Week 13 - Concluding Post

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http://catchyagency.com/wp-content/uploads/globalisation.jpg

Hi guys, this online friendly guide to COMM 3004, Communication and Organisations has to be finished here, I hope you guys could enjoy this guide and acquire something useful from this blog as well as your course.

In the past thirteen weeks, we discovered and examined many contemporary approaches and processes of organisational communication. From micro-level communication tactics to macro-level communication strategies. But these principles and approaches are all in theoretical basis, the best way to comprehend them is to observe and analyse from the real workplace situations.

For international students, like I hinted you at the very beginning, you guys need to find jobs in Australia, whatever temporary or full-time, to go deeper and deeper and discover the communication manners your organisation employ. I know some of you might not gonna stay in Australia after graduation, it doesn't matter, because the communication knowledge you’ve got in Australia can help you find differences based on cultural differences.

Again, principles and theories are changing rapidly due to the fast pace of development of our world. But our world is always connected and maintained by ceaseless communication. Organisations must have a set of advanced communication system in order to survive in the trend of globalisation. You will be the person who play a crucial role in maintaining this bridge for your organisation.

Good luck for your study, pals, just remember, practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.  

Here is a compiled presentation Powerpoint document shared by Barreto, Wanda J. via Slideshare, very useful summary of Miller’s core thoughts. Please click and have a read.

URL: http://www.slideshare.net/wandajbarreto/the-challenges-and-changing-landscape-of-organizational-communication-10097696

The world is in your oyster

Week 13 - The Changing Landscape of Organisation

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http://www.nycop.com/Spring2006/Globalization/cartoon_globo_large.GIF

Welcome to Week 13, guys, it’s time to celebrate because this is the last week of your course, and perhaps this is the last week of your university study. Wooah….

This week, we are going to discover the changing landscape of organisation in terms of globalisation. Organisations in 21^st century become much more complex than before, under the trend of globalisation, organisation has changed profoundly.

People in nowadays world have moved from a landscape in which companies are largely associated with one country to a landscape where there is a mix of domestic organisations, multicultural organisations, multinational organisations, international organisations and global organisations.

It is worthwhile to mention that globalisation influences organisational communication in many ways,

l  Time and space compression

l  Global consciousness

l  Disembedded organisations and people

With the significant trend of globalisation, there are also a number of challenges faced by contemporary organisations,

l  Convergence

l  Divergence

l  Human effects

l  Ethical dilemmas

The increasing importance of organisational identity makes organisations pay attention to their performances of PR, issue management, marketing, advertising etc. Organisations seek to create and maintain positive images in order to achieve long-term goals. The economy is increasingly dominated by organisations that provide services rather than products. The challenges of communication in a service environment can be particularly pronounced in the information economy, which is increasingly dominated by electronic transactions, or e-commerce (Miller 2012).

Workers in today’s economy increasingly hold temporary and contingent positions that make them more “disposable” and that change the basic relationship between workers and organisations. The reason why people need to know about the changes is because these changes highlight areas of increasing importance in the workplace, such as managing diversity in a multicultural organisation or understanding the comings and goings of temporary workers (Miller 2012).

In my organisation, the management is keen to recruit more oversea-experienced employees because they are expected to be able to communicate and work with people from foreign countries. As an English-training organisation, my organisation not only requires employee’s English proficiency, but also their recognition of western cultures. Some of senior workers without English education are required to participate English training sessions. Like our principal said, “our organisation is aimed to become an international-scaled organisation, I want our employees can have the competency to communicate and collaborate with people from other countries.”

Apparently, globalisation is a crucial factor by which many organisations are involved in the changing landscape.

Ahmad (2013) in his media story portrays the nowadays changing landscape of organisation as the “culture club.” He depicts that “without proper understanding of cross-cultural differences, a person will have problems communicating and interacting with another from a different background. We need to be culturally competent to interact globally. ”

References:

Ahmad, A F 2013, ‘We are in a culture club’, New Straits Times, 6 November, viewed 12 November 2013,

<http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=149ECB7C39F91850&p_docnum=1&p_queryname=2>

Miller, K 2012, Organisational communication – approaches and processes, 6^th edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston.

Week 12 - Technological Processes and Organisational Change

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http://neuroanthropology.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/twitter-cartoon.jpg?w=500&h=328

Welcome to Week 12, pals, this week we are going to talk about technological revolution and its impacts on organisational communication. Yes, I know you guys are interested in technology, so, let do it!

It is undoubted that technology changes our world dramatically, from organisational communication perspective, the emergence of e-mail and World Wide Web accelerate the pace of working and break down the geographical barrier when communicating with clients, customers and competitors all over the world. Meanwhile, the emergence of portable electronic devices and wireless internet enable remote workers to extract necessary documents from the net-base rather than physical copy.

The emergence of new communication technologies offers organisational participants a wide array of interaction and decision-making options that can differ substantially from traditional ways of working.

There are some theories regarding communication media usage

l  The media richness model

l  The social information processing model

l  Channel expansion models

l  Dual capacity model (Miller 2012).

It is worthwhile to mention that all these models and principles are central to the likelihood that organisational media choices are determined by a complex combination of the richness of the medium, the ambiguity of the task, the symbolic value of the medium, the extent to which coordination with others is required, and the social information received in the organisational setting.

Communication patterns and outcomes are also changed or affected considerably by new communication technology, it is a double-edged sword. For example, the prevalent use of social networking sites (e.g. Facebook) provide important ways to make contact with others about a wide range of work-related issues. But individuals looking for a job should be very careful of the information they’ve posted or shared.  More importantly, technology can change the very way we structure work and design organisations. According to Miller (2012), technologies allow communication at great distances and at asynchronous times, it is often not necessary for people working together to be in the same place.

Here I want to give an example, showing that technology alters the structure of organisation and the way people communicate with each other. My father runs his business in Beijing, the capital of China. His company specialises in telecom, Internet and Intranet. One day I came to his company, there were only few stuff working in the office and I was so surprised, where are the other people? My father told me in brief that in nowadays company, employees becoming more and more flexible and floating. They do not need to work “together” in a fixed place, they need to go exploring markets and clients in other provinces, cities or even towns. Now I can understand what he meant to be flexible and floating. As Miller acknowledges, employees can work flexibly, they don’t need to work in the same building like they did in the last decade, and employees have to be prepared to work in different locations in different times. The way they communicate with each other is reliant upon mobile networks and the Internet. For example, if a working team of three or four employees who negotiating a contract with their clients in Hunan Province, China, they need to report their progress regularly and promptly back to their manager in Beijing via email or (if urgently) phone. Once their report been approved by manger in Beijing, they can move on to the next step of negotiation processes. Once they accomplish the current project, they might be reorganised and assigned to other places.

Hence, it is apparent that technology has changed organisational communication processes dramatically. The communication between employees and the management are becoming increasing distant but tangible, thanks to the advanced technologies.

Hinchcliffe (2013) in his media story provides a thorough evaluation towards technology and its influences on employee’s engagement. This is a highly recommended article regarding technology and organisational communication.

References:

Hinchcliffe, D 2013, ‘Does technology improve employee engagement?’, ZDNet, 5 November, viewed 12 November 2013,

< http://www.zdnet.com/does-technology-improve-employee-engagement-7000021695/>

Miller, K 2012, Organisational communication – approaches and processes, 6^th edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston.