Power and organizational communication: a link with organizational culture

Finally, some theoretical gold dust!

Michael Pacanowsky & Nick O'Donnell-Trujillo invite us to look at organizational communication as politics. Central to this idea are notions of power and control.

Very interesting quote:

"Any broad discussion of organizational communication must inevitably come to deal with issues of 'power', 'control', and 'influence'. Not surprisingly, however organizational researchers have been unable to agree on what these constructs mean in either a theoretical or empirical sense. By treating organizational communication as politics, we do not attempt to provide any definitive conceptualization of these processes. Rather, our interest is in recognizing that organizational cultures are not monolithic, that there are subcultures or self-interests, and that many organizational performances are aimed at influencing others." (Pacanowsky & O'Donnell-Trujillo, 1983, p. 142)

Very interesting further reading on this topic: PFEFFER (Jeffrey). Power in organizations. Marshfield, Pitman, 1978. (Note to the side: Pfeffer has written books on the topic more recently)

How to annoy your dissertation supervisor and cause yourself problems: five easy steps

Hello there, just a brief back-up of what I'm doing for my PhD research. At the moment, I'm busy reading books on social research methods. Sometimes I need to be reassured by the books that I'm doing my research according to social science rules.

Anyway, what I came across today in Bryman's book "social research methods" (2012) was well suited to put on a blog. Those that have written an academic dissertation will all recognize this. The ease with which you can annoy your supervisor. I hope that you have not broken these rules (now or in the future):

1. Don't turn up to pre-arranged supervision meetings

2. Leave the bulk of the work until the last minute

3. Ignore what your supervisor advises you to do

4. Hand in shoddy drafts as late as possible

5. Forget what you were taught in your research methods module or your research training module

Following the above rules is a recipe for failure. Avoiding them can possibly bring you success. The choice is yours!