Focusing on Workplace Communication

Abstract

Communication has a constitutive role in the workplace; in workplace communication the organization comes into being. In workplace communication workers create and negotiate meanings and a shared understanding of important work-related issues. Communication is also essential for a functional working environment. Especially in knowledge-based work members of the workplace aim at success, efficiency, and productivity by discussing, conversing, debating, and providing and receiving feedback. Hence, when striving to establish a healthy workplace with high levels of satisfaction and well-being, one has to understand the dynamics of workplace communication. This chapter examines interpersonal communication and social interaction in the workplace and the impact they have on the work organization and its activities. The chapter explores the fundamental perspectives on workplace communication: The constitutive perspective of communication, coordinated management of meaning, interactional frames, task-related, relational, and identity dimensions of communication, and the discourse perspective as well as the structuration perspective on communication. The chapter also presents the structure of the book.