Summary
Contents
Subject index
Taking issue with functional approaches to communication, Understanding Organizations through Language offers a viable alternative based on `webs of meaning'. Instead of viewing communication as a thing that can be unproblematically controlled and managed, the authors use semiology as a theoretical bedrock to develop a new metaphor for communication. Understanding Organizations through Language applies this approach to areas of interest, including: metaphor, story-telling, discourse, gender, leadership and electronic communication. Spanning the gap between highly theoretical organization studies texts and highly prescriptive communication texts, the book talks to the reader in a sophisticated yet approachable style. This style is complemented by a range of examples, activities and mini case studies. Also included are chapter summaries and further reading suggestions, making this a useful text for both academics and students. Advanced undergraduates and postgraduates will utilize this book for any course dealing with communication, particularly courses in HRM and organizational behaviour.
A Semiological Approach to Meaning Making
A Semiological Approach to Meaning Making
The previous chapter described communication as a social process and discussed the role of language in creating and sustaining our realities. In this chapter we focus more closely on the process of meaning making, and how it is that we come to understand – or misunderstand – each other. In other words, it is not the pen marks or the sounds themselves that are our main concern, but “what it is that makes marks on paper or sounds in the air into a message” (Fiske, 1982: 39).
Objectives
In this chapter we will:
- introduce semiology;
- consider the relationship between signs in a sign system;
- discuss the role of myth in cultural sense-making; and
- further develop the idea of meaning making ...
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