NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION.

Although the study of human communication processes in organizations has progressed considerably in the past two decades—with important developments in predictively fruitful concepts and useful methods—much of the work remains isolated and unintegrated. The purpose of this paper is to describe important concepts for analyzing communication processes in organizations, and to point out some of the methodological developments related to these concepts. At the conclusion of the paper we discuss some of the major research topics which should be major foci of organizational communication inquiry. These comments are given within the context of certain dimensions of organizational communication which should increase coherence in a diversified and uncoordinated body of knowledge. Our approach to the study of communication in organizations rests on two basic related tasks for the generation of knowledge in a relatively undeveloped area. First is the crucial task of explicating concepts that permit description and analysis of communication and/or information systems in organizations. While this task is underway, we also seek to establish correlational or causal relationships between communication concepts and other organizational variables. To clarify our intent in specifying these two tasks, we begin by providing a brief description of the terms "organization," "information," "communication," and "other organizational variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]