Chapter 14- Organizational Communication

Definitional

By deffiniton organizational communication is “communication that occurs within the context of organizational culture” (Tubbs & Moss 468). Examples of an organizational culture could be businesses, clubs, religious organizations, military or really any social setting that has an organized chain of command. Within an organization there are usually different departments that all have different tasks as well as varying levels of authority. These components within an organization can include: individualism, power distance, dominance, time and uncertainty avoidance. Within these organizations Deal and Kennedy (1984) identified several different types of cultures: the “Tough-Guy-Macho” culture which usually occurs in high risk situations, the ‘Work-Hard-Play-Hard” culture which typically occurs in a business situation that focusses on sales as well as meeting the needs of the customer, “Bet-Your-Company” culture is also high risk but usually involves a large investment up front that will eventually be gained back over time, lastly is the “Process” culture which is both low risk as well as slow feedback and its main focus is on the process of the task that rarely gives feedback to its members, this type of culture would be heavily regulated environments such as the government or medical professions. Communication is absolutely essential within any type of organization and is often the number one sought skill when applying to any job, other skills that are deemed necessary when applying to a job are almost always various types of communication. Conrad (1985) believed that communication can be broken down into 3 main functions in any given organization: command is the essential coordination among the members of the organization, relationships often alter an employees job performance especially when it is crossing the lines of the chain of command, lastly the ambiguity management function whose outcome is clarity and explanation. Communication has been broken down into 3 main types that depend on the level of authority. Downward communication which occurs when a person who has a high position communicates with someone below them on the totem pole, upward communication occurs when someone of a lower authority communicates with someone above them such as a boss, lastly there is horizontal communication which occurs between people on the same level of authority such as co-workers in an office. Within all of these 3 types of communication it has been proven more effective to use a combination of oral and written messages such as email to communicate effectively with your boss, worker, or co-worker. Besides these types of communication between people in an organized setting informal communication can often be used and is proven to be both effective and ineffective depending on the message and situation. Rumors are often spread through word of mouth and most likely cause distractions in the workplace. Informal communication can also be good in some situations such as informal conversations relating to work, social activities that bond groups together or meetings with middle managers to help resolve issues between high and low end workers.

Application

For my application entry I have chose a clip from an episode of this season's show "The Office". The office is a great example of both the positives and negatives of organizational communication. Their office contains a hierarchical structure which starts with the low end sales representatives to their assistant manager, Michael the regional manager and then upward to their corporate office. Michael is in charge of their office and is a somewhat dysfunctional boss to his employees. In this episode he is returning from leave where he tried to start his own company. Upon his return he did not communicate effectively with his new and old employees and is then stuck in a conundrum that he has to lie his way out of by manipulating the situation. This is a negative example of downward communication however he does resolve the issue in the end. An interesting thing to note when watching The Office is the way in which Michael communicates to his employees, he uses very informal oral speech and very often deals with written forms of communication. This makes for a much more relaxed environment in the office, his casual fridays is an example of this. The other interesting thing to note in this episode is the way in which his employees communicate with each other in a horizontal communication setting. Because Michael communicates so informally this trickles down to the lower levels on the totem pole and often causes problems between his employees such as the conversation between Toby and Meredith about her outfit. Although the show is a comedy and is not meant to examine the levels of organizational communication it is really a brilliant representation of the good and the bad that occur as a result of organizational communication.

Personal

For my personal application of organization communication I have chosen to discuss my experience working in an organization culture and the communication used in that setting. The theatre is a great example of an organization that requires very precise communication because there are often many people involved each with their own task to complete. As the stage manager I am the middle man that is responsible for ensuring communication between my director, the assistant direction and all of our designers is clear and that my director's vision is fully conveyed in the technical aspect of the show. To ensure this is done correctly I often meet with my director in an downward communication exchange where he tells me his plans, I then hold a production meeting every Friday afternoon where our entire design team and directors are present, I put all of the topics into a schedule and we thoroughly discuss each topic and make sure that my directors vision is being conveyed but also ensure that it is technically possible with the materials we have and then check with our coordinator to ensure it is safe and doable for our actors. It is a very complex organizational structure because their is often communication across all levels of the organization and well as gossip that occurs and often hinders the performance of our design team.

The Nonverbal Message

Definitional

One of the most unrecognized areas of communication is nonverbal despite the fact that 65% of all exchanges are nonverbal. Nonverbal messages must be interpreted, the types of information that we receive through them must be understood as well as observing the interaction with the communicators that are using nonverbal communication. There are 3 types of nonverbal communication: verbal non vocal which involves words that are not spoken, nonverbal vocal which involves sighs or sounds made but there is no conversation, lastly there is non verbal non vocal which is the message you convey by your dress, face, hands and body appearance. These messages are conveyed through cues or hints that help to convey your message to the receiver. Nonverbal communication has three main purposes it can either: replace verbal communication, re-enforce or enhance it, or it can also contradict verbal communication. When looking closely looking at nonverbal communication one must understand the various studies that are under the umbrella of nonverbal communication. Kinesics is the study of the body movement usually referring to the head and face and the part that they play when used in a communication exchange. Similar to this is haptics which is the study of touch between the communicators. Oculesics is another study of nonverbal communication and deals with the study of eye contact. Eye contact is an extremely crucial part of nonverbal communication and deals with: regulating the flow of the exchange, monitors feedback, expresses emotion, communicates the nature of interpersonal relationships. Proxemics is another important part of nonverbal communication that deals with the study of space between each communicator. The study places various distances into categories that help to enhance each exchange: personal space (1.5-4'), intimate distance usually used for friends and family (18" or less), social distance (4-12') and lastly public distance used in large communication exchanges which is (12-25'). Besides the obvious parts of nonverbal communication there is the area of paralinguistics which deals with things beyond the basic language such as the quality of the voice, volume of the conversation, pitch & range as well as resonance. When dealing with the study of nonverbal communication it is important to note the difference between cultures and how their exchanges vary. Many cultures are considered high contact cultures such as many places in Europe. These cultures tend to touch each other more often, sit or stand closer to each other, make more eye contact, and speak louder (Tubbs & Moss 112). Low contact cultures tend to not touch each other when communicating, stand further away, use less eye contact and speak quieter (Tubbs & Moss 112). One of the most important uses of nonverbal communication in society is in the area of deception. People who are experts at studying nonverbal communication become very good at being able to detect deception through cues and hints given off by the sender.

Application

For my application I have chosen to link a clip of the Charlie Chaplin movie titles City Lights. This film is a silent film therefor it has an excellent display of nonverbal communication because they do not speak. Throughout the clip the viewer finds themselves truly studying every body movement that each character makes to convey their message as to how they are feeling and what exactly they are trying to do. Without the verbal message the nonverbal becomes the message and requires much more interpreting than just straight speech in a conversation. Because this film doesn't use speech it is very easy to understand how each character feels by their body language. For example towards the beginning of the clip when Charlie is walking down the street it is very evident he is not in a good mood and is most likely upset. We can come to this conclusion based on his body language: he is walking slowly, his head is down, sad expression on the face etc... Later on in the clip you can see the emotional shift when he visits the lady. His body language changes to be more upbeat and he begins to take part in an exchange with her by holding hands. It is interesting to note that before they held hands she pulled him in much closer to what would be considered an intimate distance. By watching silent films such as this it becomes much more apparent to us how much we rely on nonverbal communication to enhance our conversations as well as communicate our thoughts and feelings, sometimes while we don't even know we are doing it.

Personal

For my personal application I want to focus more specifically on one area of nonverbal communication that applies to my work in the theatre that I have found to be an essential part of any performance on stage. Whether most people realize it or not when they go to see a show on stage one of the strongest pieces of nonverbal communication being conveyed is the actor's costumes. Many would just consider them to be nice looking clothes that would most likely be worn by the character they are playing. However what many don't realize is the amount of time and thought that went into each costume idea specific to that character. Costumes do not only need to reflect what type of clothes their character would wear but they must give a deep insight to that character. Every little detail on a costume is there for a reason and is meant to help tell that persons story more efficiently. As an audience this is sometimes picked up on but for the most part the surface is only skimmed. Color choice is a strong and efficient way to communicate nonverbally with the audience and as a society we have our own set of established norms for the mood that each color conveys to us. Other things such as how formal the outfit is, sizes, fabric choice etc... All these things are used by costume designers in the area of performance theatre to help nonverbally communicate to the audience who their character really is and not just their choice of clothes but every little detail in between.