Organizational Communication and Feminism

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Please see response attached. I hope this helps and take care.

Hi,

These are interesting questions, indeed. I am wondering if this is part of a research paper. If it is, you might need to do further research, but my response will provide you with important information and ideas for further research and for your final copy.

Let's take a closer look:

Q1. What do you believe are some current issues that can only be solved by employing a feminist approach to organizational communication? Support your answer.

This question is dealing with two issues. First, it is asking about current organizational issues. What are these issues, we need to ask? And secondly, how could the feminist approach to organizational communication solve these problems?

Organizational communication is the study of
1. how people communicate within an organizational context, or
2. the influence of, or interaction with organizational structures in communicating/organizing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_communication

This question is dealing with the feminst approach to organizational communication. Some argue, for example, that the feminist approach can indeed deal more effectively (than some other approaches) with many current issues in today's work place. For example,

1. Dealing with gender and power more effectively (e.g., egalitarian, sharing of power, etc.).

It is now common law and understanding within companies that the women have the same rights as of men and companies to this day employ women and men to work together successfully. However, there are still too many case of sexual harassment and discrimination cases.
Example: Power e.g.,
• how does the use of particular communicative practices within an organizational setting reinforce or alter the various interrelated power relationships within the setting?
• do taken-for-granted organizational practices work to fortify the dominant hegemonic narrative? Do individuals resist/confront these practices, through what actions/agencies, and to what effects?
• do status changes in an organization (e.g., promotions, demotions, restructuring, financial/social strata changes) change communicative behavior? Are there criteria employed by organizational members to differentiate between "legitimate" (i.e., endorsed by the formal organizational structure) and "illegitimate" (i.e., opposed by or unknown to the formal power structure)? Are there "pretenders" or "usurpers" who employ these communicative behaviors? When are they successful? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_communication

The Feminist approach might also deal more effectviely with the organizational issue of paying men more than women for doing the same job, mainly through promoting equality, a vertical structure, egalitarian communication style, etc. ...