Fundamentals of Organizational Communication Communication Implications of Major Organizational...

Fundamentals of Organizational Communication

Communication Implications of

Major Organizational Theories

Chapter 4

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


• 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.


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


• 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.


• The Functional approach…

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


• 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


• 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.


• 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 stages3. Coordination as a reciprocal relation of all

the features in a situation4. Coordination as a continuing process.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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


• Theory X and Theory Y: Douglas McGregor (1906-1964)• McGregor’s 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.


• 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


• Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981)• Likert’s theory of employee-

centered management based on effectively functioning groups linked together structurally throughout the organization

Likert’s Linking Pin Concept


• Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981)• Taylor had interpreted variability in

performance as a need to establish specific procedures and production standards; Likert’s interpretation called for an increase in participation by organizational members at all levels.


• Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981)• Likert’s (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.”


• Participative Management: Rensis Likert (1903-1981)• Likert’s 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.


• 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 everyone’s responsibility


• Meaning-Centered Approach…• Communication was better

understood in the Human Behavior perspective than in the Scientific Management approach.


• Meaning-Centered Approach…• The Human Behavior

perspective exhibits more concern with worker participation and satisfaction than do Scientific Management 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


• 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


• Decision-Making Approach: Herbert Simon (1916- )

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



• 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.



• 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.


• Sociotechnical Integration: Eric L. Trist (1909-1993) and Kenneth W. Bamforth

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



• 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.



• 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.


• 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.


• 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.”


• The Systems Approach: Daniel Katz (1903-1998) 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.


• 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.



• 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.



• 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.


• 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)



• Senge’s Five Disciplines• System Thinking• Personal Mastery• Mental Models• Building Shared Vision• Team Learning



• 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.


• Elements of Culture: Terrance Deal (1939- ) and Allen Kennedy (1943- )

• Five Basic Elements of Organizational Culture• Business environment• Values• Heroes• Rites• Rituals


• Theory Z: William Ouchi (1943- )

• Ouchi’s 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 promotion5. Formal control6. Specialized career

paths7. Segmented concerns

• Type J Organization1. Lifetime

employment2. Consensual decision

making3. Group or collective

responsibility4. Slow advancement5. Informal control6. Generalized career

paths7. 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 long-term affiliations with the companies for which they work


• 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


• Organizational Culture Formation: Edgar Schein

• Model of Culture: 3 Levels1. Artifacts and creations

• The most visible level of culture consisting of the physical and social environment

2. Values• Individual and group preferences for the way it

should be in the organization

3. Basic assumptions• The core of what individuals believe to be true

about the world and how it works


• 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.


• Sensemaking Model: Karl Weick (1936- )

• Seven Characteristics1. Grounded in identity construction

2. Retrospective

3. Enactive of sensible environments

4. Social

5. Ongoing

6. Focused on and by extracted cues

7. 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.


• Cultural approaches – more specific about the importance of communication in carrying messages about the culture and influencing behavior through cultural expectations.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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 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



• 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.



• 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


• 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.



• 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.



• 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.


• 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.



• 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.



• Morgan• Identifies examples of how

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



• 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.


• Feminist Organization Theories: Marta Calás (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.


• Feminist Organization Theories: Marta Calás

(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.


Perspectives

• The Meaning-Centered approach…• Critical perspectives discount

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


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 high-performance 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.

Fundamentals of Organizational Communication

Communication Implications of

Major Organizational Theories

Chapter 4

End

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