ABSTRACT

All cooperative human activity takes place within a matrix of communication. Where two or more people work together, communication serves to unify their behavior, and provides means for continuing cooperative activity. Communication that relates to coordination of activities can be complicated by the fact that the activities may be diverse in character. Direction and command are preeminently processes of the organization grounded in communication. The adjustment process first involves becoming familiar with the language and its significant symbols that are used in the organization. The grapevine, like social groups at work, is a natural phenomenon of organization. Orientation and indoctrination are essentially concerned with achieving relative adjustment of the new individual to the organization. All training programs of a formal or informal character, designed to prepare an individual better for a task, are based on communication. The most subtle form of learning about industrial behavior takes place through gestural communication.