- Title
- The four flows model and organising: a case study of the grounding programme at the University of Fort Hare
- Creator
- Dube, Nomzamo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9873-6566
- Subject
- Communication in organizations
- Subject
- Organizational behavior
- Date
- 2015-01
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24739
- Identifier
- vital:63538
- Description
- The research focuses on McPhee and Zaug (2000)’s four flows model prevalent in the Communicative Constitution of Organisation (CCO) school of thought to explicate its applicability in the organisation of the Grounding Programme, a compulsory trans-disciplinary first year programme at Fort Hare University. This thesis diverts emphasis from studying organisation as a noun to Karl Weick (1979)’s view of seeing organisation as a verb, shifting emphasis to the term organising, thus looking at organisation as an on-going process not as an entity. The theoretical basis of the research is Giddens’ structuration theory which attempts to offer a conceptual stability to the friction of employees’ compelling needs for freedom and the organisational rules and policies. The structuration theory is foundational to the CCO perspective which gave birth to the four flows model, therefore perfectly ideal for the purpose of the study. Research methods used in this study are open ended interviews, participant observation and document examination. These complement each other and impeccable for this study. Upon intersecting the four flows model and the Grounding Programme, it came to light that the model was formed out of a series of models and theories, the weaknesses of each model or theory perpetuates to the next hence causing series of problems. Unsolved issues of the structuration theory perpetuates to the CCO which in the long-run extend to the four flows model. Findings also show that the inadequacies of one communicative flow of the four flows model affect the other flows hence it is sometimes difficult to track how the actual problem began. Again, not all flows are relevant for organisational purposes. In spite of McPhee and Zaug’s attempt to narrow the model into four distinct flows, the model still remains incomprehensive and has loopholes when linked to a particular organisation because organisations are different. However, McPhee and Zaug’s model ought to be credited for its successes too, which are outlined in the thesis.
- Description
- Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (91 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Communication
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Nomzamo Masters corrected version 1a.pdf | 660 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |