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