Communication Culture And Organizational Processes

Rev. ed. of: Communication & organizational culture. c2005.

`This text demonstrates aspects of organizational culture through real-world examples from the field, marrying the scholarly and the practitioner perspectives by illustrating various concepts with examples from a wide range of organizations and institutions. It repeatedly stresses the importance and role of communication in creating and maintaining organizational culture′ - Sue Easton, Rollins College `This engaging and scholarly text demonstrates a commitment to enabling students to practice communicatively grounded cultural analyses and cultural change projects′ - Angela Trethewey, Arizona State University Communication and Organizational Culture provides an introduction to different views on and approaches to the study of organizational culture from a communication perspective. This text introduces the basic elements of organizational culture including artifacts that emerge from the interactions of organizational members. The author uses a variety of lenses for understanding organizational culture and integrates research findings as practical advice about managing, developing, and changing organizational culture. Throughout, the book focuses on the communication practices and processes associated with organizational culture by drawing heavily on organizational culture research conducted by communication scholars and by illuminating the communicative aspects of organizational culture research conducted by scholars in peripheral disciplines. Key Features - Provides a `Cultural Toolkit′ at the end of the book that offers seven analytical techniques for conducting organizational culture analyses - Offers a unique multiple perspectives approach to help students gain a greater understanding of organizational culture, which will ultimately benefit them when they enter the workplace - Provides students useful, pragmatic, and critical tools not found in other organizational culture texts Written in a clear, concise manner accessible for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Organizational Communication, this text helps students read organizational culture, make sense of the culture, and make informed work and employment decisions. Communication and Organizational Culture is also an excellent textbook for many courses in Business and Management, Psychology, and Sociology.

Miller's text presents organizational communication from both a communication and managerial perspective. Her writing style and consistent use of examples and case studies results in a text that undergraduates students will find easy to understand.

Understanding Organization Through Culture and Structure: Relational and Other Lessons From the African American Organization presents an innovative view of organizations and the communication processes that constitute them. Arguing that human beings are communicatively embedded in their cultures, Anne Maydan Nicotera and Marcia J. Clinkscales, working with Felicia R. Walker, examine issues concerning task and relational orientations and the ways they and other cultural dimensions connect with organizational structure and function for predominantly African American organizations. Utilizing the results of their own research on organizations, they develop a set of humanistically-based models that illustrate how hidden cultural processes suffuse organizational life and are manifest through communication. Emphasizing the development of alternative theories and models of organizing which are rooted in African-American culture, such as team-based versus hierarchy-based interactions, this book explores such organizational functions as leadership and management, power, authority and control, communication and interpersonal dynamics, and cultural identity and human development. Applying their findings in a broader analysis of contemporary practices in organizational restructuring, the authors present research that serves as the foundation for generating several emergent models with significant implications for organizational systems. Understanding Organization Through Culture and Structure stimulates and inspires current researchers of organizational communication, and is certain to raise greater awareness of the operation of culture in organizing. The text is intended for scholars and students in organizational communication, management, organizational psychology, African studies, and related areas.

This book provides a review and synthesis of contemporary theory and research on organizational culture. Chapters focus on a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to culture, identifying types of organizational cultures, tracing phases in cultural evolution. In addition, several chapters are devoted to dealing with practical applications, such as the processes of socialization and identification, as well as the management of culture in organizations.