Fundamentals of Organizational Communication

The Scientific Management School

Scientific Management perspective
theoretical approach to organizations that emphasizes organizational design,worker training for efficiency, chains of command, and division of labor. The perspective rests on the assumption that work and organizations can be rationally or scientifically designed and developed.

Major Scientific Management Theories

Principles of Scientific Management: Frederick Taylor (1856-1915)
Four Essential Elements
Careful selection of workers Inducing and training the worker by the scientific method Equal division of work between management and workers Discovering the scientific method for tasks and jobs

Major Scientific Management Theories

Principles of Scientific Management: Frederick Taylor (1856-1915)
Time and Motion Study
a technique for determining the efficiency of production through work observation and time measurements; used to develop work standards that can be measured for efficiency.

Major Scientific Management Theories

Principles of Management: Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
Credited with the first known attempt to describe broad principles of management for the organization and conduct of business.

Fourteen Principles of Management: Henri Fayol

Division of work Authority Discipline Unity of Command Unity of direction Subordination of individual interests to the general interest Remuneration        Centralization Scalar chain Order Equity Stability of tenure of personnel Initiative Esprit de corps

Fourteen Principles of Management: Henri Fayol

His discussion of the scalar chain is the only known treatment of horizontal communication found in organizational literature until the writings of Chester Barnard in 1938.
the chain of superiors ranging from the ultimate authority to the lowest ranks

Principles of Bureaucracy: Max Weber (1864-1920)

The father of bureaucracy Three types of authority
Charismatic Traditional Bureaucratic

Principles of Bureaucracy: Max Weber

Bureaucracy
organizations based on formalized rules, regulations, and procedures, which make authority rational as opposed to charismatic or traditional.

Chain of command
the formal authority and reporting structure of an organization.

Communication Implications of Scientific Management Theories

Communication was to be a tool of management designed to facilitate task completion
Train employees Give daily instructions

Communication was to be formal Messages primarily from supervisors to subordinates

Communication Implications of Scientific Management Theories

Communication was viewed as rational and functioning to reduce uncertainty about task expectations and measurement

Communication Implications of Scientific Management Theories

The Functional approach to organizational communication can be used to describe communication implications from the Scientific Management viewpoint.
Organizational communication functioned to organize task performance and to clarify rules and regulations.

Communication Implications of Scientific Management Theories

The Functional approach Scientific Management theorists described messages as flowing via the chain of command primarily in a downward direction.

Communication Implications of Scientific Management Theories

The Meaning-Centered approach Communication was described as a variable of the organization controlled by management Culture was not a primary consideration Decision making was another organizational variable controlled by management

Communication Implications of Scientific Management Theories The Emerging Perspectives

Scientific Management theorists did not consider abuses of power, as evidenced in the Emerging Perspectives, and readily supported a legitimate power within the control of management.

Scientific Management Theories in Contemporary Organizations

A careful examination of most contemporary organizations reveals numerous Scientific Management principles still in operation. Local, state, and national governments are also organized with many of these principles.

The Human Behavior School

The Human Behavior school shifts the emphasis from the structure of organizations, work design, and measurement to the interactions of individuals, their motivations, and their influence on organizational events.

The Human Behavior School

The Human Behavior Perspective assumes that work is accomplished through people and emphasizes cooperation, participation, satisfaction, and interpersonal skills.

Major Human Behavior Theories

Principles of Coordination: Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933)
Best known for her true principles of organizations based on a stable foundation for the steady, ordered progress of human well-being. Characterized conflict as potentially constructive and described collective responsibility and integration as supportive of business excellence.

Major Human Behavior Theories

Principles of Coordination: Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933)

Four Active Principles:
1. Coordination by direct contact of the responsible people concerned 2. Coordination in the early stages 3. Coordination as a reciprocal relation of all the features in a situation 4. Coordination as a continuing process.

Major Human Behavior Theories

The Hawthorne Effect: Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
When the famous Hawthorne studies began, Mayo was experimenting with the alteration of physical working conditions to increase productivity. They became aware that other unexpected factors were interacting with physical factors to influence work output.

Major Human Behavior Theories

The Hawthorne Effect: Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
Output increased not matter how the physical variables were changed. Mayo and his colleagues came to understand that a powerful and previously unrecognized influence in the experimental setting was the attention the researchers were paying to the workers.

Major Human Behavior Theories

The Hawthorne Effect: Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
As a result of the Hawthorne research, production could no longer be viewed as solely dependent on formal job and organizational design.

Major Human Behavior Theories

The Hawthorne Effect: Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
This effect, widely know as the Hawthorne effect, was the first documentation in industrial psychological research of the importance of human interaction and morale for productivity

Major Human Behavior Theories

Theory X and Theory Y: Douglas McGregor (1906-1964)
McGregors description of management assumptions about workers. Theory X characterizes assumptions underlying Scientific Management theory, and Theory Y is associated with assumptions common to Human Behavior perspectives. Theory X managers assume workers dislike work and will avoid responsible labor. Theory Y managers believe that workers can be self-directed and self-controlled.

Major Human Behavior Theories

Theory X and Theory Y: Douglas McGregor (1906-1964)
McGregor has been criticized for what some have called a polarized either/or approach to human nature. McGregor has responded that Theory X and Theory Y are assumptions that may be better understood as ranges of behaviors from X to Y.

Theory X and Theory Y

Major Human Behavior Theories

Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981)
Likerts theory of employee-centered management based on effectively functioning groups linked together structurally throughout the organization

Likerts Linking Pin Concept

Major Human Behavior Theories

Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981) Taylor had interpreted variability in performance as a need to establish specific procedures and production standards; Likerts interpretation called for an increase in participation by organizational members at all levels.

Major Human Behavior Theories

Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981) Likerts (1960) attitude toward communication was clear when he stated: Communication is essential to the functioning of an organization. It is viewed widely as one of the most important processes of management.

Major Human Behavior Theories

Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981)
Likerts research also revealed that productivity was high in groups in which the supervisor and subordinate shared reasonable accurate perceptions of each other. Likert concluded from this finding that good communication and high performance go together.

Communication Implications of Human Behavior Theories Effective communication was a cornerstone of the Human Behavior perspective. Interactions at all levels were expected to be extensive and friendly, with substantial cooperation throughout the organization.

Communication Implications of Human Behavior Theories

Functional Approach
The Human Behavior viewpoint saw a more complex role for communication than the Scientific Management theorists envisioned. The relationship function of organizational communication was considered significant. The change function of communication was everyones responsibility

Communication Implications of Human Behavior Theories

Meaning-Centered Approach Communication was better understood in the Human Behavior perspective than in the Scientific Management approach.

Communication Implications of Human Behavior Theories

Meaning-Centered Approach The Human Behavior perspective exhibits more concern with worker participation and satisfaction than do Scientific Management theories.

Communication Implications of Human Behavior Theories

Emerging Perspectives
Despite this concern for participation, Human Behavior theorists pay little attention to the concerns of power and how communication constitutes organizing, decision making, and influence. Women and other marginalized voices are not included as concerns.

Human Behavior Theories in Contemporary Organizations

Most contemporary organizations include not only Scientific Management ideas but also much of the thinking generated from the Human Behavior theorists.

The Integrated Perspectives School Theories that attempt to explain how people, technologies, and environments integrate to influence goal-directed behavior.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Process and environmental approaches to organizational theory attempt to describe how complex processes such as decision making influence the internal operation of organizations and are influenced by external environments

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches Decision-Making Approach Sociotechnical Integration Contingency Theory The Systems Approach The New Systems Approaches Flux, Transformation, Quantum Physics, Self-Organizing Systems, and Chaos Theory Learning Organizations

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Decision-Making Approach: Herbert

Simon (1916- )

Simons concept that organizational behavior is a complex network of decisions, with decision-making processes influencing the behavior of the entire organization.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Decision-Making Approach: Herbert

Simon (1916- )

Bounded rationality - assumption that people intend to be rational, but with limited information-processing capacity human decision making is based on selective perception and therefore exhibits limited rationality.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Decision-Making Approach: Herbert

Simon (1916- )

He described decision making as the fundamental organizational process. Decision making, he said, occurs through the communication behaviors of individuals who intend rationality but can only approach rationality because of limited information-processing capacity.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Sociotechnical Integration: Eric L. Trist

(1909-1993) and Kenneth W. Bamforth

theoretical attempt to balance human social-psychological needs with organizational goals;

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Sociotechnical Integration: Eric L. Trist

(1909-1993) and Kenneth W. Bamforth

Two Assumptions
Assumed that organizational production is optimized through optimizing social and technical systems Assumed a constant interchange exists between the work system and the broader environment.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Sociotechnical Integration: Eric L. Trist

(1909-1993) and Kenneth W. Bamforth

Their experiments led them to conclude that meaning in work could be established through group assignments that permit individuals to be included in entire task cycles rather than working on isolated parts of a job.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Contingency Theory: Joan Woodward (1916)1971), Paul Lawrence (1922- ), and Jay Lorsch (1932- )

Approach that rejects the one best way to organize in favor of the view that no specific set of prescriptions is appropriate for all organizations. As such, organizations must adapt to changing circumstances, the needs of individuals, and the environment in which the organization operates.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Contingency Theory: Joan Woodward (1916)1971), Paul Lawrence (1922- ), and Jay Lorsch (1932- )

Contingency theory suggests that considerable judgment is required to understand effective organizational operation because that operation all depends on the situation.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

The Systems Approach: Daniel Katz (19031998) and Robert Kahn (1918- )

Describes organizations as made up of subsystems, which take in materials and human resources, process materials and resources, and yield a finished product to the larger environment.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches The New Systems Approach Flux, Transformation, Quantum Physics, Self-Organizing Systems, and Chaos Theory: Gareth Morgan (1943- ) and Margaret Wheatley
(1944- )

Autopoiesis - process describing each element in a system simultaneously combining the maintenance of itself with the maintenance of the other elements of the system.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches The New Systems Approach Flux, Transformation, Quantum Physics, Self-Organizing Systems, and Chaos Theory: Gareth Morgan (1943- ) and Margaret Wheatley
(1944- )

Dissipative Structures - descriptions of structures when a loss of energy and form contribute to disequilibrium, which in turn contributes to growth and new structures and forms.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

The New Systems Approach Flux, Transformation, Quantum Physics, SelfOrganizing Systems, and Chaos Theory:
Gareth Morgan (1943- ) and Margaret Wheatley (1944- )

Self-organizing/Self-renewing Systems processes occurring when disturbances amplify stimulating reconfigurations to deal with new information. Chaos Theory - description of systems disturbed from stable states of unpredictability.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches Learning Organizations: Peter Senge and
Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Organizations gaining knowledge from continuous processes of information exchange between the organization and its environment. Double-loop Learning the process of learning (single-loop) vs. the process of learning to learn (double loop)

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches Learning Organizations: Peter Senge and
Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Senges Five Disciplines

System Thinking Personal Mastery Mental Models Building Shared Vision Team Learning

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Process and Environmental Approaches

Learning Organizations: Peter Senge

and Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Senge:
A learning organization is a place where people are continually discovering how they create their reality. And how they can change it.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches Theories that describe how organizational members collectively interpret the organizational world around them in order to define the importance of organizational happenings. Approaches to theory that explain organizational behavior in terms of the influence of cultures that exist both internally and externally to the organization.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches Elements of Culture: Terrance Deal (1939- ) and
Allen Kennedy (1943- )

Five Basic Elements of Organizational Culture

Business environment Values Heroes Rites Rituals

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches Theory Z: William Ouchi (1943- )
Ouchis theory derived from comparisons between Japanese and American organizations. Theory Z organizations retain individual achievement and advancement as a model but provide a continuing sense of organizational community not typical of many American organizations.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches Theory Z

Type A Organization
1. Short-term employment 2. Individual decision making 3. Individual responsibility 4. Rapid promotion 5. Formal control 6. Specialized career paths 7. Segmented concerns

Type J Organization
1. Lifetime employment 2. Consensual decision making 3. Group or collective responsibility 4. Slow advancement 5. Informal control 6. Generalized career paths 7. Holistic concerns

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches Theory Z

Type A Organization -reflects cultural values of individuality over group membership and assume that broad social needs are supported by other institutions rather than formal employment groups  Type J Organization -reflects a culture in which loyalty to groups is more important than individual achievement and in which individuals gain identity from longterm affiliations with the companies for which they work

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches In Search of Excellence: Thomas Peters (1942- )
and Robert Waterman (1936- )

Eight Themes
A bias for action Close to the customer Autonomy and entrepreneurship Productivity through people Hands-on value-driven Stick to the knitting Simple form, lean staff Simultaneous loose-tight properties

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches

Organizational Culture Formation: Edgar

Schein

Model of Culture: 3 Levels

1. Artifacts and creations
The most visible level of culture consisting of the physical and social environment Individual and group preferences for the way it should be in the organization The core of what individuals believe to be true about the world and how it works

2. Values

3. Basic assumptions

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches Sensemaking Model: Karl Weick (1936- )
The outcome comes before the decision Weick is arguing that we make decisions and then render them sensible by explaining the meaning of our decisions.

Major Integrated Perspectives Theories: Cultural Approaches

Sensemaking Model: Karl Weick (1936- )

Seven Characteristics
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Grounded in identity construction Retrospective Enactive of sensible environments Social Ongoing Focused on and by extracted cues Driven by plausibility rather than accuracy

Communication Implications of Integrated Perspectives Theories Systems theorists the effectiveness of communication is related not only to what happens within the organization, but also to how the organization communicates with its environment, its customers, and community.

Communication Implications of Integrated Perspectives Theories Cultural approaches more specific about the importance of communication in carrying messages about the culture and influencing behavior through cultural expectations.

Communication Implications of Integrated Perspectives Theories

The Functional framework

The rejection of the one best way concept and the emphasis on the external environment require a communication system in continual adaptation to changing circumstances.

Communication Implications of Integrated Perspectives Theories

The Meaning-Centered approach

Both decision-making and cultural concepts are based on how organizational members generate shared meanings and how these meanings influence behavior and organizational effectiveness.

Communication Implications of Integrated Perspectives Theories

The Meaning-Centered approach

The major premises underlying the prescriptive and popularized cultural approaches are that organizations are more effective with strong cultures and that strong cultures require effective communication.

Communication Implications of Integrated Perspectives Theories

The Meaning-Centered approach

The cultural theorists also underscore the importance of values for excellent organizations and the need for values to become part of the shared realities of organizational members.

Integrated Perspectives Theories in Contemporary Organizations The contribution of Integrated Perspectives theorists in describing the need to acknowledge the influence of the external environment has improved our ability to think comprehensively about organizations and how people and technology relate to larger environments.

Integrated Perspectives Theories in Contemporary Organizations

Concern for organizational culture is readily apparent in contemporary organizations

Vision and mission statements Training programs in organizational values Annual events and rituals

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Theories that focus on power, domination, and challenges to hierarchy, bureaucracy, and management control.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Postmodern Perspectives: Steward

Clegg (1947- )

The postmodern condition is highly ordered, technologically specialized, mass-mediated, and demanding of precision, speed, flexibility, and adaptability in individual performance

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Postmodern Perspectives: Steward Clegg

(1947- )

Clegg contends that postmodernism rejects the concepts of scientific management when he characterizes postmodern organizations a flexible structures needing workers with multiple skills who are capable of continual learning. Market niches replace mass consumption, and smaller is better if organizations are doing what they do best.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Postmodern Perspectives: Steward Clegg

(1947- )

Five Principles of the Postmodern Organization (Eisenberg and Goodall)

Decentralization of power Changes in markets and commodity values Flattening of hierarchies Cultures based on trust and respect for difference The use of groups

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Critical Theory: Jurgen Habermas (1929- )

Critical theory is what the name implies: a criticism, a critique of society, organizations, and social constructions. Tracing its roots to the work of Karl Marx and other, Critical theory today takes as a central theme the issues of power and power abuse in organizations and society as a whole.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Critical Theory: Jurgen Habermas (1929- )

Habermas calls for the use of Critical theory to reconstitute reason and rationality as processes for positive social change. According to Habermas, communicative process is the basis for change and carries a notion of constitutive process, literally foundational to all organizing, influence, and decision making.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Critical Theory: Jurgen Habermas (1929- )

Critical theorists call for a third paradigm in contrast to scientific and interpretative approaches to management and organization. Specifically, Critical theorists seek understanding of organizational life nested in the broader context of society through understanding of power and political relationships.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives Commentaries on Critical Theory and Postmodernism: Mats Alvesson (1956- ) and Stanley
Deetz (1948- ), Martin Kilduff (1949- ) and Ajay Mehra (1968- ), and Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Alvesson and Deetz Critical theory calls into question the illusion that organizations and their processes are natural and self-evident, the universalization of managerial interest, the primacy of instrumental reasoning, and hegemonic practices.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives Commentaries on Critical Theory and Postmodernism: Mats Alvesson (1956- ) and Stanley
Deetz (1948- ), Martin Kilduff (1949- ) and Ajay Mehra (1968- ), and Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Kilduff and Mehra

Challenging underlying assumptions of how we view organizations and organizational life. Postmodernism sees truth as problematic and focuses on how individuals construct their social worlds. Views the objective as subjective and challenges notions that we truly can generalize from one experience to another.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Commentaries on Critical Theory and Postmodernism: Mats Alvesson (1956- )

and Stanley Deetz (1948- ), Martin Kilduff (1949- ) and Ajay Mehra (1968- ), and Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Morgan
Identifies examples of how organizations establish class structures that provide forms of control over work, behavior, and even the continuation of employment.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives Commentaries on Critical Theory and Postmodernism: Mats Alvesson (1956- ) and Stanley
Deetz (1948- ), Martin Kilduff (1949- ) and Ajay Mehra (1968- ), and Gareth Morgan (1943- )

Critical theories contend that the world economy is dominated more by multinational organizations than by governments or national alliances. Critical theorists view these multinational organizations as primary sites for domination and abuses of power.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Feminist Organization Theories:

Marta Cals (1942- ), and Linda Smircich

Theories that critique the gendered assumptions of modern organizations and call for the recognition and valuing of multiple voices and perspectives.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

Feminist Organization Theories: Marta

Cals (1942- ), and Linda Smircich

Seven Approaches to Feminist Theory:

Liberal feminist theory Radical-cultural feminism Psychoanalytic feminism Marxist feminist theory Social feminism/gendering or organizations and organizing Poststructuralist feminism/postmodern perspectives Third-world/postcolonial feminism

Communication Implications of Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives The Functional approach
Hierarchy with its control of networks, exclusion of voices other than the dominant power structure, and deliberate distortions through mediated channels should be exposed so as to support more participative and democratic practices in organizations.

Communication Implications of Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives

The Meaning-Centered approach

Critical perspectives discount interpretative notions of the Meaning-Centered approach that focus on shared realities.

Communication Implications of Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives The Emerging Perspectives approach
Most closely associated with Postmodern and Critical Perspective theory. Both the Emerging Perspectives approach and Postmodern and Critical Perspectives theories propose a value of increased participation and democracy among workers with an emphasis on the value of all organizational voices.

Postmodern, Critical, and Feminist Perspectives in Contemporary Organizations The delayering of organizations is evident in numerous organizations, with self-managing and highperformance teams replacing traditional notions of supervision. Adaptation, flexibility, and change are more common than unusual, and organizations regularly examine new approaches requiring increased and changing skills from the work force.