Theories of Organization & Communication
The literature offers starkly different possibilities for how communications might weave
together a social fabric inside the firm. Weber (1924) provided us with the enduring image of
the rationalized, formalized, hierarchical bureaucracy. This image carries through much of the
classic work in organization theory and has implications for the structure of communications we
might expect to observe within complex organizations. For instance, Chandler (1962) famously
characterized many of the large organizations since the turn of the last century as adopting Mforms,
in which operational decisions occur within business units and strategic decisions are
managed at the headquarters level. Adopting a Chandlerian view, which is also echoed in many
contemporary texts on value creation in the diversified firm, we should expect to observe a high
density of communications nested within business units and, insofar as the organization is
structurally integrated, the headquarters unit should play a central role in bridging
communications among autonomous business units. While subsequent work, such as Lawrence
and Lorsch‘s (1967) contingency-theoretic discussion of integration mechanisms and Galbraith‘s
(1973) focus on lateral coordinating mechanisms, does complicate the story, classic organization
theories nevertheless imply that interaction patterns inside the firm will, for the most part, be
- 7 -
dictated by the organization‘s formal structure. Thus, classic organization theory leads us to
expect hierarchical communication patterns that unfold within formal organizational units.
Theories of Organization & Communication
The literature offers starkly different possibilities for how communications might weave
together a social fabric inside the firm. Weber (1924) provided us with the enduring image of
the rationalized, formalized, hierarchical bureaucracy. This image carries through much of the
classic work in organization theory and has implications for the structure of communications we
might expect to observe within complex organizations. For instance, Chandler (1962) famously
characterized many of the large organizations since the turn of the last century as adopting Mforms,
in which operational decisions occur within business units and strategic decisions are
managed at the headquarters level. Adopting a Chandlerian view, which is also echoed in many
contemporary texts on value creation in the diversified firm, we should expect to observe a high
density of communications nested within business units and, insofar as the organization is
structurally integrated, the headquarters unit should play a central role in bridging
communications among autonomous business units. While subsequent work, such as Lawrence
and Lorsch‘s (1967) contingency-theoretic discussion of integration mechanisms and Galbraith‘s
(1973) focus on lateral coordinating mechanisms, does complicate the story, classic organization
theories nevertheless imply that interaction patterns inside the firm will, for the most part, be
- 7 -
dictated by the organization‘s formal structure. Thus, classic organization theory leads us to
expect hierarchical communication patterns that unfold within formal organizational units.
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