therefore exits through job transfers are more common.
Still there is not a lot of research on exiting an organization therefore some generalized assumptions:
 Organizational exit is a process. Exiting an organization is anticipated on by the employee for
a long time.
 Organizational exit is a process that influences both those who leave and those who are ‘left
behind.’ The stay-behinders can feel different emotions as relief, resentment or even
survivor’s guilt.
 Organizational exit can have profound effects on the families of those who leave the
organization. Especially when people were fired they must very hard to stay normal and
control their negative feelings.
 Communication plays an important role in the disengagement process. Communication
might spur disengagement to make someone leave. Next to that communication is important
to explain why someone is fired when this is unexpected. Third, communication patters
might change as the leave-taker’s role shifts from insider to outsider (discuss taboos in the
period of the disengagement announcement and the actual leaving). Finally communication
is needed to relief the stress that often occurs in the postexit stage for both leavers and
stayers.
Chapter 8 Decision-Making Processes
Decision-making occurs in every organization. Sometimes by one individual and sometimes by a
group after gathering information about the topic. This information gathering can be trough reading
reports but also by consulting experts in the specific area. However Nutt found that half of the
decision-makings fail because of the bad use of decision-making tactics.
Models of the decision-making process
Rational Models of decision making
In classical theories decision making is a complete rational and logical process with different steps:
1. Organizational members recognize a problem on which a decision must be taken.
2. The decision makers search for all the relevant information.
3. The decision makers create a set of decisions and evaluate what would be the best decision.
4. The decision-making process concludes when an optimal decision is identified and decision
implementation can begin.
Nutt recognized this as the normative method which includes five stages.
1. Formulation stage: determining needs and desires
2. Development stage: generating alternative ways to deal with the problem
3. Detailing process: get more detail on the pros and cons of various options and test
workability
4. Evaluation stage: the gathered information from stage 3 is placed under intense scrutiny by
the group in order to quantify the costs and benefits.
5. Implementation stage: The decision from stage four will be passed on to the management.
Alternatives to rational models
March and Simon characterize the traditional approach as an optimizing model in which decision
makers are attempting to find the single best solution to an organizational problem. They therefore
see the decision-making process as a satisficing process in which the search is not for a single optimal
solution but for a solution that will work enough for dealing with the situation. The scholars propose
that organizational decision-makers use this strategy because it is not possible to make the ideal
rational solution. They are characterized by bounded reality. That is decision makers attempt to
make logical decisions, but they are limited cognitively and by the practical aspects of organizational
life. In short March and Simon state that decision makers still use logic, but do so under personal and
organizational constraints.
Simon has proposed that a great deal of organizational decision-making can be attributed to the
intuitive processes of managers. He means, based on the theory of Barnard, that intuitive decisions
are not logical or illogical because it is based on experience. The decision maker just has not got the
time and the resources (organizational restraint) to make a logical decision.
One could also say that this decision making is analogical. I.e. a manager faced with making a
decision will consider what has worked in similar situations in the past, so by analogy a similar
solution should reach the same effect.
March also has another alternative to rational decision-making. They state, in their garbage can
model, that decision making is a process wherein problems, solutions, participants, and choices are
all dumped together in a relatively independent fashion. A decision is made when a suitable
collection of problems, solutions, participants, and choices coincide. Thus the decisions that arise is
merely coincidence.
Small group decision making
Descriptive models of small-group decision making
Most models of group decision making propose that groups go through a series of phases as they
systematically attempt to reach decision.
Fischer identifies four phases:
1. Orientation phase: group members become acquainted with each other and with the
problem at hand
2. Conflict phase: possible solutions to the problem are presented and debated
3. Emergence phase: the group will arrive at some level of consensus
4. Reinforcement phase: the decision will be supported.
Such a model is also called a stage model which is a model that explains decision behavior as the
result of the group following a systematical logic.
Of course there are scholars who reject the phase model because it depends on the type of decision
which must be made and what kind of group needs to make the decision.
Poole has created multiple sequence model which describes the decision-making groups. Poole and
Roth created a typology of decision paths typically adopted. SEE TABLE 8.1.
Effective small-group decision making
Poole’s multiple sequence model is useful in highlighting the varying communicative patterns small
groups use when making decisions. However, it says nothing about what type of communication
leads to effective decisions.
Janis studied a lot of important cases in world history and came to the conclusions that interaction in
these decision-making groups was characterized by groupthink.
Groupthink refers to a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a
cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to
realistically appraise alternative courses of action. The major symptoms of groupthink are presented
in TABLE 8.2. This table shows the pitfalls of groupthink.
Even at the highest levels of government, decision makers are influenced by the human desire for
things to turn out in a particular way and may therefore see things in a preferred light.
So how can a group make an effective decision?
Functional theory which is created by Hirokawa and Gouran argue that effective decision making
depends on groups attending to critical function through group communication. Specifically, these
functions are as follows:
 The group should have a correct understanding of the issues to be resolved
 The group should determine the minimal characteristics required in order for any alternative
to be acceptable
 The group should identify a relevant and realistic set of alternatives
 The group should carfully examine the alternatives in relation to each previously agreedupon required characteristic
 The group should select the alternative that is most likely to have the desired characteristics.
Functional theory work through the same phases identified as necessary for effective individual
decision making. However two factors, problem definition and the negative evaluation of
alternatives, are key in leading to high-quality decisions.
Through computer technology it is possible to have a Group Decision Support system (GDSs) research
has shown that groups using these systems experience greater participation and equality and
generated more ideas that groups meeting face-to-face.
Beyond rational group processes
Of course there are also critiques to the study of group decision-making. The literature on group
decision-making has been too much focused on task functions of groups and ignoring the socioemotional and relational group aspects.
One theory which underlines this is the theory of symbolic convergence which considers the role of
communication such as stories and jokes in creating a feeling a group identity.
Theories have also been critiqued because they often ignore organizational context by studying
contrived decision situations using groups of college students.
The bona fide groups perspective proposes that group research consider factors such as shifting
membership, permeable group boundaries and interdependence within an organizational context.
This theory also takes into account the hallway talks which are as important as the decision-making
itself.
Participation in decision making
From the ‘how’ in decision making we now look at the ‘who’ in decision making taking the
participation in decision making (PDM) into account.
Effects of participation in decision making
Coch and French did the first research of participation in decision making. They were interested in
factors that would enhance employee commitment to organizational decisions and found support for
their hypothesis that participation of employees would make them less resistant to change.
The most widely studied attitudinal effect of participation is job satisfaction; other effects include job
involvement and organizational commitment. The cognitive effects proposed for PDM include
enhanced use of information from a wide range of organizational members and a greater employee
understanding of decisions and the organizational as a whole.
Finally proposed behavioral impacts of participation include improved productivity and an increase in
the effectiveness of decisions. We’ll discuss these models in the next part.
Models of the participation process
Miller and Monge have summarized several models that explicate links between participation, job
satisfaction and productivity
The Affective model
The affective model of participation is based on the work of human relations theorist. It proposes
that PDM is an organizational practice that should satisfy employees’ higher-order needs. When
these needs are met, job satisfaction should result which will result in higher motivation and finally
raise productivity. SEE FIGURE 8.1.
PDM
Satisfaction of
Higher-Order
needs
Work satisfaction
Motivation
Productivity
The cognitive model
The cognitive model is based on principles of the human resources approach and proposes that PDM
improves the upward and downward flow of information in the organization.
The improvement of upward information flow rests on the notion that individuals close to the work
know the most about how to accomplish the work and so decisions are made with higher-quality
information. Improvement of downward flow rests on the idea that individuals who participate in
decisions will be better able to implement the decision down the road. Employee satisfaction is seen
as a by-product of participation. SEE FIGURE 8.2.
Parcipitative applications in organizations and workplace democracy
Researchers have noted that management participation can range from short-term and informal to
formal representative systems and employee ownership. Seibold and Shea considered five types of
participation programs often used by organizations SEE TABLE 8.3.
Next to that communication scholars have become interested in workplace democracy (the
participative ideal for organizations). Participation within a democratic workplace is based on more
than mere expediency – it is based on humanistic ideals about how individuals should be treated and
involved in society.
Workplace democracy involves collaboration among ‘multiple stakeholders’ including workers,
investors, consumers etc. etc.
Opponents of the theory are of course saying that decision making will not pay-off with all those
actors. Stohl and Cheney considered the paradoxes that arise in instituting democratic and
participative systems. The paradoxes point out situations in which the pursuit of an objective
involves actions that are themselves antithetical to the desired end. SEE TABLE 8.4
Beyond decisions: Knowledge management systems
Organizations nowadays see decision making as an ongoing process instead of an isolated process.
This can be seen in the theories above but also in the knowledge management.
Knowledge management involves identifying and harnessing intellectual assets to allow
organizations to build on past experiences and create new mechanisms for exchanging and creating
knowledge.
Nonaka and Takeuchi argue that a successful system of knowledge management will do two things:
1. A successful system will allow individuals in an organization to convert their tacit knowledge
into explicit knowledge that can be shared in decision making and operations.
2. A successful system will allow organizational members to find ways to make the codified
knowledge meaningful once it has been retrieved from organizational systems.
A bit straightforward, Iverson and McPhee have argued two distinct approaches to knowledge
management processes:
1. Information-based Knowledge management: concerned with tracking data and developing
processes for cataloguing and retrieving those data
2. Interaction-based knowledge management: concerned with the tacit knowledge that
organizational actors hold and how interaction patterns in organizational networks can
facilitate the sharing of that information.
Only if those two approaches are linked effective organizational decisions can emerge.
Chapter 9 Conflict Management Processes
Conflict can be both destructive and productive. It can destroy work relations or it can create
impetus for an organizational change.
Conceptualizing the conflict process
Defining Conflict
Putnam and Poole define conflict as:
The interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of goals, aims, and values, and
who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of these goals.
There are three general characteristics in conflict:
1. Incompatible goals: The nature of goal incompatibility can vary substantially.
Many organizational conflicts stem from contradictory ideas about the distribution of
organizational resources. Management and labor negotiate about the pay-roll etc.
Next to that incompatibility can also disrupt organizational procedures or different value
orientations. In short the basis of organizational conflict lies in the perception of
incompatibility regarding a variety of organizational issues.
2. Next to incompatibility the behaviors of employees need to be interdependent. So when two
managers with different management styles need to work together there can be conflict
about the style approaching the problem.
3. Interaction: Conflict involves the expression of incompatibility, not the mere existence of
incompatibility. Through communication conflict is instantiated, and through communication
conflict is dealt with in productive and constructive (or unproductive and destructive) ways.
Levels of organizational conflict
The most research is about the conflict at an interpersonal level; however conflict can also take place
in the form of intergroup and interorganizational conflict.
Intergroup conflict aggregates of people within an organization (e.g. workgroups, departments) as
parties in the conflict. Intergroup conflict has the two difficult aspects that one needs to think of
communication within the group, establishing a coherent position, and communication between
groups in negotiating differences.
Interorganizational conflict involves disputes between two or more organizations (e.g. competition).
More interesting is it when two or more organizations have a joint operation (working together). This
level of conflict, then, emphasizes the role of ‘boundary spanner’ i.e. individuals on the ‘edges’ of
organizations who have significant interorganizational contact. Those boundary spanners need to
understand the needs of both organizational insiders and the outsiders with whom the negotiation
takes place.
Phases of organizational conflict
People do not suddenly have a conflict, as Pondy suggested, they move through phases. He describes
in his research five different types of conflict SEE TABLE 9.1
1. Latent conflict: involves a situation in which the conditions are ripe for conflicts because
interdependence and possible incompatibility exists between the parties
2. Perceived conflict: Occurs when one or more of the parties believe that incompatibilities and
interdependence exist. It is also possible to have perceived conflict without latent conflict
this can occur when a manager and a subordinate believe they have different standards
about an issue but this is not true.
3. Felt conflict: the parties begin to formulate strategies about how to deal with the conflict and
consider outcomes that would or would not be acceptable
4. Manifest conflict: The strategies and goals are enacted in communication
5. Conflict aftermath: emphasizes that conflicts can have both short-term and long-term
consequences
Managing organizational conflict
We use the term conflict management and not conflict resolution because of the point made about
the ongoing nature of conflict and because of the complexity of most conflict situations.
Conflict styles
 Description:
Researchers on organizational conflict have used the basic structure of the
Managerial Grid (Chapter 3) as a way of exploring the styles and strategies people use when
involved in interpersonal conflict.
Thomas re-conceptualized the two dimensions as ‘concern for self’ and ‘concern for others’
he then identified five conflict styles SEE FIGURE 9.1.
Explanation by example: You and Wilma need to work together on Saturdays on an article
for a magazine from your boss but you both do not want to
1. Avoidance: Do not talk to Wilma about the problem. Rarely effective
2. Accomodating: you volunteer to work the whole day. Does not satisfy your needs
3. Competition: Wilma works all day. Does satisfy your needs but not Wilmas’
4. Compromise: Both of you work 4 hours. Neither Wilma or you fulfill their needs
5. Collaborate: reach a solution that could benefit for both of you.

Critique of Conflict styles construct:
The conflict styles framework has generated a lot of research on organizational
conflict.
Knap Putnam and Davis have identified four factors that limit the usefulness of the ‘grid’
approach to organization conflict SEE TABLE 9.2
1. By arguing that individuals possess particular conflict styles, the grid approach
downplays the extent to which individuals change their tactics during interaction
with others in conflict situations.
2. The two-dimensional view of the grid leaves out a third variable. This third variable
can be an issue other than concern for self and concern for other which might
influence the style chosen
3. The grid downplays the roles that nonverbal and nonrational communication might
play in conflict management
4. By focusing on the individual they argue that the role of the organizational setting is
ignored. This is in line with the bona fide groups perspective (Chapter 8)

New Directions
In the last few years scholars have looked beyond general issues of style in
considering interpersonal conflict and have begun to pay more attention to details about
message style and the perceptions of individuals in the conflicts episode.
Scholars have researched the formality of conflicts, the use of politeness theory and
controlling strategies. Kassing for example was interested in conflict that occurs when an
employee has a disagreement with the organization or supervisor and shows this through
dissent. He looked at how to voice their dissent, to whom and factors that influence the
likelihood of speaking up.
Bargaining and negotiation
A second general strategy for dealing with organizational conflict is bargaining (or negotiation).
Putnam and Poole defined bargaining with several important characteristics:
1. Bargaining is often a formal activity in which disputants settle conflicts about scarce
resources or policy agreements. Here mutual concession is very important; if one gives
something up the other party also gives something up.
2. Bargaining often involves individuals who serve as representatives for the parties in the
dispute
3. Bargaining is the strategy often used to settle intergroup or interorganizational conflicts.
An important distinction made about bargaining is that of distributive and integrative bargaining. SEE
TABLE 9.3
Distributive bargaining:
 Goals: Maximize gain and minimize losses
 Issues: Limited resources that must be divided in the negotiation (Fixed-sum)
 Outcomes: Only possible outcomes are win-lose or compromises
 Communication: marked by withheld information, deception and attempts to learn as much
as possible about the other party’s position.
Integrative bargaining:
 Goals: Maximize gains for both parties
 Issues: Try to lead the problem to a more creative solution (Variable-sum)
 Outcomes: solutions that allow both parties to benefit
 Communication: Marked by open disclosure, careful listening and multiple communication
channels.
Third-party conflict resolution
When parties cannot resolve the conflict themselves a third party is often relied on to halp resolve
the conflict. Especially in conflicts of a relational nature, individuals often can gain important insights
from those who are not directly involved in the organizational context. There are two most used
parties to act as a third party; the manager, an arbitrator or mediator.
 Managerial conflict resolution SEE TABLE 9.4
In a dispute between two co-workers the manager can take different positions:
o Inquisitor: Dictating both the resolution procedure and the outcome
o Motivator: rewarding or punishing subordinates in finding a solution
o Restructurer: change the organization in order to keep similar problems from
occurring in the future.
o REST SEE TABLE 9.4 NOT ADRESSED IN TEXT
The strategies used vary in terms of whether a manager controls procedures, outcomes, and
the degree to which a manager controls a dispute or shares control with the parties in
conflict.
Managers most of the time use the roles mentioned above, researchers found that a
mediator role is most appreciated by subordinates. Researchers also found that managers
who took a collaborative role instead of a coercive role where more appreciated.

Outside conflict resolutions
A mediator attempts to help the parties facilitate the dispute but holds no decision
power. In contrast, an arbitrator makes decision based on the proposals and argument of the
parties involved in the conflict. Information sharing an persuasion are important form of
communication in arbitration. However the role of communication is even more important
with mediation because the parties come together to a solution. There are different tactics
for a mediator:
o Direct tactics: mediator initiates recommendations
o Non-direct tactics: mediator attempts to secure information and clarify
misunderstandings
o Procedural tactics: mediator establishes an agenda and protocol for conflict
resolution
o Reflexive tactics: mediator regulates the tone of the interaction by developing
rapport with participants using humor and speaking the language of each side
Factors influencing the conflict management process
We’ll discuss three factors that influence the conflict management process.
Personal factors
Putnam and Poole found that personality or gender plays a small role in conflict resolutions
strategies. However, the way an individual frames a conflict will influence the manner in which the
conflict is managed. The framing of a conflict can involve perceptions of self, of others, or of the
conflict itself. That is, individuals will look at a conflict in terms of what they have to loose while
others look at the conflict of what they have to gain. Individuals who think in losses take more risks,
move quicker to arbitration and overconfident people are less successful.
Relational factors
The relationship between two parties seems to have a strong influence on conflict resolution. One
important characteristic is power, or the hierarchical position. From this Putnam and Poole found
that competition is faster chosen when one is superior over the other. But those individuals are also
more likely to use accommodation or collaboration when dealing with superiors or even avoiding
when dealing with peers. Also the relationship between supervisor and subordinate is much more
emotional than with peers.
Another aspect is argued by Jameson who states that organizations and their members often
struggle with opposing needs for autonomy and connection. In his study Jameson found that
individuals can use politeness strategies to keep theses competing needs balanced and forge more
collaborative solutions to conflict situations.
Cultural factors
National and ethnic culture might influence the ways in which conflict is enacted and managed in
organizations. Researchers found that intercultural negotiations are less successful that intracultural.
Ethnic and racial culture also may play a role in conflict negotiation. Shuter and Turner found in their
study between Afro-American and European-American woman that they both handle different roles.
Also organizational culture can influence the conflict resolution process. This work emphasizes the
extent to which conflict resolution can be difficult when organizational subcultures based on
professional identity or hierarchical position do not see eye to eye.
An alternative view of conflict
All theories mentioned above are rooted in the concept of exchange. Putnam and Kolb have
suggested that exchange in these models of conflict and negation is a gendered practice. They state
that negotiation is gendered in that the quealities of effective bargainers are linked to masculinity.
Those attributes typically labeled as feminine are less valued.
Therefore they propose a feminist view of conflict based instead on the co-construction of the
situation and relationship. The contrast between the traditional exchange model of conflict and
Putnam and Kolb’s alternative model is presented in TABLE 9.5.
They argue that their feminist model is an important advance that might be particularly appropriate
in situations such as ‘informal work negotiations, bargaining in long-term relationships, role
negotiations, and even intractable disputes.
Chapter 10 Organizational change and leadership processes.
Although change is an enduring feature of organizational life, the degree and impact of that change
can vary substantially.
Organizational change processes
Models of organizational change
No organization that remains static will survive long, luckily many organizations naturally evolve and
adapt to environmental needs.
There are several organizational models. The model of organizational life cycles and the evolution of
organizational population see organizations as ‘natural’. They evolve after a start-up and eventually
decay because of the moving market.
Other models of organizational change look at planned change. Oftentimes organizations are
confronted with problems in the environment or with internal contingencies that suggest that
current ‘ways of doing things’ are not effective. Many organizations will then begin a purposeful
process of change over time. This change over time may have identifiable phases. First exploration
for possible solutions then they look how this change has to be instituted, then implementation and
finally integration.
However the implementation of planned change is not a simple and straightforward process. There
are many unintended consequences since the senior managers often have different ideas than the
employees.
Connor and Lake have introduced a model of planned change that illustrates the complexity of
communication and behavior during the change process. SEE FIGURE 10.1 SEE EXAMPLE ON PAGE
181
However the model of figure 10.1 states that practitioners are very concerned with managing change
rather than letting the organization life cycle take its course where it should be more or less a way of
life.
Reactions to organizational change
It is critical to look at how employees might react to and influence the organization change process.
Kuhn and Corman suggest that organizational members have ‘schemata’ or knowledge structures,
which define individual and collective beliefs about how organizations work and how change
happens. In organizational change processes, these schemata may either be confirmed or disrupted.
Three themes run through much of the literature on key responses to the change process SEE TABLE
10.1:
1. Management support for the change process: when senior management makes a decision
and they are not backing the change effort or when senior managements’ vision is not
shared with others in the organization it is most likely that no change will come. This is
especially the case when the change comes from third parties (government, consultants)
Medved call this the ownership tension inherent in the change process, in which the
successful implementation of change efforts is contingent on ownership of the problem and
ownership of the change process by those in critical positions in the organization.
2. Resistance to the change process: this could be seen as the management ‘ownership’
transplanted to lower-level employees. This resistance is defined as behavior preventing the
change to take place or to reach the goal of the change. Resistance to change is often related
to political behavior, because there are often many who have a great deal to ‘win’ or lose’ in
a change initiative.
3. Uncertainty on the part of organizational members: Although complete transparency in the
change process might be counterproductive it is clear that uncertainty about the change
process causes heightened anxiety on the part of workers. One of the most straightforward
ways to deal with this uncertainty is communication and enough information. Employees
rather have negative information than no information on change.
Communication in the change process
The reactions to organizational change – ownership, uncertainty and resistance – all point to the
importance of communication in the organizational change process.
A lot of choices must be made like by which source (media) and which individuals first to speak to
(audience). In addition to those two questions scholars have created more specific strategies than
management can use in communicating about change to employees.
Clampitt, DeKoch and Cashman have created top-down communication strategies SEE TABLE 10.2.
The underscore and Explore strategy is, according to them, most effective and the Spray and Pray
together with the Withold and Uphold strategies are least effective. So they sought to create a
strategy of involving employees in the change process in appropriate areas by providing relevant
information.
Other researchers found that perceived quality of information was the strongest predictor of
workers’ openness to organizational change attempts.
There has also been done research on investigating how change influences communication among
lower-level employees in an organization. Researchers argue that employees are faced with
numerous concerns about change, including performance, organizational norms, and uncertainty. To
cope with these concerns researchers found that organizational members used a wide array of
tactics.
Unplanned Change: Organizational Crisis
There are times when change is thrust upon an organization in the wake of events such as natural
disasters, ethical violations etc.
Organizational crisis is defined as an event that is an unpredictable, major threat that can have a
negative effect on the organization, industry, or stakeholders if handled improperly.
Seeger, Sellnow, and Ulmer describe organizational crisis as evolving in three stages:
1. Precrisis: organizational members can work to prevent or prepare for possible problems.
2. Crisis: There is a trigger that threatens an organization’s survival or reputation.
3. Postcrisis: communication focuses on determining responsibility, perhaps apologizing, and
establishing systems for coping with similar crises in the future.
In all three stages, communication processes play a key role in coping with a wide range of these
unplanned change processes.
Organizational Leadership
Effective leadership is essential in the organizational change process. Of course, the importance of
leadership is not limited to times of change and upheaval. During normal processes management is
also essential for an organization to function properly.
Models of Leadership
Early thinking of leaders was that leaders are ‘born’ not ‘made’ these theories are called the trait
theories. These theories propose that there are particular qualities that will tend to be associated
with leaders and that will result in success in leadership activities. One could think of intelligence,
self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability.
Related to trait approaches there are models that suggest that leaders have particular behavioral
‘styles’, we already discusses style theory in Chapter 3 in the management grid which set out the
concern for production against the concern for people. This grid also showed that team management
style maximized both of these goals. Thus, this style approach is essentially a way of translating
preferred traits into preferred behavior.
However the idea of having one ‘ideal’ type of leader contradicts with the experience one has with
leadership. Because a leader works with different kinds of people and people work under different
circumstances a leader cannot be perfect although this is suggested by trait and style theory.
More critique of trait and style approaches has come with regard to the idea of leadership behavior
across situation. This critique argues that different individuals might be differently suited for various
leadership situations. Think of a leader suitable for a start-up organization which is probably not
suited for a mature organization. Maybe an organization needs a very strict manager which will fail if
you put a freewheeler on it.
A lot of scholars therefore reject the trait approach and turned to ideas that emphasize the ‘match’
of the style of the leader to the characteristics of the situation. The best known theory is contingency
theory. This theory predicts that a leader likes to focus on tasks would be more effective in
structured situations than a leader who likes to focus on relationships. However a lot of scholars say
that multiple individuals should be leaders to handle the situation.
What is being left out in all three theories above is the role of those being led in the organization.
Also missing is the role of communication, especially in establishing relationships between leaders
and those in the organization. Thus in recent years a lot of models have been created which focus on
leadership as a process of communication and as a process of establishing relationships.
These models are called ‘New Leadership’ paradigm or the ‘neocharismatic’ paradigm. Gardner
argues that these models emphasize communication and relationship through the consideration of
the ways that leaders secure extraordinary level of follower trust and inspire followers to emulate
their behavior.
One of those models in the transformational leadership model. This model exists of transactional
leaders and transformational leaders.
 Transactional leaders: refers to a relationship in which there is an exchange of some sort
between leaders and followers. One can think of a pay raise, a promotion, promise of social
security etc.
 Transformational leaders: refers to leaders who through communication processes create a
relationship between leaders and followers that helps followers reach their full potential and
has the potential for transforming both the leader as the follower (e.g. Ghandi).
Gardner sees transformational leaders as exemplification i.e. leaders who want to instill the
ideals of hard work and ethical behavior would do so by exemplifying those ideals in their
own behaviors.
Communication and leadership
The role of communication in the leadership process can be looked at in several different ways. It is
important to look at what is said, the content of communication.
Scholars found, for example, that leaders who use ‘visionary’ content in their communication are
more effective than those who use more pragmatic content (The ‘I have a dream’- speech for
example)
Perhaps more important than the content is the way things are said. Studies have shown that strong
delivery styles (eye contact, appropriate use of facial expressions and gestures etc.) led to higher
ratings of leadership effectiveness.
The most thorough consideration of communication and leaderships has come in the work of Gail,
Fairhurst and Robert Sarr. They studied how leaders frame their language in interaction with a
variety of constituencies. They see leadership as a language game and they argue that the most
essential skill for this game is the ability to frame.
Framing is a way of managing meaning in which one or more aspects of the subject at hand are
selected or highlighted over other aspects. Thus framing is the meaning which you give to a particular
word, phrase, disaster, crisis etc.
Fairhurst and Sarr argue that effective leaders begin the framing process by having a clear
understanding of their own view of reality and their own goals for the organization and
communication. They also pay attention to the context, recognizing times and situations in which
there are opportunities for shaping meaning or when there are constraints that will hamper the
framing process. Finally effective leaders use language in ways that manage meaning in powerful and
appropriate ways.
The use of language in framing should not be underestimated. This use can involve a variety of tools
that can help others see the world in the way you want them to see him SEE TABLE 10.3
Chapter 11 Processes of emotion in the workplace
Since the beginning of the nineties scholars did not only focus on the rationality of organizations, but
started to look at the relation between ratio and emotion. Before that Human Relationist only looked
at satisfaction as emotion. Therefore it deemed necessary that emotions in organizations where
further researched.
Emotion in the workplace
Most models of organizational life see the workplace as a setting governed by logic and rationality.
However, our interaction is often governed by hot emotion than by cool logic. Often we make
choices on our ‘gut feeling’ rather than a spreadsheet of pros and cons.
Grab back to chapter 8 about decision making where scholars already stated that decision making is
rarely driven on pure logic and data. Before we also described the model of bounded rationality
(before it is described as bounded reality) which states that decision making cannot be perfectly
rational because of cognitive and situational limits.
Other scholars however say that we should also look at bounded emotionality. That is one should
start looking at emotional life as a central focus of organizational research and to consider the ways
in which paying attention to emotion might lead to new ways of understanding the workplace.
Emotion as part of the job
In many of cases of communication between employee and client some degree of emotional or
affective content is involved. Hochschild first dealt systematically with emotion in the workplace by
using the term emotional labor to refer to jobs in which workers are expected to display certain
feelings in order to satisfy organizational role expectations.
She makes a distinction between surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting is for example the
smile of a flight attendant on her face because the airline wants a friendly face in the cabin.
Deep acting refers to individuals who try to evoke a more realistic emotional display by using
techniques as (again the example of the flight attendant) imagining the airplane cabin as a friendly
living room or sympathizing with the stress that irate passengers might be feeling.
Several generalizations can be forwarded about the body of work on emotional labor:
 Most research considers frontline service workers in organizations that sanction emotion in
the service of customers. Thus, emotional labor is seen as a way to increase the success and
profits of the organization
 Most research considers emotion that is explicitly controlled through training and employee
manuals.
 Most research considers emotional displays that are created through deep acting or suface
acting. In other words, emotional displays that are in some way not authentic expressions of
current or enduring emotion
 When workers enact emotional labor, they are very aware that they are acting for the
purpose of managerial and sometimes personal profit
However sometimes, of course, individuals really show the emotions they are feeling. This is called
emotional work which refers to people who are not in frontline service jobs, but instead hold
professional positions in industries such as health care, education or human services.
Workers in this field of labor use compassionate communication this is build up in three points:
 Noticing: workers must notice the need for compassion and the details of the clients’ life for
appropriate communication
 Connecting: After that they must connect to client by taking the others’ perspective and
establish an empathic bond.
 Responding: Finally, they must respond with verbal and nonverbal behaviors that can make a
difference for the troubled client
Emotions as part of workplace relationships
Several scholars have argued that we should be looking less at emotion required by the job and more
at emotions that emerge from relationships in the workplace. This type is called emotion at work
because scholars have found that when people talk about their work they do not talk about the
content of the work but talk almost exclusively about their involvement in the life of the group.
Feelings are strongly identified with a person’s place and activities in the life of the group and the
place of their work in the larger scheme of things.
Waldron has argued that there are several aspects of work relationships that create potential for
intense emotion in organizations:




The tension between the public and private in work relationships. For example, friends who
are your subordinate or private issues which are revealed in professional life.
Relational networks and emotional buzzing. Emotions can spread like wildfire in the
workplace. One negative comment in a meeting can lead to a general uprising. A rumor
about downsizing leads to widespread panic etc.
Conflicting allegiances. Because organizations are complex systems, workers often feel many
loyalties. These conflicts might involve a distinction between what’s best for the individual
and what’s best for the company. Intense emotions of betrayal, dedication or jealousy might
be found
Emotional rights and obligations at work. Most workplaces include a strong sense of
relational morality i.e. what is fair, right and just in the workplace relationships. When these
norms are disrupted intense emotions might play part.
Emotion rules and emotional intelligence
Some scholars have tries to understand the ‘rules’ for emotional display in the workplace and by
understanding the role that emotional intelligence might play in a wide variety of workplace
interaction. Kramer and Hess surveyed a wide range of workers to learn about the perceived rules
that govern emotional life in an organization SEE TABLE 11.1.
The fact that workers say these rules exist means that there are standards for emotional expression.
Of course every workplace has his own emotional rules but one rule that is on top is: “Be
professional”.
Finally it is important to consider the concept of emotional intelligence which suggests that there are
some people who are naturally better at understanding and managing the emotional content of
workplace relationships and that emotional intelligence is also a skill that can be developed through
training.
Emotional intelligence involves both a clear understanding of the emotional needs of the situation
and the self-awareness and self-control necessary for using the right emotional display to cope with
the situation.
Scholars also criticized emotional intelligence because they think this is one more example of how
organizations are attempting to transform emotion into a marketable product that will enhance
organizational profits.
Stress, burnout, and social support in the workplace
The investigation of stress in the workplace has led to a proliferation of terms used to describe
various aspects of the phenomenon. We will talk about stress as a general area of investigation and
use more specific terms to refer to detailed aspects of the stress process.
The stress process can best be conceptualized as one in which some aspects of the environment,
called stressors, create a strain on the individual, called burnout, which can lead to negative
psychological outcomes. SEE FIGURE 11.1
Burnout
Burnout refers to a ‘wearing out’ from the pressures of work. It is a chronic condition that results as
daily work stressors take their roll on employees.
Maslach sees burnout as consisting of three interrelated dimensions:
1. Emotional exhaustion: is the core of the burnout phenomenon. This is when workers feel
fatigued, frustrated, used up to face another day at the job.
2. Lack of personal accomplishment: refers to workers who see themselves as failures,
incapable of effectively accomplishing job requirements
3. Depersonalization: this dimension is only relevant to workers who must communicate
interpersonally with other as part of the job. These workers tend to view other people
through rust-colored glasses – developing a poor opinion of them, expecting the worst from
them and even actively disliking them.
Stressors that lead to burnout
Three of the most frequently identified workplace stressors are workload, role conflict and role
ambiguity:
 Workload: quantitatively having ‘too much’ work to do and qualitatively having work what is
‘too difficult’. The pressure to do more in less time is particularly prevalent in organizations.
 Role conflict: having two or more role requirements that clash with each other
 Role ambiguity: exists when there in uncertainty about the role requirements
Burnout can also result from stressors outside of the workplace like divorce, retirement, pregnancy,
death etc.
However, more important than the events mentioned above are the day-to-day hassles and the
emotional strain of balancing work and home life.
Outcomes of burnout
Burned out workers can have a lot of physiological, attitudinal, and organizational effects.
Physiologically, burnout has been associated with outcomes as coronary heart disease and high
blood pressure.
Attitudinal outcomes are lower levels of job satisfactions and commitment.
The organizational outcome of burnout is turnover which means quitting the job and going to do
something completely different. Lawyers becoming farmers and nurses becoming carpenters.
Communication as a cause of burnout.
Communication can heavily influence the workload, role conflict and role ambiguity. If
communication in a crucial state of socialization with the workplace is inadequate role conflict and
role ambiguity can occur. Thus, communication can play a role in causing burnout through its
influence on workplace stressors such as load, role conflict, and role ambiguity. There are two other
ways in which the emotional aspects of work contribute to stress and burnout
Emotional labor as a contributor to burnout.
As described earlier emotional labor is the term used to describe jobs in which specific emotions are
requires as a part of the job. Workers in service jobs requiring emotional labor must in ways
prescribed by the organization. A major danger of emotional labor is the display of emotions that are
not truly felt. Morris and Feldman have called this emotional dissonance and contend that it is the
major factor leading to negative consequences as burnout, job satisfaction and turnover.
Empathy, communication and burnout
A second area of research has considered the natural emotions that often emerge in humans service
work. Miller, Stiff and Ellis created a model of communication, empathy and burnout for human
service workers. They note that individuals choose this occupation because they are ‘people
oriented’ and feel a high empathy for others. They draw a distinction between two kinds of empathy:
1. Emotional contagion: refers to an affective response in which an observer experiences
emotions parallel to those of another person (so feeling with another).
2. Empathic concer: refers to an affective response in which an observer has a nonparallel
emotional response (feeling for another)
As a logical conclusion empathic concern should help an employee communicate effectively whereas
emotional contagion hinders interaction.
Miller and colleagues further hypothesize that workers who communicatively responsive would
experience less burnout and more commitment to their occupation SEE FIGURE 11.2
This research shows that emotional communication in the workplace can be detrimental, but only
under certain conditions. Specifically, when an individual in a caregiving situation feels with the client
and communicates accordingly, burnout is the likely result. In contrast, a caregiver who feels for the
client and communicates accordingly is unlikely to suffer the effects of burnout.
Coping with burnout
The above text shows the genesis of burnout painting a somewhat bleak picture of organizational
life. However there are ways of coping with burnout
Individual and organizational coping strategies
Every individual reacts different to burnout. Some of these reactions can be highly dysfunctional
(drinking, drugs etc.) However there are three other ways the individual can cope with his burnout:
1. Problem-focused coping: the individual delegates some responsibilities, reduces his work or
uses time-management techniques
2. Appraisal-focused coping: the individual convinces him/herself that he/she needs to work
hard in order to advance in the company and short-term sacrifices are need to have longterm benefits
3. Emotion-centered coping: the individual uses relaxation techniques to release job-related
tension
The organization can also help with reducing the chance of a burnout or helping the individual coping
with it:
 Socialization programs can be designed to enhance the clarity of employee role definitions
 Workload can be carefully monitored and controlled
 Workers with high stress can be provided time-outs during the workday or sabbaticals
 The conflict between home and work can be acknowledged through the provision of flextime or on-sit day care
But perhaps the most important way are communicative ways of coping. There are two
communication ways of dealing with burnout:
1. Participation in decision making:
Participation in decision making (PDM) can improve both worker satisfaction and
productivity through enhanced information flow (cognitive model) and the satisfaction of
workers’ higher-order needs (attitudinal model).
So why should PDM reduce job-related burnout? It reduces the role conflict and role
ambiguity problem because it leads to more accurate knowledge of the formal and informal
expectations held by others for the worker and the formal and informal policies and
procedures of the organization, as well as the discrepancies between the two.
Next to that, it is likely that employees who participate feel more valued and feel a greater
sense of influence and control in the workplace.
2. Social Support
Voluminous research exists on social support as a means of protecting individuals
From the major and minor stresses at life. A wide variety of typologies have been proposed
to categorize social support. Most typologies involve three major functions:
a. Emotional support: involves letting another person know that they are loved and
cared for.
b. Informational support: involves the provision of facts and advice to help an individual
cope. This might decrease role conflict and workload and might provide suggestions
for dealing with the strain of burnout
c. Instrumental support: involves physical or material assistance that helps an
individual cope with stress and strain.
A variety of people can provide individuals the support they need to cope with burnout:
d. Support from supervisors: mostly instrumental and information support.
e. Support from co-workers: mostly informational and emotional support
f. Support from friends and family: mostly emotional and instrumental support.
Chapter 12 Organizational diversity processes
Writing about organizational diversity can be a challenge, as terms used to describe people can be
viewd as having a variety of meaning depending on who is involved in the conversation and the
norms of particular contexts of time and place. Therefore in this summary (also in the book) we will
use the term ‘white’ instead of Euro-American. The book uses the terms ‘people of color’ or
minorities for everyone not white.
Women and minorities in today’s organizations
Women and minorities are rapidly participating in the work force. However the experience of women
and people of color are different than that of the white men.
In the case of the women, a lot of scholars have talked about the glass ceiling which refers to the
concept to describe a barrier so subtle that it is transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women
and minorities from moving up in the management hierarchy. The situation in the case of women has
not really improved yet.
For minorities it is even harder because research reports that ‘color discrimination’ in employment
seems to be on the rise. Furthermore research has shown that black job applicants with a lighter skin
are more likely to be hired than those with dark skin.
Thus, there are two aspects defining the experience of women and minorities are a relatively greater
difficulty in getting jobs and in climbing the corporate ladder to join the ranks of upper management.
Next to that we can talk about an opt-in and opt-out position of women (or off-ramp and on-ramp).
This contains the fact that women start working but when they get children they want to do flexwork
or stop working at all. A few years later they want to start their career again.
Finally women and people of color are often hampered by restricted access to power and by being
assigned suboptimal tasks in the workplace and many women and people of color find themselves
marginalized taking on the role of the ‘outsider within’ established organizational systems.
Stereotyping and discrimination
Others view women and people of color in a biased ways, and these biases may result in significantly
different treatment within the organization. This bias exists of two components:
1. Prejudice: refers to negative attitudes toward an organization members based on his/her
cultural group identity
2. Discrimination: refers to observable behavior for the same reason.
The stereotyping of women and minorities in the workplace is not always overt and simplistic,
however. A lot of people move beyond irrational stereotypes or try to be more sophisticated with
their stereotypes (someone in a wheelchair does not want help, gays and lesbians are politically
progressive). This is very dangerous because it is typically incomplete and misleading when applied to
an individual.
Relational barriers in organizational systems
The experiences of s of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination are typically sees as individuallevel phenomena. That is, these are problems based on the mental models of individuals, though
these mental models are often shared by large segments of the organizational population.
However there are also aspects that lead to differential experiences for women and minorities in
organizations.
Four different types of aspects that lead to differential experiences.
Women and ethnic minorities:
1. Experience limited access to or exclusion from informal communication networks. This is
however very important for socialization, decision making, and conflict management.
Remarkable is that Ibara found that minority employees experience the most success when
they develop a differentiated network consisting of both majority and minority members and
of individuals on a wide range of hierarchical levels.
2. Have trouble establishing mentor-protégé relationships. Kram first discussed the importance
of mentoring relationships, defining a mentor as and experienced, productive manager who
relates well to a less-experienced employee and facilitates his or her personal development
for the benefit of the individual as well as that of the organization.
Because the mentor-protégé relationship is a close one that involves both career and
psychosocial benefits many women would prefer to develop such a relationship with another
woman. But there is a shortage of women in upper-management ranks to serve as mentors.
Mentoring can also be a challenge for minority employees trying to move into the executive
suite. Thomas considered communication in cross-ethnic mentorship. He found that
successful mentorship could be achieved in relationships in which ethnicity was either openly
discussed or suppressed, as long as both parties agreed on this.
3. In managerial positions are often ‘tokens’ or highly visible representatives of their gend or
ethnic minority. According to Morrison and Von Glinow ‘ tokens’ performances are hindered
because of the pressure to which their visibility subjects them and because members of the
dominant group exaggerate differences according to stereotypes. That is, a black person
must always give the viewpoint of a black man.
4. Are hampered in their ability to advance in organizations because of the types of work
experiences available.
The multicultural organization
Morisson and Von Glinow have described three phases of workplace development in the area of
cultural and gender diversity.
1. First-generation affirmative action: the organization is concerned with meeting legally
mandated requirement for gender and ethnic diversity. However it is not enough to ratify
those mandates because it can lead to intergroup conflict, distrust and hostility.
2. Second-generation affirmative action: the firm has met affirmative action goals in terms of
numbers and the emphasis shifts to supporting women and minorities.
3. Multicultural organization: moves beyond the concept of support for minority members to
the institution of policies that deliberately capitalize on cultural and diversity.
Cox provides a detailed description of a multicultural organization in terms of six dimension. SEE
TABLE 12.1. According to Cox a multicultural organization is marked by the full structural integration
of women and people of color. Women and minorities are proportionally represented at all levels of
an organization and in all work groups. Next tot that people of color and women are not excluded
from social activities or from mentoring and other developmental processes.
Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of a multicultural organization, thgouh, is the form of
acculturation used.
Cox distinguishes among three processes through which differences between the dominant culture
and minority cultures can be treated:
1. Assimilation: A unilateral process by which minority culture members adopt the norms and
values of the dominant group in the organization
2. Cultural separatism: a situation where there is little adaptations on either side
3. Pluralism: a process by which both minority and majority culture members adopt some
norms of the other group.
The diverse organization: opportunities
Almost no company will meet Cox’s multicultural organization; the achievement of full structural and
informal is the first difficult step and the steps get even more difficult.
But what are the outcomes of diversity in the workplace?
Cox and Blake argue for six important competitive advantages than can be gained through the
insightful management of cultural diversity SEE TABLE 12.2
Several of the competitive advantages highlighted in Table 12.2 have particularly interesting
implications in terms of communication within organizations. These are the advantages to be gained
through increased creativity and enhanced problem solving and decision making, advantages that
Milliken and Martins label the ‘cognitive’ consequences of diversity.
Arguments for increased creativity and enhanced problem solving through diversity both rest on the
contention that a diversity of employees will translate into a diversity of viewpoint. So a diverse
organization has ideas that a homogeneous workforce will not have. Managing these culturally
diverse groups, poses communicative challenges, however. For example, Watson, Kumar and
Michaelsen found that realizing the advantages of diversity takes time and effort. They found that
diverse groups were inferior over homogeneous groups in performance and managing the process of
group interaction. However they developed communicative strategies for encouraging participation
and eventually generated a wider range of alternatives and perspectives on a problem than these
homogeneous groups.
The diverse organization: Challenges
We consider three challenges that face organizations as the workplace becomes more diverse.
Avoiding negative impacts of diversity management programs
The Civil Rights Act marked the beginning of programs designed to ensure equal opportunity in the
workplace. The affirmative action programs from this act aimed to remedy discrimination and
increase the representation of designated disadvantaged groups. But what are the impacts of those
affirmative action programs?
Heilman et al. have found a number of negative consequences for those the program is trying to
help.
1. Affirmative action programs can affect how an individual benefiting from the program views
his or her competence, and this self-view of competence can in turn impact their work
behavior and communication
2. Affirmative action leads others in the workplace to stigmatize as incompetent those
individuals assumed to have benefited from those programs
3. Individuals who feel they have been unfairly bypassed by affirmative action programs
perceive injustice in hiring and promotion procedures.
To deal with those negative consequences Heilman recommends that organizations emphasize the
use of merit criteria in addition to some preferential criteria in making hiring and promotion
decisions. She argues that the more a program emphasizes preferential treatment and quotas at the
expense of merit* criteria the more likely it is to exacerbate the negative self-view of competence of
beneficiaries, to fuel the discounting proves whereby beneficiaries are stigmatized by others, and to
increase the perception of unfairness on the part of those who believe themselves to have been
bypassed in the selection process. These softer affirmative actions might involve programs that
specify minimum qualifications as a screen or ones that specify that minority status should be taken
into account only with equally qualified applicants.
*= The term merit constitutes a desirable trait or ability belonging to a person or (sometimes) an
object.
Sexual harassment
From the definition of the Civil Rights Act there is a wide range of communicative behaviors can
constitute sexual harassment, although many women and men see only serious offenses as
harassment this is not completely true. One only needs to believe that one is sexually harassed
without suffering severe psychological damage. Thus understanding and recognizing sexual
harassment in the workplace is rarely clear-cut, this is because sexual harassment is not a purely
objective phenomenon but one based on an individual’s perception of another’s behavior, which
may be affected by any of a number of factors that make up a situational context.
Several studies have looked at sexual harassment as communicative tool and have found that it is an
act of power instead of sexuality. Next to that, men and women see sexual harassment differently
because of different experiences with power and fear. Dougherty found that sexist jokes made by
men are used to release tension but women found it harassing. Therefore it is very hard to draw a
clear and good definition of sexual harassment. However the Civil Rights Act also clearly states that
all forms of harassment must be taken seriously.
Finally, Bingham has looked at communicative strategies for dealing with sexual harassment in the
workplace. Women who are bein harassed face multiple communicative goals.
The desire to deal with harassment competes with the goal of keeping a good job and keeping face.
The best way to deal with the harasser is to approach him directly, but there are of course other
ways which, in some situations, are better than the direct approach.
Balancing work and home
Individuals and organizations are increasingly faced with the challenge of balancing the needs of
work and home. The old division of the men being at work and the women at home is a division of
the middle ages. Therefore men and especially women are concerned with the care of the child.
Further, both women and men may now find themselves trying to make sense of the ‘work’ of
staying at home with children.
For both organization and individuals the challenges of achieving balance between work and home
are myriad*. The organization knows two challenges:
1. The institution of programs that are ‘family friendly’ such as flextime, on-site day care, job
sharing etc.
2. The creating of a culture that values various aspects of employees’ lives. The development
and maintenance of such a culture can be extremely difficult in a diverse workplace because
the individuals without children do not benefit from the extras of individuals with children
For the individual the challenges of combining home and work are both personal as impersonal.
On the personal level there are challenges of identity and defining self in both work and home roles.
E.g. some people get the feeling that at work they have to clean other’s mess and when they come
home they still are doing this only then for their child.
Interpersonal challenges are when they are negotiating tasks and identities with others in the
workplace and with family members
Managing (and celebrating) cultural diversity
To gain effectiveness as a multicultural organization most scholarly and popular writing on this issue
uses the term ‘managing diversity’ to talk about this issue. As we noted before if management
becomes equated solely with bottom-line concerns with profit, the people who make the
organization diverse can get lost in the shuffle. Thus we should not think the management of
diversity but about the celebration of diversity in organizational and cultural life.
Cox and Blake identify a number of ‘spheres of activity’ that must be dealt with when living life in a
culturally diverse organization SEE FIGURE 12.1.
*Myriad = a very large number of things
These spheres of activity highlight several points:
1. Life in a diverse organization involves both attitude and action. Managers and employees
must view diversity as a challenge and opportunity instead as a problem. They need to be
made aware of the needs and contributions of diverse organizational members. Next to that
specific action must be taken to ensure an educated workforce, the elimination of
discrimitation, a bias-free human resources system, and work options that ease the conflict
between job and family
2. Managing different national and ethnic cultures requires an adjustment of the organizational
culture.
Cox and Blacke suggest that five steps are needed to transform a traditional organization:
1. Leadership: top-management must have a true commitment to diversity.
2. Training: employees must receive both awareness training and skill-building training
3. Research: this should be conducted to identify problem areas in the organizational culture
and build appropriate education programs
4. Analysis and change of culture and human resources management systems (2 in one):
The culture of the organization must be audited to reveal ways in which diverse member
could be hampered by current organizational values.
Chapter 13 Technological processes
We will look at the technological processes that have changed the workplace in the last years. Before
we begin this chapter several caveats are in order.
1. The information of this chapter is quickly outdated since technology is a process which keeps
going on as we speak.
2. The introduction of new technologies does not always lead to the demise of older
technologies. E.g. Video-conferencing does not make the old-fashion meeting disappear. The
fax did not disappear the regular postal service etc.
Types of organizational communication technology
In Table 13.1 several organizational communication technologies have been summarized SEE TABLE
13.1. However we will focus on two of the most important ones.
E-mail and the internet.
E-mail is an ubiquitous form of organizational communication that can be used to send instant
messages to targeted individuals, to 'broadcast' information to a large organizational group, to chat
with collaborators across the country or world and to exchange and revise long, complex documents.
The World Wide Web can be used to gather relevant technical or policy information etc. etc. for the
individual. For the organization the web serves as a forum to promote a desired image, communicate
with costumers etc. etc
So what features set these new technologies apart:
1. Many of these technologies allow faster message transmission
2. These technologies allow communication among geographically dispersed participants.
3. New technologies allow asynchronous communication; i.e. communication between
individuals at different points in time
Some other features are that the addressing of people is now much more personal unless you are in
a chat-room or send an e-mail to a larger group.
On the other hand staying anonymous is much more easy in chatboxes where people are with the
same interests.
New communication technologies have also changed the memory, storage and retrieval features.
GDSS technologies allow decision-making groups to create a full written transcripts of meeting
procedures
Finally many new technologies differ in terms of the cues that are available in the communication
process. For example an audio-meeting misses the non-verbal communication.
In considering the impact of these technologies on the workplace two important questions must be
answered.
What are the factors that will lead organizational members to choose particular types of technologies
for their communication needs?
Once these technologies are used, do they have a discernible impact on the organizational
communication process?
Theories of communication media usage
Several theoretical positions have been offered on the question if new technological communication
helps workers to accomplish their task or does it only distract them from doing their job.
Markus suggests that new communication technologies will not be widely embraced until there is a
'critical mass' of individuals who use the technology. The idea of critical mass is particularly important
for communication technologies that require connectivity.
Three important theories:
The Media Richness Model
The media richness model was proposed by Daft and Lengel as a framework for understanding the
choices organizational members make about communication media use. They were interested in
how managers chose one communication medium over another.
These theories first suggested that organizational communication tasks vary in their level of
ambiguity. Ambiguity refers to the existence of conflicting and multiple interpretations of an issue.
They then argue that communication channels available to the organizational manager differ
markedly in their capability to convey information. These theoriest use four criteria to distinguish the
information carrying capacity of media:
1. The availability of instant feedback
2. The use of multiple cues
3. The use of natural language
4. The personal focus of the medium.
Communication channels that have all or many of these characteristics are called rich media, the
opposite is lean media. Between those two a lot of communication would fall like e-mail, phone,
memos etc.
Media richness theorist then combine the notion of task ambiguity with the notion of media richness
and argue that managers will choose media that match the ambiguity of the message. That is, when
dealing with highly ambiguous tasks, the manager will choose to use a rich communication medium.
SEE FIGURE 13.1
It has been proven that the effectiveness of the team depended on matching complex tasks with
face-to-face meetings or conference calls and relying on e0mail for simpler messages.
However, several other models have been proposed to explain more fully the usage of organizational
communication technologies.
The social information processing model
Fulk and her colleagues have proposed that the adoption of organizational technologies can be
explained by looking at the social environment of the organization. These theorists argue that
communication between coworkers, supervisors, customers and others affects media usage.
The social information processing model is depicted in figure 13.2 SEE FIGURE 13.2. This approach
sees the use of communication technology as a complex function of:
1. The objective characteristics of the task and media
2. Pas experience and knowledge
3. Individual differences
4. Social information.
Because the model shows the objective characteristics of task and media as influencing media use, it
can be seen as extension of the media richness theory.
The dual-capacity model
In addition to the social information processing model, a second alternative to the media richness
theory has been proposed. The dual-capacity model of media choice in organization posits that
communication media are not simply ‘rich’ or ‘lean’. The dual-capacity model proposes that every
organization medium has the ability to carry two kinds of messages:
1. Data-carrying capacity: the degree to which a medium is able to effectively and efficiently
convey task-relevant data. This means that for example voice mail will have approximately
the same data-carrying capacity in all organizational settings.
2. Symbol-carrying capacity: this can be manifested in several ways:
a. Media can be more or less able to convey the core values and assumptions that
constitute the organization’s culture (e.g. personal favors personal touch then a
formal letter will not suffice)
b. A communication medium can attain the status of a symbol apart from the actual
message being transmitted. E.g. A meeting conducted via video conferencing can
carry symbolic messages about the importance and technological sophistication of
the meeting participants.
In short, organizational media choices are determined by a complex combination of all of these
factors: the richness of the medium, the ambiguity of the task, the symbolic value of the medium and
the social information received from others in the organizational setting.
Effects of organizational communication technology
The next question we want to answer is the impact that those technologies can have on
communication in organizations. It is important to remember that technologies do not determine
particular outcomes and that the effects of any communication technology will depend on the
manner in which it is employed or appropriated by the user. Next to that it is also important to note
that the effects of technological advances can take many years to come to fruition and may be
counterintuitive.
Effects on communication content
Earlier we noted that many communication media ‘filter out’ cues that would be available in face-toface interaction (nonverbal communication, use of voice) so how does this filtering out of cues
impact message content?
1. Electronic media may inhibit the communication of social and emotional content because
many of the cues often associated with such content are unavailable. Thus, one cannot see
from electronic media if one is angry, ironic, joking etc. However these days we have created
other ways to express this emotion through smileys and other icons
2. It is also possible that the distance and anonymity afforded by many electronic media will
lead users to be less inhibited in their communication of socio-emotional messages. This is
called flaming which means that name-calling, sarcasm, obscene language etc. are quickly
used in electronic media because one cannot see the others expression or doesn’t even
know who the other one is.
Effects on communication patterns
New technologies augment existing technologies rather than replace them, because of this,
organizations that adopt new communication technologies are marked by an overall increase in the
amount of communication. E.g. when video-conferencing is possible it will be used next to face-toface meeting.
The downside of this is that we are drowning in data. Shenk writes about the ‘data smog’ that can
result when we are constantly besieged with information from e-mail, pagers etc.
Of course there are more issues to the communication pattern.
Upward communication is much easier than before, communication contacts are more diverse,
computer technology will lead to greater equality of participation in group interactions, the
knowledge of individuals increases etc. etc.
Effects on organizational structure
Because technologies allows communication at great distances and at asynchronous times, it is often
not necessary for people working together to be in the same place. Grantham discusses this in which
he calls distributed work. Taking the place and time into account he distinguishes four variations of
work distribution:
1. Central office: people work in the same place and at the same time
2. Telework: People working at the same time but in a different place
3. Flextime: People work at the same place but different times
4. Virtual organization: People do not have an office and do not work at the same time.
There are two ways to think about virtual work:
1. Virtual work involves working from home, and this kind of arrangements is on the rise,
especially given increasing concerns about the environment and work-family balance
2. Virtual organizations can be seen as teams that work across borders of time, space, and
often, organizational boundaries. Virtual teams might be groups of individuals working
on a particular project, parallel teams working in different locations, or service teams
providing around-the-clock technical help.
Pearlson and Saunders discuss three important paradoxes that illustrate the difficulties of telework
and virtual organizations.
1. Increased flexibility and increased structure.
Telework is very flexible however telework also requires the manager to keep better
track of schedules and meeting because ‘chance encounters and informal discussions
do not occur’
2. Greater individuality and more teamwork:
Teleworkers are isolated on an individual basis, but they are also required to
coordinate work to a high degree. E.g. teleworkers see basic procedures as
‘mysterious’ because they were used to being independent but follow the rules of
the central organization
3. More responsibility and less control
The nature of telework requires tasks than can be accomplished independently.
However, managers often fear losing control of workers who are out of sight.
Similarly teleworkers fear that if they are out of sight they will be less likely to be
considered for promotions.
Chapter 14 the changing landscape of organizations
Communication in the global workplace
The proliferation of companies choosing to locate call centers in far-reaching (India, Philippines etc.)
is just one example of globalization or the rapidly developing processes of complex interconnections
between societies, cultures, institutions, and individuals worldwide. A number of factors have
contributed to the rise of globalization:
 Laissez-faire capitalism: the assumption that a free-market economic system has sufficient
checks and balances in place to ensure that the legitimate interests of all members of a
society will be met. This also contributed to the democratization of many countries.
 The economic and political impetus toward globalization has been helped along by many
technological factors. One can think of low-cost air travel, the internet, facsimile, and video
conferences business can be done over great distances. We have moved from a landscape in
which companies are largely associated with one country to a landscape where there is a mix
of domestic, multicultural, multinational, international and global organization. SEE TABLE
14.1
Effects of globalization
So the question is if we should be happy with globalization or not. Zahre points out that there is an
utopian and a dystopian view on globalization:
 Utopian view: globalization will continue to escalate, transferring technologies, bringing
cultures and societies close, and creating a community of peace loving, intelligent citizen.
Cooperation and competitiveness are ways to accomplish excellence.
 Dystopian view: Conservatives fear that globalization will undermined the integrity of a
country’s political and social institutions and may weaken its cultural fabric. Leftists are
concerned about the prospect of political, technological and economic dependence. Others
are concerned over our growing reliance on technology to address complex social and
cultural problems.
Mong proposes several ways that globalization influences organization communication:
Globalization:
 Results in time and space compression changing communication patterns and perceptions.
Space and time no longer directly connected.
 Enhances our sense of global consciousness and reflexivity. When we work in an organization
that is global, multinational, or multicultural, we must be aware of the cultures of others and
of our own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
 Leads to disembedded organization and people. In a global society behavior and interaction
are often lifted from their local context and restructured across time and space.
In addition to these effects there are general patterns to consider in how people view the process
and outcomes of globalization.
1. Convergence: is and approach that emphasizes the need of organizations to adapt their
practices to a global marketplace. This approach considers how an organization might adapt
its practices to a global system that requires flexibility, responsiveness, speed, knowledge
production, and knowledge dissemination. The goal is to enhance organizational
performance in the worldwide marketplace SEE TABLE 14.2
2. Divergence: emphasizes the cultural distinctiveness found around the world. This approach is
less interested in exploring strategies for organizational success than in exploring how
meaning is constructed in various cultural settings and the impact of organizational norms
and functioning on that construction of meaning.
Thus, it is critical to look at the competing forces of convergence and divergence in examining
communication within global organizations.
It is also vital to consider the human effects of globalization as more individuals are working in
unfamiliar cultures with people who hold different values and goals. E.g. creating a trust-worthy
relationship with your co-workers while working at different times and in different places is very
hard. Communication in these global organizations will depend largely on balancing the forces of
convergence (making us more alike in our search for workplace efficiency) with the forces of
divergence (making us appreciate our cultural differences)
Communication in an era of shifting identity
In the global economy it is important for organizations that they create a clearly distinctive identity
to be recognized around the world.
In addition to this there are many other reasons for the increased importance of organizational
identity. For example the mergers and acquisitions, there is a shifting landscape of who belongs to
who. Thus, today more than ever, many organizations are concerned with creating and presenting an
image to their various publics.
Heath has noted that companies try to impose themselves on their environments, rather than merely
adapt to them. They attempt to shape their environment by their presence in it, by they do and say.
This shaping of the environment involves creating and maintaining an organizational image or a
mental picture that is descriptive, evaluative and predisposing. Organizations seek to create and
maintain positive images in order to achieve long-term goals.
However, organizational images are not always created and maintained through purposive
campaigns. Members of the organizational environment form perceptions of an organization’s image
based on a wide array of messages. Further, sometimes the style or means of communication can be
more important than the actual message. The principal management problem in today’s marketplace
of good and ideas is not so much to provide commodities and services or to take stands on the
salient issues of the day, but to do these things with a certain distinctiveness that allows the
organization to create and legitimize itself.
The messages sent by organizational representatives in the face of such events could predict both
the short-term image and long-term survival of the organizational. Image management is a reciprocal
process in which organizational members (especially top management) create and adapt accounts of
the event in response to both sympathetic and antagonistic organizational audiences. Through active
monitoring and spin control, the organization attempts to create an optimal image in light of
changing environmental conditions
Communication in a service economy
In the years following the Industrial Revolution, most organizations counted the creation of ‘things’
as a primary goal. Today, however, our economy can largely be characterized as service economy.
The service-producing sector continues to lead projected employment growth, and the 10 leading
industries accounting for 60 percent of all projected job growth over the coming decade are all
service providers (Meyer and Detore, 1999).
Pederson notes that we should be enjoying a fabulous experience with every retail transaction
according to the books of getting-close-to-your-customer excellence. However surveys show that
people think that the quality of service is deteriorating.
This is because in manufacturing people can be replaced by robots; in service this is not possible. Still
downsizing and retrenchment will cause a fall in the quality of service. Thus, in a turbulent
environment, an organization may choose to sacrifice customer service in the belief that such a move
will enhance profits and keep the company economically competitive.
Another answer to problems with service may lie in the type of service that is provided and the
match of that service communication to the need of the costumer.
Ford and Etienne have suggested that service comes in many guises. These forms of service can have
a significant impact on customers’ satisfaction and behavior. When their expectations of service are
violated (e.g. expect personal approach but do not get it or vice-versa)
Third, the provision of service often involves emotional labor and accompanying stress for the service
provider. Stress can, of course, deteriorate the quality of the service. This can be cause by understaff
or unrealistic expectations from the personnel.
Communication in the age of the disposable worker
A final factor to consider is the role of the individual in the new global economy.
The global economy, increased technology, weakened labor unions, and an extremely competitive
organizational environment have all contributed to, what Reich calls, the end of employment as we
knew it and what Conrad and Poole call the age of the disposable worker.
There are several explanations for the age of the disposable worker. Conrad and Poole say that we
have gotten competitive and yet have the lowest unemployment we have ever had. This is a good
thing and people are getting better jobs than they had before.
Reich argues that managers have made decisions in the ‘new economy’ that have led to a disposable
workforce, rather than taking a ‘high road’ approach in which they encourage employee
participation, invest in the workforce and make good decisions about scarce capital.
Others argue that the disposable workforce is part of an overall strategy to minimize work incomes
and eliminate labor power to the benefit of management and stakeholders.
So what are the characteristics of this disposable workforce?
1. Today’s workforce is increasingly made up of contingent workers. These are workers who
are temporary workers such as independent consultants, day laborers etc. In fact some jobs
are created for the so called temps.
2. Many in the workforce have been forced into temporary work or self-employment or into an
underemployment situation through corporate layoffs, downsizing and mergers.
3. Many workers are not forced into alternative work arrangements but intentionally op for an
employment situation that bears little resemblance to Whyte’s organization man or woman.
Individuals may choose to work as temps, telecommute, work part time or enter and exit the
workforce at various stages of their lives.
Finally what are the implications of these basic changes in work as we know it?
 Financial implications: those who are unemployed, underemployed, working as a temp will
most often earn less money over their lifetimes than will a lifetime corporate employee. A
second financial implication involves employment benefits like health benefits.
 A disposable workforce feels less connection to the organization and vice versa. There is a
lack of interaction and purposeful organizational policies limited the extent to which
temporary workers felt connected to the organization. A lack of employee identification has
implications for personal and organization decision making as we have seen in previous
chapters. Further, contingent workers often receive directives from both the staffing agency
and the organization that contracts for their work. This situation can lead to role conflict and
the need for temporary workers to choose between the desires of these competing
organizations
 Finally, a contingent workforce has the potential to continuously breathe new life into
organizations