COMM 3170: Introduction to Organizational Communication

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COMM 3170Introduction toOrganizational
Communication

• Summer 2005
• Dan Lair
• d.lair_at_utah.edu

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Questions from Chapter Three
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Thinking Rationally The Prisoners Dilemma

• You and your friend have been arrested for
  committing an armed robbery. The evidence
  against you, however, is somewhat circumstantial.
  After your arrest, you are both placed in
  separate cells, unable to communicate with one
  another. Because the evidence against you is not
  direct, an interrogator arrives to offer you a
  deal

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Prisoners Dilemma, Contd

• Heres the deal, says Ivan Interrogator. If
  both you and your friend confess to the crime,
  you will both receive 8 years in prison.
  However, if neither of you confess, you will be
  charged with breaking and entering, and you will
  both receive one year in prison. But if one of
  you confesses and the other does not, the one who
  confesses will receive a plea-bargain and will go
  free, while the other will spend 20 years in
  prison. The same deal is being offered to your
  partner. You have to decide immediately. Will
  you confess or not?

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Prisoners Dilemma Outcomes and Discussion

• What kinds of limits are placed on your ability
  to make a rational decision?
• What information would help you make a more
  rational decision?

Confess? B Yes B No
A Yes 8 years each A goes free B gets 20 years
A No B goes free A gets 20 years 1 year each
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Herbert Simon and the Limits of Rationality Two
Key Constructs

• Bounded Rationality

• Satisficing

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Expanding Rationality

• Habermas Typology
• Instrumental rationality (technical, scientific)
• Practical Rationality
• Critical Rationality

• Corporate Colonization
• Stan Deetz
• Corporations privilege instrumental rationality
  over the other varieties
• Discursive closure

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Jim Beam A Case Study

• Questions
• What problem is Jim Beam trying to solve here?
• What management philosophy best describes this
  policy change?
• What type of rationality is driving such a
  change?
• What effects might that version of rationality
  have on employees? On the business?
• What other types of rationality might be employed
  to solve the problem? What might those solutions
  look like?