What Is Organizational Communication?

Organizational Communication Today

In the early stages, organizational communication focused on leaders giving public presentations. More recently, emphasis has focused on all levels of interaction in organizations. Because interpersonal relationships are a large part of organizational communication, a great deal of research focuses on how interpersonal relationships are conducted within the framework of organizational hierarchies.

What we study in organizational communication today has been summarized into eight major areas:

1. Communication channels,
2. Communication climate,
3. Network analysis,
4. Superior-subordinate communication,
5. the information-processing perspective,
6. the rhetorical perspective,
7. the cultural perspective, and
8. the political perspective
   

Since the 1980s, organizational communication has expanded to include work on organizational culture, power and conflict management, and organizational rhetoric. If you were to take an organizational communication course at your campus, much of the time would be spent focusing on developing your skills in organizational socialization, interviewing, giving individual and group presentations, creating positive work relationships, performance evaluation, conflict resolution, stress management, decision making, and communicating with external publics.