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COMM401: Organizational Communication

Prerequisites: None
Undergraduate College Credit Courses
Enroll Anytime

Course at a Glance

Overview

You may examine any number of organizations for this course. You may draw from organizations that employ you, or other organizations may interest you more for analyzing and evaluating communication practices and theories for this course. You may apply theories to and solve problems from any of the following organizations: education, religious, business, sports, fraternal, military, student club, student government, and others. The choice is yours.

Where appropriate, issues based on experience will be presented to show you how organizational communication succeeds or fails in daily practice. The powers and limits of organizational life in general and organizational communication in particular will be stressed throughout the course.

One perspective for the course will be, with modest endorsement, total quality management (TQM) and its complement of continuous quality improvement (CQI); TQM and CQI will be balanced against employee involvement or member empowerment. Since excesses of TQM and CQI have been criticized, a tempered notion of them is supported in this course. With humane concerns considered, improvement becomes a worthwhile goal that gives direction and order to members of organizations. Without humane concerns considered, improvement can become fanatical and brutal. To be reasonable and ethical are requirements for implementing a humane rendition of TQM and CQI.

As a final note, your textbook covers numerous theories and perspectives pertaining to organizational structure, function, behavior, and communication. Many enlightened models are provided to give you a vision of alternative ways of functioning in organizations.

Objectives

• Introduces you to the examination of organizations and society.
• Increases your capacities to link organizational communication to human relations, public relations, mediated communication systems, and your environments.
• Provides you with grounds for assessing organizational communication concepts, principles, and theories.
• Provides you with grounds for evaluating ethical issues and practical problems facing organizations.

Required Textbooks & Materials

Miller, Katherine (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes (6th ed.). Boston: Wadswowrth. ISBN 0495898325. 

You may purchase the printed hard copy or the electronic version from Wadsworth.  The electronic version may be less expensive.

Lessons & Exams

You have up to 9 months from your enrollment date to complete:

• 4 Lessons
• 4 Proctored Exams

The four lessons are written assignments, which include compositions, case studies, and a storytelling analysis. The four exams contain multiple-choice questions over the syllabus and textbook material.

NOTE: Course information, including tuition, technology requirements, textbooks, lessons and exams, is subject to change without notice.