A rules‐based model for the analysis and evaluation of organizational communication

Abstract

This paper combines an interactionist perspective with a rules‐based approach for the purpose of analyzing and evaluating organizations. It is suggested that an organization is analogous to a culture and that it can be analyzed by identifying its collectively defined master contract. It may be critiqued by assessing the process by which that master contract is communicated among its members. The organization and its individual members can then be evaluated according to the competence with which members can coorient themselves to the master contract and can coordinate their activities within the constitutive and regulative rules established by the organization. A case study suggests this new approach to organizational communication will be a useful one for communication theory as well as for consultants.