Reflection

After 5 months of studying Communication and Organization, I have learnt a lot from the course, with the help of the theories, examples and case studies provided. Besides, the group exercise and group discussion carried out during tutorial was very helpful and informative as well. I was quite lost about this course at the beginning of the semester, but after reading the textbook and doing related research on this course, and after working on all 3 assignments, my questions towards the theories and concepts are all cleared. I now have a better understanding towards organization system and the effective communication related methods and matters within an organization, thus I believe this will help me in my future career.

Chapter 13 : Technological Processes

Summary from Textbook:

Due to the ever changing technological world, improvements in the form of communication can be seen as well in organizations. Examples of organizational communication technology include: electronic mail, voice mail, facsimile (fax), audio and videoconferencing, computer conferencing, management information system, Group Decision Support System (GDSS), Internet.

These forms of communication help improve the quality and speed in which information is disseminated to employees. Information can also be sent to employees in different geographical locations, and also allow communication between individuals at different points in time. Transcripts of conversations and meetings also can be stored due to GDSS technologies, and also allow for quick retrieval of past information that might have been impossible to retrieve years ago. In addition, organizational participants are offered a wide array of interaction and decision-making options that are different from previous ways of working.

Due to initial misgivings in the workplace, such implementation of technologies may not be used, until people slowly get to know and understand them. Two theories that highlight the importance of organizational communication media use are the media richness theory and the social information processing theory.

The media richness theory considers 4 criteria: the availability of instant feedback, the use of multiple cues, the use of natural language and the personal focus of the medium.

The social information processing theory looks at the following to decide on the effectiveness of such media: the objective characteristics of the task and media, past experience and knowledge, individual differences and social information

The channel expansion theory that considers the user’s personal experience, and the dual capacity model that proposes that every medium has both data and symbol carrying capacity are also considered. The media synchronicity theory considers the media used between several people, and that individuals have the choice in deciding which form of media to use in communications.

The use of organizational communication technology has several effects: inhibition of the communication of social and emotional content, organizational communication patterns. To the organizational structure, it provides the following effects: increased flexibility and structure, greater individuality and teamwork, more responsibility and less control.

Different approaches view communication technology processes differently:

• Classical- tool used to enhance efficiency of organizations by supplementing or replacing efforts of workers


• Human relations- tool to free workers from mundane tasks


• Human resources- tool to enhance efficiency of organization when used in combination with human workers


• Systems- seen as a way to link organizational subsystems, and to link the organization with the environment


• Cultural- seen as a symbolic manifestation of organizational culture and as a medium through which cultural values are developed and communicated


• Critical- seen as a means to repress workers through the de-skilling of jobs and control of information. Can also be seen as allowing more open communication

This chapter talks about the effects of different forms of communication on the communication style and process. This is not only seen within the organization, but also in the public life as well. Technology is important in these days, as it can allow for storage of information, communication with many people over great distances almost instantly.


Reference:

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

Week 13 Tutorial

The last Communication and Organization tutorial was on the discussion regarding the temporary shut down of Qantas airline. Due to the different media releases and many other differing opinions and reviews that I have read, I was confused as to the real truth behind the issue until this tutorial. The union were not the ones who wanted to shut the airline down, rather it was Qantas themselves who did this, as they did not want to give into the unions demands. This involved the Diversity theory learnt in Communication and Organization, as the Qantas employees each had their individual characteristics, and had different work skills that required different communication methods. This topic can relate to the Decision-Making process theory as well when it comes to Qantas downsizing their workforce. This is because the workforce in Qantas was seen as an example of the utilisation of the Machine Metaphor, where the employees were replaceable. What Qantas did was to replace current employees with new employees with just half the current employee’s wages. By doing so, the CEO of Qantas earned more by cutting down the cost, which in the meantime caused conflicts between the airline and the public, as they questioned Qantas’s ethics.

Emotions at work- Brainstorming Illustration

This video clip shows an example on leadership and group communication where the leader of the group guided the discussion throughout and managed to pull the group members in to the right track after they went off track/out of topic. He also tried to make sure that everyone gave their opinions, and presented each idea to the President, even when he himself did not think the idea was useful. This shows that everyone was given a chance in voicing out their opinions and was taken into consideration regardless of the usefulness or relevance. Besides, after each member gave their opinions, the leader represented them as a team in delivering the ideas to the president. This video clip relates to the theories learnt in chapter 8, Decision Making Processes, where it involves the Descriptive Small-Group Decision Making – Phase models of Small-Group Decision Making where all 4 phases: orientation, conflict, emergence and reinforcement were seen. Orientation phase occurred when they all got to know each other, conflict was when they all suggested solutions to the problems, emergence was when they gave their decisions to the president, and reinforcement was seen when the president decided to have a joke with them and pretended to accept all their solutions.

The part in which communication in the group was open and everyone was allowed to present their decisions shows the importance of communication to the essay. The way in which the leader kept trying to bring everyone back on track whenever the conversation moved away from problem-solving, and his decision to inform the president of all the solutions provided, showed how everyone’s voice is important, and how one of the roles of the leader is to guide the group.

Reference:

Clinton, B 2011, Clinton Foundation: Celebrity Division, video online, available at http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/71a3d4cccc/clinton-foundation-celebrity-brainstorm, viewed 1 November 2011.

Chapter 12 : Organizational Diversity Processes

Summary from Textbook:

In this chapter, the diversity in organizations is discussed, and the role they play in it. In all organizations, there are minorities in them, whether they are due to gender or colour, and they face numerous obstacles. One such obstacle is the one known as the glass ceiling, preventing minorities from moving up the management hierarchy. Due to personal reasons, occasionally women have to take extended breaks from their jobs, but upon coming back, some find that they are not welcome anymore, being treated mostly as outsiders.

Negative stereotyping and discrimination is one of the leading causes. Prejudice refers to negative attitudes towards and organization member based on his/her culture group identity, and discrimination refers to observable behaviour based on the same reasons. These stereotyping is not always overt and simplistic, and most are irrational. These can often be dangerous as they are often wrong when applied to individuals.

As a result, evidence has shown that women and ethnic minorities experience limited access to or are being excluded from informal communication networks. Due to this, minority employee networks or affinity groups have been focused on, and as a result, minorities have seen an improvement in their job satisfaction and productivity.

Another solution would be the establishment of mentor-protégé relationships, where less experienced employees were provided with support and assistance from more experienced ones.

A third aspect is tokenism, where those few people in the organizations are expected to be treated as representing their minorities, and differences are often exaggerated, or mistakes emphasized.

There are three phases established to attempt to move past these discriminations:

• First generation affirmative action- organizations only interested in achieving the bare minimum


• Second generation affirmative action- more support given to minority employees


• Multicultural organization- decisions that benefit the organizations that utilize minorities

A multicultural organization is further differentiated into 6 dimensions: acculturation, structural integration, informal integration, cultural bias, organizational identification and intergroup conflict.

There are several opportunities and advantages that managing and celebrating diversity in organizations can bring about: cost argument, resource-acquisition argument, marketing argument, creativity argument, problem-solving argument, systems flexibility argument.

The following approaches view diversity differently:

• Classical- seen as limiting the homogeneity of the workforce and detrimental to morale


• Human relations- neither encouraging nor discouraging, emphasis placed on meeting their needs


• Human resources- encouraged due to new creativity and ideas introduced


• Systems- an important avenue to adapt effectively to environment


• Cultural- organizations would be seen as important places where organizational culture intersects with national, ethnic and gender based culture


• Critical- organizations seen as the arena in which minorities must deal with the dominant class

This chapter is perhaps one of the more difficult chapters to understand, as it deals in handling the cultural diversity in the workplace, and how to utilize it effectively, as different people from different cultures provide differing opinions and ideas, and this also reflects how diversity is important outside the organization as well.

Reference:

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

Chapter 11 : Processes of Emotion in the Workplace

There are several main emotions seen in organizations: stress, burnout and social support in organizations, and each affects the organization in its own way.

Most models view the typical workplace as a setting governed by logic and rationality; however, it has been proven that interactions between individuals within the organizations are often controlled by emotion rather than logic.

Previously, theorists looked at the concept of bounded rationality in the workplace, that looked at decision making as not being perfectly rational due to cognitive and situational limits.

Dennis Mumby and Linda Putnam, however, looked at bounded emotionality, considering emotional life as a central focus of organizational research and how it might help in understanding the workplace.

In many occupations, communication between employee and client involved emotional or affective content. Emotional labour is used to refer to workers who are expected to display certain feelings, which can be falsified, in order to satisfy organizational role expectations. Emotional work refers to the work in which employees are allowed to show their genuine emotions. These usually refer to workers who are engaged in compassionate communication, where processes such as noticing, connecting and responding are utilized.

Emotions that arise from relationships in the workplace are referred to as emotions at work, and these are a major source of organizational emotion. One of the extreme situations is the psychological abuse of others through workplace bullying.

There are several aspects of work relationships that create potential for intense emotions in organizations: the tension between the public and private in work relationships, relational networks and emotional ‘buzzing’, conflicting allegiances, emotional rights and obligations at work.

There are several rules that dictate the display of emotion: express emotions in a professional way, express emotions to improve situations, express emotions to the right people, express emotions to help individuals, do not manage emotions for personal benefit to the detriment of others, the expression of certain emotions is always inappropriate.

Stress can be referred to aspects of the workplace that are difficult to deal with, or the negative outcomes that arise from those work conditions. This can lead to burnout in the individual, causing negative psychological, physiological and organizational outcomes. Burnout can consist of three interrelated dimensions: emotional exhaustion, lack of personal accomplishment and depersonalization.

Three frequent causes of burnout are: workload, role conflict and role ambiguity. Occasionally external influences such as balancing work and home life may also lead to burnout, and may cause a negative variety of physiological, attitudinal and organizational effects on the person.

Poor communication, emotional labour, emotional contagion and emphatic concern may also contribute to burnout.

There are several methods of coping with burnout. Some are individual orientated, such as dysfunctional reactions, problem-centred coping, appraisal-centred coping and emotion-centred coping. Another method of coping is to participate in decision making, as it can reduce role conflict and role ambiguity. Social support can be given to individuals to help cope with burnout. These can involve emotional, informational and instrumental support, and can come from supervisors, co-workers, friends and family.

Emotion is considered differently by different approaches:

• Classical- seen as lowering worker productivity, but those affected tend to get replaced easily
• Human relations- dealt with through provision of emotional support or boosting of self-esteem
• Human resources- dealt through participative decision making or changes designed to enhance employee control
• Cultural- seen as an aspect of values and assumptions held by organizational members, and created through social interactions of organizational participants
• Systems- seen as sense making opportunities
• Critical- seen as an indicator of strain in the relationship between employees and owners in the organizational context

Reference:

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

Chapter 10 : Organizational Change and Leadership Processes

Summary from Textbook:

Change is viewed as a constant and never-ending process. It is an enduring feature of organizational life, and the degree and impact may vary.

An organization may go through several phases: the start-up phase, the growth phase, the harvest phase and the decay phase. Depending on the company, such phases may be over a long period of time. Usually change within the organization is planned, in which the organization explores the need for change and possible solutions, plans for how it can be instituted, implementation of change dissemination of information, and integration of change into the operations of organization. It has also been seen that planned change involves a number of different types of change, and might be accomplished through a variety of methods. However, due to the interdependence between task, structure, culture and strategy, no change process is straightforward.

There are many reactions to organizational change, and not all of them are accepted by all parties involved. Problems such as: lack of management support, top managers forcing change, inconsistent action by key managers, unrealistic expectations, lack of meaningful participation, poor communication, unclear purpose of program and improper identification of responsibility for change could affect outcomes of the change.

There are many strategies implemented by managers to communicate about change: spray and pray, tell and sell, underscore and explore, identify and reply, withhold and uphold. Different strategies have different positives and negatives.

Sometimes, change can occur within an organization due to factors outside the management’s control. These are known as crisis, events that are unpredictable, threats that affect organizations, industries or stakeholders negatively.

There are three stages to organizational crisis: precrisis- where everyone can work together to prevent or prepare for problems, crisis- trigger that threatens the organization’s survival or reputation, postcrisis- overcoming the crisis and preparations for future.

Due to problems mentioned above, leadership within the organization is important, as one can make or break an organization depending on how effective one is, although sometimes external factors may play a part in bringing down an organization.

There are many models of leadership; one main one is the trait theory, where leaderships are based off past common traits of effective leaders, to create one model to select people with the best combination.

The second one is the style theory that was mentioned in chapter 3, where leaders were valued in terms of their concern for production and concern of people.

The third theory is the contingency theory, where leaders who focus on achieving task goals may be more effective in structured situations than leaders who focus more on relationships.

Two leadership models are the transactional leadership model, in which there is an exchange or promise between leader and follower, and the transformational leadership model, which helps followers achieve their full potential, as well as improving the leader in the process.

Communication in the leadership process is very important, and content varies with situation. The way the message is delivered is important as well, strong delivery styles, the way in which the message was framed, and the timing in which it was delivered played an important part in leadership success. This can only be done if the leader has a clear understanding of their view on reality, and their own goals for the organization and for communicating the message.

The ways in which change and leadership are viewed by different approaches can be seen below:

• Classical- change is viewed negatively unless it is controlled. Leadership is tied to management


• Human relations- change as a human process , leaders to focus on needs of workers


• Human resources- change seen as a way to harness skills and abilities of workers, skills of leaders are adapted to suit different situations


• Systems- change viewed as an outcome of chaotic systems of complex information


• Cultural- change seen as reflections of organizational values and assumptions, effective change and leadership depends on understanding prevailing cultural and subcultural believes


• Critical- planned change and leadership viewed as mechanisms in which management establishes and maintains a relationship of power and authority

This chapter highlights the importance of change and how it can affect the quality of work in a workplace. It also shows how effective leaders can either enhance the effectiveness of change, or reduce the negative effects of it. It also shows how poor communication can increase the negatives of leaving the workplace.

Reference:

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