Description
After reading chapter one of Brewer and Westerman (2018), provide and defend your working definition of organizational communication. This definition should be your definition based on experience, knowledge, and the chapter content, not a replication of someone else’s definition. After providing and defending your definition, answer, in formal paragraphs, #3 and #4 Review and Discussion Questions on page 11 of Brewer and Westerman. 3. What examples of effective (or not so effective) communication have you observed in the workplace, at church, in school, or at home?4. How would you describe the communication expectations of your ideal workplace?Instructions:Your original post should be 350-400 words. Two responses to peers. Each response to peers posts should be 100-150 words.All References should be in correct APA Format.
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Chapter 1:
Organizational Communication
and Contextual Realities
Introduction
• Effective communication is essential to the success of
organizations
• Today’s organizational landscape increases the
potential for:
• Global reach of organizations
• Being a productive organizational employee and
leader
• Understanding human behavior within organizations
Case Study: Twitter and Social Shaming
• In 2013, Justine Sacco, senior director of corporate
communications at IAC, posted an inappropriate tweet
before she flew to Africa
• The tweet became the No. 1 worldwide trend on Twitter,
as thousands of angry tweets responded to her post
• Justine was fired from her job at IAC soon after the
incident occurred
• What are the major issues in this case?
Defining Organizational Communication
• The modern study of organizational communication dates
back to the Hawthorne studies
• Charles Redding is generally given credit as the ‘father’
of organizational communication
• According to Wofford, Gerloff, and Cummins (1977),
communication is considered a binding agent within all
social systems and subsystems
• According to the textbook authors, organizational
communication is “the study of the process of creating and
understanding through the coordination of verbal and
nonverbal communication within and between
organizations” (p. 5)
Diversity in the Workplace
• In this technological and global economy, you will likely
be working with a more diverse group of people than
did your parents, regardless of who is working in your
office building or department
• Diversity needs to be both respected and appreciated
for its power to:
• Contribute new ideas to organizations
• Understand new potential markets
• Enhance individual understanding and the overall
human condition
Organizing in a Global Marketplace
• Successful organizations embrace cultural differences
• Growth and efficiency is related to the successful
incorporation of cultural differences and creative
strategies
• Developing an understanding of culture can:
• Greatly improve workplace interactions
• improve relationships with diverse suppliers,
customers, and employees
Ethical Issues
• Ethics is an interpretation of what
is good and right
• Can vary from person to person,
department to department,
organization to organization
• Ethical issues are not only relevant
considerations at the individual
level of analysis but are also
important at higher-order levels
of analysis
Critical Thinking Questions: Ethics
How important is honesty for effective communication?
Does an organization need to be honest and ethical to be
a competent or effective organization?
Is the ultimate result of the instantaneous nature of global
communication enabled by our modern technology
creating a repressive, conservative, and conformist society?
Or do the benefits of today’s power of communication
more than offset these risks?
Task and Maintenance Roles
• Duncan (1978) defined role as, “a pattern of behavior
that is expected of a person when he or she interacts
with others” (p. 184)
• Organizations are also more effective when they attend
to both task roles and maintenance roles
• Task roles involve communication about the tasks at
hand – what needs to be accomplished
• Maintenance roles involve communication about the
relationships
• Communication is more effective when there is role
clarity, and less effective when there is role ambiguity
Forms of Communication:
Oral, Written, Non-Verbal
• Communication can take many forms; it can be oral,
written, or non-verbal
• Communication is a process
• A communication act does not occur in isolation; it is a
part of a larger context of interaction
Critical Thinking Questions: Communication
• Think about each form of communication. Can you ever
not communicate? Why is this important to consider from
an organizational perspective?
Communication Networks
• The web of interaction within the organizational
environment is also impacted by the connections – both
formal and informal – that link employees together
• In a formal chain of command, communication follows a
preplanned sequence of information flow
• Sometimes, the leader plays the key role for the entire
group
• A single strand chain of command features information
flowing in a linear pattern, with the leader as the source
• A team approach requires communication to be an allchannel process, allowing group members to communicate
across the organization freely
Communication Network Charts
Context Matters
For-Profit Organizations
• Clear structures and hierarchies, more formalized
culture
Nonprofit Organizations
• Often guided by a specific value, includes volunteers
Family Entrepreneurship
• Less formal structure and communication expectations
Government Sector
• Communication often impacted by political changes
Critical Thinking Question – Context
Matters
• In what ways might non-profit, for profit, family
entrepreneurship, and government sector organizations
differ in the way they might handle a social media issue
like Justine Sacco’s?
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