Organization Communication in Diverse Contexts Field Study
Choice of Organization
You may choose any type of organization, for profit, not-for-profit, a social club, religious entity, service group, or civic group - I would even consider "virtual" organizations acceptable. If you have questions about the appropriateness of a particular site, check with me. Sites within the university are convenient but sometimes present problems in writing the report and presenting because you are too close to what is going on. The analysis may be distorted by fear of saying the wrong thing. The week of April 3, I will schedule individual appointments for you to discuss your choice of organization with me.
Approach to the Organization
You may need to contact the organization ahead of time to discuss your research and request access to internal materials. This may not be necessary if you are studying in the public arena (For example, a restaurant or a retailer, city council, or a public board). Be sure you have a mutual understanding with the organization about what you will be doing. This is important if you need accessbehind the scenes or if you wish to interview members of the organization.
Approach the organization in a spirit of caring and respect for the people there. Strive for the members of the organization to feel that your presence was a positive experience for them.
Consider providing a copy of your report to members of the organization. This is NOT required. The report that you give the host organization should not be the same as the one you write for this course since it will serve a different audience and purpose. If you chose to do this, be clear about what you will provide. A discussion of your impressions might be very useful if the organization is interested. Do not promise to provide consulting help.
Methods of Study
There are four major ways to collect data for your study:
1. Direct observation of organizational events and behavior
2. Analysis of documents (memos, reports, handbooks, publicity releases, etc.)
3. Conversations or interviews with participants in the organization (might include managers, employees, clients, etc.)
4. "Intervention" or field experiment: taking some action to see how the organization responds. (For example: Order an item that is not on the menu at a restaurant.) Intervention is useful for answering questions of the form "What would happen if . . . ?" But intervention raises ethical issues. DONOT do things that might be damaging or unreasonably disruptive to the system.
You may choose one method or a combination of methods. Whichever method you use, take good field notes either during or immediately after your visit to document your observations.
Goals
You are not expected to do an extensive study. The purpose is to learn as much as you can about an organization in a relatively brief scouting expedition and to use organization theory to describe and interpret what you learn. Plan to spend between 4 and 8 hours doing research.
Field Study Report
For your report, use organization theory to describe and analyze how the organization works and why it is the way it is. Your paper should include a brief account of your methodology (observations conducted, individuals interviewed, documents studied, or interventions made).
Use the following structure:
1. Introduction: Description of setting, introduction of the major themes or central arguments of the paper, and description of how you conducted the study
2. Structural analysis
3. Human resource analysis
4. Political analysis
5. Symbolic analysis
6. Conclusion: Discussion of elements in sections 2 through 5, synthesis of findings, and recommendations for organizational change
Be sure to include examples from your research that identify aspects of the elements of the frames in the organization. Use theories to explain your observations and critical thinking in the synthesis of findings and recommendations for change.
Plan for about one page per section as a minimum, with no more than 12 pages as a maximum. Your Field Study Report is due on Monday, April 24, our last class session.
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Field Study Report
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Introduction: Description, themes, methodology
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Structural Analysis
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Human Resource Analysis
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Political Analysis
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Symbolic Analysis
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Conclusion: Discussion, synthesis, recommendations
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Questions for Analysis
In conducting your analysis, you may find the following sets of questions helpful:
STRUCTURAL FRAME
1. What are the stated goals of the organization? Who determined them?
2. Do people in the organization agree about what the important goals are? What is the level of agreement or disagreement?
3. What obvious goals (taboos, etc.) seem to provide direction?
4. How are responsibilities allocated?
5. What roles have been established? How complex is the role structure? What is the organizational chart like?
6. Are the roles well defined or ambiguous?
7. Do some role groups show higher turnover rates than others?
8. Among which roles to you find important relationships?
9. What types of interdependencies exist and how are they managed?
10. What does the hierarchy of authority look like? Is it centralized or decentralized? Are there many layers or a few?
11. How are activities coordinated?
12. What is the main basis of authority (position, expertise, reward, etc.)?
13. How clear are authority relations? Do any authority role groups show higher turnover rates than others?
14. How are decisions typically made? Who is responsible, and how are others involved? How are problems identified, defined, and resolved?
15. Where do conflicts arise, and what mechanisms are established for resolving disagreements?
16. Are there task forces, committees, coordinators, and other lateral communication networks?
17. Are meetings held regularly? Who attends? How are they structured? What is discussed?
18. In what areas do explicit policies exist? Do people know what the policies say? Are policies reflected in behavior? Who are the policy makers?
19. Is evaluation based on performance or outcomes? Who evaluates whom? What are the evaluation criteria, and how widely are they known? How frequently is performance observed and appraised? What information is used? In what ways are formal evaluations communicated? Are evaluations linked to formal rewards and penalties? What is the relationship between goals and evaluation criteria?
20. What is the nature of the core technology? Of the managerial technology?
HUMAN RESOURCE FRAME
1. How diverse are the social and educational backgrounds and skills of the people in the organization? What are their social styles? What is the range in ages?
2. How diverse are employee needs? What is the match between needs and roles?
3. How do people feel about their work? What seems to motivate them? Do people look healthy and happy? Do they appear to enjoy their work?
4. How do people seem to relate to one another? How do they handle interpersonal conflicts? Do they listen to one another?
5. What kinds of training and education are provided or supported?
6. Do people feel able to influence their work and larger organizational issues?
7. What kinds of small work groups or informal cliques seem to exist? How were they formed? How do people treat each other in these smaller settings?
8. Is there an informal hierarchy of power/prestige? How does it relate to the formal structure?
9. What are the existing levels of turnover, absenteeism, sabotage, goldbricking, and employee grievances?
10. Is the company unionized? How active is the union? Who are its leaders?
11. Do people jab and tease each other?
12. What is the correspondence between verbal messages and nonverbal signals?
13. Do people socialize outside the work place? What are the sociometric patterns?
14. Are most people in the organization single or married? How high is the divorce rate?
15. What are the drinking patterns? Do most people smoke, or are the majority nonsmokers?
POLITICAL FRAME
1. Who are the recognized people of power? How centralized does the power/strategic order seem to be? Does the power apply across issues, or is it restricted to specific issues or areas?
2. What is the primary basis of power (tenure, expertise, charisma, persuasion, access to resources, fear)? What is the relationship between power and authority?
3. What issues produce conflict? How are powerful people mobilized? How do they exercise their power? How are conflicts resolved?
4. Are there obvious coalitions? On what basis are they formed? How are they formed? How stable are the coalitions? Are coalitions exclusive? Do coalitions form and disband around specific issues?
5. How do people of power relate to people who are relatively powerless, and vice versa? Is there evidence of inappropriate use of power?
6. Do people feel they have access to power holders? Do they feel efficacious in influencing power holders? What form of influence is used most often?
7. Is there much bargaining or negotiation around events, or are issues decided in back rooms?
8. What are the main arenas in which power is exercised? Is it visible or covert? Are there obvious winners and losers? Who speaks to whom about what?
9. Where are people physically located? Does the allocation of space fit with the distribution of power? Who can enter whose space without knocking? Who ends meetings or conversations? Around what events are patterns of deference most obvious?
10. What are the key symbols of power?
SYMBOLIC FRAME
1. What does architecture say about the culture? What is on the walls? How does the building make you feel? How is space arranged? How is the parking lot organized? What kinds of cars do people drive?
2. How do people look and act when they arrive? How do they look and act when they leave?
3. What is the organization's history?
4. What are the organization's core values? How are they displayed? Do they seem to make sense? How widely known and shared are the values? Do they have meaning for people? Do they appear to arouse sentiment? How have they changed over time?
5. Is there a visionary hero or heroine at the helm? In the recent or distant past? What is he or she like? Does he or she represent and embody the core values? Inspire emotion in people? Is his or her picture displayed on the wall? Is he or she portrayed in well-known stories?
6. Who are other heroes and heroines? Do people know who they are? Are they of a particular type? Are they anointed and celebrated formally? Across the heroes and heroines, can you see patterns consistent with stated values?
7. What seem to be the most potent symbols? What do these seem to represent?
8. What do social rituals of greeting and exit say about the culture? How deep are work rituals? How does symbolic activity mesh with core values? Are ritual and values consistent with one another? What are the key management rituals (the meeting, planning, memos)? What goes on in hazing rituals as new members are brought into the culture? Are rituals convened around important transitions? What do rituals symbolize? How stylized is the behavior in rituals? How different is it from everyday behavior?
9. How does the organization's implicit purpose compare with its explicit purpose?
10. How often are ceremonies held? Who attends? What is the sequence of events? What role do heroes and heroines play? What symbols are recognized or exchanged? What costumes do people wear? How do they compare with regular work costumes? What do people eat? What do they drink? What emotions does the ceremony evoke?
11. What stories are told? Are they told across the culture? Who are the storytellers? What status are they accorded? What are the stories about? How do stories relate to company values?
12. How well known and active is the informal network? Who is the priest or priestess? What is this person's relationship to the CEO? Who are the gossips? The spies? What events make the actors in the informal network visible?
13. How cohesive are subcultures within the organization? What do subcultures form around (function, length of tenure, gender, race)? How do subcultures relate? Do people find more meaning in subcultures than in the larger culture? Can you see a core set of values across the subcultures? What happens when the members of different subcultures attend the same meeting or ritual? Do they bond or blast each other?
14. What metaphor of culture type-tough guy, bet-your-company, work hard/play hard, or process-seems to capture the essence of the culture?
15. What metaphors do you frequently encounter in everyday language?
16. How often and where do people play? hat form does it take? Who plays with whom?
PHYSICAL SETTING
1. How would you describe the location of the organization?
2. What are the outstanding aspects of the design of the setting? How efficient is it given the organization's mission?
3. How is the safety of employees affected by the physical setting, equipment, and so forth?
4. Are any health issues raised as a result of the setting or the processes performed?
5. How does the physical setting provide for the social needs of employees?
6. How does the setting affect communications patterns?
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
1. How stable is the environment? How often do major changes or demographic shifts occur? How predictable are the changes?
2. How complex is the environment (i.e., with how many groups must the organization deal)?
3. What are the political coalitions in the environment? Are they stable, or do they shift depending on the issues?
4. How dependent is the organization on resources from the environment? What are they?
5. What strategies does the organization use to influence or isolate itself from the environment?
6. What resources does the organization provide to the environment? How dependent is the environment on the organization? How tangible are the resources the organization provides?
7. How do the various parts of the organization (human resource, political, structural, symbolic) relate to the environment?
8. What is the marketplace for the organization like and what is the competition?
9. What governmental pressures (laws and regulations) does the organization experience?
LINKAGES TO THE ENVIRONMENT
1. What is the nature of the organization's linkages to the environment? Who is responsible for monitoring them? How regularly is the environment formally monitored?
INTERRELATIONSHIPS
1. What ways do the frames interact with each other, the physical setting, and the environment?
2. How do different parts of the organization interact to determine what goes on?
3. What happens if the various interactions cause problems?
FIELD STUDY
These questions can help you as report on the evidence of the four frames:
1. Structural analysis highlighting problems of control (i.e., goals, roles, how people work together, hierarchy of authority, ways of coordinating activities, etc.). Choose from the structural frame the concepts that apply best to the organization's formal work arrangements.
2. Human resource analysis focusing on commitment (i.e., satisfaction of human needs, employee satisfaction, informal relationships, levels of trust, employee participation, mastery versus mystery, forms of communication, etc.). Once again, choose the concepts that apply best.
3. Political analysis revealing the "influence" aspects of the organization: What individuals or groups have power, the sources of their power, coalitions and their interests, where conflict occurs and how it is typically resolved, etc. Again, choose the concepts that contribute best to an understanding of the political dynamics you observed.
4. Symbolic analysis concentrating on the organization's cultural patterns and its problems of legitimization (i.e., its history, core values, myths, heroes and heroines, rituals, ceremonies, stories, network of informal players, artifacts, specialized language, employee commitment, etc.). Select the concepts that apply best.
These questions and suggestions will help you make recommendations:
1. Based on your analysis, is there a dominant frame in the organization you analyzed? What are the organization's strengths? Are there areas that obviously need improvement? What strategies for improvement would you recommend?
2. Demonstrating your ability to evaluate the four frames and to reframe. Choose an important issue, and then develop a strategy for reframing the problem. Describe in detail the steps you would take, the anticipated results, and what the overall effect might be.