Shaping reality through organizational communications : symbolic and control aspects of stakeholder management /
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| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1990.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | ProQuest, Abstract Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Abstract: | Communication is a fundamental process of organizations, with both substantive and symbolic importance. Much theory and research has been devoted to the purely substantive aspects of communication, but relatively little is known about the symbolic aspects. The primary purpose of this study is to better understand the symbolic management aspect of formal organizational communications. In the present research, formal organizational communications are seen as one vehicle for management to enact its own view of reality, and to convey that vision to their constituencies. In addition to serving this social construction of reality purpose, formal organizational communications are considered as a means through which management attempts to protect managerial discretion by influencing stakeholders' choice of evaluation criteria, rather than by merely attributing negative corporate outcomes to external factors. This dissertation examines the extent to which top managers use corporate communications targeted at external constituencies as a symbolic management mechanism to influence stakeholders' perceptions of the environment and the organization, through offering management's interpretation of the meaning or implications of events and situations. Drawing from previous theoretical and empirical work, two models are developed and tested. The first model, the symbolic management model, builds upon Daft's (1983) framework of instrumental and expressive forms of symbolic communications. In addition, the developed model incorporates the view of self-serving influence processes, thus conceptually linking the symbolic management framework with the impression management literature (e.g., Giacalone & Rosenfold, 1989). The model suggests that the relative emphasis on instrumental or expressive forms of symbolic communications is influenced by environmental uncertainty, by management's vulnerability with respect to outside censure, and by their alignment of interests with owners... |
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| Item Description: | Typescript (photocopy). Vita. "Major subject: Management." |
| Physical Description: | xiii, 234 leaves ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |