FUNCTION OF COMMUNICATION Chapter 2 Recap/Discussion

FIRST, WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?  Information  Sending and Receiving  Meaning  Shared meaning  Meaning within context  Level of significance  Frame of reference  Transaction  Verbal  Nonverbal

VERBAL (COMMUNICATING WITH WORDS)  Language  Symbols  Representational  Freely created  Culturally transmitted  Important Role in Organizations?  Interpretivists and Critical theorists -- ‘structures our experiences of organizational life’ (p. 23)  Example: Root Metaphors  Ambiguity and Group Restricted Codes

NONVERBAL (COMMUNICATING WITHOUT WORDS)  Paralanguage  Body Movement (Kinesics)  Emblems  Illustrators  Regulators  Affect Displays  Adaptors  Space (Proxemics)  Relationship between status and territory  Fixed feature space  Semifixed feature space  Informal space  Use of Time (Chronemics)  Touch (Haptics)  Appearance

FUNCTIONS (CONSIDER HOW EACH PERSPECTIVE VIEWS ORGANIZATIONS) Traditional Concerned with information flow (breakdowns, distortions), strategies, group problem solving, etc. Production Maintenance Innovation Dance and Larson Linking Mentation Regulatory Uncertainty and Information Accuracy Social Capital Interpretive Concerned with Culture and Individuals’ Experiences Symbolic Interactionism (Mead) Construction of reality (Berger and Luckmann) Critical Concerned with Oppression and Discrimination Communication as Dialogic Source of Control and Manipulation

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS Traditional Assist with functions of communication such as linking, mentation, regulating, uncertainty reduction, information adequacy, building social capital Interpretive Helps create shared meaning, construct reality, and provide context for meaning systems Critical Contest meanings, establish control, manipulate power

CLASS EXAMPLE: WAL-MART 