Chapter 6 : Critical Approaches

Summary from Textbook:

Some of the previous approaches contain underlying common threads. The first one is the ‘political’ frame of reference used to understand the organization. This ‘political’ frame is further divided into 3 frames of references: Unitary where emphasis is placed on common organizational goals, Pluralist, where the organization consists of many groups with divergent interests, and Radical, where the organization is viewed ‘as a battleground between rival forces, for the achievement of largely incompatible ends’. The second thread involves approaching organizational life, where the role of the theorist is to understand or explain organizational communications.

Theorists have started to take the critical approach, rather than the social approach. They believe that certain societal structures and processes may lead to fundamental imbalances of power. These may lead to alienation and oppression for certain social classes and groups. The roles of these theorists, thus, are to explore and uncover such imbalances and to bring them to the attention of the oppressed group, leading them to freedom.

A critical theorist views power as being the most important. It is typically equated to the constructs of control and domination, which is central to all critical theories. In order to explore this concept, three approaches were utilized by most theorists: the traditional approach, the symbological approach/ interpretive approach, and the radical-critical approach. Two forms of control over power were analysed, being: control over modes and means of production, and control of organizational discourse. Even those restrictions that were meant to help the workers in time of need, were worded as such that when something went wrong, it would be the fault of the workers and not the fault of the company. An example would be the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Critical theorists also argue that these processes will lead to a shaping of ideology and hegemony. Ideology refers to ‘the taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of situations and events” whereas hegemony refers to a process in which a dominant group leads another group to accept subordination as the norm. The next step is then emancipation, or “the liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive traditions, ideologies, assumptions, power relations, identity formations, and so forth, that inhibit or distort opportunities for autonomy, clarification of genuine needs and wants, and thus greater and lasting satisfaction”. It is also seen as a process of emerging awareness and communicative action on the part of the oppressed.

With emancipation, comes resistance. This concept discovers how workers can exert counter pressure on the exercise of power and control. It is usually seen in collective and organized processes; however theorists are more interested in seeing how resistance can be undertaken by an individual. However, it is not a straightforward and unproblematic process, but a pragmatic process that involves both acts of resistance and complicity in organizational systems of power.

There are two critical approaches in communication, the concertive control theory and the feminist theories. The concertive theory explains how power relationships can be transformed in team-based and alternative form organizations. Three main concepts help to understand this theory:

• Control- Simple control, technological control, bureaucratic control and concertive control


• Identification- the perception of oneness with or belongingness to a collective, where the individual defines him or herself in terms of the collective in which he or she is a member


• Discipline- to reward or punish behaviour that conforms with or deviates from the values identified as important by the work group.

Feminist theorists believe that females are being downplayed in the workplace due to tradition and stereotyping. There are several groups of feminist theorists: liberal feminists, radical feminists, standpoint feminists, postmodern feminists and pluralist feminists. Three studies are explored to provide a sampling of feminist scholarship in organizational communication: the framing of sexual harassment, discourse at a woman-owned business and disciplined bodies.

Through their scholarship, critical theorists attempt to show ‘how specific interests fail to be realized owing partly to the inability of people to understand or act on those interests. They also use quantitative data that show how resources are distributed in organizations and how individuals perceive their lives within organizations. Interpretive research techniques similar to those used by cultural scholars are the most commonly used techniques.

I like this chapter as it shows that when people are oppressed, they may rise up and oppose their oppressors. However, I feel that it does not only apply to within an organization, but can also apply to the population and the Government in control.

Reference:

Miller, K 2009, Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes, 6^th edition, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Publishing Company.