Discovering the organization through communication: a communication-based assessment of organizational structure and informal hierarchy
Smith, Laura (2020)
Avaa tiedosto
Lataukset:
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020052213037
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020052213037
Tiivistelmä
This thesis is a constructive case study that uses communication to assess the structure of a company and provide a heuristic tool for it to self-examine the internal organization and informal hierarchy that its communication has built.
The theory of the Communicative Constitution of Organizations heavily informs this thesis and is the basis of the three-part framework developed for it. The framework specifies that:
1. Organizations are built from the communication that allows them to coordinate and control their work.
2. Informal hierarchy can arise undetected to facilitate coordination, by balancing the flow of communicative feedback in the absence of communicative plans.
3. Informal hierarchy comes in the varieties of power, status, and social rankings – all manifested in communicative behavior.
To explore the organization and structure the case company has built, I conducted interviews and observed the company's in-person and digital communication. I detailed aspects of the company’s communicative practice and looked for evidence of internal employee rankings based on power (e.g., communicative resource and & narrative control), status (e.g., relative respect and deference), and social (i.e., gender, national origin, team, internal function, etc.) factors.
With broad participation and analyses validated by company employees, I determined that while communicative practices do differ by team, the organization as a whole uses feedback-based communication to coordinate its work. Lacking well-developed plan-based coordination, however, the case company has developed nuanced status- and power-based informal hierarchies. These have ultimately constructed a system of recursive employee rankings that somewhat disadvantaged new joiners – disproportionately impacting women.
In summarizing these findings and providing a heuristic for the company to examine its own organization, I enabled the company to better define and address its structure and its potential impact on employees. While the thesis’ findings are organization-specific, the framework, methodology, and construct developed here can be adapted to benefit other organizations. This thesis, then, is a tool and a challenge for myself, the case company, and others to consider the relationship between communication and organizational structure, examining what’s present in communicative practice and not only in theory.
The theory of the Communicative Constitution of Organizations heavily informs this thesis and is the basis of the three-part framework developed for it. The framework specifies that:
1. Organizations are built from the communication that allows them to coordinate and control their work.
2. Informal hierarchy can arise undetected to facilitate coordination, by balancing the flow of communicative feedback in the absence of communicative plans.
3. Informal hierarchy comes in the varieties of power, status, and social rankings – all manifested in communicative behavior.
To explore the organization and structure the case company has built, I conducted interviews and observed the company's in-person and digital communication. I detailed aspects of the company’s communicative practice and looked for evidence of internal employee rankings based on power (e.g., communicative resource and & narrative control), status (e.g., relative respect and deference), and social (i.e., gender, national origin, team, internal function, etc.) factors.
With broad participation and analyses validated by company employees, I determined that while communicative practices do differ by team, the organization as a whole uses feedback-based communication to coordinate its work. Lacking well-developed plan-based coordination, however, the case company has developed nuanced status- and power-based informal hierarchies. These have ultimately constructed a system of recursive employee rankings that somewhat disadvantaged new joiners – disproportionately impacting women.
In summarizing these findings and providing a heuristic for the company to examine its own organization, I enabled the company to better define and address its structure and its potential impact on employees. While the thesis’ findings are organization-specific, the framework, methodology, and construct developed here can be adapted to benefit other organizations. This thesis, then, is a tool and a challenge for myself, the case company, and others to consider the relationship between communication and organizational structure, examining what’s present in communicative practice and not only in theory.