Power and organizational communication: a link with organizational culture

Finally, some theoretical gold dust!

Michael Pacanowsky & Nick O'Donnell-Trujillo invite us to look at organizational communication as politics. Central to this idea are notions of power and control.

Very interesting quote:

"Any broad discussion of organizational communication must inevitably come to deal with issues of 'power', 'control', and 'influence'. Not surprisingly, however organizational researchers have been unable to agree on what these constructs mean in either a theoretical or empirical sense. By treating organizational communication as politics, we do not attempt to provide any definitive conceptualization of these processes. Rather, our interest is in recognizing that organizational cultures are not monolithic, that there are subcultures or self-interests, and that many organizational performances are aimed at influencing others." (Pacanowsky & O'Donnell-Trujillo, 1983, p. 142)

Very interesting further reading on this topic: PFEFFER (Jeffrey). Power in organizations. Marshfield, Pitman, 1978. (Note to the side: Pfeffer has written books on the topic more recently)