ABSTRACT
Organizational communication is addressed both to the components within the boundaries of the formal organization and to those parts of the outside environment with which the organization is to some extent interdependent. The technical artefacts — all of them, but especially those involved in circulating information — are seen on the one hand as crystallizations of meaning negotiated through a myriad of interactions, and on the other as elements adopted during ceremonies, events and rites that celebrate organizational rationality. For adherents of the system-centered conception of the organization, communication is an organizational function that can be delegated — especially in large organizations — to experts, offices, task forces or divisions. In a conception of the organization as a process of actions and decisions, communication is part and parcel of every other activity springing from social relationships: human work seeks to communicate, and communication is the product of work and organization.
