Chapter 15: Analyzing Organizational Communication

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Chapter 15 Analyzing Organizational
Communication

• What we will cover
• Dimensions of Organizational Messages
• Data-analysis Strategies
• Message-analysis Techniques

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Chapter 15 Units/Levels of Communication

• Symbols
• Discrete Messages
• Interactions
• Relationships
• Narratives
• Meetings
• Networks
• Rituals
• Myths
• Campaigns
• Structures and Patterns
• Broad Discourses

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Chapter 15 Dimensions of Organizational Messages

• We may consider any message
• From micro to macro levels
• As having a certain channel or direction
• As flowing through a particular medium
• As being comparatively formal or informal
• As having an explicit or implicit purpose
• As being clearly authored or not
• As manifesting one or more levels of meaning

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Chapter 15 Consider the Case of The Golden
Gripe(Arnold Plas, 1993)

• Q How do we assess an employees complaint?
• What is the content?
• How is it expressed?
• What is the timing?
• Is there a larger pattern?
• What are the implications for policy and action?

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Chapter 15 The Semiotic Triangle
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Chapter 15 Primary Aims of Message Analysis

• Description
• Prediction
• Understanding
• Insight
• Intervention
• Deconstruction
• Transformation

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Chapter 15 Chief Methods/Strategies of Data
Gathering

• Artifacts
• Surveys
• Interviews
• Observation
• Other
• --Metaphor elicitation/Pictures
• --Critical incident technique
• --Account/Protocol elicitation
• --Role playing/Scenarios
• --Unobtrusive measures

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Chapter 15 Content Analysis

• Some Questions to Ask
• What is the nature of the object of analysis?
• What aspects do you wish to emphasize or focus
  attention on?
• What are the goals of your analysis?
• What units of analysis will you use?
• How will you count or otherwise document examples
  (recording units)?

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Chapter 15 Features of Language

• Some General Characteristics of Messages
• Relational versus content dimensions
• Active versus passive voice
• Agency and subject position
• Metaphor
• Uses of pronouns
• Personification
• Coherence/Cohesion
• Narrative
• Expressiveness

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Chapter 15 Discursive Strategies

• See the complete list on pp. 463-465 of your
  text.
• Identification
• Juxtaposition
• Strategic Ambiguity
• Reification
• Bolstering
• Totalizing
• Reframing/Reversal

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Chapter 15 Overall Research Orientations Toward
Communication

• Noting the presence of something in a message
• Noting the absence of something in a message
• Singling out particularities or exceptional
  characteristics
• Looking for underlying patterns or causes
• Examining internal inconsistencies/contradictions/
  paradoxes
• Making comparisons with other types of
  communication
• Assessing impact or effectiveness of messages
• --single message versus pattern of messages
• --long-term versus short-term
• --intended versus unintended consequences

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Chapter 15 Examples of Case Analyses

• Lets consider these three cases
• 1) Reporting and commentary on the Enron, et al.
  accounting scandals of 2000-2001
• 2) Reporting and commentary on the NASA-Columbia
  space shuttle disaster of 2003
• 3) Reporting and commentary on the roles of
  various nations, the U.N., and U.S. corporations
  in Iraq, 2003-2004