Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
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Chapter 16—Communicating in Organizations
At a Glance
Organizations as Cultures
How Organizations Communicate
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define organizational communication.
3. Distinguish rites and rituals of organizational cultures.
5. Develop roles of storytelling within organizations.
7. Describe differences between formal and informal organizational communication.
9. Determine the challenges of global and cross-cultural organizations.
11. Grasp the necessity to balance conflict between work and life.
13. Identify the processes used to avoid or reduce burnout.
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
Lecture Outline
I. Organizations as Cultures
C. Organizations have structure.
1. An organization’s structure consists of the formal and informal practices,
2. Organizations vary greatly, but we can understand and compare their
structures by looking at three key characteristics:
a. How hierarchical is the organization?
i. Every organization has some form of hierarchy, or division of people
into levels of authority.
b. How centralized is power in the organization?
i. In an organization with a centralized power structure, a small
number of people holds the majority of the decision-making ability.
ii. In organizations with a diffused power structure, the ability to make
decisions is spread more evenly among organization members, with no
one member or group holding exclusive power.
c. How does the organization interact with its environment?
3. Organizational missions affect organizational structures.
a. Organizations that deal regularly with life-and-death situations require
4. An organization’s structure can affect its culture in many ways.
D. Organizations have rituals and rites.
1. Organizational rituals
a. Organizational rituals are repeated behaviors that provide a familiar
routine to an organization’s experiences.
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2. Organizational rites
a. Organizational rites are ceremonial acts and practices that convey
characteristics of an organization’s culture.
b. Six types of organization rites have been identified:
1. Organizational rules
a. Rules govern patterns of communication in many contexts.
b. Explicit rules are clearly articulated prescriptions for how to
2. Organizational roles
a. Each organizational member has certain responsibilities to the group that
reflect the role he or she plays.
b. Formal roles involve functions prescribed by the organization itself.
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
ii. An informal role isn’t necessarily any less important than a formal
role.
F. Organizations have stories, which express our experiences, solidify the
organizational culture, and affirm our collective identity.
1. Corporate stories
a. Organizations use corporate stories to describe histories, goals, and
2. Personal stories
a. Personal stories reflect both how people see themselves and how they
3. Collegial stories
a. Collegial stories are those we tell about other people in our organizations.
II. How Organizations Communicate
A. Models of organizational communication
1. Organizational communication as information transfer
a. According to the information transfer model, communication is seen as a
pipeline through which information flows from one source to another.
b. This model assumes that receivers will assign the same meaning to the
2. Organizational communication as a transactional process
a. The transactional approach to organizational communication makes no
distinction between senders and receivers of messages.
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
c. People employing the transactional approach of organizational
communication are aware that communication flows back and forth
between parties simultaneously.
d. Communicators can adjust their messages based on feedback they receive.
e. The transactional approach assumes that people mutually negotiate the
meanings of messages.
f. The transactional approach further assumes that a single message can have
more than one meaning depending on who decodes it.
3. Organizational communication as strategic control
a. The strategic control approach recognizes that people can use
communication to control their environments and to act in organized and
4. Organizational communication as a balance of creativity and constraint
a. Creativity is your freedom to make independent choices.
5. Applying the models
a. The information-transfer approach is particularly efficient when an
B. Communicating within the organization
1. Much of an organization’s communication is internal communication, or the
messages people within the organization convey to one another.
2. Formal communication in an organization comprises messages that come
from the organization and relate to its operations.
a. Formal communication in an organization varies according to the relative
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
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c. Downward communication comprises messages we send to people at
lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.
i. When communicating downwardly, it’s best if we avoid specialized
3. Informal communication is not sanctioned by the organization but arises
from the social interactions of its members.
a. Many people say that informational communication travels along an
organizational grapevine, a metaphor used to indicate that informal
C. Communicating to external audiences
2. Effective external communication can significantly enhance an organization’s
reputation, productivity, community support, and economic success.
4. There are multiple potential external audiences with whom organizations must
communicate:
a. Consumers include anyone who buys or might buy an organization’s
products or services.
III. Communication Challenges in Organizations
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1. Globalization is the increasing connectedness of societies and their
economies as a result of developments in transportation and communication.
2. As companies and other organizations have expanded to include employees,
3. One of the most fundamental cross-cultural differences affecting
organizational communication relates to cultural conceptions of time.
B. Communication technology: challenges of choice and security
1. Choosing a communication channel
a. Some communication contexts are channel-rich, meaning they allow
people to perceive several communication behaviors at once.
i. The most channel-rich context is the face-to-face conversation because
it provides communication access to each other’s words, gestures,
2. Ensuring online security
a. A challenge for organizations is ensuring the security of information they
communicate, particularly online.
b. Concerns over the security of e-mail messages have become paramount.
i. Some organizations require their e-mail messages to include an
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
ii. An organization’s security can also be threatened by the e-mail
messages it receives.
iii. Some e-mail messages include links or attachments that, when opened,
infect a computer with a virus, a worm, a Trojan horse, or some other
type of malicious computer program.
iv. Malicious computer programs can cause a computer to destroy data,
send unauthorized e-mail messages, host illegal data such as child
pornography, or allow others to monitor their users’ web browsing.
c. For-profit organizations also pay particular attention to the security of
their websites.
i. Companies must ensure that their consumers are comfortable enacting
financial transactions online.
ii. Concerns over online security have prompted many companies to add
trust markers—features indicating that a web page is secure—to their
corporate websites.
C. Sexual harassment
2. Sexual harassment can occur in two forms:
D. Work/life conflict
1. The pressure of balancing the demands of work with those of nonwork life
creates for many people what researchers call work/life conflict.
2. Two types of work/life conflict occur:
a. Life interference with work happens when people’s life responsibilities
3. Either or both forms of work/life conflict can give rise to at least three forms
of stress:
a. Time-based stress occurs when the competing demands of your work and
4. Work/life conflict can produce negative effects:
a. Studies have shown that individuals with significant work/life conflict are
at elevated risk of health problems such as clinical depression and sleep
disorders.
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
b. Such individuals also experience increased job stress and reduced
satisfaction with their life, their marriage, and their family relationships.
c. Individuals with substantial work/life conflict aren’t very happy.
d. One of the most harmful effects of work/life conflict is burnout, a chronic
sense of exhaustion or apathy that can come from long-term frustration
and stress.
IV. Become a Better Organizational Communicator
A. Use communication technology effectively.
1. Exercise control when sending or replying to e-mail messages.
a. When you compose an e-mail message to someone else in your
2. Communicate face-to-face when interpersonal immediacy is advantageous.
a. Immediacy can be advantageous for conveying empathy, showing support,
3. Don’t let communication technology become a distraction.
a. Know your organization’s policy on using Internet access for personal
business, and be mindful of the ways it can reduce your own productivity.
B. Adapt to diversity.
2. You can improve your adaptability to diversity in an organization if you do
the following:
1. Clarify your values.
2. Solidify your boundaries.
a. Identify the periods of time you can devote to your work life and your
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
b. Solidify your psychological boundary between work and life so that you
aren’t thinking about work while at home or about personal life while at
work.
3. Ask for support.
4. Get integrated.
a. Making opportunities to interact with your peers is a useful strategy for
5. Stay away from toxic emotions.
a. Many emotional states are socially contagious, meaning they are easily
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM–16 | 11
Key Terms
organizational communication
organizational culture
strategic control approach
strategic ambiguity
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
Additional Lecture Ideas
1. Research examples of the unethical use of e-mail in an organization. What legal
actions can or have been taken regarding the improper use of the e-mail system within
2. What steps should be taken to avoid the unethical hacking of an e-mail system?
3. Invite an administrator from your campus to speak to the class on how a new
4. Watch an episode of The Office that portrays sexual harassment. (See YouTube or
Hulu for examples.) Comment on the reactions from the employees and how the
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
Classroom Discussion and Activity Topics
1. Have students engage in the familiar grapevine exercise used as children. Start a
detailed rumor that is passed from one student to the next. Ask the final recipient of
the rumor to repeat what was told. How did the message change during the grapevine
2. Create a closed group course site on Facebook for the class. Use the site to post
pertinent course information including assignments, discussion topics, textbook
3. Ask students to comment on organizations they hold membership in that have rites
4. Divide the class into pairs. Each pair of students will introduce the other. Information
for the speech will be gathered using information found on a social media profile
5. As a class, discuss the multiple roles of culture in communication within
organizations. Provide specific examples to support cultural similarities and
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
For Review
1. How does an organization’s culture shape and reflect its communication
processes?
2. What communication challenges are common in organizations?
3. In what ways can we improve our organizational communication skills?
Chapter 16 Communicating in Organizations
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Pop Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. At Maxcorp, a small number of people holds the majority of the decision-making
ability. Maxcorp would be most accurately described as a(n)
a. open system.
b. centralized power structure.
c. closed system.
d. diffused power structure.
2. At the end of an unproductive year, Janine’s boss organizes a retreat to boost
employee morale. Janine’s boss is enacting a(n)
a. conflict resolution rite.
b. blaming rite.
c. enhancing rite.
d. renewal rite.
3. Blaine’s company treats communication as though it is a pipeline through which data
flow from one source to another. His company conceives of communication as
a. information transfer.
b. a transactional process.
c. strategic control.
d. a balance of creativity and constraint.
4. Which of the following is an example of quid pro quo sexual harassment?
a. Work conditions are sexually offensive or intimidating.
b. An employee confides in her peer about her sexual attraction to her boss.
c. A supervisor offers an employee rewards in exchange for sexual favors.
d. An employee tells a sexually obscene joke in mixed company.
5. To avoid or reduce burnout, research suggests that you should
a. clarify your work and life values.
b. work alone as often as possible.
c. break down the boundary between your work and non-work lives.
d. increase your exposure to negative coworkers, because misery loves company.
Fill in the Blanks
6. Recurring events that reinforce personal relationships among organization members
are called _____.
7. _____ roles comprise responsibilities prescribed by the organization.
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8. _____ means intentionally leaving parts of a message vague to accomplish a specific
goal.
9. When the demands of one area of your life impair your ability to function in other
areas, you are experiencing _____ stress.
10. It is most effective to communicate face-to-face, rather than via computer-mediated
communication, when __________ is advantageous.