COMM 122: Micro/Macro Organizational Communication Lecture 1 9/28/09
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Transcript of COMM 122: Micro/Macro Organizational Communication Lecture 1 9/28/09
COMM 122:
Micro/Macro Organizational Communication
Lecture 1 9/28/09
Dave Seibold
Professor, Department of Communication
Division of Social Sciences (L&S)
Co-Director, Graduate Program in Management Practice
Technology Management Program (CoE)
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals:
Unrealized state that org members deem desirable
-- mission, products, services . . .
OT: Challenge for orgs = Multiple goals (especially when they are at cross-purposes)
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory
1. Goals: Unrealized state that members deem desirable -- mission, products, services . . .
Challenge = Multiple goals (esp when at cross-purposes)
Resolution: Top management must (a) achieve balance between competing goals (b) clearly define and communicate goals
Why? Design and maintenance of the organization Coordination Motivate members, increase identification w/the organization
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
Type(s) of activity needed to accomplish goals (jobs)
Primary (line) versus secondary (staff) work
OT: How should these functions relate?
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals2. Work
3. Power and Authority
Power = ability to influence successfully through individual factorsknowledge, skills, money, personality . . .
Authority = influence through official recognition by/role in organization
OT: What is relationship between these for organizational effectiveness?(e.g., leadership versus ‘managership’)
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals 2. Work3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
Success/opportunities --> org growth (including size of org)More members --> assigned to subunits & tasks (delegation)Delegation --> role elaboration (variance in jobs) Increased size and role elaboration --> org complexity
(formalization in written rules, policies, procedures)
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
Role elaboration --> how units to be formed/fit together
Decisions about form/fit --> org design (structure/process)
Structure - e.g., hierarchical work arrangements
Process - e.g., deciding work flow
Design decisions --> work and unit differentiation
Differentiation must be balanced by integration
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design (con’t)
OT: What are the structures and processes
that organizations utilize to promote integration?
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design (con’t)
OT Integration mechanisms?
mission, power & authority, control systems, job design, selection & training, reward systems, performance appraisal & feedback, job rotation, CFTs, site visits, socialization processes, retreats, strategic planning,
communication (meetings, f-to-f, org wide strategic)
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Environment
= all groups, norms, and conditions w/which org must deal
-- critical to org’s inputs and for org’s outputs
-- must have boundaries though which inputs/outputs pass
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Environment
-- critical to org’s inputs and for org’s outputs
-- must have boundaries though which inputs/outputs pass
MANAGING INPUTS: market research, IS security, sales reports, legal counsel, planners’ & analysts’ activities
MANAGING OUTPUTS: PR releases, distributions systems, trade agreements, non-compete clauses/contracts
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Environment
7. Adaptation and Change
Orgs exist in turbulent environments w/ discontinuous change
OT: How do orgs build in flexibility to deal
w/ actual and potential environments?
Mechanisms?
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Environment
7. Adaptation and Change
Mechanisms to deal w/ actual and potential environments?
strategic planning, internal task forces, consultants,
philosophy, human resources, diversity initiatives, new product development, globalization, marketing plans, strategic internal and external communication
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Boundary/Environment
7. Adaptation and Change
8. Technology
= The art and science employed in production/distribution
of the organization’s goods and services
Examples?
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Boundary/Environment
7. Adaptation and Change
8. Technology
Examples?
QWL, CPI, 360 Feedback, Six Sigma, Change Mngt,
Plant Optimization, Inventory Controls, Tracking systems
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Boundary/Environment
7. Adaptation and Change
8. Technology
9. Communication
a) Often treated only as information transmission in OT
b) Or as integration mechanism (coordination, cooperation)
c) But also is symbolic exchange and sense making
Organizational Characteristics: Cornerstones of Organizational Theory (OT)
1. Goals
2. Work
3. Power and Authority
4. Size and Complexity
5. Design
6. Boundary/Environment
7. Adaptation and Change
8. Technology
9. Communication
Types of Organizations
Service Production Governmental/Regulatory Professional Advocacy Fund Raising Religious Communal Total
Types of Organizations
Reasons to distinguish among types of organizations …
1. Reduces tendency to reify organizations2. Have different environments3. Contingency theory (environment x org type --> performance)4. Practical implications re:orgs as employers, customers, etc.
Schools of Organizational Theory as Paradigms
Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions)ParadigmParadigm shift
Examples Why study ‘old’ paradigms?
1. For understanding - old ones embedded in new(er) ones2. So do not reproduce same limitations3. Practical reasons - proponents of past still in present
Schools of Organizational Theory as Paradigms
Classical/Traditional School Human Relations/Human Resources School Systems School Interpretive/Cultural School Critical School
These “schools” or traditions or perspectivesare not theories,
but are metatheoretical orientations
Schools of Organizational Theory
Classical/Traditional School Historical roots Theorists
Max Weber – Bureaucratic/Administrative PerspectiveHenri Fayol – Industrial Management PerspectiveFredrick Taylor – Scientific Management Perspective
Classical/Traditional School
Historical rootsIndustrial Revolution of 19th century brought traditional structures into new arenas (hierarchy, division of labor, role specialization).
In US, IR marked time of hope (growing business, capital expansion, successful industrialists, technological advances via science and engineering).
It also was a period of great worry (compulsory supervision, suppression of labor rights, nepotism, no long-range planning)
Classical/Traditional School
Max Weber – Bureaucratic TheoryBackground and foci…Major German sociologist/social theorist (1864-1920)
of society, institutions, and organizationsof religion(s) and religious institutions
The Theory of Social and Economic Organization(treatise on bureaucracy as fundamental structure of
organizing)
Classical/Traditional School
Max Weber – Bureaucratic Theory
Studied Chinese civilization over 3000 years, Prussian Army, Roman Catholic Church, European monarchies…
Probs w/ existing forms of organization (patriarchy, feudalism)
as models for contemporary industrial organizations:
Unity of command - too much power in central roles
Authority based on tradition or force - too abusive
Classical/Traditional School
Max Weber – Bureaucratic Theory (con’t)
Features of Bureaucacy - Hierarchy of offices and positionsCentralization of powerRational-legal authority enacted via rules that are
exhaustive, stable, ordered Positions filled via expert qualifications/trainingManagement via written documentation (archived)Roles = duties and job descriptions, division of laborResources belong to the office not office holderTenure (as opposed to employment at whim of leader)
Classical/Traditional School
Max Weber – Bureaucratic Theory (con’t)Bureaucracy as “ideal type” of organization:
Based on rational-legal authority (rather than traditional authority or charisma)
Based in positions whose function is to maintain the org
Implies existence of specialized administrative staff
Epitome of administrative rationality (hierarchical arrangement of “offices,” not of individuals)
Bureaucratization = ratio of admin to production members
Classical/Traditional School
Henri Fayol – Industrial Management Theory
French industrialist (owned and managed large coal and steel companies for more than 30 years in early 1900s)
Like Weber, concerned with structure of organization
and with large-scale structure
Unlike Weber, organization-centered (not societal),
& as practitioner (not as academic/theorist)
Classical/Traditional School
Henri Fayol – Industrial Management TheoryCredited w/ rise of Administrative Theory and Industrial Management
Coordination (via control) & specialization (via division of labor)= the major activities of managment
‘14 Principles’ as guidelines for managing . . . (see Miller text)
Scalar principle - single pyramidal structure of control relationshipsUnity of command principle - orders from only one superiorSpan of control principle - not more subs than sup can manageException principle - Departmentalization principle - Line-staff principle -
Classical/Traditional School
Henri Fayol – Industrial Management Theory
He also introduced a footnote in OT history, but w/ major impact on how orgs conceptualized thereafter AND w/ implications for communication…
His concept = “the gangplank” (also know in OT as “Fayol’s bridge”)
Employees could violate chain of command and could communicate with others at same level of hierarchy:
when supervisors have given prior approvalwhen a crisis exists (even if without prior approval)
Implications: Underscored need for coordination in orgs & among membersIntroduced possibility of lateral communication in organizations
Classical/Traditional School
Fredrick Taylor – Scientific Management (Taylorism)1. “Bottom up” approach to organizational structure2. Focus on individually-centered structure via job study3. Response to workers’ “soldiering”/managers’ incompetence4. Goals
Reduce inefficiencies of poorly designed organizations Increase workers’ motivation
5. Components “Complete Mental Revolution” Scientific procedures
Classical/Traditional School
Scientific Management (Taylorism)
3 “Attitudes” Underlying Taylor’s Mental Revolution
1. Scientific design of organizations
2. Motivation through increased economic rewards
3. Cooperation between labor & management
Classical/Traditional School
Scientific Management (Taylorism)
4 “Principles” for Implementing Scientific Management
1. Scientific job design – time-motion studies
2. Scientific selection of workers – match abilities to job
3. Adequate training & rewards – pay person/not job
4. Division of labor & responsibilities – functional forepersons
Communication in Classical/Traditional School
Emphasizes written channels primarily Direction downward primarily, often distorted Little opportunity for input/upward influence “Trained communication incapacity”