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ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICAL IMAGE: A STRUCTURATIONIST COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS
Abstract
The study investigates organizational politics as a contextual communication phenomena. The theory of structuration is utilized as a framework for the analysis--a theory whose central concept is that human action exists only in interaction. The study develops an institutional perspective of political images with a focus on the language of organizational politics and politicians. The sample is composed of 20 respondents from each of two highly professional organizations--one routinized and one non-routinized (which are similar in most other major respects). The taped interview data is explored through a thematic quantitative content analysis and an interpretive structurationist analysis. There is some supporting data that members of the non-routinized organization (NR) find their firm more political than do the members of the routinized organization (R). The over-arching political image of R is that of a non-political "techno-rational bureaucracy" while the image of NR is predominantly one of "winning the game." The content analysis focuses on three types of political symbols (verbal, action, and material) and on three structuring processes of institutions (signification, legitimation, and domination). NR members are far more loquacious in their use of political symbolic themes than the R members and show more discursive penetration (signification structures). Few differences were found at the higher levels (partner and manager), with much larger differences seen at the lowest level (consultant). The qualitative analysis' most important finding is that subgroups of the same organization can have extremely different political images (sub-culture) from other sub-groups. These disparities suggest that attitudes toward office politics are highly normative and differ according to the sub-group and situation, which may account for the ambivalent findings in prior research. In addition, the game metaphor is pre-eminent in both firms--players, rules, and scores which determine the political behaviors that are acceptable in a given situation. The two organizations are composed of competing structures; sometimes they create diversity and sometimes they maintain flexibility. They often, however, simultaneously produce distinct images (e.g., public versus private goals). The discrepancy between NR's image of teamwork and its reward system--which fuels competition--is instructive of the complexity of institutional structuring mechanisms.
Subject Area
Communication
Recommended Citation
RILEY, PATRICIA, "ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICAL IMAGE: A STRUCTURATIONIST COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS" (1982). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8306502.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8306502