The Construction of Shared Realities
The effect or outcome of the human communication process is to create, to one degree or another, some "shared reality" or intersubjective experience that reflects a mutual understanding of the world by participants in communication. This mutual understanding enables coordinated action to take place by members of an organization.
An important point in this section is the possibility of deception. One participant in an interaction can choose to attempt to deliberately mislead another. Note that deception is regarded as a distortion or misuse of the communication process. Do you agree with this assessment?
Concepts of Organizations
Shockley-Zalabak's fundamental definition of organization is as a "dynamic system" (i.e., a set of components that may change its specific configuration but retains its overall identity) wherein people work together to achieve some mutually held goal. So, the three important aspects of organizations are:
- Organizations consist of multiple components (including people and objects) structured in such a way as to enable change within them while retaining their character as a coherent whole. Organizational processes involve the manipulation of material resources and information.
- Organizations are collaborative or collective in how they operate. Individuals within organizations are interdependent.
- Organizations are geared toward achieving some goal.