Communication As

In Communication as...: Perspectives on Theory, editors Gregory J. Shepherd, Jeffrey St. John, and Ted Striphas bring together a collection of 27 essays that explores the wide range of theorizing about communication, cutting across all lines of traditional division in the field. The essays in this text are written by leading scholars in the field of communication theory, with each scholar employing a particular stance or perspective on what communication theory is and how it functions. In essays that are brief, argumentative, and forceful, the scholars propose their perspective as a primary or essential way of viewing communication with decided benefits over other views.

Featuring diverse chapters written by thirty principal scholars in the discipline, Communication Is...Perspectives on Theory is an innovative and evocative collection that examines what communication theory is and how it functions. Throughout the text, each scholar offers unique and insightful perspective, exposing readers to the myriad ways in which to analyze, understand, and think about communication. The book helps readers envision communication in alternative ways and better understand how various ideas and viewpoints within the discipline can work together to expand the overarching definition of communication. Nineteen different completions of "communication is" give voice to contemplative and exceptional constructions of what communication is and what it accomplishes. The chapters are organized around four broad methods of defining communication: locating, processing, appreciating, and actualizing. Holistically, the text invites readers to discuss, interrogate, and work through various ideas, interpretations, and definitions of communication. Designed to stimulate lively discussion, deep introspection, and critical thought, Communication Is... serves as an ideal textbook for senior and graduate-level courses in the discipline. It is also an excellent resource for communication scholars who are inspired to challenge, develop, or revisit their own definitions and understanding of communication.

Carey's seminal work joins central issues in the field and redefines them. It will force the reader to think in new and fruitful ways about such dichotomies as transmissions vs. ritual, administrative vs. critical, positivist vs. marxist, and cultural vs. power-orientated approaches to communications study. An historically inspired treatment of major figures and theories, required reading for the sophisticated scholar' - George Gerbner, University of Pennsylvania ...offers a mural of thought with a rich background, highlighted by such thoughts as communication being the 'maintenance of society in time'. - Cast/Communication Booknotes These essays encompass much more than a critique of an academic discipline. Carey's lively thought, lucid style, and profound scholarship propel the reader through a wide and varied intellectual landscape, particularly as these issues have affected Modern American thought. As entertaining as it is enlightening, Communication as Culture is certain to become a classic in its field.

What does it mean to argue that communication is organizing? Or ritual? Or failure? What is at stake in choosing one metaphor or stance over another? What is gained and what is lost - for the field, for the theories themselves, and especially for humans communicating in everyday contexts? In Communication as...: Perspectives on Theory, editors Gregory J. Shepherd, Jeffrey St. John, and Ted Striphas bring together a collection of 27 essays that explores the wide range of theorizing about communication, cutting across all lines of traditional division in the field. The essays in this text are written by leading scholars in the field of communication theory, with each scholar employing a particular stance or perspective on what communication theory is and how it functions. In essays that are brief, argumentative, and forceful, the scholars propose their perspective as a primary or essential way of viewing communication with decided benefits over other views. Key Features: Compares and contrasts different metaphorical views on the theory and practice of communication, challenging students to develop their own argument about communication theory Promotes an alternative way of examining communication problems - through the engaged interplay of a diversity of positions - encouraging readers to think through contemporary problems and questions in the field Compels readers to confront competing theoretical positions and their consequences head-on rather than outlining theories in ways that might separate them from their real-world consequences Communication as... is an excellent textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on communication theory in the fields of Communication, Journalism, Sociology, and Psychology.

One of the most important requirements of leadership is effective communication. The idea that some people are natural leaders and that others will never learn to show good leadership is now outdated. It has been replaced by the conviction that leadership and communication skills can be learnt. Providing a thorough introduction to skilled interpersonal communication, Communication in Organizations consists of three parts. Part I introduces basic communication skills, and makes a distinction between regulating skills, listening skills and sender skills. Part II considers a number of different dialogues: the interview used to gather information, the selection interview, the employment interview, the performance evaluation interview, the personal problems interview, handling complaints, breaking bad news, and the sales interview. Part III is dedicated to conversations in more complex group situations, discussing decision making, conflict management, negotiations and giving presentations. Practical examples and concrete conversations are used to give students and professionals straight-forward advice on key leadership skills, including motivating people, delegating tasks, leading meetings and overseeing projects. This book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology as well as those studying business, economics, and the hospitality industry.

This book addresses questions that have concerned rhetoricians, literary theorists, and philosophers since the time of the pre-Socratics and the Sophists: How do people come to believe and to act on the basis of communicative experiences? What is the nature of reason and rationality in these experiences? What is the role of values in human decision making and action? How can reason and values be assessed? In answering these questions, Professor Fisher proposes a reconceptualization of humankind as homo narrans, that all forms of human communication need to be seen as stories—symbolic interpretations of aspects of the world occurring in time and shaped by history, culture, and character; that individuated forms of discourse should be considered "good reasons"—values or value-laden warrants for believing or acting in certain ways; and that a narrative logic that all humans have natural capacities to employ ought to be conceived of as the logic by which human communication is assessed.

Communication as Social Theory: The Social Side of Knowledge Management develops a social theory at micro level, with communication as the essential social mechanism within the theory. From leadership expert Johannessen, this book examines how we can advance communication as social theory.

Communication as Organizing unites multiple reflections on the role of language under a single rubric: the organizing role of communication. Stemming from Jim Taylor's earlier work, The Emergent Organization: Communication as Its Site and Surface (LEA, 2000), the volume editors present a communicational answer to the question, "what is an organization?" through contributions from an international set of scholars and researchers. The chapter authors synthesize various lines of research on constituting organizations through communication, describing their explorations of the relation between language, human practice, and the constitution of organizational forms. Each chapter develops a dimension of the central theme, showing how such concepts as agency, identity, sensemaking, narrative and account may be put to work in discursive analysis to develop effective research into organizing processes. The contributions employ concrete examples to show how the theoretical concepts can be employed to develop effective research. This distinctive volume encourages readers to discover and develop a truly communicational means of addressing the question of organization, addressing how organization itself emerges in the course of communicational transactions. In presenting a single and entirely communicational perspective for exploring organizational phenomena, grounded in the discourse of communicational transactions and the establishment of relationships through language, it is required reading for scholars, researchers, and graduate students working in organizational communication, management, social psychology, pragmatics of language, and organizational studies.

Authors analyze and discuss significant theories, research, and practices in various areas of this field. The final section considers future directions. Seventeen essays on the history of the field, communication theory in business and cultural contexts, and future directions. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Maintains that communication is not merely the transmission of information; reminding the reader of the link between the words "communication" and "community". This title questions the American tradition of focusing only on mass communication's function as a means of social and political control.