Preface
These are dynamic times for our world and for the study and practice of organizational communication. As we write this, we see faint signs that the global recession of the past decade is beginning to abate, but at the same time real wages are stagnant and few are confident that the root causes that led us into our troubles have been effectively addressed. Advances in sustainable energy technology reflect a growing awareness of limits on human consumption, but these advances are being made against a backdrop of persistent income inequality throughout the world. The question of how we relate to and best preserve our natural resources is intimately connected to how, and how fairly, they are distributed among people and nations. Meanwhile, the global political landscape sharply reflects the tension between traditional structures and beliefs (tribes, nations, religions) and the emergence of a broader global ecology. We are heartened by the knowledge that, at least in some of the more developed nations, the idea of resolving conflict through conventional warfare is fading, replaced by a more humane emphasis on diplomacy and economic development. At the same time, we are mortified by the uptick in high-profile terrorist attacks and by the immigration crisis playing out in Europe and around the world. Sadly, the prospect of civil global dialogue and peaceful coexistence still remains a long way off.
As scholars, we look at these events and circumstances as opportunities to discuss the ways both personal and global in which organizing and communicating affect the world. Yet we’re often surprised that our students initially fail to see the connection between the world around them and the study of organizational communication. For many students, “org comm” is something that people working for Fortune 500 companies “do.” It involves organizational charts, agendas, and coping with difficult supervisors. As teachers, we believe that helping our students think critically about the state of all types of organizations from a communication vantage point and showing the communicative linkages from the university level to the national
and international levels — can generate important conversations inside and outside the classroom and can also serve as an impetus for positive social change. We trust that effective communication is the key requirement for creating and sustaining a democratic society in a decidedly diverse and changing world.
This book, therefore, distills what we have learned about the role and importance of organizational communication within today’s rapidly evolving social context, and we proudly share it with you. From its inception to this eighth edition, our text has evolved to meet the demands of the field and the organizational communication classroom. Its overarching model, however, remains the same. We continue to emphasize a balance of creativity and constraint that is, the ability to simultaneously consider the enabling and constraining aspects of communication. Striking this balance helps people achieve their professional and personal goals. As humans, we struggle to be individualistic and heroic (asserting our creativity) yet still belong to a group (responding to social and institutional constraints). Our model examines this struggle through the lens of everyday communication practices as they play out in the world around us.
□ Overview of the Book
We have two goals for this textbook: (1) to impart the core theories and skills that organizational communication students need and (2) to share the very best of current scholarship, particularly as it relates to rapidly evolving topics like diversity, economics, and technology. We’ve organized the text as follows to introduce students to our dynamic field.
Part I, “Approaching Organizational Communication,” includes two chapters that provide readers with an overview of the discipline and the concepts they’ll need to master the ideas and methods presented in the rest of the text. Chapter 1, “Communication and the Changing World of Work,” highlights several important issues facing contemporary organizations. Chapter 2, “Defining Organizational Communication,” examines four definitions of the concept and offers the notion of ethical and mindful dialogue as a productive way to think about communication at work.
Part II, “Theories of Organizational Communication,” covers six distinct theoretical perspectives on organizational communication that motivate research and practice. Chapter 3, “Three Early Perspectives on Organizations and Communication,” reviews scientific management, human relations, and human resources and explores the implications of these foundational organizational theories for communication. Chapter 4, “The Systems Perspective on Organizations and Communication,” applies various forms of systems theory and demonstrates how they are useful for thinking about communicating and organizing. The next chapter, “Cultural Studies of Organizations and Communication,” uses a metaphor borrowed from anthropology and adopted by many organizations to examine the role of communication in the creation, maintenance, and transformation of organizational reality. Finally, Chapter 6, “Critical Approaches to Organizations and Communication,” takes a different approach altogether, starting with the premise that research should be directed at illuminating and correcting inequalities at work. Particular attention is paid to how privilege is distributed unevenly across race, gender, and class differences.
Part III of the text, “Contexts for Organizational Communication,” explores the various practical settings in which the theories described above can be applied. It starts with Chapter 7, “Identity and Difference in Organizational Life,” which examines scholarship on identity as well as differences that affect our communication, from race to socioeconomic status
to sexual orientation. The next chapter, “Teams and Networks: Communication and Collaborative Work,” looks at attempts to organize through the use of teams and networks, paying particular attention to the ways in which technology and social media have altered traditional industry models and assumptions.
Chapter 9, “Communicating Leadership,” reframes leadership as a communicative activity, reviews relevant research, and presents a summary of practical forms of effective leader communication. The last chapter, “Organizational Alignment: Managing the Total Enterprise,” argues that for an organization to be truly effective, good communication must be accompanied by many other changes to an organization’s current alignment.
Finally, the Appendix, “A Field Guide to Studying Organizational Communication,” provides students and instructors with a helpful step-bystep process for planning, researching, participating in, and writing a qualitative account of an organization’s communication practices.
□ New to This Edition
Perhaps the most notable addition to the eighth edition is a new coauthor. Marianne LeGreco joins us from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she holds a position as an associate professor in their Department of Communication Studies. Marianne is intimately familiar with Organizational Communication, having used the text in her own courses and written the Instructor’s Manual for the previous three editions. Her expertise in organizational policy, community organizing, and the intersections of health and organizing add an exciting new dimension to the book and we look forward to her continued contributions to this text.
Additionally, our revisions to this edition of Organizational Communication, and to all previous editions of the book, were guided by our colleagues’ suggestions as well as a desire to provide our readers with the most current and relevant research available. We also care a great deal about finding new and innovative ways to offer students practical applications of organizational communication’s theories and concepts, particularly in light of today’s pressing ethical, political, economic, technological, and environmental issues. As such, we have made the following improvements to this edition:
The introductory chapter has been refocused to highlight key issues facing today’s organizations: the inevitability of change, the impact of technology, and changes in the meaning of work. The chapter has also been revised to reflect significant changes in how society is responding to globalization, as well as the proliferation of cyber threats. Throughout, the chapter focuses on ethical issues, setting students up to consider organizational and communication ethics throughout the book. Chapter 5 has been updated to include new developments in theorizing and practicing organizational culture, particularly in the context of multinational organizations where the intersection of organizational, national, and local cultures can create opportunities for creativity and generate constraints. As the socialization process is tightly coupled with organizational culture, we have also addressed some of the exciting directions in organizational socialization scholarship that address new interpersonal, organizational, and international dynamics. Chapter 6 includes new material on the impact that technology and
social media have on power relations in organizational contexts.
Chapter 8 has been heavily revised again to consider developing topics in the field, such as employee engagement that is, fostering employee involvement in and enthusiasm about work. In addition, the chapter’s most significant revisions involve a sharper focus on technology and teams, particularly how technological devices and practices are reframing how we collaborate in teams and across networks.
Chapter 10 also has been heavily revised and reorganized. The chapter features a much stronger emphasis on the role that technology plays in organizational processes related to basic tracking and monitoring, as well as employee privacy and app culture. Additionally, the chapter now includes a new section on policy as a process that allows organizations to strategically align their efforts.
Updated research and examples throughout the text include coverage of the global economic crisis, generational considerations in communication and policy, identity, employee engagement, and social media. They highlight organizational communication’s evolving achievements while keeping the material fresh and relevant for students.
New Everyday Organizational Communication boxes and What Would You Do? boxes throughout the text introduce contemporary, real-life situations from innovative approaches to paying employees to social media catastrophes to quality enhancement programs offering students ample opportunity to consider and apply concepts and theories they learn from the text.
□ Enduring Features of the Text
Despite our considerable updates to reflect the ever-changing context for organizational communication, our goal for the text remains the same: to help students to bridge the gap between what they learn in school and what they experience outside the classroom. Toward this end, we continue to offer several unique features that help students think critically about the world of work, the organizations in their personal lives, and the larger global issues that affect their present and future. As always, we are pleased to offer new examples of each feature in the eighth edition of our text.
Case studies link theory with practice. The case studies in every chapter challenge students to put what they’ve learned into practice. In Chapter 6, for example, students help a fire department discourage firefighters from taking unnecessary risks; in Chapter 7, they help address communication challenges among team members of different ages. The questions that follow each case study encourage student involvement and lively class discussion. What Would You Do? boxes in every chapter help students appreciate complex ethical decision making, presenting them with a variety of dilemmas they may well face in their lives as students, employees, and citizens.
Everyday Organizational Communication boxes in every chapter help students recognize the ways in which organizational theory is already at work in their lives, bridging the gap between academic research and everyday experiences. From scientific management in professional kitchens to creativity and constraint in online networking profiles, students will recognize the relevance of the material to life outside the classroom.
In addition, we continue to offer “A Field Guide to Studying Organizational Communication,” which introduces basic observational methods to prepare students to assess real-life organizational problems.
□ Instructor and Student Resources
Over the past three years, we’ve noticed an increased demand for flexible book formats, additional instructor support, and online student support to accompany our textbook. This need makes sense given the changes in the organizational communication classroom. Increasingly, we’re seeing organizational communication courses taught entirely online. We’re also seeing many new instructors step up to teach this exciting course. In response, we offer a robust package to support and complement our text. Please visit our catalog page at macmillanlearning.com to order or download resources.
Teachers and students of organizational communication will benefit from the following:
LaunchPad Solo for Organizational Communication. LaunchPad Solo brings together all student media and instructor resources for the text in one convenient location that makes it easy to assign homework, assess student progress, and manage the course. The Video Assignment Tool makes it easy to assign and assess video-based activities and projects, and provides a convenient way for students to submit video coursework. The LaunchPad Gradebook gives a clear window on performance for the whole class, for individual students, and for individual assignments. Book-specific instructor resources include the downloadable Test Bank and Instructor’s Resource Manual, pre-built chapter quizzes, and a huge bank of customizable quiz questions. LaunchPad Solo features easy LMS integration into your school’s learning management system. Online Instructor’s Manual. This highly praised, thoroughly updated manual offers a wealth of support for busy professors, including useful lecture outlines, thought-provoking classroom activities, suggestions for useful and relevant movie and television clips, and thoughts on using the book’s pedagogy with students.
Computerized Test Bank. This reliable test bank ensures that instructors have options for assessing their students’ understanding of the material, including a variety of multiple-choice, true-false, shortanswer, and essay questions.
Acknowledgments
Textbooks are published with the authors’ names listed on the cover, but in every way publishing a textbook is a team effort. We are especially grateful for the strong support that this edition of Organizational Communication has received from Bedford/St. Martin’s. In particular, we want to thank Erika Gutierrez, publisher; Susan McLaughlin, development manager/editor; Will Stonefield, assistant editor; Kayti Corfield, marketing manager; Gillian Daniels, marketing assistant; Pamela Lawson, project editor; and Katrina Ostler, project manager for Jouve North America. All of these fine professionals contributed to this project in ways that have made the eighth edition of this text the best book it could be.
We also want to thank our colleagues and friends at other universities and colleges who reviewed our textbook and offered insightful suggestions for improvement. Reviewers for the eighth edition include:
Philip Bakelaar, Montclair State University
Deborah Dunn, Westmont University
LaKresha Graham, Rockhurst University
Meredith Harrigan, State University of New York at Geneseo
Jacob Jenkins, California State University, Channel Islands
Beatrice Kunka, Robert Morris University
Jae Lee, University of Houston
Alex Lyon, State University of New York at Brockport
Caryn Medved, Baruch College
Michael Pagano, Fairfield University
Joanna Showell, Cookman University
June Smith, Angelo State University
Robert Whitbred, Cleveland State University
Reviewers of previous editions include:
Stacey Connaughton, Purdue University
Caryn Medved, Baruch College, City University of New York
Brittany L. Peterson, Ohio University
Brian Richardson, University of North Texas
Suzy D’Enbeau, University of Kansas
Kathryn Fonner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Sandra Lyn French, Radford University
Virginia Hamilton, University of California, Davis
Jaesub Lee, University of Houston
Janet Lillie, Michigan State University
Canchu Lin, Bowling Green State University
Lacy G. McNamee, Baylor University
Patty Sotirin, Michigan Technological University
Anthony Spina, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Cheryl Wood, George Washington University
Marie Baker-Ohler, Northern Arizona University
Hsiu-Jung “Mindy” Chang, Western New England College
Gail Fairhurst, University of Cincinnati
Bethany C. Goodier, College of Charleston
James I. Olufowote, Boston College
John Parrish-Sprowl, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Suchitra Shenoy, DePaul University
Gary Shulman, Miami University
In addition, we are personally and professionally indebted to a number of colleagues, students, and staff members for their support of this project, specifically Steve Corman, Jess Alberts, Sarah J. Tracy, and Bob McPhee of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University; Cliff Scott of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Alexandra Murphy of DePaul University; Patricia Riley of the University of Southern California; and Tanya Melendez of Bradley University. Thanks also to Graphic World for their fine work on the revisions to the ancillary material.
Finally, we could not have written this edition without the enthusiastic and loving support of members of our immediate families: Lori Roscoe, Evan and Joel Eisenberg, and Jeff and Anna Brown. We are also grateful for our extended families especially Karner, Candy, and Allyson Trethewey, Susan Soderstrom, Mary Joy Ewers, and Katie and Nathan LeGreco and our close friends.
As always, we are grateful to those individuals who, despite the intellectual, social, political, economic, and spiritual turmoil of our time, remain committed to continuing the dialogue.
Eric M. Eisenberg University of South Florida Angela Trethewey Arizona State University, Tempe
Marianne LeGreco University of North Carolina at Greensboro
H. L. Goodall Jr. Late of Arizona State University, Tempe
