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Fredric M. Jablin and Linda L. Putnam (Eds.), THE NEW HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION: ADVANCES IN THEORY, RESEARCH, AND METHODS. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001; pp. 911, $99.95 hardcover, ISBN: 0803955030.
The New Handbook of Organizational Communication updates and expands on the "old" Handbook published in 1987. The 21st century version turns greater attention to the impact of new communication technologies and globalization on organizations, as well as methodological concerns in researching organizational communication. In this ambitious volume, the editors gathered many of the top scholars to write about the top issues in the field. The resulting 20 chapters provide useful, if predictable, literature reviews on topics ranging from communication competence to wired meetings.
The book is divided into four parts: Theoretical and Methodological Issues; Context: Internal and External Environments; Structure: Patterns of Organizational Interdependence; and Process: Communication Behavior in Organizations. In the first chapter, "Conceptual Foundations," Deetz provides an introduction to organizational communication and, drawing on a previous essay, offers an alternative to Burrell and Morgan's (1979) research matrix. Thus, Deetz sets the stage for "new" ways of considering organizational communication theory, methods, context, structure, and process.
The "new" perspectives the volume presents should prove useful bases for engaging and thought-provoking discussions in graduate seminars and similar academic settings. For example, in Part I, Conrad and Haynes ground their theory chapter, "Development of Key Constructs," in Kenneth Burke's work, approaching organizational communication research as rhetorical critics. The authors identify "action-structure" as the primary dialectic in organizational communication research and theory, which entails six key construct clusters.
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