Everett M. Rogers is Professor of Communication at the Institute for Communication Research at Stanford University, and the author of Communication Strategies for Family Planning and co-author, with F. Floyd Shoemaker, of Communication of Innovations.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. The Nature of Organizational Communication

The Rise and Fall of the Pruitt-Igoe Project

The Importance of Organizational Communication

The Hospital as an Information System

Studying Communication in Organizations

Main Elements in the Communication Process

The Nature of Communication Research

The Component Approach in Past Communication Research

From Linear Models to a Systems Approach

Biases in Past Communication Research

Research on Communication in Organizations

Toward Network Analysis

Summary

Chapter 2. Three Schools of Organizational Behavior

Revolutionary Paradigms and Invisible Colleges

Scientific Management School

Critical Reactions to Taylorism

Taylorism and Communication

Human Relations School

Illumination at the Hawthorne Plant

Enter the Professors

Rediscovering Informal Communication

Changing Organizational Behavior Through the Human Relations Approach

The Scanlon Plan: An Operationalization o[ the Human Relations Approach

Criticisms of the Hawthorne Studies

The Contribution of Chester Barnard

Other Human Relationists: The Human Resources Subschool

From S-M-C-R to R-M-C-S

"The Plant Is Closing, The Plant Is Closing"

The Systems School

General Systems Theory

The Unfulfilled Potential of Systems-Oriented Research in Organizations

An Open System Approach

Looking Outward

Tile Internal Function of Communication

Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn

The "Technology" Subschool

The Systems View of Communication

Summary

Chapter 3. Open System Theory and Organizational Environments

Environment to the Fore

What Is Environment?

Research on Organizational Environments

Information and Uncertainty

Inputs and Outputs

Measuring Environmental Dimensions

Boundary-Spanning Cosmopolites

Coping with the Environment: The TVA and Cooptation

The Environment and Organizational Innovation

Perceived Environment and Innovation in Agency A and B

Organizational Climates

Summary

Chapter 4. The Effect of Organizational Structure on Communication Behavior

What Is Structure?

The Organization Chart and the Formal Structure of an Organization

Rumors and the Informal Communication Structure

Bureaucracy

The Black Hole of Calcutta as a Communication Breakdown in a Bureaucracy

Mao Tse-tung's Antibureaucracy in China

Structure's Effect on Communication

Restricted Flows and Information Overload

Distortion at My Lai

Distortion and Omission

Horizontal and Vertical Flows

"Sound Of" at the Bank Red Hammers in Peking

Formal and Informal Communication Flows

Informal Communication Roles

Communication Behavior as a Determinant of Organizational Structure

BÄrolandschaft: Offices Without Walls

Summary

Chapter 5. Communication Networks in Organizations

Why Are Networks Important?

Formal Structure and Communication Networks

System Effects

"It's a Small World!"

Personal Networks: Radial and Interlocking

Putting Structure Back into Organizational Communication

Laboratory Experiments on Small Group Networks

Background of the Small Groups Studies

Circle, Wheel, and Chain

Criticisms of the Small Groups Studies

Network Analysis

Background on Network Analysis in Organizations

Network Analysis Procedures

An Illustration of Communication Network Analysis in an Organization

Individual Communication Roles in Organizations

Gatekeepers

Liaisons

Opinion Leaders

Cosmopolites

Communication Structural Variables

Personal Communication Networks

Clique-Level Analysis

System-Level Analysis

Summary

Chapter 6. Innovation In Organizations

Innovation and Innovativeness

Innovation and Change

The Process of Innovation in Organizations

Innovation as a Stepwise Process

Performance Gaps and Problem Definition

Knowledge of Innovations and Reinvention

External Accountability

Slack Resources

Organizational Structure

Stages in the Innovation Process

Consequences of Innovation for Organizational Effectiveness

Innovation and Bureaucracy in the Kingdom of Siam

Organizational Innovativeness Research on Organizational Innovativeness

Three Questionable Assumptions of Diffusion Research Perspectives on Innovation

Summary

Chapter 7. A Propositional Summary

References

Author Index

Subject Index