last day to blog

Today is the last day of Week 5, the final day to blog as well as take Quiz 5. So declare your independence by finishing up your work for the week early and then relaxing and enjoying the fireworks tonight. Or if you're a dog owner like I am, closing all the windows and turning up the music so your pup won't be terrified by all the loud booms, pops, and bangs.

~ Professor Cyborg

emotion and democracy

In the web lecture on democracy and dialogue I discuss various approaches to democracy and how they apply to organizational communication. As with organizational life in general, scholars and organization members think of democracy as rational, logical, and systematic. Yet the recent events in Iran (millions of people demonstrating and protesting the presidential election process) reveal the emotional side of democracy. That's why I find dialogic democracy appealing--it recognizes the passion underlying democratic processes.

One of the negative influences of classical theories of organization has been the removal of emotion from organizational life. Some displays of emotion are allowed in limited quantities. For example, it's okay to show happiness (but not too much) and displeasure (but again, not too much). In a previous entry, I talked about emotion labor, the idea that organization members must manage their emotions in specific ways. Dialogic democracy allows for a more authentic or honest expression of emotion. That doesn't mean you should blurt out whatever you're feeling at the time. Part of coordinating your behaviors with others involves a degree of self monitoring. That is, just because you think or feel something doesn't mean you have to tell others about it (consider the case of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, whose admissions about an affair have been referred to as streams of consciousness and other members of the GOP saying they wish he would "just shut up").

Dialogic democracy recognizes the importance of emotion as part of the human condition and encourages organization members to recognize the role emotion plays in organizational communication and decision making. This approach to emotion presents a clear distinction from other views of democracy as well as more traditional theories of organizing.

~ Professor Cyborg

new logics of organizing

I woke up this morning, as all of you did, to newspaper headlines around the state highlighting the our elected leaders' failure to pass a budget. Frantic Budget Talks Fall Short in the San Jose Mercury News, 11th-Hour Votes on State Budget Fail in the LA Times, Governor, Lawmakers Blow Deadline as Budget Hole Deepens in the Sacramento Bee, No Deal as State Budget Deadline Nears in the San Francisco Chronicle, and California State Senate Fails to Break Budget Deadlock in the San Diego Union-Tribune. How can this happen? What have you learned in this class over the past 4+ weeks that could help out the politicians in Sacramento?

In Chapter 11 Eisenberg et al. discuss new logics of organizing, such as management as poetry and communication as discourse, voice, and performance. The authors argue "the 'old' logic of organizational communication rested solidly on a seemingly bedrock principle that assumed hierarchies of all kinds were 'givens'" (p. 347). They go on to predict that current forms of organization and ways of organizing will change, especially with the use of new media. Yet the current state of California's government suggests that little has changed in this giant bureaucracy. California found itself in a similar situation in the early 1990s and the state seems to be repeating history. State politicians have to find new ways of communicating and managing the government; the old ways just aren't working. In the meantime, people who depend on the state--those who are the most fragile and at risk, such as children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities--will be receiving IOUs. IOUs don't pay the rent or buy groceries.

~ Professor Cyborg

let the blogging begin Week 5

It's the 5th week of the summer session and the final blogging week. Quite a few class members have gotten an early start:

• akaFlash
• cjlynch
• Esther
• G
• GSackman8
• ilikecake
• Kimber
• Miss Potato
• Molly McMuffin
• Msensei
• TM

The holiday weekend is coming up. Blog early and often so you're not spending the 4th in front of your computer screen!

~ Professor Cyborg

org com and the future

In Chapter 10, Eisenberg et al. discuss larger issues in organizational communication and organizing, focusing on strategic positioning and alignment. The primary message is flexibility and adaptability in a turbulent environment.

The cover story of the May 25, 2009, issue of TIME is on the future of work, providing a more updated version of what's covered in Chapter 10. In a series of short articles, the magazine outlines how work has changed and trends that suggest new work paths in the coming months and years. Topics include types of jobs, management training, benefits, career trajectories, retirement, women in the workplace, green jobs, Gen X in the workplace, manufacturing, and the office. Plenty of intriguing tidbits of information. For me, the most interesting trend is telecommuting. Already it's estimated that 28% of the U.S. workforce telecommutes either full or part time. Seth Godin, the author of the article, "The Last Days of Cubicle Life," argues:

More and more, though, the need to actually show up at an office that consists of an anonymous hallway and a farm of cubicles or closed doors is just going to fade away . . . I'd rather send you a file at the end of my day . . . and have the information returned to my desktop when I wake up tomorrow.

Many companies are already working this way. I've found the best faculty meetings are those in which we've already done much of the work online and the only work left is what we need to talk about in person.

If you get the change, read the entire cover story. Lots of interesting ideas to think about and discuss.

~ Professor Cyborg

leadership at the bottom

Leadership in organizations is typically associated with those at the top, such as CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CIOs, and the like, or those in middle-management supervisory roles. And in some companies, the people at the top truly are crucial to the organization's well-being. Consider the case of Apple and Steve Jobs. With Jobs at the helm, Apple flourished. When he left in the early 1990s, Apple quickly lost its way and its ability to make money. Jobs came back and Apple's innovative ideas soared. Still, without creative and smart people around him, even Steve Jobs wouldn't be able to keep Apple on the cutting edge of new communication technology.

In Chapter 9, Eisenberg et al. fall into this leaders-at-or-near-the-top trap as well, drawing a distinction between leaders/managers/supervisors and employees (aren't managers, supervisors, Presidents, etc., employees of the organization, too?). I suspect that leadership in the bottom levels of the organization may be as important (or even more important) than leadership at the top. At SJSU, for instance, the university went through several years of interim and temporary presidents and managed to muddle along just fine. But what would happen without department chairs? The university would come to a standstill. Even worse would be no office managers (administrative staff). It's not just the tasks department chairs and office staff complete, it's also the support they provide, goals they set, and ways they motivate others to complete their tasks.

Maybe it's time to take a closer look at leadership communication outside the upper echelons of organizations and study how those taking care of the day-to-day organizing tasks lead the way.

~ Professor Cyborg

gangs as organizations

Near the end of Chapter 8, Eisenberg et al. mention that "terrorist organizations have turned to online communication as a means of recruiting and staying connected with new members" (p. 267). I'm not sure if local gangs are doing the same, but they certainly use cell phones and other new media to organize and accomplish their goals.

I bring up gangs today because the Merc ran an article on increased gang violence in Santa Cruz county. Although the article focused on Watsonville, there's evidence that gang activity is on the rise in other parts of the county. For example, in my neighborhood of Pleasure Point, we're seeing more graffiti and tagging. Within the past year a neighborhood park was tagged (Brommer Park at Brommer and 30th) along with a house next to Moran Lake on East Cliff Drive. And then there's the regular tagging of signing, sidewalks, fences, and benches. Just like companies mark their territory with advertisements, gangs mark their territory with graffiti.

~ Professor Cyborg

networked university case

At the end of Chapter 8, Eisenberg et al. pose the case of the networked university. The authors note that many universities have established campuses far from their primary sites, sometimes in other countries. Then the authors refer to the University of Phoenix, a for-profit institution, and similar organizations that "offer highly flexible degree programs that require very little in the way of physical presence in a classroom."

Partly because the textbook was published two years ago, the case and discussion seem rather quaint. As institutions of higher education, all colleges and universities should be examining ways to integrate new media into the classroom and learning experience. For traditional place-oriented schools, developing innovative ways to structure classes will be essential for survival. The U of Louisville, for instance, offers a bachelor's degree in communication that's completely online. Enrolling in online classes costs more than in person classes, but students are willing to pay for the flexibility online classes offer.

~ Professor Cyborg

collaboration and knowledge building

Monday's Mercury News had an interesting column by Larry Magid in the Business section. In the article (titled "Cheating is cheating, but tech offers chance to teach critical thinking" in the online version and "Technology could aid student learning" in the paper version), Magid argues that while students cheating on tests and papers is wrong, maybe what teachers should be doing is rethinking what they're evaluating and how they're evaluating it. As Magid points out:

In the work force, what's important in most situations is not so much the facts you can pull out of your head but your ability to acquire information when you need it and — most importantly — your ability to make sense of it.

Team papers and tests provide opportunities for students to work together on assignments and better understand the collaborative nature of knowledge development. Academe still tends to cling to the notion of the lone researcher toiling away in the laboratory during the wee hours of the morning. But consider the recent breakthroughs in science such as the human genome project and face transplant. These involve multiple groups coordinating their efforts to test theories, gather data, interpret results, and strike out on new scientific paths.

As Eisenberg et al. point out, teams are not without their drawbacks. Team members must have the expertise for the task, must have training in how to work together, must have a task that requires teamwork, and must figure out a way to match team member expertise with assigned work.

Certainly in the educational setting we need to do a better job of teaching students how to collaborate as they learn about and explore new topics. The notion that learning is an individual effort isolates students from each other. One reason I have students blog in my online classes and comment on each others' blogs is that students learn from each other. On my teaching evaluations, students often comment that reading others' blogs helps them better understand the class material and bring to their attention concepts and ideas they overlooked.

~ Professor Cyborg

let the blogging begin Week 4

It's the morning of Day 2, Week 4, and the blogging has already begun. Earlier bloggers this week include:

• akaFlash
• Esther
• G
• GSackman
• Kimber
• Miss Potato
• Molly McMuffin
• Tina
• TM

The early bloggers get the early comments! And they have less stress later in the week as the Saturday midnight deadline approaches. Don't be the blogger posting at 11:59pm on Saturday night--Blog early and blog often!

~ Professor Cyborg

new media and organizations

One of the weaknesses of the Eisenberg et al. text is the lack of integration of new media in discussions of organizations and organizing today. The internet and mobile communication have fundamentally changed how people organize and how organizations function.

For example, distance education has been around for decades if not centuries. My father taught correspondence courses (essentially independent studies in which he mailed students course requirements and they mailed back their assignments), tv courses (lectures broadcast on campus or public access tv), and off-site courses (he went to where the students were, as with a military base). But with the exception of the off-site courses, distance ed used to mean little interaction among students. Now, online courses offer the possibility of greater interaction than what occurs in on campus classes. With online classes that use some sort of asynchronous discussion format, all students have the opportunity to participate because the usual time constraints are absent. With in person classes, there's just so much time, and unless the class size is quite small, never enough for everyone to contribute.

Eisenberg et al. tend to treat new media as something added on to organizational communication rather than something integral to organizing. That's why I included the tech and teams lecture in which I discuss the notion of a pervasive communication environment. That lecture is drawn from a small group communication book my spouse (Ted) and I are working on for McGraw-Hill. I must give him credit for the PCE model, which he presented at a conference three years ago. If you're interested in reading more about the pervasive communication environment, he recently published an essay on the model in First Monday, an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed online journal.

~ Professor Cyborg

identities and organizations

There's no doubt that a large part of our identity is tied up with the organizations in which we're enmeshed. One organizational practice that regulates and controls members' identities is giving members an explicit set of guiding values and morals. You can get a sense of SJSU's values from its mission statement, strategic planning, organization charts (where are the faculty and students on these charts?), and other formal documents, which provide both explicit and implicit value statements.

Intersecting identities refers to the idea that social categories such as gender, race, class, age, dis/ability, sexuality, and others combine in complex, fluid, and sometimes contradictory ways. For example, my father is from a working class family and was the first in his family to go to college, much less earn a Ph.D. His background was very different from the students at Cornell University, where he got his first teaching job, but very similar to the students at Delta College, his last teaching job. For him, teaching at Delta was easier and more rewarding than Cornell because he could relate better with the Delta students. Now a retired professor, some aspects of his identity put him in a privileged class (male, highly educated, white, straight), but his age and disability (inoperable esophageal cancer) make him nearly invisible when he goes to the grocery store or the bank.

We all bring multiple identities to our organizational lives. The authors of your text suggest that one strategy for negotiating these multiple identities is to be mindful. Consider the various aspects of your self that you bring to your organizations and how those organizations influence your identities.

~ Professor Cyborg

this week's concepts

A broad range of concepts and topics covered this week in the class blogs. Cultural elements, feedback, workplace surveillance, resistance, ideology, metaphors, concertive control, practical view of organizational culture, socialization, assimilation, power--just to name a few. Many useful insights, practical applications, and intriguing stories.

Tomorrow is the last day of Week 3. If you haven't yet blogged this week, you need to get to it! Three people have taken Quiz 3, which ends midnight, Saturday as well.

~ Professor Cyborg

technology and the value of work

Although new communication technologies have had important positive changes on organizing and work (such as online classes), there are negative impacts as well. In Chapter 6 Eisenberg et al. discuss the technological panopticon, or the level of surveillance of organizational members now possible (note that the highest levels of surveillance are reserved for the lowest levels of the organization hierarchy; those at the top are rarely surveilled, yet can do the most damage to the organization). If you're interested in my research on organizational surveillance, I discuss it in my BUS/COMM 244 blog.

Technology in organizations has another dark side in addition to increased surveillance. TIME recently reviewed Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. The author, Matthew B. Crawford, argues that "Globalization and technology are doing to white collar jobs of the 21st century what the assembly line did to the trades in the 20th--turning them into repetitive, menial, dissatisfying tasks." I haven't yet gotten the book, but it's on my summer reading list.

If you're interested in Crawford's ideas, an earlier and briefer version of his work was published in 2006 in The New Atlantic. Toward the end of that article, Crawford states, "White collar professions, too, are subject to routinization and degradation, proceeding by the same process as befell manual fabrication a hundred years ago: the cognitive elements of the job are appropriated from professionals, instantiated in a system or process, and then handed back to a new class of workers—clerks—who replace the professionals." That's precisely the fear of professors who teach online--we'll develop the course and then the university will hire part-time contract employees to teach the class. That hasn't happened yet, at least not at SJSU, but the possibility is there.

~ Professor Cyborg

LUV and Southwest Airlines

In Chapter 6 Eisenberg et al. note that ideology exists in the practices of everyday life. In the organizational context, ideology supports the power of elites by denying system contradictions, such as living in a democracy but not implementing those ideals in the business sector. The authors go on to discuss the hidden power of culture, particularly in myths, stories, and metaphors.

I found the discussion of Southwest Airlines' LUV story interesting because I fly that airline so often. Eisenberg et al. critique the LUV story, concluding that "employees generally accept these [managerial] controls as part of the 'story' that distinguishes the organization and its culture" (p. 175). Although like any large organization Southwest has its flaws, it consistently receives high ratings from outside agencies, customers, and employees. For example, TIME rated the airline the friendliest in 2008. Three-quarters of the employees belong to a union. It's consistently ranked at the top of airline customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Yet the company has had problems with airline safety. In March, Southwest was fined over $10 million dollars for violating FAA regulations on airplane inspections. Yet the company receives high marks for social responsibility, innovation, and management.

In my experiences with Southwest, I've found that employees are empowered to make decisions and handle common problems to keep people moving and planes running on time. Like companies such as Apple and Google, employees seem to enjoy working for Southwest. Maybe that's why the company received nearly 200,000 résumés last year. So while the Eisenberg et al. suggest that employees are simply buying into a hegemonic story that encourages them to participate in their own oppression, it just might be that Southwest is a great company to work for because employees do actively participate in structuring their own work life.

~ Professor Cyborg

let the blogging begin Week 3

It's the morning of day 3 of week 3 and several people already have blogged about concepts in Chapters 5 and 6 and the web lecture. So if you're looking for blogs to comment on, visit these:

• Filbert's Pink Heart
• GSackman8
• Miss Potato
• Molly McMuffin
• SquEarl
• Tina

Recall that you need to comment on the blogs of 4 different people in the class by the end of the week. Keep track of the URLs to avoid commenting 2 or 3 times on the same person's blog.

If you haven't completed a blog entry yet this week, don't wait much longer! Saturday has a way of sneaking up on you faster than you might expect.

~ Professor Cyborg

socialization and new tech

Near the end of Chapter 5 the authors of your text discuss new communication technologies and organizational socialization. Discussing new media separately seems a bit old-fashioned considering the pervasive communication environment in which organizations and organization members function. But at least the authors acknowledge that socialization doesn't just involve in person interaction.

The section did get me thinking about the new faculty who will be joining the department in the fall. Their experience is much different from mine nearly 20 years ago. Then, I had to rely on a microfiche reader to go through the SJSU Catalog so I could get an idea of the department and university. I talked with a few of the faculty members on the phone. But for the most part, socialization occurred in person. Now, job candidates review university and department websites as they write up their letters of application and prepare for the interview. To help integrate the two faculty, I've added their bios and photos to the website. They've exchanged emails with several current faculty. They have access to the department wiki, which includes minutes from faculty and committee meetings, course syllabi, and other useful information. These new colleagues simply know a lot more about the department before the first faculty meeting than I ever did. Still, there's a great deal of informal knowledge that they won't know, but will learn over time.

~ Professor Cyborg

first day Week 3

I just finished reviewing all the blogs and comments from last week and posting those grades. I've taught this course online many, many times (this is the 21st time, to be exact), and each class is different due to different students with different interests and changing times.

Discussions of organizational culture, however, continue to remain one of the most popular. When I first started teaching at SJSU in 1990, I asked students to describe the various elements of the university's culture (such as rituals, metaphors, vocabulary, stories, and the like), giving me some insight into the educational institution I'd recently joined.

As a large bureaucratic organization within two other large bureaucratic organizations (the CSU and State of California), SJSU's culture tends to remain fairly stable. However, outside forces have impinged on the organization, leading to some changes. For example, the CSU was sued over lack of accessibility. As a result, CSU schools are implementing practices that focus on making all aspects of university life--especially informational technologies--accessible for all students. The Communication Studies Department was one of the first departmental websites to convert to a completely accessible platform.

Organizational culture can change, but it often takes some major event, outside force, or new personnel to start the change process. In addition, cultural change doesn't always lead to positive results. Finally, changes in organizational culture may go unnoticed as the organization slowly evolves over time, with old members leaving and new members entering--with new ideas and new ways of doing things.

~ Professor Cyborg

last day Week 2

Week 2 ends today. You must post all your blog entries and comments by midnight tonight and complete Quiz 2. Many excellent insights into Chapters 3 and 4.

~ Professor Cyborg

company layoffs and executive pay

I'm back in California and reading the Mercury News. Last week I missed the paper's annual survey on What the Boss Makes, so I'm reading it online this morning. Not surprisingly, in spite of the current awful economic times, executives in Silicon Valley still make plenty: "The median pay package the valley's boards of directors awarded their chief executives dropped 5.6 percent, to $2.2 million." Okay, it's less, but still a lot.

What I found more interesting, however, was columnist Mike Cassidy's comments on layoffs. He argues that we no longer think of layoffs as the tragedy they really are; we've forgotten that it's real people losing their jobs and their livelihoods. Of course, if you're someone who's experiencing this situation--"in transition" as C & B has learned it's called--you fully understand the implications of not having a job.

Viewing layoffs as a part of doing business in this economy versus viewing layoffs as having far-reaching effects on communities highlights the differences between the machine and organism metaphors for organization. The former leads to what Cassidy observes as "a certain detachment in news reports of the latest company cutting payroll to increase profits 'going forward.'" Contrast that perspective with the one Cassidy suggests we should take:

But that doesn't mean we can ignore the way massive job losses, including from profitable companies with extravagantly paid executives, are choking the life out of our economy and our communities. People who don't work don't buy things or keep current on their mortgages. Stores close. Homes go vacant. Neighborhoods and commercial districts shrivel up.

Company layoffs are particularly troubling when the businesses are profitable, as with HP and Cisco Systems. As you'll read in later chapters, a critical approach to organizational communication will provide additional insights into issues such as executive pay and employee layoffs.

~ Professor Cyborg

sensemaking and learning

A few of you (Esther and Kimber) have already blogged about learning organizations and Weick's theory of sensemaking. According to Peter Senge, the learning organization exhibits flexible mental models. From Weick's perspective, decision making in organization is for the most part retrospective, organizations are viewed as communities, and managers are symbol manipulators.

One of my colleagues from graduate school and I have just started working on a business and professional speaking book that uses these two approaches to organizations as the theoretical foundation of the text. In the book's proposal, we argued, "Conceptualizing organizations—and communicators—as continually learning underscores the importance of effectively gathering and analyzing information, applying that knowledge in practical ways, evaluating the outcome, and updating knowledge pools and skill sets. In this fast-paced, always on, always connected information age, students must develop flexible learning styles to make sense of and adapt to an ever-changing environment." The concepts of sensemaking and learning apply not only to organizations, but also to how we plan to present the information in the book.

We recently signed a contract for Communicating for Business and the Professions: Knowledge and Skills with Cengage and hope to start writing soon!

~ Professor Cyborg

let the blogging begin Week 2

It's early Tuesday morning and several people have already blogged about Chapters 3 and 4. If you're looking for blogs to comment on, go to these class blogs:

• Cynthia Y
• Esther
• GSackman8
• Kimber
• Molly McMuffin
• Msensei
• Sassy Scholar

Thanks to these class members for getting the week started. If you're not on this list--get blogging! Saturday will be here before you know it.

~ Professor Cyborg

organizations as systems

Although systems theory has its drawbacks (such as dehumanizing organizational members and communication is equated with information), it provides an important way of thinking about organizations. For example, recognizing that SJSU is part of a larger system--the California State University--helps you make sense of SJSU's bureaucracy. As an employee of SJSU and the CSU, I'm an employee of the State of California, so my checks come from Sacramento rather than SJSU.

Because SJSU is part of the CSU, that impacts the programs each campus might offer. For example, if the Communication Studies Department wanted to change it's focus to new media studies, the faculty would need to consider not only what's offered by other departments at SJSU, but also other communication departments in the CSU.

Consider how the organizations you're a part of are systems and the ways in which systems theory helps explain why those organizations function as they do.

~ Professor Cyborg

theory and organizational communication

You've probably heard someone say, "Oh, that's just a theory," as if theories aren't all that important or useful. Yet theories are essential for functioning in every day life as they help you explain why things are the way they are and why people behave as they do.

Eisenberg et al. argue that all theories are metaphorical and historical. That is, a theory of organizational communication provides a metaphor of organization, explaining what is not known in terms of what is known. (I discuss the nature of metaphor in greater detail in the Metaphors and Culture web lecture.) Theories are also historical because they're grounded in the time they were developed and the theories that came before them. For example, human relations arose out of dissatisfaction with classical theories of organization and human resources provided a further extension of human relations.

Theories also provide narratives of organization in that they present goal-oriented stories. Theories frame how you think about organizations. No matter how perfect a theory may seem, it will always be partial (doesn't provide a full account of organizational communication), partisan (organizational events may be assigned multiple possible meanings), and problematic (inviting dialogue and questions about organizational communication).

So Chapters 3 and 4 introduce you to early theories of organization that provide important foundations for later thinking about organizational communication. As you read about these theories, consider the historical context in which they arose. Also reflect on the ways they still influence organizing today.

~ Professor Cyborg

organizing and human civilization

The authors of your text argue that the history of human civilization is a history of organizing. In analyzing the current turbulence in the global economy, the centrality of organizing to human existence is quite apparent. Because I'm in Michigan, I've been following the saga of GM's bankruptcy, downsizing, and reorganization. As parts of GM go to other companies (e.g., Saturn to Penske and Hummer possibly to a Chinese company), there are possibilities for new ways of organizing that might prove better for all stakeholders and increase the likelihood of innovation--moving more toward the creativity side of Eisenberg et al.'s model.

As a reminder, Saturday June 6 is the last day to take the first quiz and complete the process tasks. The 6-week summer sessions goes by quickly!

~ Professor Cyborg

let the blogging begin

It's Day 3 of Week 1 and several class members have already set up their blogs, introduced themselves, and posted their work stories. Check out these blogs:

• aimee5466
• COMM 144 Student
• Cynthia Y
• Esther
• Filbert's Pink Heart
• GSackman8
• Hallie
• i like cake
• Molly McMuffin
• Msensei
• SquEarlBlog
• TM
• Wilki

If you haven't posted yet, be sure to introduce yourself and tell us about your work story this week. You're not graded on your blog entries and comments this week, but blogging now will help prepare you for next week--and you'll get to meet the others in the class and they'll get to meet you.

~ Professor Cyborg

work story

Although blogging isn't required for this week, posting your work story to your blog will get you used to blogging as well as thinking about organizational communication.

My work story includes all sorts of jobs to pay the bills while I was in school, such as food co-op manager and unit clerk on a hospital burn unit. My first job (outside of babysitting) was stuffing envelopes and other clerical work for a small psychology journal. I've waited tables (2 weeks) and sold Avon products (2 months). I knew in 8th grade that I wanted to be a professor (my father is a retired psychology professor and my stepmother is a retired business communication professor, so teaching runs in the family), I just wasn't sure about the "of what" part.

When I started my bachelor's at Western Michigan U, I majored in psychology (too many experiments and surveys), switched to interior design (I didn't have a "vision" sense), and briefly considered majoring in English (my poetry was really awful). Finally, my junior year I took a class in interpersonal communication and another in sociology, and I was hooked, majoring in the former and minoring in the latter. I taught my first university class, public speaking, in 1980 as a teaching assistant working on my master's in communication at the U of Massachusetts.

In my present life as a professor, I teach, conduct research, write textbooks and journal articles, and engage in professional and community service. Many of you know me as one of the primary advisors in the department (and if you're a COMM major or minor and haven't met with an advisor to plan your fall schedule, plan to attend a drop in advising session this month). I'm also the advising liaison for the College of Social Sciences and the faculty advisor for the COMM Club.

I'm looking forward to learning about your work stories.

~ Professor Cyborg

Day 1 Week 1 in 144

The Summer 2009 session started today. Several students have already set up their blogs and most have signed up for the class listserv (google groups). So we're off to a good start. If you haven't already, you'll want to complete the Process Tasks in the next few days. Although you don't have to blog this week, you may want to post an introductory message to get used to how Blogger works.

eCampus has uploaded the class roster, so you can access Blackboard now. All quizzes are available; you must complete the first one by midnight this Saturday.

The GM saga continues. I've been following it closely; it's difficult not to in Michigan. It's a new world order for organizations and organizing. What you'll be learning about during the summer session will help you better analyze and understand the tremendous changes U.S. organizations and others world wide are experiencing.

~ Professor Cyborg

when an industry defines a state

My family moved to Michigan shortly before my junior year of high school. I didn't know much about the state, except that the U.S. automakers were there. Like horse racing is to Kentucky, automobiles are to Michigan. The decline of the auto industry has decimated the Michigan economy. So many jobs are directly linked to the auto manufacturers and every job is affected by the fate of the Big 3 automakers.

I was reading the Detroit Free Press this morning, the paper my brothers delivered when we lived in Mt. Pleasant, a small college town in the center of the state. The cover story on GM highlighted the key roles the company has played in Michigan as well as U.S. history. It's a fascinating article, particularly the insights into the power of GM to shape U.S. politics and policy. For example:

In 1953, Eisenhower named Charles Erwin Wilson, then-GM president, as secretary of defense. Asked during Senate hearings if the defense secretary could make a decision against the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered yes, but famously added he could not imagine such a case, "because for years, I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa."

But even in Michigan, some question whether the U.S. government should try to save the company. Should the taxpayers pay for executives' bad decisions? A recent poll suggests that taxpayers aren't too keen on this idea. Or is GM simply a victim of the country's recent economic near-collapse?

As an organizational communication scholar, I hope that Michigan's government officials learn their lesson and make a concerted effort to diversify the state's economy. For too long the U.S. automakers have held hostage the state's economy and for too long the politicians representing Michigan have listened to the automakers and ignored the pleas of other industries.

Whatever happens with GM, the case will provide important insight into how people should organize--or not--in the 21st century.

~ Professor Cyborg

organizations and the new economy

This morning I sent out the welcome message to the students enrolled in COMM 144 for the summer. Although the class doesn't officially start until Monday, getting an early start tends to reduce some of the ambiguity and anxiety students new to online classes often feel.

I'm in Michigan for the first 10 days of the summer session visiting my folks. The effects of the world-wide economic collapse are evident here with so many houses for sale, boarded up businesses, and less traffic on the roads. The headlines of the Detroit Free Press are all about GM's impending bankruptcy. For me, the saddest part is the impact on people's daily lives, especially those who retired from GM with promised benefits and pensions. That deferred compensation now may never reach the workers who depend on it, or at least the amount will be reduced. GM breaking its promise with retired employees provides support for Eisenberg et al.'s observation that there's a new social contract between employers and employees in which employers are not loyal to their employees, and employees are not loyal to their employers.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the turbulent economic climate will provide many examples of how organizations cope, change, survive--or don't.

~ Professor Cyborg

ending/begining

The department graduation is tomorrow evening and will mark the end of the semester for me. What began with about 40 graduates and 250 audience members is now 85 graduates and 750 audience members. It's become an important ritual for the department, although I'm wondering if we shouldn't scale it back next year. Go with the trend of living more simply and reducing our carbon footprint.

Graduation marks the beginning for the students as they leave the university and launch off on their career paths--which may involve additional time in school, traveling, or turning an internship into a full-time job. These are difficult economic times; I hope the university has given students what they need to succeed.

The end of the spring term also means I need to turn my attention to the summer session. So I'll start checking my class email regularly and post a few time to this blog before the session begins.

I didn't teach any classes at SJSU in the spring, so I'm looking forward to getting back in the classroom.

~ Professor Cyborg

144 Summer 2009

Summer registration started this past Monday, so I decided I better get my class launched over the weekend. The main website is up, although I may make a few changes between now and the start of the summer term.

With the current global financial crisis--which is really an organizational crisis--there will much for everyone in the class to blog about. No one has been immune from the impact of the economic crunch. Certainly students, faculty, and staff at SJSU are facing the reality of the California budget cuts. What can we learn about organizations from what has happened? That will be the important take away.

~ Professor Cyborg

mindfulness and metaphors

Chapter 11 is sort of a catch all for the topics the authors haven't addressed earlier in the text, a chance to revisit some concepts, and a look to the future of organizational communication. The authors again discuss dialogue, linking it with mindfulness when they note that thinking is the essence of authentic dialogue. Communication research suggests that organization members interact mindlessly most of the time. Mindless communication can be useful because the brain reserves energy for more challenging interactions. But being mindful is nonetheless an important aspect of competent organizational communication, requiring communicators to adapt messages to their listeners.

The most interesting part of this chapter for me is the section on new logics of organizing. While the dominant metaphor is organizations as machines, it's often not the best way to organize. Viewing management as poetry suggests that managerial tasks are motivated by story and metaphor. For example, I've learned a lot about how to chair a department from the stories that others have told. In addition, viewing management as poetry recognizes that organizational behavior is seldom rational; people do the things they do and say the things they say for all sorts of reasons and motivations.

New metaphors for organizing include organizational communication as discourse, which focuses attention on organizations as texts. Organizational communication as voice highlights who is allowed to speak in an organization and who isn't. For example, reflect on how much say CSU students get in fee increases, courses offered, and graduation requirements. Organizational communication as performance suggests that organizational life is best understood as a drama--some aspects are fairly scripted, but others are more like improv.

~ Professor Cyborg

organizing and technology

The most interesting aspects of Chapter 10 for me are those focusing on organizations and new communication technologies. I don't think the authors fully grasp the degree to which the internet, cell phones, the like have impacted organizational communication, organizations, and organizing. For example, internet communication researchers have rejected media richness theory and embraced notion of a communication imperative, which I discuss in the Technology & Teams web lecture.

This imperative is related to Mouritsen and Bjorn-Andersen's argument that one concern in analyzing communication technology is humans are agents, which means that humans are able to work around the prescribed system. Consider the kinds of strategies employees will use to avoid surveillance technology. In identifying concerns in analyzing communication technology, Mouritsen and Bjorn-Andersen argue that technology is politically ambiguous, which means that technology can be used to both promote and constrain dialogue. Another concern in analyzing communication technology according to Mouritsen and Bjorn-Andersen is understanding is partial, which means that organization members' behaviors may lead to unintended consequences.

Eisenberg et al. observe that many social relationships within and between organizations involve mediated interpersonal communication, or the use of email, fax, telephones, and other forms of new communication technologies. I find this terminology rather quaint. What work relationships doesn't involve some sort of mediated communication? The telephone is a mediated form of communication and organization members have used phones to communication for over 100 years. As I discuss in the Technology & Teams web lecture, there's no virtual vs. real world--it's all real. Organization members use whatever forms of communication are available to meet their communicative goals.

~ Professor Cyborg

leading and organizing

Leadership has never been one of my interests as an organizational communication scholar. I've always felt it should be, but I tend to be more interested in the view from the bottom of the hierarchy. Nonetheless, leadership does function at all levels in an organization. Rather than looking to "a" leader, organizations generally work better when leadership and leading are more distributed.

In Chapter 9, the authors of your text discuss various approaches to leadership. The trait approach to leadership provides the insight that physical attractiveness is a key component of effective leadership. An early version of the leadership approach to leadership posited autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leaders. From the situational approach to leadership, leaders’ behaviors can be categorized as delegating, participating, selling, or telling. The transformational approach to leadership stresses the importance of leaders communicating a vision that resonates with followers.

After serving as acting chair of the department for six months last year, I could relate to the section in the chapter on effective leadership habits. Habits of mind essential for effective leaders include sensing, presencing and realizing. Habits of character include accessibility, decisiveness, and valuing individuals. Habits of authentic and compelling communicative performance include creating a vision for the future and developing a credible life story. In leading the department, I found the habits of character to be the most important in securing faculty enthusiasm and productivity. For example, faculty could easily contact me via email, phone, or in person. There are some decisions I made myself, such as setting up a faculty wiki. And I made sure to thank and acknowledge faculty members for their efforts in completing essential departmental tasks.

~ Professor Cyborg

teams and organizations

Chapter 8 focuses on teams and networks. Much of my research has examined teams, with special attention to interdisciplinary health care teams. I've blogged about this research in my graduate seminar in organizational communication (democracy and health care teams, organizational communication patterns, emotions in organizations, organizing and hospice care teams).

Today, though, I'm going to talk about why I'm currently in Long Beach attending the California Web Accessibility Conference (CalWAC4). As the authors of your text note, team-based organizations view all employees as able to decide how to manage their work. A project team in an organization is typically assigned to address a specific issue or problem. A work team in an organization is responsible for an entire work process that delivers a product or service to a customer. A quality improvement team in an organization is typically concerned with work-related issues such as customer satisfaction and reducing costs. I'm currently part of a project team that's been set up to help faculty make all their instructional materials fully accessible to all students. This includes, for example, having all syllabi and handouts in screen-readable digital format, close-captioning for video, and accessible digital slides.

Class websites have to be accessible as well (that's why CSU schools will be using blackboard only through the next academic year--it's not fully accessible). I'm in Long Beach attending the conference to learn more about how to make web instructional materials more accessible. Today, I'm taking three courses: how to test websites for accessibility, how to mentor others in accessibility, and accessibility issues in online learning. A few others on my team are attending as well, but have enrolled in different courses. At my team's first meeting in the spring semester, we'll report back on what we learned. Participating in CalWAC4 provides an example of Senge's notion of team learning as balancing inquiry and advocacy. When we report back to the other team members, we'll be practicing dialogue as the free flow of meaning.

~ Professor Cyborg

identity and organizations

Chapter 7 discusses identity and diversity in organizations with a special focus on gender. The authors note that liberal feminists advocate changes to government and company policies to create greater equity in the workplace for women. In contrast, radical feminists are interested in replacing traditional organizational structures with nonhierarchical ones.

A good portion of the chapter is devoted to discussing Ashcraft's four frames of identity associated with the workplace. The gender differences at work frame proposes that the communication styles of women and men stem from their gendered socialization. The gender identity as organizational performance frame posits that gender is performed, or something individuals do rather than something they are. The gendered organizations frame portrays organizations as agents that produce and are products of gendered discourse. The gender narratives in popular culture frame underscores the notion that how we understand organization stems from the media we consume, such as movies, books, and magazines.

For me the most interesting section in the chapter is on emotion labor, or the idea that organization members must enact certain emotions and refrain from enacting other emotions. Flight attendants, servers, sales clerks, and other service workers are not allowed to have a bad day--they must be upbeat and happy if they want to keep their jobs. This requirement always to be cheerful and positive no matter what can be quite stressful, especially when customers, supervisors, and others don't have to follow the same rules. Maybe that's why my waiting tables career lasted only two weeks.

~ Professor Cyborg

hegemony in organizations

A primary criticism of early work in organizational culture was the lack of attention to power in the organization. That is, while all organization members participate in the creation of organizational culture, some have greater influence in the process than others. In addition, cultural norms typically reinforce the status quo and cultural artifacts, such as stories and practices, convey values in implicit ways that are difficult to critique. As I mentioned in my entry yesterday, much of my work in organizational communication has focused on culture. My early research took an interpretive approach, but later work took a critical approach.

As the authors of your text point out in Chapter 6, he roots of critical theory are in the writings of Karl Marx and the scholars associated with the Frankfurt School. Critical approaches advocate for working people. A social trend in the U.S. that has contributed to increased interest in critical approaches to organizations is more resources being given to larger corporations. A recent example is the banking industry bailout in which billions of dollars were given to financial institutions with essentially no strings attached or oversight, while people directly affected by the collapse of the real estate market and mortgage system were for the most part left to fend for themselves.

Hegemony occurs when organizational rules developed by top management are adopted and enforced by those at lower levels of the hierarchy. Reification occurs when organization members view organizational reality as objective and fixed. Concertive control occurs when employees create and enforce their own rules. For example, SJSU administration requires that faculty give a final examination (of some sort) during finals week. As a learning and assessment tool, finals do a poor job, especially concentrated in just a few days. But SJSU has always had finals week (at least since anyone I know here can remember). It's viewed as something that can't be changed. Faculty have developed their own rules associated with finals week and enforce those rules. Some of us have questioned the rationale beyond finals week, but the questions are ignored.

According to Stan Deetz, a noted critical organizational communication scholar, critical research is a way of life that involves being filled with care, which means trying to understand others on their own terms. He also argues that critical researchers should be filled with thought, which means identifying the political implications of personal stories. Finally, being filled with humor for the critical researcher means accepting uncertainty and recognizing life's ironies.

~ Professor Cyborg

organizational culture

When I was working on my doctorate in communication at the University of Kentucky, I took a course in organizational culture. There were only four people in the class (that produced some interesting dynamics). The topic of organizational culture was fairly new--the authors of your text note that the first known reference to organizational culture appeared in a journal in 1979. The class greatly influenced my thinking about organizations and since then much of my research in organizational communication has focused on culture.

There are many definitions of organizational culture, as the authors of your text note in Chapter 5. Ouchi defined culture as national standards of organizational performance. From an interpretive perspective, culture is what an organization is and organizations are viewed as storytelling systems. Researchers from the integration perspective on culture generally attend to the stories of those in power and neglect marginalized groups in the organization. The differentiation perspective on organizational culture views organizational cultures as domains that are politically contested. Eisenberg et al. argue that culture is like a religion and that culture involves common recognition or intelligibility among a group of people. Examining organizational culture begins with recognizing the centrality of language in shaping organization members' perceptions.

In past semesters when I've taught this course, I've asked students to identify the different indicators of SJSU culture. Although some communication scholars argue these indicators only get at the surface of organizational culture, they nonetheless provide a useful starting point for examining what's often taken for granted. In identifying metaphors associated with SJSU, students have used the terms zoo, maze, and family. Examples of rituals at SJSU include spring graduation and convocation for first-year students. The MLK Library and statue of SJSU alumni protesting at the Olympics are examples of artifacts. By themselves they don't mean much, but examining several cultural artifacts can reveal organizational values and norms.

~ Professor Cyborg

systems and organizing

The systems perspective provided a radical shift from earlier thinking about organizations and organizing. With roots in biology, the systems perspective views organizations a organisms. Einstein's theory of relativity was a major influence on the development of systems theory. McLuhan's concept of a global information society where perceptions are no longer mediated by static ideas of time and space and Prigogine's work in chemistry suggesting that disorder is a natural part of environmental change and renewal have their roots in systems theory.

I find Karl Weick's application of systems theory to organization the most compelling of all the ways in which this theory has been applied. From Weick's sense-making perspective, decision making in organizations is largely retrospective. That is, organization members make decisions and then come up with reasons for making them. Managers are symbol manipulators who encourage employees to make sense of their work lives.

In identity construction, one property of Weick's notion of sense making, how and what organization members think indicates who they are. Plausibility, another sense-making property, means that sufficiency and probability are more important than accuracy. Continuation suggests that what organization members say competes for attention with other ongoing projects.

Weick argues that organizations are communities that provides sites for socializing and storytelling. I'm especially interested in organizational storytelling and what stories reveal about organizational culture. Listening to the stories faculty told when I first arrived at SJSU helped be better understand the practices and norms in the department and the university.

Systems theory and Weick's sense-making approach encourage organizational communication scholars to examine how members interact in creating organizational life, quite a contrast from earlier views of organization.

~ Professor Cyborg

theory and organizing

Theory is often depicted as dry, boring, and useless, as with "that's just a theory." Yet theory provides a way for understanding and interpreting the world. In Chapter 3, Eisenberg et al. discuss the notion of theory and organization as well as early theoretical approaches to organization and communication.

The authors note that theories are metaphorical and historical as well as goal-oriented stories. For example, the authors use the empire metaphor to describe how organizations in the U.S. functioned from the 1700s to the early 1900s. Because theories are partial, they can never completely explain organizational communication. Theories are partisan in that events in organizations may be interpreted in multiple ways. The problematic nature of theories invites dialogue and questions about organizational communication.

Theories, then, are narratives of organization--theories provide a way of telling the story of organization and organizing. As you read Chapter 3, you'll note that theories focus primarily on management and telling the story of how to get people to do their work. So concern was (and still for the most part is) with theories that will help top management figure out the best way to facilitate employee productivity.

I'm particularly interested in narratives of organization. For example, domination narratives came out of the top-down flow of information in hierarchies found in classical management approaches. Narratives of resistance are told by the less powerful and the powerless who ordinarily have little or no voice in organizations. These narratives are a type of hidden transcript--information known to those who are oppressed but kept from those in power due to fear of reprisal.

The idea of narratives of resistance suggests that much of what is known about organizations comes from the top and little is known about the daily work done by the typical member of an organization. Consider all the information produced by organizations: press releases, quarterly reports, year-end financial statements. For me, the most interesting research in organizational communication focuses on revealing the overlooked stories of organizational life.

~ Professor Cyborg

dialogue in organizations

In Chapter 2, the authors discuss the notion of dialogue in organizations. I'm particularly interested in this concept as it provides a foundational basis for a small group text I'm writing. In this entry, I provide a brief summary of the main points associated with dialogue outlined in the chapter.

In the model of communication as a balance of creativity and constraint (depicted on p. 42), communication suggests the possibility of dialogue. The model also suggests that creativity informs new ways of organizing tasks and understanding relationships. The foundations of dialogue frame a large part of working as the interpretation of contexts. Eisenberg et al. identify several approaches to dialogue. In dialogue as equitable transaction all participants are able to voice their opinions and perspectives. Voice is the ability of an individual or group to participate in organizational dialogue. The suppression of employee voice in organizations can result in sabotage and violence.

Dialogue as empathic conversation involves collective mindfulness. Dialogue as real meeting is also called authentic dialogue. One advantage of promoting dialogue in organizations is greater innovation. One disadvantage is that organization members may feel that no right answer can be identified for a problem. The authors of your text observe that dialogue in organizations is rare.

Creating spaces for dialogue can prove challenging, particularly in times of scarce resources. However, organizations ignore dialogue to their detriment. Dialogue is essential for innovation and for encouraging collaboration. If organization members feel they don't have a voice, they will find alternative ways to express themselves, as Eisenberg et al. note.

~ Professor Cyborg

the changing world of work

Welcome to the first official day of class! If you haven't already, complete the Process Tasks so you can keep up to date on what's going on in the class as well as start your own blogging.

The Eisenberg et al. text was published in 2007, which means the authors likely finished writing it in 2006. I'm not sure they could have anticipated all the changes in the changing world of work, but they did identify several directions for workplace trajectories, particularly in terms of the global economy.

In Chapter 1, the authors note the problems with a market economy largely free from government regulation. Although the authors gave the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies as an example of "an unreasonably optimistic belief in the self-regulating power of a market economy," (p. 8), the current state of the global financial system provides a current weakness with this line of thinking and action. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) lists failed banks and those needing emergency assistance dating back to 1991. The list is long for 2008 and includes IndyMac, Washington Mutual, and Downey Savings and Loan Association. Moreover, because economies world wide are interdependent, the problems have spread to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and other places around the globe.

The authors conclude the chapter by observing that "traditional ways of doing business--and communicating--are no longer effective" (p. 24). The problems organizations are facing today suggest they haven't quite yet figured out what the news ways should be.

~ Professor Cyborg

turbulent times for organizations

Welcome to the New Year! 2008 was certainly a year in which organizations made front page news and that's probably going to be the case in 2009 as well.

The Eisenberg et al. book begins with the line, "The are strange times for organizational communication" (p. v). The authors go on to note in the same paragraph, "The horrific ethical missteps by corporations such as Enron continue to haunt the current business environment, as a series of denials and plea deals made by key executives in these cases makes the potential for real change unlikely" (p. v). The lack of any sort of ethical code has certainly pervaded the financial industry, where top executives made a lot money while their organizations collapsed and U.S. taxpayer dollars were used for executive bonuses. The continued unethical--and even illegal--behavior of a few have led to turbulent and dark times for many.

The main headline in the Mercury News Business section, "A Loss of Faith in Stock Markets," reflects the lack of confidence people have in organizational decision-makers. Who wants to invest money in companies when leading financial advisors such as Bernard Madoff admit to defrauding clients out of $50 billion? As the authors of the text point out, balancing individual and group goals is essential to effective organizing. It seems that today the balance has tipped in the direction of the individual (at least a few individuals) to the detriment of the many.

So why even bother to take a class in organizational communication? Becoming a more knowledgeable organizational member can help you make smarter professional choices and improve your communication competency across all the organizations in which you're embedded. Taking an organizational communication class may not prevent scandals such as Enron and the recent subprime mortgage debacle, but if more people had such a class, the likelihood of such events might decrease.

~ Professor Cyborg