COMM 3170: Introduction to Organizational Communication

1. COMM 3170:Introduction toOrganizational Communication Summer 2005 Dan Lair d.lair@utah.edu

2. Questions from Chapter Five

3. What Is Identity? • Changing nature of “identity”: from sameness to uniqueness. • Kuhn & McPartland’s Twenty Statements Test • Exercise: Answer 20 times the question, “I am . . . .” • Now, consider how many of your answers are: • characteristics (e.g., honest, friendly) • social roles (e.g., mother, brother) • group or organizational memberships (e.g., positions) • Identity as the sum total of identifications (Burke)

4. Discussion: Organizational Identification • What is organizational identification? • What was your level of identification with your organization? • What factors do you feel contributed to your level of identification with employees? • Is identification always a desired organizational goal?

5. Inducements to Identification: • Common-ground (e.g., “I was poor, too.”) • Antithesis (i.e., unity in opposition) • Assumed or transcendent “we” (e.g., “We at Acme believe”) • Unifying symbols (e.g., logos, banners) --from Kenneth Burke (1950), then adapted by Cheney (1983), and DiSanza & Bullis (1999)

6. Identification and Decision Making • “A person identifies with an organization when he or she seeks to select alternatives with the interests of the organization—as best they can be determined—uppermost in mind” --Tompkins & Cheney (1985), adapting the operational definition by Simon (1976)

7. The Problem of Organizational Identity: Communicating Identity in A Crowded Communication Environment • Increased media outlets • Increased stakeholder pressures • Increased competition • Other trends? • In a crowded communication climate, communication is both a cause of and solution to the problem.

8. Projecting Organizational Identity: A Timeline of “External” Corporate Communication • 1860s: Early Developments in Advertising • 1880s: Early Developments in Public Relations • 1920s: Growth of Advertising; Emergence of “Lifestyle” • 1950s: Advent of Marketing; Growth of Consumerism • 1960s-1970s: Consumer Advocacy and Other Social Movements • 1975 Issues/Values Advertising/Management • 1980s: Rise of Identity Management • 1990s: Dominance of Marketing Discourse • 2000: Attempted Consolidation of Communications Functions

9. The Problem of Organizational Identity: Branding as Strategy • Branding and the Unique Selling Proposition (Olins, 2000, p. 53): • This product is better because it contains X (secret, magic, new, miracle) ingredient that will make it work more effectively. • If you use it, it will mean that your home will look more beautiful, or your food will taste much better, or you yourself will be even more glamorous than before. • This will leave you more time to remain even more desirable and attractive for your lovely husband and family.

10. The Problem of Organizational Identity: Branding, Continued • Evolution and Extension of Branding: • Consumer brands (USP) • Retail brands • Product brands • Corporate brands • “National” brands • ????

11. The Problem of Organizational Identity: Auto-communication • The organization sends messages to the “outside” that it then receives itself. This may be conscious or largely unconscious. • The organization repeats a message so that it eventually internalizes it. • The organization sees the environment in such a way that confirms its own expectations. The last two are largely unconscious.