Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Organisation and Management BA-Siv, 3rd semester Managing Communications.

Similar presentations


Presentation on theme: "Organisation and Management BA-Siv, 3rd semester Managing Communications."— Presentation transcript:

1 Organisation and Management BA-Siv, 3rd semester Managing Communications

2  From rhetoric (Aristotle, Socrates, Platon) via studies of propaganda (early 20s century) towards a communication science.  From the idea of transmission to the idea of interaction (influenced by cybernetics = the study of electronic and mechanical devices compared to biological systems)  The concept of feedback (communication as an interactive circle involving sender, receiver, message, media and feedback loops)

3 Managing Communications Main theories  Organisational communication as ’the giant hydra’ (from Greek mythology ’the Lernæan Hydra’ = a watersnake with 9 heads) Different departments of an organization may tell different stories due to conflicting interests, e.g. the unions, the employees, gossip in markets, etc.

4 Main theories: Organisational Behaviour Different perspectives on organisational behaviour with the emphasis on:  Culture (shared meanings through communication)  Human relations (openness, trust, collaboration)  Power (communication used to promote certain views and interests)  Discourse theory (discourse shapes and constructs organisational reality).

5 Main theories: Organisational Behaviour  Storytelling as an example of discourse (how do employees represent the organisation to the outside world on the basis of internal and external communication?)  ’One cannot not communicate’ (meaning?) (= implicit communication, e.g. through images. Look at images on p. 48 and comment)

6 Levels of Communication  Dyadic communication (between two people)  Small group communication  Organisational communication (a culturally driven process of sensemaking)  Mass communication Based on personal and social involvement (Littlejohn 1989).

7 Levels of Communication: Dyadic communication, interpersonal or impersonal What is signalled in the two commands: a) ’You have until Monday to write this report’ b) ’Would it be possible to have your report by Monday’?  What is understood by ’the vicious circle of control’ (e.g. Weick’s ’double interact’) – p. 50  Call Centres (any disadvantages?)

8 Levels of Communication  Small group communication  Groupthink (any disadvantages?)  Shared meanings (predictable communication patterns develop in organizations and reduce equivocality) ’All organisational reality is constituted and constructed through communication and miscommunication’ (Clegg et al 2005, p. 53)

9 Levels of Communication: mass communication  The church as the earliest form of mass communication (through iconic symbols)  Modern mass marketing (TV advertising, billboards, Web sites, newspapers, sponsorship of events)

10 Levels of Communication: Organisational Communication Four functions in organisational communication:  Informative function (to generate action)  Systemic function (the glue for social interaction)  Literal function (not just fact transmission but also sensemaking)  Figurative function (linkage to wider environment  identity, mission and purpose.

11 Audiences  Internal audiences (Intraorganisational communication to employees)  Other organisations (Interorganisational communication to partners, suppliers, etc.)  Communication to the wider society (markets, society, press, etc.)

12 Internal audiences: Intraorganizational Communication The importance of integrated communication (the same message communicated by everybody in a company). An example: (quotation from Ginger Graham, CEO at a US company) ’I’ve always heard about what a wonderful company ACS is, but frankly, that’s not what I see’ (what role can openness and honesty play?)

13 Interorganisational Communication: Co- operation with other organizations  Why do organisations co-operate with others?  Networks, boundary spanners and interlockers?  Communication with stakeholders (identity creation – the example of Nike in Mexico and The Body Shop)  Drawing a border-line between marketing and organisational communication (how can marketing be a communication exercise?)

14 Communication as marketing and branding  Marketing communication (advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing)  The importance of communicating an image rather than the benefits of a product (e.g. Benetton)  The importance of branding (to communicate your organisation, to facilitate choice, to create personal identity)  social responsibility  Negative aspects of branding (negative image of an old brand stays, strong brands make companies vulnerable to public critique)

15 Managing the multiheaded hydra  The expressive organisation’s primary communication purpose is to manage symbolic and emotional capital and thus to ’manage meanings’.  Three organisational features: vision (strategy), culture (employees) and image (brand).  Three gaps (the vision-culture gap; the image-culture gap and the image-vision gap)

16 Deconstruction to reconstruct  Managing organisations polyphonically (listening to and respecting the many voices expressed in stories about the organisation).  Deconstructing the language games by questioning the taken-for-granted.  Deconstruction as a precondition for change.


Download ppt "Organisation and Management BA-Siv, 3rd semester Managing Communications."

Similar presentations


Ads by Google