Organizations can range from a little as two people to millions as seen in the Department of Defense however, regardless of size there are key components any successful organization must have (The Economist, 2011). Marriage, for example, is a simple organization of two individuals that engage in many of the same behaviors that a major organization engages in such as communication and group decision making (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). Just as communication is key to the success of a large organization so too is communication’s role in marriage. Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2012) define communication as a social behavior of at least two people interacting and providing one another with information (p. 233). Furthermore, Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2012) go on to discuss the actual model of communication which includes conveying a message by means of a medium (“channel”) that must be encoded, decoded and received by another individual (p. 233). Within a marriage, the same process takes place. For instance, take the simple chore of washing dishes – a wife (or husband) may verbally or nonverbally convey to their significant other that they would like help washing the dishes. In order to do this, the wife must form her thoughts into a message to communicate to her husband. Typically this message, once formed, is likely to be conveyed through a face-to-face medium. Once the wife has transmitted her message the husband then receives and decodes the message (and hopefully agrees to help do the dishes!). This process can go back and forth and can be very clear or can result in a disagreement due to lack of clarity.
Penley, Alexander, Jernigan and Henwood (1991) uncovered that managers of corporations with effective communication skills outperform others and this is also the case for effective communicators within a marriage. In order for managers to be effective and efficient communicators they must be able to provide clear objectives and accurate feedback (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). In order for a married couple to communicate efficiently they too must be clear and accurate in their requests, concerns, desires etc. Now this does not always occur within organizations nor does it always occur within a marriage and when it does not follow this communication model, problems may arise whether it be the wrong person getting laid off or a big argument over who left the toilet seat up.
Krone, Jablin and Putnam (1987) described that within the psychological perspective a major influencing factor of how something is received or communicated is an individual’s “conceptual filter” (p. 234). A conceptual filter incorporates an individual’s cognitions, attitudes and perceptions (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). Therefore, it is essential to take into consideration in an organization when communicating with another individual as they will have a different conceptual filter. This is the same in a marriage, just because two people fall in love and have many of the same attitudes and opinions does not mean that their conceptual filter is the same. In order to be an effective communicator in both an organization and a marriage, one must consider how their message may be influenced by another’s conceptual filter.
Modern organizations have begun to place more emphasis on teams in order to divide up and assign specific tasks to specialized individuals (Pennsylvania State University, 2014). A team, or group, can be defined as “two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person” (Pennsylvania State University, 2014; Shaw, 1981). A marriage then, can also be seen as a team of two individuals who influence and are influenced by one another. Additionally, teams are divided up based on specialization and within a marriage this can be seen by having the husband and wife both take on different roles. Perhaps the husband takes on the “team role” of investing in the stock market and mowing the lawn while the wife assumes the role of providing a nice dinner and paying the bills. Whatever the roles may be, it often takes a team effort to achieve and maintain a functioning household.
References
House, R.J., Shuler, R.S., & Levaroni, E. (1983). Role conflict and ambiguity scales: Reality or artifact? Journal of Applied Psychology, 68. 334-337. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.68.2.334
Jamal, M. (1984). Job stress and job performance controversy: An empirical assessment. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 33(1). 1-21. doi:10.1016/0030-5073(84)90009-6.
Krone, K., Jablin, F., Putnam, L. (1987). Handbook of organizational communication: An interdisciplinary perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Penley, L., Alexander, E., Jernigan, I., & Henwood, C. (1991). Communication abilities of managers: The relationship to performance. Journal of Management, 17(1), 57-76. doi: 10.1177/014920639101700105.
Pennsylvania State University. (2014). Organizational Life and Teams. [Online Lecture]. Retrieved from http://cms.psu.edu.
Rizzo, J.R., House, R.J., & Lirtzman, S.I. (1970). Role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15. 150-163. doi: 10.2307/2391486.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Semin, G. (2007). Grounding communication. In A.W. Kruglanski & E.T. Higgins (Eds). Social Psychology Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Shaw, M. (1981). Group Dynamics: The Psychology of Small Group Dynamics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
The Economist. (2011). Who are the world’s biggest employers? Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/09/employment?fsrc=scn/tw/te/dc/defending.
Tags: Applied social psychology, communication, groups, intergroup relations, organizations, team roles
I like how you compared marriage to an organization of two people. The compromises that the two make in order to better run their household is similar to that of businesses compromise to run their business more effectively. I like the way you described the communication between a husband and wife and how if it’s not communicated effectively disagreements can erupt. I think this is very true especially when either party wants the other to “read between the lines.”
It is very true that effective communication leads to better and more efficient run companies as well as marriages. Oftentimes, lack of communication or lack of clarity leads to disagreements and worse case scenario, divorce. The problems that arise all stem from miscommunication.
Sadaka,
I loved how you extended the concept of an organization to a family. You’re so right. A family can be considered a group according to our lesson as they are interacting and influencing each other (Shaw, 1981). Furthermore, a family can have group roles where (in a traditional home) the father may be the provider and the mother the homemaker while the children have roles of doing chores, school work, etc. Group roles in a family are often clearly outlined and in order for a family to function smoothly and successfully, the group (family) must work together (Pennsylvania State University, 2014). Families also are vulnerable to conflict. Children may find conflict within task roles in settings such as chores (Pennsylvania State University, 2014). Parents typically adopt the responsibility of relationship roles in order to maintain harmony in the household (Pennsylvania State University, 2014). Parents may also be the cause of role conflict, when one parent tells a child to do one thing and the other parent tells the child the opposite. This essentially comes down to a lack of effective communication which is crucial in maintaining a happy household.
It is interesting that you mention the halo effect. I believe this negative aspect can be seen primarily in organizations in which individuals are unfamiliar to one another. Furthermore, you discuss taking behaviors and explaining them in regard to personal characteristics which is exactly what the fundamental attribution error is (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). These negative aspects within an organization cannot be seen in organizations such as a family or marriage because the individuals that make up those groups are familiar to one another. Familiarity in turn may reduce potential fundamental attribution errors. For example, if my husband came home late I would not automatically think that he is selfish, rude, careless, etc. Rather, I would automatically think that an external situation is what caused his tardiness. In a large corporation however, this is almost impossible as not many coworkers know enough about one another to assume such things.
References
Pennsylvania State University. (2014). Intergroup Relations. [Online Lecture]. Retrieved from http://cms.psu.edu.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Shaw, M. (1981). Group Dynamics: The Psychology of Small Group Dynamics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
You discussed effective communication and group decision making in the context of marriage and the workplace. You mention the need for effective communication to exist in order maintain function and promote clarity. Furthermore, you point to modern organizations placing emphasis on teams in order to divide up and assign specific tasks to specialized individuals. I wanted to extend the discussion by including the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction related to team building.
Effective team building occurs when people have a shared goal and benefit. The relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction can be linked to how people function internally (specifically feelings) and act on those feelings externally. Humans are evaluative beings. Over time humans begin to choose what they like or dislike. Drawing near to those things we like and distancing from those we do not like. Items include the type of food we like, sports team we may associate ourselves with, the type of people we socialize with, and organizations we belong to. In the workplace, this evaluative internal choice system can interpret job satisfaction and commitment. Schneider et al. (2012) define job satisfaction as an employees’ overall evaluation of their jobs; including feelings of positive affect toward their jobs or job situations. Organizational commitment, which is closely related to job satisfaction, represents employees’ feelings of attachment and loyalty toward an organization. Thus, a relationship is clearly defined; feelings play a large role in both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This is to say, that how a person “feels” about their job directly affects the level of commitment and satisfaction. Examples include feelings that his or her job is interesting, stimulating, rewarding, or on the other hand dull, a grind, or too demanding. It also speaks to how the individual contributes to “team building.” Another relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction is job comparison and adequate compensation for the work. This comes in the form of pay, working conditions and supervision of employees. If an employee believes based on their skill and experience compared to others at the same level is being compensated fairly, then he or she is satisfied and is more likely to be committed to the job. On the other hand, if he or she believes that compensation is skewed and unfair, dissatisfaction and commitment will arise. A commitment point worth mentioning is that of business relationships. Business relationships can bring forward feelings of belonging to a group that provides a level of comfort and familiarity (part of a team). If the employee left, then these feelings would be forfeited. In that case, there is greater satisfaction in staying rather than leaving causing the employee to be satisfied (committed). However, people may stay in a job where there are no substantive relationships due to financial reasons but suffer the cost of satisfaction and true commitment. Organizational commitment reflects employees’ feelings of loyalty toward the organization and their willingness to maintain membership. Employees may be committed because they have positive feelings toward the organization (affective), because they realize that the costs of leaving outweigh the benefits (continuance), or because they feel morally obligated to stay (normative) (Jex and Britt, 2008).
References:
Jex M. S., & Britt W, T. (2008), Organizational Psychology; A Scientist-Practitioner Approach. Second Edition.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.).
I really enjoyed reading your post and liked the usage of marriage as your main example. Simply, marriage is an organization; it’s a small organization. Two individuals come together for a common cause and ultimately, have to agree on the roles they contribute or develop and interact with each other and communicated and make decisions. To further extend your example, a family, in general can be considered an organization. I come from a two parent family, with six siblings; I am the youngest. Growing up we were given chores and duties. For example, my parents enforced a “dishes cycle.”; each of us had to do dishes on a given night and the cycle rotated. This, as well, is an example that pertains to an organization. We all came into agreement that this would be the best way to slit chores and sustain from chaos. I believe we can apply organization to many aspects in life, relationships like a friendship, sibling relationships, and of course, the workforce. As there’s positive aspects to organizations, I believe it’s important to understand potential negative aspects. For example, in the workforce, the halo effect may cause potential biases. The effect when a single characteristic is drawn from the first impression of an individual. For example, a list of traits can include tardiness, procrastination, forgetful, the person may be judged as being irresponsible, under-determined. To conclude, it’s important to recognize how an organization can effect and contribute to the well-being of individuals.
As I read your post, I enjoyed your example of a marriage being an organization. Often, groups and teams come to mind when talking about an organization. With that being said, a marriage also falls into both of those categories. Many marriages these days end in a divorce. The problem with some marriages is communication. As you spoke about conveying a message and receiving that message, I thought of another example. The example I thought of was one during my one softball season. My coach was very loud when he talked and difficult to understand if he got worked up. He had told a player to move to her right. When she received and decoded that message, she thought he had told her to move left. After she moved the way that she thought he told her to (left), she missed a ball that was hit to her. This caused an argument between the two of them. With that being said, without a clear and accurate request there can be problems that arise. You had stated about dividing up and assigning different tasks. This is a great idea because some people have better communication skills. I believe that if my coach would have allowed my assistant coach (who spoke clear and did not yell) to tell my teammate where to move, the problem may not have happened.
A good article I found was on sports teams organization.
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9469252/hidden-demographics-youth-sports-espn-magazine
References
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
Representing organization and team relations through a comparison of organizational to martial methods and structure was clever and creative. The use of spousal communication and reception styles really helped to illustrate the web of interaction that organizations and teams face; varying communication styles, accounting for conceptual filters (thoughts, attitudes, perceptions) (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2005, p. 234), and ensuring collaboration (“Organization + Intergroup Relations: For better or worse”, 2014, p. 1). The assessment was well written.
Another great context for using conceptual filters is when reading textbooks. For instance, a person’s conceptual filter tells them to pay attention to text that stands out (bolded/highlighted/underlined/italicized); our mind tells us to store that information specifically for later recall. In this way, students sometimes have a hard time recalling particular details form a chapter (dates, percentages, and the majority of names, etc.) because their conceptual filter triggered them to spend more time on the bolded items (vocabulary, main events, key people, etc.), and spending less concentration on rest of the information (dates and percentages not often bolded).
There is a reason why vocabulary words and important concepts and people are often bolded for our benefit. The authors of the textbooks embolden certain criteria in textbooks in an effort of reliance on the reader’s conceptual filter to pick out those pieces of information for remembrance (Bird, 2006, p. 1). Student’s even highlight and underline text they wish to remember for later. In this way, students are making a personal effort to rely on their conceptual filter, setting up a trigger for their conceptual filter to make studying at a later point more efficient.
Reference
Bird, P. (2006). Preface: Societal Implications of Nanotechnology. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from http://web2.clarkson.edu/projects/nanobird/1.2.php
Organization + Intergroup Relations: For better or worse. (2014, February 26). Retrieved February 27, 2014, from http://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2014/02/26/organization-intergroup-relations-for-better-or-worse/
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
I really enjoyed reading the example of marriage as an organization which deals with two people who interact with pivotal issues in communicating and decision making for the individual and the family. I often hear when people are talking about having issues in their marriage, communication is at the forefront. Too bad they don’t offer more intense classes on how integral communication is in friendships, love, marriage, and work! This is a life skill which really isn’t emphasized, in my opinion. As I get older, I realize how important communication is to functioning well in life. I am sure many of you have already heard and or know that communicating with a partner is a big part of having a successful partner or marriage. I have a perfect example of the lack of communication in a friend’s marriage and how the breakdown of communication eventually leads to divorce. My friends “Jon and Jane” had been dating for around two years and they already had a child together when they decided to get married. They had a quick ceremony in Las Vegas with close friends and we all thought they would live “happily ever after.”However, Jon thought that once they got married, Jane would fall into the traditional marriage of the wife cooking and cleaning for the family. Well, Jane was not like that. It started with his lack of lust for doing anything around the house. He never communicated how annoyed he was at her for not cleaning and she never communicated the lack of ambition he showed with helping her at all around the house. They then decided to try and buy this very old farmhouse and fix it up themselves which caused a rift which really couldn’t be repaired! He became passive-aggressive in that he would flip out on her and yell at her when he would drink and after one short year, they didn’t communicate at all and ended up divorcing. One of many things which was lacking in their marriage was the “face-to-face” interaction which might have solved at least some of their issues. Holding back until an individual can’t stand it is detrimental to themselves and each other. Ultimately, gigantic arguments actually began with silly insignificant things such as “Why don’t you cook and clean for me anymore?” or “Why can’t you find a job?” I definitely feel like to become a better communicator you need to start with small relationships such as marriage or friendship which will help you become a better communicator in larger arenas such as work!
A perfect model of communication begins when a message is put into words such as “Would you please put a load of your laundry in while I am at work?” (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). The channel that works the best in most marriages is the face-to-face communication when the sender knows that the message has been delivered. Encoding is important before the message is relayed so that the sender’s thinking can be put into words. The receiver, who in my case is my husband decodes the message and interprets it the way that he thinks I want it done. Miscommunication may occur and that’s why asking questions during communication is important and may lead to less confusion. I really do love my husband. We have been together for almost 20 years and I still feel like he has a “conceptual filter!” Does anyone else’s partner filter information that was communicated and feel like it’s insignificant so therefore they don’t remember it or pay attention ( Schneider et al., 2012)? Granted, I do tell him a lot of information because we have two children, we both work and have busy lives, but sometimes I feel like he filters what he wants to hear which is very little at times! I am pretty laid back, but there are definitely times when it bothers me that he doesn’t pay attention to what I say. If I was more sensitive, that could really become a factor in our marriage. We are a team in that we know the positions we are strongest at such as right now he works full time and I cook and do dishes, unfortunately. On weekends when I work though, he takes care of the children and vice versa. These tasks are understood and right now, we don’t have to communicate as much. This article gave me a new appreciation for my husband because we do communicate fairly well. This week has really brought back the attention as to how important communication is in everything from getting a job, maintaining a structured environment, and continually striving to make all my relationships exist in a positive manner.
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.A. (2005). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.