9.6.

1 Assignment 01 INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND THE ORGANISATIONAL

ENVIRONMENT

Web 2.0 technologies, among other factors, have brought about a collaborative turn, resulting in
various changes in the organisational environment. Overton-de Klerk and Verwey (2013) refer to
these changes as “paradigmatic shifts” caused by disintermediation, blurring of communication
genres, media convergence and organisation as communication.

Considering the above statements:

a) provide a discussion on the contemporary organisational environment that is characterised by

volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) to serve as contextualisation

b) provide a discussion on the changes in the organisational environment brought about by

interactive communication technologies, by focusing your discussion on two areas:

▪ The changing landscape of organisational communication with reference to the following

paradigmatic shifts:

• From top-down to bottom-up communication

• From monologue to dialogue

• From consensus to dissent

▪ The ability of the organisation to adapt to changes in the organisational environment against the
principles of the contingency theory and organisational agility.

INTRODUCTION TO ASSIGNMENT 01

The organisational environment consists of “all conditions and forces that affect the organization’s
strategic options but are beyond the organization’s control” (Grunig, Grunig & Dozier 2002:206). The
contemporary organisational environment is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA)
(Bennett & Lemoine, 2014). An understanding of the composition of the organisational environment
is critical for dealing with environmental threats and for exploiting opportunities optimally. This
necessitates organisational agility, which implies that the organisation responds to environmental
demands immediately. It encapsulates flexibility, the ability to learn continuously and being able to
change (Ulrich & Yeung, 2019).

Changes such as those brought about by the introduction of interactive communication technologies
have resulted in the making of paradigmatic shifts in organisational communication that necessitate
the adoption of multi-voiced communication approaches. The increasingly pluralistic organisational
environment requires the understanding that organisational communication can no longer focus
only on planned and controlled communication, but that it should also progress towards a mode of
emergent and uncontrolled communication, accounting for the rejection of linearity. Such a
perspective would, arguably, call for bottom-up communication to be conducted at the micro-
organisational level, and for the adoption of a stakeholder-wide perspective towards the joint
creation of meaning and solutions, on both meso- and macro-organisational levels.

The contingency theory holds that “any organisation tends to adopt the structure that fits its level of
contingency, which implies that a change in contingency leads to a change in structure, so that
contingency determines structure” (Donaldson 2001:8).
GUIDELINES FOR COMPLETING ASSIGNMENT 01

1. Remember, before answering the question, you should provide background information to set the
scene and to provide a detailed explanation of all the terms used to show the reader what you mean
by each term.

2. Begin your discussion with an overview of the organisational environment, with specific reference
to the VUCA principle (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity).

3. Provide a discussion on interactive communication technologies and explain how it affected

organisational communication. In doing so, you have to refer to the paradigmatic shifts as outlined
by Overton-De Klerk and Verwey (2013).

4. Define and discuss the contingency theory and elaborate how the principles of this theory could
be applied to indicate how the organisation could adapt to changes in the organisational
environment. As part of this discussion, you have to refer to organisational agility.

5. Avoid plagiarism! Plagiarism will be severely penalised. Read the section on plagiarism in Tutorial
Letter 301/2023 for CMNHONE. Please remember to adhere to the Turnitin guidelines.

6. Please ensure that your assignment complies with the technical requirements stipulated in
Tutorial Letter 301/2023 for CMNHONE. The tutorial letter can be downloaded from myUnisa.