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
Week 5: Blog 4
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Web Lecture: Procedural Democracy
I think the main point of this concept is that without it, you cannot have
democracy at all. A profound example of this i...
14 years ago
2 comments:
Your metaphor you used to describe organizational communication as a performance and organizational life as a drama really painted the picture for me. I do see organizational communication in that light, because although there are times where you know what should be said, what you're supposed to say... it is much like an improv... because you can never really predict what other people (involved) are going to say or do. You have to react to their actions, and often times, you have to do it right on the spot, just like improv.
I enjoyed reading the section on mindful and mindless communication. You don’t realize how much of your day involves non productive, or route things. Generally speaking I’d say most of our lives revolves around some type of mindless routine, we wake up, we shower, dress, get coffee, go to work or school, come home, go to bed, and repeat some variation of the previous day. But it’s interesting to see how we react when a small part of our mindless routine is thrown off. I tend to study well at coffee shops, most of the time this means I can’t stay in my comfort zone, starbucks (they don’t offer free WiFi). It’s funny to go into a new place and have one more thing to actually think about… I can no longer spit out my now memorized coffee order to the cashier. In order to become more mindful the book suggests that we be placed outside of our comfort zones. When we are lost, in danger or sense a bad outcome we become more attentive and aware of the situation.
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