Organizational Communication for Survival: An Analysis (preface)

PREFACE TO THE ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL

by

Charles Lamson

Whether we like it or not, most of us go to work every day. Organizations are a fact of life for most people in modern societies. People spend most of their adult lives working within and for some type of organization. Even before one joins the workforce on a permanent basis, life in organizations has become commonplace - the elementary school, the secondary school, the college or university. Organizations are such an omnipresent facet of our lives that we usually take them for granted, and never recognize the impact they have on our behavior.

A relatively small proportion of the population ever studies what it means to be a member of an organization; and those who do are generally people who hope to assume some managerial role in an organization. Hence, universities have entire schools, colleges and departments devoted to such topics as business administration, sports management, and hotel management. Unfortunately, most such programs focus on how to manage other people, not how to be managed.

This new book that I will be doing an analysis of is titled Organizational Communication for Survival. The writers have chosen to focus on communication, not only because it is their area of professional expertise, but also because communication is the vehicle by which management occurs - for good or ill. In short, it takes effective communication to make our work experiences work for us.

Effective communication requires strategic choices. Strategic communicators know how to choose the communication behaviors that are most likely to improve their own chances to survive and prosper in an organization - and they make those choices. This view sometimes is derogatorily referred to as "Machiavellian." However, communicating strategically is only a negative behavior when it involves unethical practices. The writers of this book never recommend that you lie, cheat or steal, or engage in any other immoral behavior. They also do not highly recommend that you seek every possible opportunity to become a whistle-blower, constantly complain about how you are treated, or otherwise to make life difficult for others in an organization. Neither of these types of behavior are likely to be in your best interests over the long-term. However, you do need to look out for your own best interests in an organization. You should never expect that someone else will do that for you.

Their working subtitle for the first edition of the book was "A Peon Perspective." That early subtitle emphasizes their orientation. They direct primary attention to the roles we play in organizations - as subordinates, since we are all subordinates of someone else - even though some day, we may rise to a high supervisory position. There are always more "peons" than there are "bosses," and we are all "peons," before we become "bosses," unless our parents have the questionable sense to will us a wholly-owned business, before we take our first job.

Many organizations are dismal places to exist. Many managers would starve to death if they had to depend on their managerial skills to provide sustenance. And many subordinates could not care less about either the quality of their own work, or the survival of the organization. if such observations justify labeling these writers as "cynics" - so be it, but our experiences with a variety of educational, business and governmental organizations, suggest such views are realistic. Certainly not all organizations are dismal; all managers incompetent; or all subordinates uncaring - but these circumstance prevail a sufficiently large proportion of the time, so that we cannot approach organizations with rose-colored glasses firmly in place. Were we to do so, our survival in the organization might be very brief.

END