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Semelhante a CLE 2014 final slide show notes v.5
Semelhante a CLE 2014 final slide show notes v.5 (20)
CLE 2014 final slide show notes v.5
- 1. From Evolution to Revolution, a mini history of Organizational Communication Roger D’Aprix , 2014 CLE Conference
- 2. 6 Forces that have shaped our work Changing and accelerating economic and social realities Media and journalistic fashions and fads The SOS Model Corporate leadership actions, styles and beliefs Evolving message- delivery systems from printing to digital delivery systems Behavioral psychology and audience research
- 3. The Era of Evolution 1830s to 1920s: The Industrial Revolution—a time of laissez-faire indifference to worker needs and workplace communication (Who’s your boss? What does he want you to do right now?) Early 1900s sees rise of unions and bitter, violent era of conflict and suppression; rule of the Robber Barons; exploitation of workers 1920s to 1940s: An Awakening of Conscience—the beginnings of Paternalism, Concern for the worker and the Company as ‘family’; diluted by the Depression of the 1930s; Organizational Communication debuts as a corporate function and specialty 1940s to 1975: A Golden Age of U.S. Prosperity, Paternalism and Entitlement thrive—a time when organizational communication begins to flourish in a command and control era
- 4. Two Men Who Shaped Our Future…
- 5. Old Economy Leadership Structure and Styles; Alfred Sloan’s 1920’s formula Pyramid, chain-of- command organizations Vertical integration Hierarchical structures with command and control leadership styles Tolerance for bureaucracy Social contract with expectation of loyalty and long service Authority, loyalty and discipline of the workforce as critical values
- 6. The World’s Second Oldest Profession Edward Bernays: OC as an art form came out of WWI from allied propaganda efforts Edward Bernays was seen as the ‘founder’ of modern OC Wrote 1925 book entitled ‘Propaganda’ In late 1920s led Chesterfield campaign urging women to smoke Later advised corporate leaders and presidents
- 7. Jazz Age Communication…the 1920s A time of corporate growth and prosperity OC is seen as a legitimate activity Behaviorists begin to study behavior at work with Western Electric experiments aimed at productivity In ‘29 it all comes tumbling down
- 8. The Depression: an Era of Stagnation Organizational communication suffered along with the economy Unemployment grew from 3.2% in 1929 to 25% in 1933 WWII finally broke the back of the Depression in 1940 By 1942 with war, unemployment was 4.7%; in 1944 1.2%
- 9. 25 Golden Years (Circa 1945-1970) WWII becomes a tipping point for U.S. companies as war devastates global economies; U.S. prospers Middle Class and Blue Collar unionism thrive Companies design and build products they see a need for at a quality level they deem satisfactory; Can tolerate inefficiencies, slower decision- making with full employment Top-down communication predominates
- 10. Old Economy Internal Communication (‘45 - ‘70 Playing a Solo on a House Organ) Reactive and heavily filtered communication of organizational events Paternalistic communication style with a heavy emphasis on ‘need to know’ Communication of a strong sense of the company as a family--the live babies, dead fish school of communication ‘Home on the range’ view of life--where never is heard a discouraging word...
- 11. Old Economy Communication--the ‘50s to the mid-60s “The Organization Man” era: “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” (1955) Economic education; ‘Boulwareism’; anti-union propaganda The benevolent company Defending the company against ‘outside agitators’ Company as a closed community of loyalists
- 12. Typical Golden Age Communication Lots of ‘happy talk’; parent-child communication The company leadership knows best Respect for authority Need to know; ‘people really don’t care’
- 13. What that World Felt Like ’50s to Mid-’60s A white male’s world where women and minorities faced limited roles An Old Boys’ Network that held power closely and demanded conformity A conservative mindset where ‘Vote Republican’ was the norm Where loyalty was the ultimate value and where ‘9 to 5’ prevailed
- 14. 14 What That World Sounded Like: the Communicator’s theme song in that Era The approval tango: Accentuate the Positive Eliminate the Negative Latch on to the Affirmative Don’t mess with Mr. In- between
- 15. Transitional Communication: the Mid-60s Anti-institutionalism seen as a threat Organization men begin to question their own lives and values (‘Don Draper and Mad Men’) Women begin entering the all-male corporation mostly as secretaries Communication professionals consider playing role of internal journalists, flirt with investigative reporting Industrial Communication Council is organized in 1964 to meet the needs of communication executives
- 16. The Era of Revolution 1975 to 1980: The turmoil begins as Europe and Asia fully recover from WWII; change accelerates 1980 to 1990: Globalism erupts and the Revolution begins—a time when competition rises up from Japan to India to China and elsewhere; Communication becomes ‘business focused’ 1990 to the Present: Technology Flowers, Fuels the Revolution—and refuels Rugged Individualism and Greater Openness in an era of ‘cyber-utopianism’
- 17. The Dawning of the Revolution: the early 70s Vietnam War ends and global competition begins Energy crisis rocks the economy Inflation runs rampant Communication staffs reflect public media styles, become bolder in telling the truth; delusions of investigative reporting Even experiment unsuccessfully with corporate TV
- 18. The Revolution Begins in Earnest: the late ‘70s Western companies caught by surprise US and European companies downsize Billions spent on robotics, computers Massive quality and customer initiatives Short-term results become the priority, and CEOs become seen as rain makers deserving of huge payoffs
- 19. New Economy Communication: the ‘80s Communication professionals begin the long struggle to re-invent their role Face pressures to justify their value From SOS communication tactics to strategy Brands are rediscovered as corporate assets Employee engagement becomes a critical value
- 20. The 90s: the Revolution Takes Hold Downsizing becomes a profitability strategy Workplace technology grows explosively; information overload emerges as a problem Print is largely replaced by cheaper and faster digital media Communicators begin to experiment with new media Global competition leads to outsourcing, intense cost pressures The Internet fuels and enables the emerging phenomenon of social media
- 21. The Usual Unintended Consequences Follow Like it or not, companies and institutions become naked, transparent Paternalism and the social contract crumble Virtual work and Me, Inc. become realistic possibilities with access to technology And even a survival strategy with ongoing downsizing
- 22. New Economy Communication: the ‘90s into 2000 and beyond Availability of e-mail, voice mail and wireless technology Internet serves as inspiration for communication professionals, requires soul- searching regarding communication vision and mission Provides unprecedented access to information Technology forces intense learning curve to keep up
- 23. So simple even a baby… Smart phones, Tablets and Apps present new communication opportunities Create ‘a communication bubble’ around users 24-hour connectivity diminishes ‘places to hide’ Enable impersonal digital experience—at expense of face-to-face communication Technology tends to relegate managers to communication bystanders
- 24. The Big 21st Century Trends and Aspirations…so far From independent contribution to collaboration and teamwork From top-down communication to faith in two-way dialogue and social media From need to know to tentative openness and transparency From autocracy and bureaucracy to greater corporate democracy From SOS approach to communication process, strategy and problem-solving From closet technophobes to cyber-utopians
- 25. The Opportunity “For the first time since the dawning of the industrial age, the only way to build a company that’s fit for the future is to build one that’s fit for human beings as well. This is your opportunity to build a 21st century management model that truly elicits, honors and cherishes human initiative, creativity and passion…Do that, and you will have built an organization that is fully human and fully prepared for the extraordinary opportunities that lie ahead.” Gary Hamel “The Future of Management”
- 26. A Blinding Flash of the Obvious We have come a long way from the house editors of the ‘50s with a very long and puzzling road still to travel In a Revolutionary World, to be relevant, we need to carve out a role that is intimately related to the business of the business That will require us to educate ourselves to the priorities and issues of our organizations as well as the marketplace and the larger society—all the while reinventing our work The ride will be bumpy, exciting and for those who figure it out-- richly rewarding
Notas do Editor
- As a history buff and the world’s oldest living communicator, I’m delighted to be here to talk about the history of our profession. They couldn’t find anyone else who had lived this much of the history so I was the most logical choice for the job. Anyway, this is the Back to the Future part of the program where like Michael J. Fox I attempt to show you the path that led to the present condition and the choices that have brought us to where we are today. I need to explain upfront why I’m more tied to the lectern than I usually am. There’s a lot here to cover and remember. So I’m more dependent on my notes than usual to keep me disciplined and on time.
- …As you look at the half dozen major forces that I believe have shaped our work, what should jump out at you is that we have been a pretty reactive bunch. Reacting sometimes necessarily… and sometimes enthusiastically (or reluctantly) to all of the forces on this slide. The main reason is that most of us haven’t had much of a roadmap for our work—sort of making it up as we went along. (Comment on forces…)
- As I prepared for today and thought about our history, it occurred to me that there have been two clearly identifiable epochs in both internal and external communication… One of those was evolutionary; the other beginning around 1975 has been revolutionary. First, the evolutionary periods… (Read and comment briefly)
- If there were only two men who truly shaped our future, these two would be the leading candidates… On the left is Alfred Sloan, the head of GM beginning in the 1920s and the man credited with being the father of the modern corporation. On the right is Edward Bernays, the acknowledged founder of Organizational communication in the 1920s following World Waar I
- The 1920s mark the true beginnings of both the modern corporation and Organizational Communication as we’ve known it in the past. By the 1920s, organizations were becoming a bit more humane and attuned to efficiency and even somewhat to worker needs. Alfred Sloan became known as the author of the modern corporation. As the head of General Motors he created the modern definition of executive leadership and corporate management with its emphasis on size, growth and employee loyalty. He—like most of his peers—was anti -union in his views and largely responsible for the prolonged GM Sit Down Strike of the 1930s in Flint, Michigan. That event fueled the formation and growth of the United Auto Workers union at GM as well as giving impetus to union organizing in other industries. (comment on slide items)
- In the 1920s, companies began to be concerned about how they were being perceived in the marketplace and in the court of public opinion. The birth of organizational communication truly took place in this decade. Here is the person who is generally regarded as the founder of organizational communication. Edward Bernays as a member of the U.S. propaganda campaign committee in World War I was enamored with the idea that an elite class could and should manipulate the opinions of ‘the masses.’ . Here’s a sample of his thinking: “In theory, every citizen makes up his mind on public questions and matters of private conduct. In practice, if all men had to study for themselves the abstruse economic, political, and ethical data involved in every question, they would find it impossible to come to a conclusion about anything.” In other words, we’ll tell you what it all means and what to think. Just trust us.
- While the 1920s were the decade that foreshadowed modern organizational communication techniques, the 1930s undid much of that work as companies fought to survive after the stock market crash. For most of the 1930s, Organizational Communication was preoccupied with defending the capitalistic system and deploring the rise of communism as an alternative . Think “The Grapes of Wrath” and the feeling that greedy capitalists had brought us to this point of economic collapse and class conflict. (Comment on slide)
- And then something amazing happened. The war was over, and U.S. companies settled into a period some call The Golden Age. With Europe and Asia devastated by the war and with their industrial machine largely destroyed, U.S. companies entered an era of practically no global competition It was the beginning of an era of unprecedented entitlement and good times. Companies became benevolent societies with sponsorship of athletic teams, orchestras, full employment and good feeling that led to conformity and unquestioned employee loyalty. General Electric was known as Generous Electric and Kodak as the Great Yellow Father in celebration of their generosity. At the same time, communication pros celebrated the corporate family and aimed their work at social events and employee hobbies in an era the late Larry Ragan called Live Babies and Dead Fish communication.
- The primary internal communication vehicle for this period was the good old employee newsletter. In this era of good feeling, there was little leadership tolerance for anything but good news. Some of us were frustrated by the lack of honest communication, but as one of my cynical first bosses at General Electric in 1960 put it, “What the hell’s the truth got to do with it?” Any bad news was suppressed or covered up, and organizational communicators worried that they were merely in the phrase of the time—hired guns. This interestingly was the group motivated to organize the Industrial Communication Council in 1964 as a means to talk about who we were and what our role really ought to y debated and contentious. (Comment on items)
- In 1955 “The Organization Man” was published with the claim that we had become a nation of men who had devoted their lives and aspirations to The Organization in whatever form it took. Most people agreed and believed that it was not a bad thing. But in the following year, Sloan Wilson wrote “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” offering the first signs of discontent and the sense that maybe we were selling out after all. Think Don Draper and Mad Men and its angst. Meanwhile a G.E. executive with the perfect Doonesbury name of Lemuel Boulware hypothesized an Adam Smith world in which union members were the bad guys who simply didn’t understand the economic system. His message was that labor was greedy and that they wanted too big a share of the pie. So most communication was a frank effort to undercut and discredit union power Boulware might have been the first author of the Tea Party message.
- So what did that world feel like for those of us who were there? This photo is a pretty good representation of that era. (Comment on slide…) THIS NEXT SLIDE COULD HAVE BEEN THE COMMUNICATOR’S THEME SONG IN AN ERA OF RIGID MESSAGE APPROVAL…
- This song of that era could have been the communicator’s theme song. (Play video)
- And then came what I would call the beginning of the truly modern era of organizational communication. The mid-1960s were a transitional period from the old ways to a new view of our role fueled by reflection and self-doubts about what we had become. (comment on slide items)
- Beginning roughly about 1975, the chickens came home to roost as Europe, Asia and the rest of the world fully recovered from the carnage of WWII. It was the onset of unprecedented change among our employers and in our work and the beginnings of revolutionary change. There were essentially three phases in that revolution… (Comment on slide items)
- By 1970 the Vietnam War was radically changing American society. A profession made up of fairly young practitioners began challenging the traditionalists, who had cut their communication teeth in the Golden Age. The latter group tended to defend the status quo with the view of supporting authority, loyalty and discipline. And the debate often made it into the old Industrial Communication Council discussions with deep passion on both sides. Communication pros began reflecting some of the public media and became bolder in truth telling—even challenging the conservative tendencies of their own management. In that era I personally wrote a book entitled “In Search of a Corporate Soul.” PS I’m still searching.
- The revolution that we’re still experiencing began in earnest in the late 1970s (Read slide items and comment)
- For communication pros, the 80s were an era of reaction and re-invention. No longer was it automatic that leaders presumed that a communication staff was required in-house and began demanding evidence that we were making a difference. The result was a new emphasis on measurement and demonstrated return on investment from all staff functions. The SOS strategy of merely sending out stuff was no longer enough. And it was clear that we had better become business people instead of a group of talented crafts people, who were somehow above the fray.
- In the 90s, the revolution truly took hold. Massive downsizings became common to bolster the bottomline. At the same time workplace technology began paying off and showing great promise for productivity and innovation. The other sour note besides downsizng was the dot.com frenzy and subsequent collapse of overly optimistic and under-capitalized ventures with the loss of overnight fortunes. This was the period when communication pros began to experiment with intranets and other new media. Print was often replaced by cheaper and faster digital media. And communicators had to become quick studies and constant learners to keep up-- with the unanticipated consequence of our audiences drowning in information they couldn’t process. At the same time, the global economy became a competitive, dog- eat- dog force that rose up and badly wounded or killed a number of formerly prosperous companies like GM, Kodak, Sears, Lucent Technologies, Woolworths and a host of others. It also forced U.S. companies to become more efficient, more quality conscious and leaner. And we struggled to explain the changes and the losses.
- For our companies as well as those dependent on them, there were numerous unintended consequences. One of the most important was the dawning of communication and information openness thanks to technology. Companies became more transparent, and the public was now getting a clear view of how the sausage is made… a fact not exactly welcomed by executives interested in holding information close to the vest. Other changes began to have a profound effect on the workforce… (Read items and comment)
- And the workforce changed almost beyond recognition in dress, attitude, diversity and skills. Manufacturing began to decline in the U.S., and the Information Age required knowledge workers more so than strong backs. Blue collar jobs declined, and unions were looked on as unprofessional by a new class of educated workers. (Read and comment on slide items…)
- At the same time, technology enters a period of unprecedented innovation. Gen Y and their younger brothers and sisters become so adept that they advise their ‘elders’ and become so connected that they experience anxiety when out of touch. The question for communication pros becomes how to accommodate all of this and exploit it in an era of information overload and time starvation. The irony is that we can do so much more at a time when our audiences have so many more distractions and options. All of that is complicated by the reality of four generations at work. This slide shows some of the dilemmas. (Read and comment…)
- The question is: where has this rich history led us? In short, what are the ‘from-to’ items that have shaped our present fate? The journey obviously continues and will do so for years to come. But here are my personal observations and experience over a long career… (Slide items)
- I leave you with a vision of the future from business guru Gary Hamel…I especially like his view of the opportunity facing all of us and what it will take to complete our mission successfully…. READ
- So let me finish with a blinding flash of the obvious…(READ slide items and comment) That’s our Back to the Future look…If there’s time, I’ll be happy to take any questions. If not, please save them for the panel discussion.