communicative rationality

Examples of communicative rationality in the following topics:

• Decision-Making Styles

  • The ability to make effective decisions that are rational, informed, and collaborative can greatly reduce opportunity costs while building a strong organizational focus.
  • Normative: In many ways, decision making (particularly in groups, such as within an organization) is about communicative rationality.
  • This is to say that decisions are derived based on the ability to communicate and share logic, using firms premises and conclusions to drive behavior.

• Rational Decision Making

  • Rational decision making is a multi-step process, from problem identification through solution, for making logically sound decisions.
  • Rational decision making is a multi-step process for making choices between alternatives.
  • The process of rational decision making favors logic, objectivity, and analysis over subjectivity and insight.
  • The word "rational" in this context does not mean sane or clear-headed as it does in the colloquial sense.
  • The idea of rational choice is easy to see in economic theory.

• Problems with the Rational Decision-Making Model

  • Critics of rational choice theory—or the rational model of decision-making—claim that this model makes unrealistic and over-simplified assumptions.
  • Their objections to the rational model include:
  • The more complex a decision, the greater the limits are to making completely rational choices.
  • The theory of bounded rationality holds that an individual's rationality is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make a decision.
  • Bounded rationality shares the view that decision-making is a fully rational process; however, it adds the condition that people act on the basis of limited information.

• The Nature of Persuasive Communications

  • Effective business communication often involves persuasion.
  • Persuasive communication reinforces, intensifies, and prioritizes existing beliefs.
  • Persuasive communicators also work to increase audience awareness and willingness to consider their position.
  • For example, an audience that is unmoved by appeals to emotion may be more willing to listen to rational arguments and facts.
  • Assess the value and appropriate uses of persuasive communication tactics in an organizational framework

• Managers as Leaders of Change

  • Leaders are in the unique role of not only designing change initiatives but also enacting and communicating them.
  • Leaders are in the unique role of not only designing change initiatives but enacting and communicating them to subordinates.
  • Conner (1998) identified six distinct leadership styles related to change: anti-change, rational, panacea, bolt-on, integrated, and continuous.
  • The rational leader - This leader focuses on how to constrain and control change with logical planning and clearly defined steps.
  • The panacea leader - The panacea leader believes that the way to respond to pressure for change is to communicate and motivate.

• Introduction to Red Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategy

  • The thesis behind the blue ocean strategic perspective is that competing in an established market is not a rational option for investment.
  • The idea behind the blue ocean strategic perspective is that competing in a red ocean (an already established market place, likely with companies with economies of scale), is not a rational option for investment.
  • It was observed that branding was omitted as a key success factor, as is utilizing successful communicative strategies.

• Non-Rational Decision Making

  • People frequently employ alternative, non-rational techniques in their decision making processes.
  • The rational model of decision making holds that people have complete information and can objectively evaluate alternatives to select the optimal choice.
  • They instead apply their rationality only after they greatly simplify the choices available.
  • Emotion is a factor that is typically left out of the rational model; however, it has been shown to have an influential role in the decision-making process.
  • Examine alternative perspectives on decision making, such as that of Herbert Simon and Gerd Gigerenzer, which outline non-rational decision-making factors

• Methods of Excercising Influence

  • Persuasion, as a subcategory of influence, is the ability to use communication to affect another's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, etc.
  • Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) - This is a reasonably new concept based upon the idea that communication in the appropriate direction (successful communication) will increase the likelihood of persuasion being affective.
  • Reason - Through appealing to logic and premise/conclusion clauses, the persuader can effectively prove their stance to be superior scientifically or rationally.
  • In influencing others, we must be extremely self-aware of what it is we are communicating and how we are expressing it.

• How Attitude Influences Behavior

  • Utilitarian: Utilitarian refers to an individual's attitude as derived from self or community interest.
  • Knowledge: Logic, or rationalizing, is another means by which people form attitudes.

• Downward Communication

  • While downward communication may sometimes invite a response, it is usually one-directional rather than reciprocal–the higher-level communicator does not invite or expect a response from the lower-level recipient.
  • Whether informative or persuasive, effective downward communication results in the recipients taking action or otherwise behaving in accord with the communicators' expectation.
  • Business communication experts John Anderson and Dale Level identified five benefits of effective downward communication:
  • Ensuring effective downward communication is not necessarily an easy task.
  • Managers need to effectively communicate information to their subordinates; they do this through downward communication.