COM 574 Reading Guide Questions for September 18 - Irwin Mallin, IPFW Communication

COM 574, Fall 2008 – Reading Guide Questions for September 18

For Pacanowsky & O’Donnell-Trujillo:

1. On pages 115-121 they complain about a managerial bias in organizational research What do they attribute this bias to? What’s do they say is wrong with researchers having this bias? Do you agree?*

2. On 124-126, they describe some of the things researchers studying organizational culture will look for. What are examples of relevant constructs, facts, practices, vocabulary, metaphors, stories, and rites and rituals where you work? Would your boss see ‘em the same way you do?*

3. Same as 2, but for IPFW and the COM department. Would your perspective on these as students be the same as ours as faculty?

4. On 127, they say it’s important that a researcher experience organizational life as an outsider. Why do they think it’s important? Do you think there are benefits to studying an organization’s culture with an insider’s perspective?*

5. OK, quick: Organizational culture is __________.
Thinking of organizations as cultures is different from thinking of organizations as machines in that ___________.
Studying organizations as cultures is useful because ________.

For Carbaugh:

1. Carbaugh doesn’t intend the types of people identified at the TV station (pages 219-220) to be generalizable to other places. Having said that, how generalizable are theses labels?

2. What labels would a researcher notice upon doing a study where you work? At IPFW?*

3. Same as 1 and 2, but for the semantic dimensions on pages 221-222

4. Look at the middle of 222, where he argues that employees “talk as if there are three distinctive types of workers [and that this] talk renders types of workers distinctive, coherent and marked by explicit tension.” To what extent is that a self-fulfilling prophecy? Is it inevitable or avoidable?

5. Compare the complaints about communication these employees make to the complaints about communication at your workplace.*

For Rose:

1. What are the relevant features of the old AT&T described here? How do those features impact the ways employees feel about the old AT&T? How are those features similar to or different from features of places where you have worked?

* Asterisk indicates that the question is adapted from Corman, S. R., Banks, S. P., Bantz, C. R., & Mayer, M. E. (1995). Foundations of organizational communication: A reader (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.

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