Defining Communication Theories

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive Dissonance Theory argues that the experience of dissonance (or incompatible beliefs and
actions) is aversive and people are highly motivated to avoid it. In their efforts to avoid feelings of
dissonance, people will avoid hearing views that oppose their own, change their beliefs to match their
actions, and seek reassurance after making a difficult decision.

Communication Accommodation Theory

This theoretical perspective examines the underlying motivations and consequences of what happens
when two speakers shift their communication styles. Communication Accommodation theorists argue
that during communication, people will try to accommodate or adjust their style of speaking to others.
This is done in two ways: divergence and convergence. Groups with strong ethnic or racial pride often
use divergence to highlight group identity. Convergence occurs when there is a strong need for social
approval, frequently from powerless individuals.

Coordinated Management of Meaning

Theorists in Coordinated Management of Meaning believe that in conversation, people co-create
meaning by attaining some coherence and coordination. Coherence occurs when stories are told, and
coordination exists when stories are lived. CMM focuses on the relationship between an individual and
his or her society. Through a hierarchical structure, individuals come to organize the meaning of literally
hundreds of messages received throughout a day.

Cultivation Analysis
This theory argues that television (and other media) plays an extremely important role in how people
view their world. According to Cultivation Analysis, in modern Culture most people get much of their
information in a mediated fashion rather than through direct experience. Thus, mediated sources can
shape people’s sense of reality. This is especially the case with regard to violence, according to the
theory. Cultivation Analysis posits that heavy television viewing cultivates a sense of the world that is
more violent and scarier than is actually warranted.

Cultural Approach to Organizations

The Cultural Approach contends that people are like animals who are suspended in webs that they
created. Theorists in this tradition argue that an organization’s culture is composed of shared symbols,
each of which has a unique meaning. Organizational stories, rituals, and rites of passage are examples of
what constitutes the culture of an organization.

Cultural Studies
Theorists in cultural studies maintain that the media represents ideologies of the dominant class in a
society. Because media are controlled by corporations, the information presented to the public is
necessarily influenced and framed with profit in mind. Cultural Studies theorists, therefore, are
concerned with media influenced and framed with profit in mind. Cultural Studies theorists, therefore,
are concerned with media influence and how power plays a role in the interpretation of culture.
Dramatism
This theoretical position compares life to a drama. As in dramatic action, life requires an actor, a scene,
an act, some means for the action to take place, and a purpose. A rhetorical critic can understand a
speaker’s motives by analyzing these elements. Further, Dramatism argues that purging guilt is the
ultimate motive, and rhetors can be successful when they provide their audiences with a means for
purging their guilt and a sense of identification with the rhetor.

Expectancy Violations Theory

Expectancy Violation Theory examines how nonverbal messages are structured. The theory advances
that when communicative norms are violated, the violation may be perceived either favorably or
unfavorably, depending on the perception that the receiver has of the violator. Violating another’s
expectations may be a strategy used over that of conforming to another’s expectations.

Face-Negotiation Theory
Face-Negotiation Theory is concerned with how people in individualistic and collectivistic cultures
negotiate face in conflict situations. The theory is based on face management, which describes how
people from different cultures manage conflict negotiation in order to maintain face. Self-face and
other-face concerns explain the conflict negotiation between people from various cultures.

Groupthink
The groupthink phenomenon occurs when highly cohesive groups fail to consider alternatives that may
effectively resolve group dilemmas. Groupthink theorists contend that group members frequently think
similarly and are reluctant to share unpopular or dissimilar ideas with others. When this occurs, groups
prematurely make decisions, some of which can have lasting consequences.

Muted Group Theory

Muted Group Theory maintains that language serves men better than women (and perhaps European
Americans better than African Americans or other groups). This is the case because the variety of
experiences of European American men are named clearly in language, whereas the experiences of
other groups (such as women) are not. Due to this problem with language, women appear less articulate
than men in public settings. As women have similar experiences, this situation should change.

The Narrative Paradigm

This theory argues that humans are storytelling animals. The Narrative Paradigm proposes a narrative
logic to replace the traditional logic of argument. Narrative logic, or the logic of good reasons, suggests
that people judge the credibility of speakers by whether their stories hang together clearly (coherence
and whether their stories ring true (fidelity). The Narrative Paradigm allows for a democratic judgment
of speakers because no one has to be trained in oratory and persuasion to make judgments based on
coherence and fidelity.

Organizational Information Theory

This Theory argues that the main activity of organizations is the process of making sense of equivocal
information. Organizational members accomplish this sense-making process through enactment,
selection, and retention of information. Organizations are successful to the extent that they are able to
reduce equivocality through these means.

Relational Dialectics Theory

Relational Dialectics suggests that relational life is always in process. People in relationships continually
feel the pull-push of conflicting desires. Basically, people wish to have both autonomy and connection,
openness and protective-ness, and novelty and predictability. As people communicate in relationships,
they attempt to reconcile these conflicting desires, but they never eliminate their needs for both of the
opposing pairs.

The Rhetoric
Rhetorical theory is based on the available means of persuasion. That is, a speaker who is interested in
persuading his or her audience should consider three rhetorical proofs: logical, emotional, and ethical.
Audiences are key to effective persuasion as well. Rhetorical syllogism, requiring audiences to supply
missing pieces of a speech, are also used in persuasion.

Social Exchange Theory

This theoretical position argues that the major force in interpersonal relationships is the satisfaction of
both people’s self-interest. Theorists in Social Exchange posit that self-interest is not necessarily a bad
thing and that it can actually enhance relationships. The Social Exchange approach views interpersonal
exchange posit that self-interest is not necessarily a bad thing and that it can actually enhance
relationships. The Social Exchange approach views interpersonal exchanges as analogous to economic
exchanges where people are satisfied when they receive a fair return on their expenditures.

Social Penetration Theory

This theory maintains that interpersonal relationships evolve in some gradual and predictable fashion.
Penetration theorists believe that self-disclosure is the primary way that superficial relationships
progress to intimate relationships. Although self-disclosure can lead to more intimate relationships, it
can also leave one or more persons vulnerable.

Spiral of Silence Theory

Theorists associated with Spiral of Silence Theory argue that due to their enormous power, the mass
media have a lasting effect on public opinion. The theory maintains that mass media work
simultaneously with Majority public opinion to silence minority beliefs on cultural issues. A fear of
isolation prompts those with minority views to examine the beliefs of others. Individuals who fear being
socially isolated are prone to conform to what they perceive to be a majority view.

Standpoint Theory
This theory posits that people are situated in specific social standpoints-they occupy different places in
the social hierarchy. Because of this, individuals view the social situation from particular vantage points.
By necessity, each vantage point provides only a partial understanding of the social whole. Yet, those
who occupy the lower rungs of the hierarchy tend to understand the social whole. Yet, those who
occupy the lower rungs of the hierarchy tend to understand the social situation more fully than those at
the top. Sometimes, Standpoint Theory is referred to as Feminist Standpoint Theory because of its
application to how women’s and men’s standpoint differ.

Structuration Theory
Theorists supporting the structurational perspective argue that groups and organizations create
structures, which can be interpreted as an organization’s rules and resources. These structures, in turn,
create social systems in an organization. Structuration theorists posit that groups and organizations
achieve a life of their own because of the way their members utilize their structures. Power structures
guide the decision making taking place in groups and organizations.

Symbolic Interaction Theory

This theory suggests that people are motivated to act based on the meanings they assign to people,
things, and events. Further, meaning is created in the language that people use both with others and in
private thought. Language allows people to develop a sense of self and to interact with others in
community.

Uncertainly Reduction Theory

Uncertainty Reduction Theory suggests that when strangers meet, their primary focus is on reducing
their levels of uncertainty in the situation. Their levels of uncertainty are located in both behavioral and
cognitive realms. That is, they may be unsure of how to behave (or how the other person will behave),
and they may also be unsure what they think of the other and what the other person thinks of them.
Further, people’s uncertainty is both individual level and relational level. People are highly motivated to
use communication to reduce their uncertainty according to this theory.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and Gratifications theorists explain why people choose and use certain media forms. The theory
emphasizes a limited effect position; that is, the media have a limithe effect on their audiences because
audiences are able to exercise control over their media. Uses and Gratifications Theory attempts to
answer the following: What do people do with the media?

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DRAMATISM OF KENNETH BURKE

2. Dramatism as Criticism <ul><li>Language as strategic resource </li></ul><ul><li>Life IS drama; both

speaker and listener are engaged in that drama </li></ul><ul><li>Persuasion involves audience
identification (overlap between speaker and audience SUBSTANCE) </li></ul><ul><li>Identification
achieved through STYLE and CONTENT </li></ul><ul><li>Identification can work both ways </li></ul>

3. The dramatistic pentad <ul><li>Dramatistic pentad is tool to analyze persuasion

</li></ul><ul><li>Persuasion is about speaker’s attempt to get the audience to believe his version of
reality. </li></ul><ul><li>Motivation (and worldview) is revealed through relative stress he/she gives to
each of five elements: act, scene, agent, agency (means), purpose. E.g.: stress on setting and
circumstance downplays free will. </li></ul><ul><li>Essential values revealed through
</li></ul><ul><li>Uses of “god-term” </li></ul><ul><li>Uses of “devil-term” </li></ul>

4. Elements of the Pentad <ul><li>Act (names what took place in thought or deed) (realism)
</li></ul><ul><li>Scene is background of the act or situation in which it occurred (determinism)
</li></ul><ul><li>Agent is the person or kind of person who performed the act (idealism)
</li></ul><ul><li>Agency is the means or instruments used to perform the act (pragmatism)
</li></ul><ul><li>Purpose (speaker’s) is the implied or stated goal of the act (mysticism) </li></ul>

5. Guilt-Redemption Cycle <ul><li>Ultimate purpose is purging of guilt (tension, anxiety, shame, noxious
feelings generally). </li></ul><ul><li>Negative feelings: from negativity in language, technology,
hierarchies, binary oppositions, pressure for perfection (rotten with perfection) </li></ul><ul><li>Guilt is
purged through self-blame or, more commonly, victimage , designating a common external enemy – this
helps identification. </li></ul><ul><li>Rhetoric: public search for perfect scapegoat </li></ul>

6. Critique <ul><li>Inconsistency in use of terms </li></ul><ul><li>Literary allusions

</li></ul><ul><li>Assumption that guilt is the primary human emotion is unsubstantiated; HOWEVER,
this focus gives Burke’s approach a critical edge, a way of resisting rhetoric </li></ul><ul><li>Religious
imagery is problematic </li></ul>

Cultural Approach to Organizational

Organizational culture is the sets of artifacts, values, and assumption that emerge from the interactions
of organizational members.

Culture in organization is a way people make sense of information. Verbal and nonverbal
communication within an organizational culture has three distinct things, artifacts, values, and
assumptions.

Artifacts, are things that you can see, they are made up of norms, standards, and customs. Norms are a
pattern of communication that shows what type of behavior is acceptable. Norms are the unconscious
rules of how to behave and communicate (bantz 1983). Whenever I see someone I am acquainted with I
always ask how they are doing, and they responded “good.” This is a cultural norm to say “good”
regardless of how the person is really doing.

Values shared by organizational members are important to organization culture. Values are a broad
tendency to prefer certain state of affairs over others (hfstede, 2001). Values are strategies, goals, or
qualities that are considered ideal to create guidelines for organizational behavior (Keyton). Even
though values are a key to understanding an organization culture, values are unseen and hard to detect
until they are shown in behavior.

For example, I worked at a place where there were 6 guys total. All of us worked full time, 5 of the guys
all shared the same values and belonged to the same religious organization. The manger held a lot of
similar values that his coworkers had, but there were also some that were clearly different. For example
the five coworkers all valued marriage and family. The manger however did not value marriage or
family. After trying to set him up on many dates, the manger final just said “look I don’t plan on getting
married! I tried it once and I did not like it and I don’t plan on doing it again.” Also, with my first baby I
asked to get 3 days off for when she was in the hospital and for the day after. He didn’t see the need for
me to have to take so much time off. I finally had to tell him that if I didn’t get the time I was done. He
then let me have the three days.

Assumptions are values taken for granted they are on such a subconscious level that members of the
organization no longer discuss Assumptions. These deeply held beliefs can be abstract and
hidden. Assumptions can be about relationships to other organizational members, clients, customers,
vendors, or the organization itself.

For an example, I own a small landscaping business. When I train some of the employees of how to do
things, I would say “Use your best judgment, and if you have any question give me a call.” Employees in
their first few weeks they would call me and tell me the problem. I would then ask “what do you think
you should do?” They would then tell me what they thought the solution was. Almost always I would say
“that sounds great to me.” At first one employee was confused at the way I trained because at his other
job his boss was micromanaging. They would tell him exactly what to do. Long after training that
employee whose past boss was micromanaging still did not understand how to do the job by himself. He
called me 5-10 times a day because the assumption was so deeply held. I had to vocally tell the
employee that I trusted in his ability to make judgment. It was not until I vocalized this that he started
doing the job on his own.

Culture in an organization is, how you would great someone, artifacts, people’s common values that
make up the whole organizations values, and assumption that people in the organizations culture may
look at as common sense. Artifacts, Values and Assumptions make up a culture in an organization.

Disadvantages of cultures in organization are that artifacts, values, and assumptions, are put in
employees regardless if they agree with inward and outward values. Company values are usually based
upon the founders or people who run the company. And a lot of the time artifacts, values, and
assumptions are made to bring money to the profit sharers. This can distort what the companies values
are compared to what employee’s values are. This can lead to more rules and bureaucracy. Incoming
people in organization are indoctrinated to what the organization culture is most of time with out even
knowing, because it is the social norm. In the long run, this can hurt companies because it can impair
creativity, in employees.

Although an organization culture may have weaknesses it does have strengthens as well. A solid
organizational culture could be one where the majority of the employees hold the same basic beliefs
and values as apply to the organization. Companies where the goals of management and employees line
up can influence team building and efficiency with communication, management and overall effective
productivity.

Groupthink is an occurrence where by a group comes to a unanimous decision about a

possible action despite the existence of fact that points to another correct course of
action. This term was first given by Irving Janis who was a social psychologist. His main
aim was to understand how a group of individuals came up with excellent decisions one
time and totally messed up ones at other times.

©[cartoonresource]/Adobe Stock
According to Irving, in a group sometimes there comes a situation when all the
members of the groupthink it is more important to come to a unanimous decision than
to carefully go through all their options to get at the most beneficial course of action.

Some famous examples of group – think are the Challenger space shuttle disaster and
the Bay of Pigs invasion. It has been reported that the engineers of the space shuttle
knew about some faulty parts months before takeoff, but in order to avoid negative
press, they went ahead with the launch anyway. In the second case, President Kennedy
made a decision and the people around him supported it despite having their own
doubts.
In groupthink, the members of the group place emphasis on everyone agreeing and feel
threatened if all do not agree on a course of action. This results on better options being
overlooked, people overcoming their basic thoughts of providing alternatives, critiques
or a new opinion. This results in poor decision making, unmet goals and problem
solving.

Groupthink occurs normally when there a strong sense of “we” in the group. In such a
case people want to be on good terms with their group no matter what the cost. They try
to maintain the harmony of the group and sacrifice individual critical thinking for
groupthink.

According to Janis Groupthink happens when there is a strong, persuasive group leader,
a high level of group cohesion and intense pressure from the outside to make a good
decision.

Janis listed eight symptoms of groupthink: The first two stem from
overconfidence in the group’s power. The next pair reflects the limited vision, members
use to view the problem and the last four are signs of strong compliance pressure from
within the group.
1. Illusions of invulnerability: Here the groups display excessive optimism and
take big risks. The members of the group feel they are perfect and that anything they
do will turn out to be successful.
2. Collective Rationalization: Here memebers of the group rationalize thoughts or
suggestions that challenge what the majority is thinking. They try giving reasons as
to why the others don’t agree and therby go ahead with their original decisions.
3. Belief in Inherent morality of the group: There is a belief that whatever the
group does it will be right as they all know the difference between right and wrong.
This cause them to overlook the consequences of what they decide.
4. Out – Group Stereotypes: The group believes that those who disagree are opposed
to the group on purpose. They sterotype them as being incapable of taking their
right decions and as being weak or evil.
5. Direct Pressure on Dissenters: The majority directly threaten the person who
questions the decisions by telling them that they can always leave the group if they
don’t want to agree with the majority. Pressure is applied to get them to agree.
6. Self – Censorship: People engage in self – censorship where they believe that if
they are the only odd one out then they must be the one who is wrong.
7. Illusions of unanimity: Silence from some is considered to beaceptance of the
majority’s decision.
8. Self – Appointed Mind Guards: They are members of the group who take it
upon themselves to discourage alternative ideas from being expressed in the group.
To avoid Groupthink, it is important to have a process in place for checking the
fundamental assumptions behind important decisions, for validating the decision-
making process, and for evaluating the risks involved. It is important to explore
objectives and alternatives, encourage challenging of ideas, have back –up plans, etc. If
needed gather data and ideas from outside sources and evaluvate them objectively.
If at any point group – think is detected, go back to the beginning and recheck the initial
alternatives, discuss in the group about the threats of group – think and then make an
active effort to increase the effectiveness of decision making by analysing all angles.

It is best to establish an open climate and assign the role of critical evaluator. Group
Techniques like brainstorming, nominal group technique, six thinking hats, the delphi
technique, etc can be used. Make it compulsory to go through certain practices like risk
analysis, impact analysis and use the ladder of inference. Use a policy-forming group
which reports to the larger group and use different policy groups for different tasks.

In rhetorical situations, there are two parties involved.

 The rhetor - The individual who is speaking and attempting to be persuasive.
 The audience - The person or persons to whom the rhetor is speaking.
Rhetoric uses language to appeal mainly to emotions, but also in some cases to shared
values or logic.
Now you can better understand what rhetoric is and how it is used by reviewing these
examples.
Examples of rhetoric include:
 Upon approaching a cashier at the grocery store she asks, "Will you help starving
children today by adding just $3 to your grocery bill?"
 An advertiser for insurance may use rhetoric to make it seem that the buyer would
receive less service or support for any intense damage to property in order to persuade
a consumer to buy a certain brand of insurance.
 When at a restaurant, the server suggests, "Can I add some of our delicious sweet
potato fries to your entree for a dollar more?"
 The purchase of Alaska was referred to as "Seward's Folly" by those in opposition to
the purchase. The use of the word "Folly" was intended to be negative and degrading in
order to persuade the public that the purchase was an ill-informed decision.
 Referring to the United States White House as the president's "playground" would be a
tactic of rhetoric used by a person in opposition to the president to persuade citizens
that the president is incapable or incompetent and uses his power inappropriately.
 Often the concept of patriotism is used as rhetoric, in that if one does not subscribe to a
certain belief or concept, he or she is referred to unpatriotic in an attempt to persuade
others not to follow the footsteps of the "unpatriotic."
 The change of wording of some labels in order to make concepts more palatable is a
form of rhetoric. For instance, the term "illegal immigrants" has been recently replaced
in widespread media with terms such as "undocumented workers" in order to reduce
the stigma placed on individuals with the label of "illegal" or to make future legislation
regarding the status of individuals more palatable to those in opposition.
 A distribution of a pamphlet by a religious organization advertising an upcoming
meeting which boasts that you can "secure your place in heaven" by joining the
organization is an example of persuasion using rhetoric.
 A medicine ad claims that more people choose its medicine than a competitor is using
rhetoric that is a logical fallacy in that the fact that more people purchased the medicine
does not speak to its effectiveness and worthiness of purchase.
 An advertisement for a food product for children that espouses that "Moms who love
their children, buy [name of product]" uses rhetoric by persuading parents that not
buying that brand of product may imply they do no not care as much for their children.