- Organizational communication both arises from and shapes organizational culture.
- Communication philosophies, patterns, techniques, methods and tools are evolutionary; ie, they change over time and are affected by the organizational structure, leadership, management practices, workforce personality, and the workplace demands. Social trends, market demands, and customer relationship perspectives also influence the nature of organizational communication, and the methods utilized.
- Contemporary organizations, whether for profit or nonprofit, have a socialtechnical culture. As the workplace becomes more and more dependent upon electronic information, communication and collaboration systems and tools, social networking on and off the job is changing. This shift is a radical departure from past ways of communication, and is a challenge. Sensitivity to and an understanding of workers communication styles and skills is very important. Experimentation is a key element is discovering and evolving effective workplace communication systems, processes, and technologies.
With these ideas in mind, let's continue our explorations of organizational communication.
In light of the idea that organizational communication is concerned with and facilitates "self-organizing" among a group which has a social identity, purpose, and mission, organizational communication can be said, in varying degrees, to involve:
- Information transfer.
- Transactional processes.
- Strategic control.
- Balancing individual creativity and organizational constraint. (Eisenberg & Goodall, 2001)
Organizations can be: a) centralized, hierarchical, and specialized, b) decentralized, participatory, and team-oriented, or c) a combination of both. Aspects of self-organizing and communication include:
- People and personalities in historical and contextual situations.
- Cultures and sub-cultures.
- Verbal and written discourse.
- Written policies and procedures.
- Information systems.
- Shared understanding, interpretation and expressions.
- Power and politics.
- Decision-making processes.
From an organizational culture perspective, organizational communication strives to unify organizational members around a vision and mission, as well as inform, direct, empower, and motivate them. It also provides a means to evaluate organizational functions and effectiveness so needed adjustments can be made.
Usually, professionals and theorists place an emphasis on one of the above characteristics. In this manner each become a model for understanding organizational communication.
I prefer to see each of these aspects as dynamic characteristics of organizational communication, each capturing an important aspect of how enterprises self-organize, share information, create and apply knowledge, make decisions, and achieve their tasks, and, thus, their goals.
Each of these characteristics can be seen in the learning organization which is an interactive web of human-technical dialogical networks--an intelligent, collaborative organization that has the capacity to consciously shape and create its future by sharing and applying information, innovatively problem-solving, developing new ideas, strategies and products, and adapting to its environment and situations.
For learning and innovation to take place, information must be readily accessible, and continuously flowing, and people must be networking to partner on strategizing, problem-solving and decision-making.
Besides having a "bias" towards information systems, I also take an organizational culture perspective.
As you consider the above ideas about organizational communication reflect upon the following concepts presented by W. Choo in the Knowing Organization about cultural knowledge (pp. 143-147).
1. Organizations are knowledge generators and integrators that consciously coordinates, integrates, and combines its specialized skills and capabilities.
2. Organizations are systems of persuasion, critical thinking, decision-making, and action.
3. Cultural knowledge establishes a framework where meaningful discourse can take place. In an organization there is:
- Dictionary Knowledge: Commonly held descriptions, definitions, etc.
- Directory Knowledge: Commonly held practices and knowledge about the sequence of events, and their cause and effect relationships.
- Recipe Knowledge: Prescriptions for repair and improvement strategies that recommend what action should be taken.
- Axiomatic Knowledge: Reasons and explanations of the final causes or a priori premises that are perceived to account for why events happen.
4. Cultural knowledge's role includes:
- Helping to define a shared language for creating community and social identity.
- Providing resources for persuasion, dialogue, analysis, creative thinking, and reflection that gives rise to practical wisdom.
- Giving the operation a profile or intended image.
- Creating legitimacy and good faith about actions and outcomes.
- Obscuring uncertainty and reducing ambiguity.
Organizational communication enables an enterprise to have an a particular identity, share a knowledge base, have effective and analytical discourse, make decisions, and act so it can reach its articulated goals. One could say, from an organizational communication perspective, that enterprises are systems of continuously information processing, collaboratively decision-making, and practical wisdom applying social networks.
References:
Eisenberg, E. M. & Goodall, Jr., H. L. (2001). Organizational Communication: Balancing Creativity and Constraint (3rd ed.). Bedford/St. Martins: Boston, MA.
9 comments:
Organisational culture is the company's identity for the employees and the market.So whenever there is an absence of knowledge as for what company's beleifs,assumptions and facts are the employees tend to struggle to understand company's goals and there emerges ineffective communication.conflicts and confusions.Therefore If a company beleives in great customer service and making customers feeli like home(for ex starbucks)There has to be a knowledge od the emergence of this perfomance from the employee .If for any reason there is any reason the manager communicates and expects the employee to have a smile or treat customers as family and the employee has no knowledege about the culture which revolves around the goals ,he/she will have hard time accepting the needs and understand the message from the manager.
Thusin any company the knowledge of the culture is really important and that could be realised through training and also rewards have to be presented to the employees who portrays the same as to make sure that co employees are encouraged to do the same .As people learn and human mindset is to assume the same culture of one company for the other and when ideas are transformed unclear,their assumptions overrides the reality and the expectations of the company.Thus cultural knowlegde should be a great tool for any new hires and existing employees who dont care more than the numbers as to priotise their activities for goals accomplishments.
As we move forward in the workplace in this day and time we must be able to not only communicate but do so in a way that allows all participants to receive as well as give feedback. By doing this we will be assured to creat an enviroment where we can have a collaborative organization. I beleive that organizations can be and should be a combination of both centralized, hierarchical, and specilized while being decentralized, participatory, and team-oriented in certain areas ofthe organization.
A organization is kind of like and onion it has many layers and all of these layers function together and in order for them to grow and thrive they must be in tune with one another. Within and organization there is definately a culture that is developed by the various individuals within. These individuals have learned to communicate and strategize collectively in a way that allows for them to have that organizational identity and shared knowledge.
Like Mansi said in the first post "Organziational culture is the company's identity for the employees and the market." In order to maintain the organizational culture, it is also necessary to hire the right individuals who would be able to adept to the culture and how the organization will run. If not, there may be lack of motivation from the employees which may result in poor work ethic.
The culture of our company promotes "one company, one team."
The expectation of employees in this organization is to be flexible and work under any accounts that may need help while being able to adapt to demands of clients needs as well.
Those who are unable to be flexible with change often leave the company.
When the employees are first hired with the company, supervisors usually communicate basic organizational culture and standards and employees are given atleast 3-5 days to review company handbook, do questionnaires on the company intranet to answer questions on what they read and ask any questions that they might have.
Annually there are colleagues who are also recognized for doing exceptional job in adhering to cultural knowledge and behavior in the company and the news is communicated nationwide to all the offices as motivation.
Reflecting solely on the concepts of organizational communication presented by Choo in the Knowing Organization about cultural knowledge (pp. 143-147), it really becomes apparent how critical systems and “data” management interface with knowledge. The main challenge I see is how? If the goal of an enterprise were to produce a single product or service with the exact same workforce for its entire life cycle it would not be worth asking how. However, in the structure we have today in the global workforce the perspectives towards lifetime employment with one company; the necessity to engage in a productive and sustainable enterprise overlain on the concepts articulated by Choo the question becomes relevant.
The challenge is not a “challenge” in the true sense or in terms of how do you accomplish this. If I wanted to capture a sequence of events or map cause and effect relationships, I can write it down and save it on a server or shared data storage location for later access. However, what is challenging is the efficiency that organizations must ensure that this occurs to avoid bad decisions, failures, re-work or just maintain efficiency.
There are some organizations that can successfully navigate re-work. However, there are other organizations where re-work is just too expensive or not possible. This link is not unique just to knowledge; as we are seeing all of these elements are linking together to truly create a system.
Organizational communication shapes the organization’s culture. Culture is something we cannot measure but only can be feel. Communication is defined as the set of techniques for guided information dissemination and flow within the organization. It describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, values, expectations and the resulting behaviors that are shared throughout the organization. This controls the way we interact within the organization.
Communication is one of the keys to the company’s success as it transfers sensitive information with strategic control, balances individuals creativity and organizational constraints. Whatever type of organization it could be, whether it may be centralized, decentralized, hierarchical or team oriented, communication technologies have cultural assumptions embedded in them and the way they are used in the organization influences the organizational culture. Communication strives to unify the team around the company’s vision and mission. It empowers them, motivates and assists in evaluating organizational functions and requirements.
Organizational communication shows how the company is self organized in terms of collaboration, knowledge transfer, allocate right resources with innovations; make decisions to achieve the company’s mission. It also shows how the company motivates and controls employee’s behavior and persuades them to accept company’s beliefs, strategies, values, frame and keeps up the team spirit to build a strong network for the growth and compete with the business.
Organizations should be the knowledge generators and integrate the same within the employees with critical thinking for the long run benefits of the organization. As cultural knowledge establishes a basic framework to the employees and make them feel comfortable working for that organization.
As we all know in this virtual world, we do not realize or feel the emotions of the employees when bad hierarchical decisions are made without proper investigation and consultation. Communication creates and maintains the inter-personal relationships. The strong organizational culture would be the key to managerial control, employee’s commitment towards the organizations goal. Managers need to be precautious before using callous words while communicating or making decisions, as we do not know how it will be interpreted. Emotions are relevant to cultural forms of motivations and control. That’s why scholars said think before we talk or react as we might have to face the consequences (positive or negative).
Finally organizational communications enables the company to constantly move towards their goal by sharing knowledge and have effective and analytical discourse and make decisions for the benefit of all and to articulate towards success of the vision.
Organizational communication shapes the organization’s culture. Culture is something we cannot measure but only can be feel. Communication is defined as the set of techniques for guided information dissemination and flow within the organization. It describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, values, expectations and the resulting behaviors that are shared throughout the organization. This controls the way we interact within the organization.
Communication is one of the keys to the company’s success as it transfers sensitive information with strategic control, balances individuals creativity and organizational constraints. Whatever type of organization it could be, whether it may be centralized, decentralized, hierarchical or team oriented, communication technologies have cultural assumptions embedded in them and the way they are used in the organization influences the organizational culture. Communication strives to unify the team around the company’s vision and mission. It empowers them, motivates and assists in evaluating organizational functions and requirements.
Organizational communication shows how the company is self organized in terms of collaboration, knowledge transfer, allocate right resources with innovations; make decisions to achieve the company’s mission. It also shows how the company motivates and controls employee’s behavior and persuades them to accept company’s beliefs, strategies, values, frame and keeps up the team spirit to build a strong network for the growth and compete with the business.
Organizations should be the knowledge generators and integrate the same within the employees with critical thinking for the long run benefits of the organization. As cultural knowledge establishes a basic framework to the employees and make them feel comfortable working for that organization.
As we all know in this virtual world, we do not realize or feel the emotions of the employees when bad hierarchical decisions are made without proper investigation and consultation. Communication creates and maintains the inter-personal relationships. The strong organizational culture would be the key to managerial control, employee’s commitment towards the organizations goal. Managers need to be precautious before using callous words while communicating or making decisions, as we do not know how it will be interpreted. Emotions are relevant to cultural forms of motivations and control. That’s why scholars said think before we talk or react as we might have to face the consequences (positive or negative).
Finally organizational communications enables the company to constantly move towards their goal by sharing knowledge and have effective and analytical discourse and make decisions for the benefit of all and to articulate towards success of the vision.
There are many different types of knowledge and communication that exist within and around organizations today. As we continue to expand on a global market, organizations, employees, and their customers also continue to expand and evolve. There is no one type of knowledge or communication that is “right”; rather there is simply the “right decision” for the organization at that time. Leaders must take into consideration numerous factors – including but not limited to the type of employee, customers, and business – prior to determining which method of structure will be most effective for their organization. Oftentimes, the selected structure drives the way communication will occur (i.e., a hierarchical structure will typically have top-down communications) as well as the types of knowledge that will be most prevalent and how that knowledge will be disseminated to employees throughout the organization. These are interlaced with and feed off of one another. No matter which decision an organization makes regarding their structure, communication, and knowledge, they need to make it clear to their employees their intended path. Without taking this step, employees will be left to fill in the blanks for themselves and will likely not all find themselves on the same page. That type of lack in structure and communication leads the organization into chaos.
Organizational culture language is the prime element of ideas,values, and interpretation that are articulated to be understood through meanings and communication. Culture organization is a speech communication, a gathering of people with the same likes, and interest to come together for a brain storm, or to think of ideas to solve strategic issues. Electronic information is constantly changing as networking expands to global markets. The pressure includes the competition among the organizations. As innovation continues to enlighten new organizations, networking and social technical system are depending more on the upcoming and newer electronic information. Social networking involves with technology, it is a relationship of beliefs and knowledge that work on different levels and determines how an organization operates internally. The employees play their part in networking with clients, and co workers. Employees connecting to other social worlds globally is likely to have a full range of information through technology. Managers are the decision makers that plan, coordinate and control their visions for the long term of the organization's success,as organizations grow so is their information system.
In the 21st century, we are experiencing an intense period of technology-enabled innovation, creativity, and excitement that has been spurred by the growth in information, telecommunication, and technology and associated changes in our life, work and society. My professional vision for an organization is to foster a very efficient communication structure where everyone can work in teams and voice their opinions. This would require powerful communication of information and knowledge management. This would be achieved through multiple participants in a communication system to manage business on a day to day basis. In today's technology-rich world, a great demand for computer and information is required to be successful. It is dependent on how critical systems and “data” management interface with knowledge. Knowledge management is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. It is all about creating value from information, and it involves codifying what employees, partners and customers know, and sharing that information among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices.
Post a Comment