Org Comm Exam 2

refers to an organic sense of time where work is shaped by the demands of the tasks to be performed

ex: life in a farming community is shaped by the seasons; working long hours in the harvest season contrasts with the more limited amount of labor in the winter months

-was not only crucial for the development of mass-production techniques but also as a means of controlling a workforce for whom independent work was the norm

-it is still the defining feature of work for many people

-an employee’s level of power and prestige is at least partly reflected by how independent he or she is from the clock

the dynamic, ongoing process of creating and negotiating meanings through interactional symbolic (verbal and nonverbal) practices, including conversation, metaphors, rituals, stories, dress, and space

the process of creating and negotiating collective, coordinated systems of meaning through symbolic practices oriented toward the achievement of organizational

The simplest way to control employees is to direct them in explicit ways and then monitor their behavior to make sure they are performing adequately

-one problem is that supervisors are not always able to directly control worker productivity

a response to employee efforts to exercise autonomy

the implementation of various forms of organizational technology to control worker productivity

ex: Henry Ford’s introduction of the moving production line in automobile manufacturing in 1913

a mechanism to counter some of the excesses of early capitalism, characterized by boom and bust cycles in which little long-range planning occurred

-tend to promote taken-for-granted ways of behaving

the corporate development of a system of values, beliefs, and meanings with which employees are expected to identify strongly

“biocracies” focuses on the idea that in the current, post-Fordist organization, it is “life itself” (bios) that companies are attempting to capture

to question commonsense thinking and interrogate our “direct” experience of the world

forces workers to sell their labor and work for someone else

-the dominant economic and political system

-workers are no longer able to produce for themselves what they need to live

-provides an analysis of the historical development of different economic systems: Tribal, ancient, feudal, and capitalist

-Developed the theory of historical materialism

-Marx uses the theory of ideology to show how economic structure in society has a direct impact on the system of ideas that prevail in that society.

• According to Marx, “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.”

analyzes history according to different modes of production (common ownership (tribal), citizen-slave (ancient), aristocrat-serf (feudal), and capitalist-wage laborer (capitalist)

Marx refers to the difference between the value of the labor power, as purchased by the capitalist, and the actual value produced by the laborer

work under capitalism work is inherently alienating bc it deprives workers of the ability to experience work as an embodiment of their own creativity and skills

a system of attitudes, beliefs, ideas, perceptions, and values that structure reality in a way that serves the interests of the dominant class

interested in understanding capitalism not only as an economic system, but also as a cultural and ideological system that had a significant impact on the way people thought about and experienced the world

argued that the nature of society was casually determined by its economic foundation

Frankfurt Schoolers viewed society as the product of the interrelationships among its cultural, ideological, and economic aspects

coming together of popular forms of mass culture, the media, and advertising to create a “totally administered society” that leaves individuals little room for critical thought

• An interdisciplinary academic movement that traces its birth to a group of scholars associated with the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, beginning in the mid-1960s.

  • They critique the distinction between high and low culture arguing that such opposition was not only elitist but also limited the ways in which everyday culture could be conceptualized.

  • Take everyday culture as a serious object of study, examining the complex ways in which it structures experience.

  • Explore the systems of shared meanings that connect members of a group or community. Such shared meanings are developed through “systems of representation”

Hegemony refers to the establishment of certain meanings and ideas in society in which general direction is imposed by the dominant fundamental group through developing consensus of others.

a concept that reflects the extent to which corporate ideologies and discourses pervade our lives

under capitalism, workers do not possess their own means of production

• Popular culture is mass produced.

• It is administered from above and imposed on people.

• It creates needs in people that would not otherwise exist.

a set of organizational and societal arrangements that profoundly shaped 20th-century life

many workers each complete a single, repetitive task

addressed the relations between employers and employees

deliberate restriction by workers of output

• the central problem in the workplace

a system Frederick Taylor perceived as arbitrary and based on rules of thumb

authority is derived from special powers

authority is derived from tradition and custom

authority is derived from a system of rational and impersonal rules

• foundation for the bureaucratic model

everyone becomes imprisoned

• a rationalized world that is calculable but not necessarily fulfilling

• the first to establish the idea of the workplace as a social organization

• the studied conducted by the theorists still provide the touchstone for many of the central questions that present-day organizational communication and management scholars are asking themselves

researchers attempted to investigate the effects on employee behavior and attitudes of a variety of physical, economic, and social variables

workers respond to the personal attention paid to them by supervisors

traditional philosophy of management control

• The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.

• Because of this . . . most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives.

• The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all.

realizes the full potential of workers as human beings

• situates work as providing the possibility for human growth and the realization of higher needs of esteem and self-actualization

leadership styles that reflect the degree of employee participation in organizational decision making

• Exploitative-authoritative: Motivation occurs through fear and threats, and decisions are concentrated with top management.

• Benevolent-authoritative: Motivation occurs through both rewards and threats, and decisions are made in top management with possible opportunity for comment at the lower level.

• Consultative: Motivation occurs through rewards, and there is some low-level participation in decisions.

• Participative: Motivation occurs through rewards, and decision making is distributed throughout the organization.

how the natural and social world was increasingly subject to planning, calculation, and efficiency