When Organization Fails: Why Authority Matters develops the study of authority as an area of investigation in organizational communication and management. As a research topic, authority has rarely been addressed in depth in the management and organizational communication literature. It is critical, however, to maintaining unity of purpose and action of the organization, and it is frequently cited by organizational members themselves. Utilizing two case studies, examined in depth and based on the accounts of the individuals involved, authors James R. Taylor and Elizabeth J. van Every explore the pathology of authority when it fails. They develop a theoretical foundation that aims to illuminate authority by positioning it in communication theory. This volume sets the stage for a new generation of scholars who can make their reputations as experts on authority, and is intended for scholars and graduate students in organizational communication, leadership, and discourse analysis. It also offers practical insights to consultants and management experts worldwide.
When Organization Fails: Why Authority Matters develops the study of authority as an area of investigation in organizational communication and management. As a research topic, authority has rarely been addressed in depth in the management and organizational communication literature. It is critical, however, to maintaining unity of purpose and action of the organization, and it is frequently cited by organizational members themselves. Utilizing two case studies, examined in depth and based on the accounts of the individuals involved, authors James R. Taylor and Elizabeth J. van Every explore the pathology of authority when it fails. They develop a theoretical foundation that aims to illuminate authority by positioning it in communication theory. This volume sets the stage for a new generation of scholars who can make their reputations as experts on authority, and is intended for scholars and graduate students in organizational communication, leadership, and discourse analysis. It also offers practical insights to consultants and management experts worldwide.
The Situated Organization explores recent research in organizational communication, emphasizing the organization as constructed in and emerging out of communication practices. Working from the tradition of the Montreal School in its approach, it focuses not only on how an organization’s members understand the purposes of the organization through communication, but also on how they realize and recognize the organization itself as they work within it. The text breaks through with an alternative viewpoint to the currently popular idea of 'organization-as-network,' viewing organization instead as a configuration of agencies, and their fields of practice. It serves as an original, comprehensive, and well-written text, elaborated by case studies that make the theory come to life. The substantial ideas and insights are presented in a deep and meaningful way while remaining comprehensible for student readers. This text has been developed for students at all levels of study in organizational communication, who need a systematic introduction to conducting empirical field research. It will serve as an invaluable sourcebook in planning and conducting research.
Today's organizations face a wide variety of challenges, including such contradictions as maintaining unity of action while becoming increasingly diverse. Even the definition of organization is changing and evolving. In this monograph, the authors apply their academic and professional experience to address the notion of "organization," setting forth communication as the essential modality for the constitution of organization--explaining how an organization can at the same time be both local and global, and how these properties which give organization continuity over time and across geographically dispersed situations also come to be manifested in the day-to-day of human interpersonal exchange. As a radical rethinking of the traditional discourse approaches in communication theory, this book develops a conceptual framework based on the idea that "organization" emerges in the mix of conversational and textual communicative activities that together construct organizational identity. Applying concepts from the philosophy of language, linguistics, semiotics, system design, sociology and management theory, the authors put forth a convincing argument demonstrating the materiality of language and its constructive role in organization and society.
In this challenging book, James R. Taylor and Elizabeth J. Van Every argue that partly as a result of the introduction of information and communications technology into the workplace, the nature and authority of the traditional bureaucratic form of organization is being called into question. While not espousing technological determinism, they contend that developments in telecommunications, and computer software, constitute at one and the same time, a globalization and a fragmentation of organizational communications. These trends transcend the bounds of bureaucratic lines of control and integration, and presage the emergence of new organizational forms. Suggesting that existing models of the organization as a rational machine are no longer adequate to explain or to cope with the complexity of the organizational changes taut are occurring in an information economy, Taylor and Van Every outline a communication-based alternative. Their approach explores the technology's impact on the transactional and symbolic dimensions of organization, and its implications for radical 're-framing' of management's own role. The book touches on important issues in at least three major areas of research: organizational theory, informational technology, and the information society. Taylor and Van Every's interdisciplinary synthesis focuses attention on the fundamental nature of modern organizations from a unique communicational perspective. Taylor and Van Every identify problems which are having and will continue to have a significant impact on business, governance, and society.
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