NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Running head: ORGANIZATIONS Organizations June 27, 2009 Organizations Organization is a complex social group that has a boundary that separates it from the environment; its members pursue common goals and coordinate activity to reach these goals. Organization can be process-related; functional and institutional. The major characteristics of the organizations are as follows: Size. This is the measure of his large organization is in terms of offices, employees, number of physical locations, etc.
Resources. This characteristic is the measure of material goods and physical capital accessible to the organization. Influence (how influential the organization is in the country or world at large) Security (whether the organization is successful in protecting its secrets and physical interests). Tenacity (how driven the company is in its achievement of its goals). Organizational communication is a subfield of communication studies. In this area of study scholars try to analyze, criticize and understand the role of communication in organizational context.
Nowadays, organizational communication has moved from mechanistic model to studying of taken-for-granted and persistent ways, where communication is used not only to achieve certain goals and tasks within organizational settings but also studies how organizations the members of which we are, influence our lives. Part 3 The organization I belonged to was a small business company Hopkins and Sons operating in IT industry. This small company operated using mechanistic approach. The management of the organization viewed the business as a machine of individual parts, each of the parts performed a separate function that together performed a whole function. As it was a small business company, it had a functional organization chart, where general manager supervised a number of managers identified by function.
CEO of the company was responsible for strategic planning, economic development, management, governance, etc. The subordinates (project managers) were responsible for software development departments, accordingly. There were three formal channels of communication in this organization: upward, downward and horizontal communication. Upward communication involved communication from lower levels to higher levels (when programmers needed to communicate suggestions, results and problems to their managers). Downward communication involved communication from higher to lower levels (when managers needed to communicate strategies, goals and role expectations). Finally, horizontal communication occurred within the hierarchy of organization (when groups of employees communicated with each other).
Informal communication existed outside the formal lines of the IT company (e. g. , friendship groups). Grapevine communication in Hopkins and Sons applied to information communication that is communicated verbally and informally between the organization employees and people within the community. This form of communication is quite important within the company as it helps keeping subordinates informed about significant organization events and matters. For example, when the company was restructured, the information about restructure was disseminated and discussed informally, using a grapevine method. The IT company acknowledged the importance of communication and maintaining friendly relations with other organizations.
There were various communication linkages and practices with other organizations with which Hopkins and Sons was both tightly and loosely coupled, such as knowledge links, the alliances whereby the companies were seeking to learn and jointly create new capabilities and knowledge, etc. Intercultural communication is an academic field of study. Scholars in this area in general seek to study and to understand how people from different cultures and countries communicate, behave and perceive the world around them. Theoretical findings then applied to real life situations to facilitate intercultural communication and to create cultural synergy between people from different cultures within organization. Culture is a complex concept that is generally defined as a set of shared values, attitudes, beliefs, goals, practices that characterize an organization, group or institution. It is also defined as an integrated pattern of human belief, knowledge and behavior depending upon capacity for social learning and symbolic thought.
As far as culture implies a set of behaviors, values and beliefs, it shapes why and how we communicate. The barriers to intercultural communication are as follows: Culture and perception. For example, members of different cultural groups share their own perceptions (the way of looking at the world). Culture and role identities (different role identities are also barriers to intercultural communication) Culture and goals (if people have different goals during communication process can also be a barrier to effective intercultural communication).
Culture and images of the self (each culture has its own perceived image of the self; defensive barrier) Culture and language style. Language can also be a barrier to intercultural communication, because people who do not speak the same language or who have imperfect understanding of the language spoken by another person would obviously have difficulties in understanding each other. Even if people belong to the same culture and speak the same language they do not always understand each other (for example, Australians and Americans, who use different vocabulary for some things and concepts). Stereotypes and prejudices are beliefs and perceptions held by people belonging to one culture concerning individuals or groups based on previously formed attitudes and opinions. Stereotypes and prejudices are often overgeneralized, oversimplified and exaggerated. For example, The Blacks are or All Japanese are are stereotypes and prejudices based on distortions and half-truths about a group of people.
Assumed similarity (when the person assumes similarity between two different cultures he will fail to notice important differences between his culture and new culture, which is unique and different to some degree). Anxiety and withdrawal (for example, when the person is anxious because he does not know what he is expected to do, he focused on this feeling and will not fully participate in communication transaction). Ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is a belief that one culture is superior then another.
Ethnocentrism quite often implies judging one culture taking own culture as standard. For example, a person, who belongs to Western culture judges a person from the East from the standpoint of his own culture, assuming that the West has positive characteristics, while the East has opposing characteristics (e. g. , passivity, unreliability, etc).
Free research essays on topics related to: e g, lower levels, organizational communication, one culture, intercultural communication
Research essay sample on Intercultural Communication Organizational Communication
