Module 10 - Organizational Communication

Prior to completing the following, please read Chapter 10 of your textbook.

NOTE: After reading Chapter 10 in the text and reviewing this module and the Chapter 10 PowerPoints and documents, make sure to complete all of the Module 10 Assignments. Please refer to the course calendar or the bottom of this module for a list of the assignments.

Organizational Communication

This module will emphasize organizational communication and review a few of the concepts discussed in Chapter 10. After reading the chapter and completing this module you should be able to:

1 Define the concept of organizational communication and discuss its characteristics.

2 Evaluate the differences between informal and formal communication including vertical and horizontal communication (see Chapter 10 in text).

3 Describe the Media Richness Model and explain its relevance to organizational communication (see Chapter 10 in text).

4 Identify and discuss the two stages of organizational socialization (i.e., anticipatory socialization and assimilation).

5 Define the concept of organizational culture and its related components.

6 Apply organizational communication concepts to better understand and improve your own organizational and employment experiences.

Defining Organizational Communication

First, let's define the concept of organization:

Organization = a social context where symbols are exchanged to create and maintain social reality and collective meaning.

Now, let's focus on organizational communication:

While there are many definitions of organizational communication, commonalities among those definitions emphasize that the communication that occurs within an organization does the following:

· Helps achieve goals (i.e., organizational communication is goal-directed)

· Coordinates actions

· Shares information

· Facilitates decision-making

· Coordinates human relationships

Additional characteristics of organizational communication include:

· Organizational communication occurs within a complex open system, which is influenced by and influences its environments, both internal (called organizational culture) and external (e.g., other organizations, society/broader culture, local/national/federal government, etc.).

· Organizational communication involves messages and their flow, purpose, direction, and media.

· Organizational communication involves people and their attitudes, feelings, relationships, and skills.

Organizational communication = a process through which people--acting together--create, sustain, and manage meanings through the use of verbal and nonverbal signs and symbols within a particular context.

Socialization in Organizations

Two stages of socialization are studied with regard to entering organizations: 1) Anticipatory socialization and 2) Assimilation.

Anticipatory Socialization

Anticipatory socialization consists of a continuous and ongoing process that starts early in life regarding the idea that one must work and the types of jobs that one can have. For most children, this process begins early in life from simply realizing that one or both of their parents have a job and must spend a significant amount of time at this job. By the time a child enters some form of formal education (i.e., preschool or kindergarten), they will begin to formulate some idea of "what they want to be" when they grow up. As children mature, they begin to refine and focus those ideas, and many individuals know what they want to do with their life by the time they enter high school or college. However, as I am sure some of you have experienced, our plans and dreams for the future often change--and that is OK! The anticipatory socialization process is full of trials and tribulations, and these experiences help us learn about ourselves and what type of career will make us happy.

There are five informational sources that influence our thoughts and ideas about what type of organizations we might want to work for and the occupations or vocations that we might want to have. Those five sources are family, educational institutions, part-time job experiences, peers, and mass media (Jablin, 1987; 2001).

1.) Family

Parents play a significant role in modeling occupational roles and many discuss or persuade their children to seek certain careers. Parents are also typically the first to socialize children to the idea of work and teach them work principles by assigning household chores. For example, I was raised by a busy single mother and my siblings and I had assigned chores that we were expected to complete every week. Through these chores, I learned the importance of working hard and contributing to the good of the household. I apply this same work ethic in my career today.

Families also socialize children into what work is. Many parents talk about what they do at work, and these conversations help children formulate what an occupation is and what it means to work. My mom is a social worker and would often tell me stories about her cases and the people she helped. Based on these conversations, I've always wanted to pursue a career that involves interacting with and helping people on a daily basis. I'm not surprised at all that I ended up being a college professor!

In short, as a child you learned about work and organizational processes through interacting with your parents (and siblings) at home. This serves as an important “on-the job” training for many youth (Stark, 1992).

2. Education

Education is an influential source of anticipatory socialization. Preschool and elementary schools are typically a child’s first introduction to non-parental authority. As students interact with fellow classmates and teachers, they develop communication skills and relationships with other children. During the later elementary school years, students begin to compare their skills and abilities to those of their friends and classmates. The two most common skills sets students compare are social/athletic abilities and academic competence.

During high school, students typically begin acquiring information about different occupations and take specialized classes in those areas of interest. Additionally, students learn about organizational communication by participating in co-ops and internships. Through these experiences, students observe the procedures of the company they are working for and learn what interactions and behaviors in the workplace are acceptable.

3. Part-time Employment

Part-time employment opportunities offer unique (but sometimes debatable) socialization opportunities. Part-time employees are often not included in the organizational network; therefore, they may fail to develop close communicative relationships in the organization. Part-time employment has also shown to have little impact on future career plans. For example, many college students obtain part-time jobs in retail and at restaurants while they are completing their degree, but have no desire to establish a long-term career in these industries. Thus, their part-time positions are unrelated to their future professional goals.

However, part-time work can certainly be a beneficial experience throughout the anticipatory socialization process. Individuals whose part-time jobs make use of their skills and provide them with opportunities to learn the "ins and outs" of employment often experience increased motivation and reduced cynicism. Many part-time jobs allow for a valuable learning experience and prepare individuals for their future full-time careers.

4. Peers

Friends and peers tend to discuss future educational and occupational plans with each other. In these conversations, children and teens will confirm or dis-confirm the desirability of some occupations.

Participation in after-school activities (sports, scouts, etc.) is another form of peer-related anticipatory socialization. These activities have been found to encourage the development of communication skills and group identity. In terms of interpersonal communication, sports and club activities teach children to manage their emotions, create positive impressions, and work with others toward a common goal. As for group identity, many team sports and extracurricular activities encourage the development of team spirit, school spirit, and overall unity. These experiences with peers help prepare children and teens for the interpersonal and group interactions they will later face in their careers.

5. Mass Media

Mass media play a significant role in the process of anticipatory socialization. Unfortunately, research shows that the media tend to provide inaccurate depictions of organizational communication. These negative and inaccurate ideas about organizational communication are often revealed through organizational talk, occupational representation, and mass media stereotypes.

On television, organizational talk is often portrayed as "social talk" and not task-related. In real-life organizations, however, the majority of talk is informational and task-related--not social. Overall, research has shown that television portrays organizational talk as “a caricature of the actual world of work.”

On dramas and comedies, occupational representation mostly centers on managerial and prestigious professional occupations (doctors and lawyers). Thus, less prestigious jobs (i.e., typically blue color jobs) are under-represented in the media.

Finally, the media tend to stereotype the portrayals of organizational employees. In doing so, television shows provide inaccurate images of how people behave and communicate in various occupations.

Though entertaining, television and other media often disseminate a negative and/or unrealistic view of workplace communicative interactions. Many of the values and behaviors depicted via mass media can be a threat to the values and beliefs instilled by family, peers, education, religion, and other socialization agents.

What workplace stereotypes can you identify in this trailer for the TV show The Office ?

The Office Season 1 & 2 DVD Trailer

Assimilation

Once you have a job, the organizational assimilation process begins to take place. Assimilation refers to the "ongoing behavioral and cognitive processes by which individuals join, become integrated into, and exit organizations” (Jablin, 2001). In general, assimilating into an organization is the process of learning about the requirements of a job that you have taken. Throughout the assimilation process, the organization attempts to make you think, feel, and respond in ways that are preferred by the organization. For example, after joining an organization, you may decide that dressing more formally will help you fit into the organizational culture.

Individualization = attempts by the employee to change some aspect of the organization or his/her job in order to better suit his/her own personal needs, abilities, or desires.

Encounter Phase

The encounter or entry phase refers to the first few weeks or months on the job. This is the process of "learning the ropes"; that is, discovering what is required of you and what the job really entails. New employees also learn the informal and formal communication processes and the unwritten rules. During this time, the newcomer relies on his/her past experiences with other organizations regarding how to communicate inside the organization, as well as any predispositions s/he may have that could have been collected from family members, interactions with other organizational employees, past classes or education, or mass media.

After a person has been on the job at a company for a few months, s/he will likely feel at home and know most things about the position. The new employee will then move on to the metamorphosis phase.

Metamorphosis Phase

The metamorphosis phase is marked by the employee successfully making the transition from outsider to insider. This transition is not a static one-time event, but a dynamic process during which the employee begins to feel like an insider and begins to be viewed as an insider by other organizational employees.

During the encounter and metamorphosis phases, employees typically learn two classes of information that guide them through the assimilation process and help them succeed in their position. The first class of information includes information about the employee's role in the organization, such as the skills, procedures, and rules that the individual must grasp in order to perform on the job. The second class of information refers to information about the organization's culture (see section on Organizational Culture below). Organizational cultural information is gathered by relying on observations of behavior and artifacts to draw inferences about cultural values and assumptions.

Exit Phase

Like the entry (encounter) and metamorphosis phases, organizational exit is a process and not a static event. Organizational exit is a process that affects both those who leave and those employees who are left behind.

Organizational exit can be either voluntary or non-voluntary. Voluntary exit is planned and consists of an employee choosing to (or agreeing to) leave, transfer, or retire. Non-voluntary exit typically consists of lay-offs or being fired.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture = a pattern of basic assumptions (re)created by organizational members; a common frame of reference for understanding how to think, feel, and behave

Key ideas about organizational culture:

· It is the personality of an organization.

· It is the emotional climate/atmosphere of an organization

· Culture is not something an organization has, it’s what an organization is.

· The purpose of the cultural approach to organizations is to understand how culture is created through communication.

Strong organizational cultures have the following components:

1 Values - visions and standards that members hold for an organization

· For example, NMSU's mission statement expresses the university's values: “NMSU is a caring community committed to transforming lives through discovery.”

2 Heroes - individuals who come to exemplify an organization's values

3 Rites & Rituals - ceremonies through which an organization celebrates its values

4 Symbols/Cultural Networks - a communication system through which cultural values are reinforced

NOTE: For more information on the above cultural components, please review the section on "Organizational Culture" in your textbook (p. 187) AND the Chapter 10 PowerPoint (posted at the bottom of this Module).

Schein's Levels of Organizational Culture

Professor Edgar Schein identified 3 levels of Organizational Culture: 1) Artifacts, 2) Espoused Values, and 3) Assumptions.

· The slides below illustrate these 3 levels with examples from The Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant where I worked for 6 years.

Level 1: Artifacts & Behaviors:

The most visible organizational structures and processes. Anyone who walks into the building can observe most of the organization's artifacts and behaviors.

Level 2: Espoused Values:

The organization's goals, priorities, and vision(s). In other words, espoused values represent what organizational members believe "ought" to happen and/or how things "should" be. Many organizations communicate their espoused values through their mission statement (see The Cheesecake Factory's mission statement below).

Level 3: Assumptions:

Taken-for-granted (often unconscious) beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings.