FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON GROUP DECISION MAKING

Describe the functional perspective.

FUNTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON GROUP DECISION MAKING

Know the four funtions of effective decision making (be able to identify each step in an example)

FUNTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON GROUP DECISION MAKING

Which of the four functions are more important?  Why? 

FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON GROUP DECISION MAKING

Identify, describe, and provide examples of the three types of communication in decision-making groups.

Promotive communication: productively directs group to focus on 4 functions 

Disruptive communication: interaction that diverts, retards, or frustrates group members’ ability to achieve 4 functions

Counteractive communication: interaction used to get members back on track after disruption—constructively argumentative in nature, more common in effective groups.

FUNCTIONAL PERSPECITIVE ON GROUP DECISION MAKING

Is this theory objective or interpretive?  What tradition does it come from?

Objective perspective: attempts to predict success or failure of a group based on communicative interaction

Socio-psychological, and cybernetic traditions.

CULTURAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATIONS

Define organizational culture.

Culture: symbolic exchanges that we use to articulate our belief, value, and attitude systems

“Organizational culture is not just another piece of the puzzle; it is the puzzle. From our point of view, culture is not something an organization has; a culture is something an organization is”.

CULTURAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATION

Explain ethnography and thick description.

Ethnography: mapping out social discourse; discovering who people within a culture think they are, what they think they are doing, and to what end they think they are doing it

Thick description: a record of the intertwined layers of common meaning that underlie what a particular people say and do

CULTURAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATIONS

Explain and provide examples of symbols, language, narratives, and practives as cultural forms.  How do these cultural forms create, sustain, and change organizational culture?

Symbols: physical objects used to create an understanding of the organization’s goal and culture. Example: logos, dress codes, Monster’s Inc. logo

Language: the metaphors, jargon, gossip, slogans, humor, and songs used by an organization to illustrate culture. Example: name, jargon

Narratives/Stories: legends, sagas, and myths shared through which complex elements of organizational culture are shared.  Example: Whole idea that kids are dangerous=organization story (Monster’s Inc.)

Practices: rites, rituals, and ceremonies that reflect and create the organization’s culture.  Example: ceremony (homecoming, orientation), rituals (process of getting card, paper to return)

CULTURAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATIONS

Is this theory objective or interpretive?  What tradition does it come from?

Interpretive perspective

Phenomenological tradition

CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATION

Define and provide an example of corporate colonization.

Encroachment of modern corporations into every area of life outside the workplace

Example: Average American workweek has increased from 40-50 hours and leisure time has declined by a corresponding 10 hours.

What is good for company is good for the country or individual

CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

Compare and contrast information model and the communication model.

Information:

• Conduit metaphor: language 'simply' represents existing facts about the world.
• Idea that "the facts" are real and value free

Communication:

• Language uses produces social relaity.
• "facts" represent particular value systems (depending on which 'facts' are emphasized). 

CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

Define and provide an example of strategy, consent, involvement, and participation.

Strategy:

• Managers strategically control information
• Managerialism --> employee resistance
• Managerialism = organization practices value control over everything else.
• Produces systematically disorted communication
• discursive clousre = represses potential conflict
• EXAMPLE: Kraft

Consent:  

• Manager's control, but a communication model employees consent to control. 
• consent: “the variety of situations and processes in which someone actively though unknowingly, accomplishes the interests of others in the faulty attempt to fulfill his/her own interests
• EXAMPLE: MSU

 Involvement:

• co-determination shifts decision making from closed management discussions to open discussions by all involved
• if communication is JUST conveying info, it is not possible for individuals to have true voice
• EXAMPLE: BP oil spill 

Participation:

•  
• co-determination and communication model=true voice by employees (and all participants)
• Stakeholder democracy=open negotiations of power
• • stakeholders are people who have interest in the processes and/or outcomes of an organization
  • types of stakeholders: investors, workers, consumers, suppliers, host communities, greater society/world
• EXAMPLE: Ben and Jerry's

CRITICIAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

What is politically attentive relational constructionism?

Aka PARC model

• politically attentive relational constructionism; a collaborative view of communication based in conflict
• an organization’s stakeholders need to recover conflict that was repressed in order to get all interests on the table. Only in this way can beneficial and fair negotiations take place

CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATION

Is this theory objective or interpretive?  What tradition does it come from?

Interpretive perspective

Critical tradition

ARISTOTLE AND THE RHETORIC

Know Aristotle's definition of rhetoric.

ARISTOTLE AND THE RHETORIC

List and explain the 3 proofs and be able to identify them in an example.

Logos:

• based on sensible argument
• syllogism
• major premise: All dogs are predators
• minor premise: Molly is a dog
• conclusion: Molly is a predator
• -enthymeme**
• incomplete syllogism: All dogs are predators, therefore Molly is a predator
• strong proof because audience participants in the reasonings
• Example: Only Christian marriages valid, therefore every man is a bastard (because Muslim)

Ethos:

• based on speaker credibility**

Pathos:

• based on emotional appeal**
• anger: based in frustration of desires
• love: wanting good things for other person-based in similarity
• fear: anticipation of problems
• shame: guilt or embarrassment
• pity: pain for another person who is experiencing undeserved evil

ARISTOTLE AND THE RHETORIC

Identify and define the canons of rhetoric.

ARISTOTLE AND THE RHETORIC

Is the theory objecetive or interpretive?  What tradition does it come from?

Objective perspective

Socio-psychological tradition