This is the very first book, from a non-Western author, to present the thought of Organizational Strategic Communication (OSC) with a fresh conceptualization of the term as "a form of deliberate and nonmanipulative communication practice that is holistically designed to be exercised as a strategic means to inform, influence, persuade, and engage key stakeholders with aims to promote stakeholder dialogues towards the attainment of the consensual solution of the problems and the relational maintenance through the strategic leadership communication practice in the organizational context", a blend of theory, philosophy, and real-world applications... possibly a major contribution to the fields of Organizational communication and strategic communication, to Anthony Giddens' Structuration and the structurational rendering of the Communicative Constitution of Organizations (or "CCO" perspective) with a leadership communication emphasis; and to organizational culture as a whole.
In this book, Judhaphan Padunchewit provides a much-needed introduction and explication to, and evaluation of the interrelationships, if any, among communication, organization, organizational communication and strategic communication. There is also a critical discussion on Giddens' Structuration, along with other leading thinkers of communication, leadership, and organizational culture - Karl Weick, Jurgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Edgar Schein, McPhee&Zaug. Fairhurst and Connaughton, Joann Keyton - within the framework of Pragmatism. The influential CCO acts of organizing as the medium and outcome of leadership communication are posited as the gist to the OSCL-Organizational Strategic Communication Logics, another key concept proposed by the author.
While such communication practices within an organization can be seen as both enabling and constraining, according to Giddens; the author stresses that organizational culture, playing an important role of rending the contextualizing effects on human agents, communication practices, and the existing and reemergent structures, would gradually and eventually find itself being-in-becoming the ever emergent and reemergent form of deep structure affecting and is affected by the human agency of communication.
Most of all, for human agents to be capable of transforming themselves into becoming strategic communicators with communicative competence seen as strategic action is paramount to OSC. By comprehending these dynamics, organizations can better navigate the challenges of organizational strategic communication and work toward achieving its vision, missions, and organizational goals. The book also presents communication with the Post-Disciplinary flavor as argued by Waisbord, a former editor-in-chief (EIC) of the Journal of Communication, a flagship journal of the International Communication Association (ICA). Lastly, this book provides the 9 Collective Case Study Research Inquiries on OSC in Thailand as conducted and written by the Author and as a special tribute to readers.
PART I Unveiling the Core Conceptual Foundation
1. Prelude to the Postulation of Communication, Leadership, and Organization
2. The Bifurcated Domains of Organizational Communication Strategic Communication: The Voice of Pragmatism and Its Recontextualization
3. Organizational Strategic Communication at the Interplay of Structuration, Leadership, and Organizational Culture: The Inception and Imperative of the OSC Logics (OSCL)
PART II Upon Structure-Agency Integration, Leadership Communication, & Ethics
4. The Structure of Activity Coordination Flows: Upon InformationCommunication, Problematic Integration, and The Knowledge Richness
5. The Agency of Strategic Leadership Communication: The SocialInfluence of Leaders as Influencers of the Four Flows
6. Organizational Self-Structuring through Ethical LeadershipCommunication: The Leverage of The Agency of Reflexivity
PART III Upon the Untamed Nature of Organizational Culture toward Conflict, Paradox, and Change
7. Organizational Positioning with the Cultural Strategies for Promoting Change: The Issues of Changing Organizational Cultures
8. Unpacking Organizational Culture through Membership Negotiation: The Collective Knowledge in Handling Conflict
9. The Collective Case Study Research Inquiries on Organizational Strategic Communication in Thailand: The Epilogue