Communication, Power and Organization

Book excerpt: The author explores the strategic web of communication that influences company policy in an open market setting. By focusing on an actual situation within an industrial company that forces interpretation, negotiation, and action among employees, communication within the company is analyzed. The book examines the concept of power in a corporate organization, its distribution and how - often unobtrusively - it is expressed and communicated. Special attention is given to techniques used in exercising power, organizational symbolism, organizational hierarchies, and lines of communication. Methodological refinement in the use of a multiple perspective approach is achieved by drawing on culture theory, Foucault's theory of power, and Habermas' theory of communicative action.