Third Tutorial: What is Organizational Communication?

Organizational Communication is interdisciplinary; it stands at the crossroad of behavioural psychology, is a sub-field of management studies and overlaps with some aspects of public relations.

Organizational Communication a sub-field of Management Studies—coincidence that I chose this class because I DID NOT KNOW THAT!

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There was a class activity where we traded M&Ms with the aim of gaining the most of one colour. The first thing I thought was, “competition…I must win this!” I started out with two orange M&Ms, one green, one red, one blue…not sure if I had a brown. I traded a red for a green then an orange for a brown. I had opened myself up to a few possibilities then realised that no one wanted browns and I quickly capitalised on it. It reached the point where someone had a brown and the colour I had to trade was wanted by the person I solicited but I convinced them to trade by explaining that I wanted the brown and the colour they got from me would be needed by someone out there (of course I didn't care whether or not anyone needed it or if they could be traded or not; I wanted the brown and that was my objective). Eventually I had all browns in my bag when McDaniel asked if we were finished. I proudly said “yes!” He asked what we thought it meant to be finished and my reply, “that I had completed the task.” And what was the task? To get “AS MANY  of the same colour M&Ms not just the number that came in our bags, this meant we had to work with other people. I found another girl with three browns and I helped her to trade out all of her other colours with the same skills I used to trade out mine but it didn't stop there. There were other browns hanging around which was of no use to the others but we had nothing in which to give for it…after much persuasion, we/I managed to get brown M&Ms for nothing. It felt like quite an achievement…so much so that I didn't feel the need to persuade her to empty all her browns in my bag (which I’m pretty sure I could have done).

Lesson: Charisma goes a far way for a leader and if you must lead, you must be versed in the art of manipulation; but to guard against being carried away, one must have an objective –to what end am I doing this? Personally, the end must follow the principle of utility – the greater good for the greater number of people.