The Evolution of
Communication
in a Global Workplace



The sender is the
originator or source of a
message
The receiver is the person
to whom the sender
directs the message.
The message is what the
sender says and does
during a communication
episode
 Possibility
for misunderstandings
 Messages are conveyed in different ways
 Idea of channel
 Added context
Updated Model
Noise
• includes the physical, semantic, and hierarchical influences that
either disrupt or shape the interpretation of messages.
Feedback
• the activity of providing senders and receivers with responses to
their communication, ideas, and identities.
Channel
• the thoroughfare a message takes from sender to receiver.
Environment
• the physical arrangement of the space, the cultural context the
participants bring to the situation, and the communication
history that exists between the participants.
 Physical
 Historical
 Cultural


Classical management & information transfer
Human relations/resources & transactional
process

Systems thinking & communication networks

Organizational cultures, communication, & power

Organizational narratives & dialogue
 Scientific
management
 Bureaucracy
 Information transfer
Main Ideas
Functions
Downside
Factories and organizations
operated as efficient machines.
Planning
Dehumanizing (workers
replaced like spare parts)
Time and motion studies used to
account for every task
Organizing
Work conditions were hard,
labor laws didn't exist
Established standards and
evaluation instruments
Commanding
Workers fired based on sex,
race, religion, attitude, or
relationships
Goal to find the one best way to
complete a task.
Coordinating
Managers think, workers work.
controlling
Main Ideas
Universalisms
Downside
Top-down authority
structure.
Fixed division of labor
No communication between
workers and managers.
Centralized decisionmaking.
Hierarchy of work
responsibilities and authority.
No opportunity for workers
to learn to manage
Control of managerial
power to govern the
organization of work.
Set of general operating rules
that govern performances.
No opportunity for
managers to learn to be
better at their jobs.
Separations of personal and
professional lives
Selection based on technical
qualifications

Main Idea
• Communication was a pipeline through which a message
was passed.
• One end was the sender, the other end was the receiver.

Limitations
• Assumed that thoughts and feelings were transferred
from speaker to receiver.
• Assumed that words contained the thoughts and feelings
of the speaker.
• Assumed that a listener could extract those thoughts and
feelings from a message.
• Gaps left in the message required new was of thinking
about human communication.
 Hawthorne
Studies
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Transactional Process

Main Idea
• Connected changes in productivity to changes in lighting.

Significance
• Showed that increased attention to morale lead to improved
productivity.
• Group interactions could have a favorable effect on work.
• Moved from scientific management to human relation's approach
to management.

Human Relations Approach
• Importance of open communication and supportive relations
between managers and employees.
• Need for managers to take into account employee's feelings
• Need for managers to respond to the development needs of
workers.




Explanation of what motivates
human behavior.
Motivation grows as employees
move from lower order to
higher order needs.
Employees could be motivated
more by helping to satisfy their
higher order needs, in turn the
employee would become more
motivated.
Set the stage for organizational
learning and continuous
improvement.
Self
Actualization
Esteem
Belonging
Safety
Physiological
 Main
Ideas
• Everyone in an organization is engaged in
sending and receiving messages
• Each person is constantly affecting the other
• Feedback, particularly nonverbal feedback,
is a vital source of information
• The person receiving a message, rather than
the person sending the message, is the
source of meaning
 Main
Idea
• A way to view the sets of relationships that
comprise the patterns of interaction within an
organization.
 Components
• Environment
• Interdependence
• Goals
• Feedback
• Openness, Order and Contingency
 Types of Communication Flow
• Formal
 communication that follows set chains of command using
established groups and teams.
• Informal
 communication that occurs through social patterns of
interaction that are not authorized or formal.
 Contingent decision making
• takes advantage of the dynamic nature of systems
and allows decisions to be revised as new
information is developed.
• Open lines of communication ensure feedback
occurs.

Organizational culture
• implies an intricate, interconnected, and purposeful
pattern or order.
• pattern is drawn from the metaphors and language of
“community,”

Involves:
• a unique sense of place that both unites and divides
members
• histories and visions for the future, which may or may not
be shared
• locally defined customs, rituals, rules, rites, and
procedures
• shared core values
 Communication
• the process by which culture is formed and
transformed
 Power
• sources of influence derived by an individual
within an organization.
 Classic
managerial forms of power
• Reward power
• Coercive power
• Referent power
• Expert power
• Legitimate power
 Shifts
from the manager’s position within
the hierarchy to the relationship between
the manager and the employee.
Employee Gains Power
Manager Gains Power
Giving feedback to boss
Being supportive and open
Interpreting meanings about the
relationships and work
Showing interest in employees’
feelings and thoughts
Negotiating how, when and with
what resources assigned work can
be accomplished
Demonstrating trust
 Views
power as a system of relationships
 Finds power in everyday exchanges
between and among equals, superiors
and subordinates
 Relationship quality and perceived value
of information yields power
 Rumors and gossip serve to balance
power
 Assumes
a constant struggle for power in
every organization
 People
and groups holding power are
described as dominant
 Those
 Power
seeking power are labeled resistant
as it relates to and derives from
gender, race, class, and sexual orientation

Organizational stories
• Individual accounts of the workplace

Work-hate narratives
• Individual accounts of harms, misdeeds, or violence done
to employees.

Narrative recovery technique
• Collected to “recover” the history of the organization from
a personal perspective.

Organizational change
• Stories about change—myths, legends, turning points—of
any organization or profession.
 Requires:
• analyzing communication situations
• thinking actively about possible communication
choices available to us
• adapting our message to inform, amuse,
persuade, or otherwise influence our listener or
audience
• evaluating the feedback we receive as an
indication of how successful we were in
accomplishing our purpose