1

This week’s lecture

∵

• What is an
Key Takeaways: To be good
Organisation
problem solvers for our
organisations, we need to
• History & Development understand ‘normative’ approaches
of Organisations (and why they dominate) as well as
emerging perspectives (and how
they can enhance our professional
• What is Organisational judgement).
Communications
一
What is an Types of organisations:
§ Public Companies
Organisation § Private Companies
§ Government Organisations
§ Not-for-Profits and NGOs (Non-
Government Organisations)
Basic Definitions: Definitions
A group of people who work together
in an organized way for a shared
purpose
(Cambridge Dictionary)

A group of people who form a

business, club, etc., together in order
to achieve a particular aim
(Oxford Dictionary)

An organized group of people with a

particular purpose, such as a business
or government department
(dictionary.com)
Theoretical Definitions: Organisational theory

Definitions: Business and management

§ The study of the design, structure, and
Many process of decision making in
organizations. The sociology of
fields/disciplines try organizational systems, and the structure
of relationships within them, are central to
to define organizational theory.
organisations
Sociology
§ A great deal of organization theory has
been criticized for its normative (in this
case pro-managerial) bias, concentrating
mainly on the internal exercise of
managerial authority and attempts to
subvert it.
§ Organisations as machine-like Industrialisation
§ Change from agricultural to industrial
§ Focus on the motivation of workers
§ Manager bias
§ Management theories
§ These theories value structure and
stability
§ Used by Henry Ford and in manufacturing
§ Top down, information dissemination
communications
§ Still taught
 § People are not just a cogs in the machine
Human § 1920/30’s see more humanity coming into

Relationships management
§ Individual approach (in Western
democracies) to management
§ Hawthorne Studies - Western Electric
(AT&T)
§ Social Organisations Human
§ People as individuals or members of an Relationships
organisations
§ Doesn’t necessarily challenge classical
management theory as compliment it as
they are still contributing to maintaining
the status quo
§ Made workers feel like they had agency so
didn’t act out
 § Human Resources emerged that combined
Human Resources the classical management theory and
social organisation
§ Workers participating in organisational
practices - communications as a resource.
§ Help people become better employees
to meet managerial goals (the status
quo)
§ Human Resource Management - 1960/70s

§ Employees as active participants

§ Tapping into our full potentials at work
§ Organisations as living systems (shaped Organisations as
by their environments) Complex Systems
§ 60/70s - radical perspectives
§ Organisations had been seen as
simple structures in which things
occur
§ Organisations as complex processes

§ Not linear, not complicated

§ The machine metaphor replaced by the
organism (organisations as living systems
that are interdependent)
 § Organisations as systems of meaning
Cultural Approach (culture as the metaphor)

to Organisations § Workers as mean makers, the makers of

meaning or sense
§ Active participants in the making of
meaning
§ Organisations only exist because of
communications, only exist because
organisational members engage in
communication behaviours
§ Still working towards having employees
achieve organisational goals
§ Organisational Communications Organisational
increasing recognised in management Communications
theory
§ Members as meaning creators
§ Still management bias

§ This is a linear and simplistic view

Takeaway: Pay attention to the evolution and

the recurring nature of how we understand
organisations
 “... management literature has for some time
moved away from the idea of an organisation
being self-contained and in control of its own
destiny. Static ways of thinking have given way in
the face of the reality that organisations are part of
eco-systems: dependent on others, prone to the
vagaries of rapidly changing contexts and driven
by new realities such as globalisation, the power of
new technologies and the pace of change.”

Gregory & Macnamara 2019

New
Realities:
Example 1
Edelman Trust Barometer 2023
https://www.edelman.com/trust/2023/trust-barometer
New Realities:
Example 2
In Australia:

§ Businesses as the only institution

seen as competent and ethical
§ Gen Z have lower trust levels
§ Most trusted organisations are
expected to take the lead on
societal issues
§ Step in when governments don’t
§ Importance of External
Communications
The 21st Century § Emergence of Knowledge workers
§ Decentralised and flatter
Workplace hierarchies e.g. ICT (Information
and Communication Technologies)

§ Greater Complexity
§ Theories and methods to
contend with increasing
complexity e.g. Lack of
control, consistency and
predictability.

§ Why this matters today?

§ Blurred boundaries between
work and life
§ Fragmented, contested, fluid
Theories help us "Common sense thinking is
often uncritical, reflecting
to examine and
tradition and reproducing the
critique common status quo”
sense
(Mumby & Kuhn, 2019)
understandings
Definition: Norms &
A common standard within a social Normativity
group regarding socially acceptable or
appropriate behaviour in particular
social situations, the breach of which
has social consequences.
Compliant behaviour is termed
normative, but the existence of social
norms does not prevent them from
being frequently violated.

(Chandler & Munday, 2020)

What is Organisational
Communications
 Reminder of key takeaway - To be good
What is problem solvers for our organisations,
we need to understand ‘normative’
Organisational approaches (and why they dominate)
Communications as well as emerging perspectives (and
how they can enhance our professional
judgement).
A constitutive view: But first, why those
Organisational theories in management and HR
management and HR/HRM "quite
literally wrote the scripts that
theories matter...
contemporary organizations follow"
(Nicotera, 2019) and so 'constitute'
modern organisations :

§ are societal forces that shape

modern management and practices
in organisations
§ are the conceptual foundation for
organisational communication.
What is Two of many perspectives
§ Communication and organisations
Organisational are separate (i.e. communication is
about transmitting information within
Communications the 'container')
§ "organizations have some kind
of (symbolic) boundary
delineating them from the
environment" (Dawson 2018)

§ Organisations can't exist without

communication i.e. communication
'constitutes' organisation
§ Communication activities are the
basic, defining 'stuff' of organisations
How these ideals and mindsets shape Mindset - Wholes &
the way we work
§ Container - unity, wholeness and
Parts
totality in communication is
pervasive mindset that continues to
shape communication in
organisations i.e. the whole
represents the parts
§ Corporate communication's
"unified and consistent voice"
§ Constituted - communication is an
"active and constitutive force in the
construction of organizations" i.e.
parts represent the whole reversal
§ Multiple voices
No single Basic definition: Organisational
Communication

definition of The way in which an organisation gives the

public and its employees information about
Communications its aims and what it is doing.
(Cambridge Dictionary)
Definition: Organisational Communication
"There is no single theory that can Organisations as communication are
claim to provide all knowledge defined as "the process of creating and
about the communication negotiating collective, coordinated systems
of meaning through symbolic practices
process and its effects; however, oriented toward the achievement of
there are many different organizational goals".
communication theories and
approaches that help in Communicative Constitution of
Organisations (CCO) (Mumby & Kuhn, 2019)
explaining how communication
works." (Topic, 2017)
Mumby & Kuhn (2019) outline Critical Approaches
understanding organisations from a
critical perspective
§ Socially constructed through
communication processes
§ Political sites of power struggle
§ Key sites of identity formation

§ Sites of collective decision making

and democracy
§ Sites of ethical issues and
dilemmas
Where does As purposeful goal-oriented
communication, organisational
organisational communication:

communication § Comes under the 'umbrella' of

fit? Strategic Communication

§ Shares common ground with PR

and Corporate Communication and
Communication Management

(Falkheimer & Heide, 2014; Lock et al,

2020)
Field of organisational How has
communication:
§ 1950s - Focus on sender of the
organisational
message communication
§ 1970s - Focus switches to receiver
of the message evolved?
§ 1980s - Focus on communication
and interaction between people
§ 2000s - Prominence of
communicative constitution of
organisations (CCO) genre of
theories
§ 2010s - Co-workers as active
communicators and the interaction
of organisational members
Terminology: "Public communication involves - or
at least should involve –
Public (a) speaking, such as through media,
videos, websites, etc., and
Communication (b) listening.

If evaluation of an organization's
public communication focusses only
on what it says (e.g., in media articles,
reports, websites, etc.), without
accessing the responses of intended
audiences and what they say about
the organization, it is a partial
evaluation in every sense of the
term." (Macnamara, 2022)
Audience: Terminology:
§ Stakeholders
§ Publics Audience
The term 'audience' "is widely used in
discussion of public communication"
and, rather than "denotes mostly
passive receivers of information and
entertainment", audiences are
understood to be active (Macnamara,
2022)
International Why should I care?

Perspectives View of China as the top down,

managerial bias, corporate
communications focused

Edelman Trust Barometer 2023

https://www.edelman.com/trust/2023/trust-
barometer
§ Government trusted more in China
(p. 14)
§ Trust at Home does not guarantee
trust abroad (p.13)
§ Chinese & Indian companies trusted
less in other countries (p. 17)
References
Boivin, G., Brummans, B. H. J. M., & Barker, J. R. (2017). The Institutionalization of (CCO
Scholarship: Trends from 2000 to 2015. Management Communication Quarterly, 31(3), 331-
355.
Christensen, L., & Cornelissen, J. (2011). Bridging corporate and organisational communication:
Review. Development and a Look to the Future Management.
Dawson, V. R. (2018). Fans, Friends, Advocates, Ambassadors. and Haters: Social Media
communities and the Communicative Constitution of Organizational identity. Social Media +
Society, 41.
Falkheimer, J., & Heide, M. (2018). Strategic Communication : an Introduction. Routledge.
Lock, I., Wonneberger, A., Verhoeven, P., & Hellsten, I. (2020). Back to the Roots? The
Applications. Communication Science Theories in Strategic Communication Research.
International Journal of Strategic Communication, 14(1), 1-24.
Macnamara, I. (2022). Organizational Listening in Public communication: Emerging Theory and
Practice. University of Technology Sydney.
Mumby, D.K. & Kuhn, T. (2019). Organizational communication: A critical approach (Second
edition). London: Sage.
Nicotera, A. M. (2019). Origins and traditions of comprehensive introduction to the field.
Routledge.
Topic, M. (2017). Public Relations Theories: An Overview. In R. Tench & L. Yeomans (Eds),
Exploring public relations: global strategic communication (Fourth edition ed.). Harlow: Pearson
Education.
Edelman Trust Barometer 2023 - https://www.edelman.com/trust/2023/trust-barometer