ABSTRACT
Human communication has a constitutive role in the workplace: It is in workplace communication that the organization comes into being. Through workplace communication, we construct a joint understanding of important work-related issues. Workplaces are situated in many kinds of organizations, from small start-up companies to global corporations, and from public, nonprofit, institutional organizations to small and medium-sized enterprises. Interpersonal communication is about producing and interpreting messages — and simultaneously about making sense of and managing social situations. Communication is a multidimensional process in which task-related, relational, and identity goals appear at the same time. The key relational function of interpersonal communication in the workplace is relationship forming and maintenance. Every workplace has its own kind of workplace culture. Workplace culture is constructed as “the set of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerges from the interactions of organizational members”. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
