Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 9: Communication and the Workplace
Learning Objectives
1. Explain how people learn about the workplace.
4. Describe how the workplace can be understood by relationships.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. Workplace experiences in terms of other people and relationships.
B. Workplace in terms of structure.
II. Learning about the Workplace
A. Many different views of the workplace, based on childhood learning, practical
experiences as well relational interactions.
B. Organizations and the workplace are essentially sites of meaning making.
i. Vocational anticipatory socialization: The preparation for becoming a worker;
takes place from early moments of childhood onward, including through exposure
to the media and depiction of the workplace in comedy and other shows.
F. Metaphors of Organizations
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. Strong influence on thinking.
ii. Organizations as Machines
iii. Organizations as Cultures
a. Based on shared meanings. Sharing presupposes relationships between people,
in this case.
iv. Organizations as Instruments of Domination
III. Going to Work: The Workplace as a Special Frame
A. Workplace relationships and identities constitute a different frame than everyday life
experiences.
B. Workplace Goals
i. Workplace frames are dominated by instrumental goals rather than relational
goals.
ii. Instrumental goals: Those that are predominant at work and are directed at
C. Workplace Formality/Hierarchy
i. Workplace talk constructs distance and leads to formality/hierarchy.
D. Workplace Identities
i. Workplace frames constrain the kinds of identity you can perform.
ii. They require you to develop a professional identity.
iii. Identity constraint and development occur through a few recognizable means.
a. Clothing.
b. Learning and using unique languages.
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
IV. The Workplace as a Culture
A. Workplace communication and atmosphere differ from place to place.
B. Workplaces are unique cultures in themselves.
C. People in a workplace are part of the systems that influence that particular workplace
culture.
D. The transacted relationships are the key to understanding workplace cultures.
E. Workplace Routine and Structuration Theory
i. Workplace culture is reinforced and maintained through routine.
a. Routines are partly the result of existing workplace relationships.
ii. Structuration theory: Points to the regularities of human relationships that act as
iii. Sedimentation: The process by which repeated everyday practices create a
“structure” for performance in the future, as a river deposits sediment that alters
or maintains its course over time.
iv. Workplace cultures are perpetuated through repetitive behaviors of reflective
individuals.
F. Industrial Time
i. People in a workplace have a specific approach to time, i.e. industrial time.
V. The Workplace as Relationships
A. Relationships are the true driving force of an organization.
B. There are different kinds of workplace relationships.
SAGE Publishing, 2021
a. Support from coworkers, supervisors, and other people with whom work is
conducted.
b. Workplace relationships can also develop between people from different
organizations.
ii. Support for Personal Matters
a. Personal problems can adversely affect someone’s performance at work.
b. This is called the spillover effect.
iii. Workplace Benefits
a. Positive interpersonal relationships within the workforce benefit the
organization itself.
E. Relationships and Workplace Challenges
i. Disruptive Friendships
a. Workplace friendships can divert people’s attention away from the job at
hand.
ii. Disruptive Romantic Relationships
a. The challenges of disruptive workplace friendships also apply to romantic
relationships at the workplace.
iii. Hostile Relationships
a. Hostile workplaces and bullying.
b. Sexual harassment: Any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job