Bookkeeping Quarter

Organizational Communication Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Leadership Quarter.

Concepts

1. Organizational communication. All the patterns, networks, and systems of communication within an organization.
   • Upward communication. Communication that flows upward from employees to managers.
   • Diagonal communication. Communication that cuts across work areas and organizational levels.
   • Downward communication. Communication that flows downward from managers to employees.
   • Lateral communication. Communication that takes place among any employees on the same organizational level.
   • Informal communication. Communication that is not defined by the organization's structural hierarchy.
   • Formal communication. Communication that takes place within prescribed organizational work arrangements.
2. Negotiation. A process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services and attempt to agree on the exchange rate for them.
   • Fixed pie. The belief that there is only a set amount of goods and services to be divided up between the parties.
   • Arbitrator. A third party to a negotiation who has the authority to dictate an agreement.
   • Distributive bargaining. Negotiation that seeks to divide up a fixed amount of resources; a win-lose situation.
   • BATNA. The best alternative to a negotiated agreement; the least the individual should accept.
   • Conciliator. A trusted third party who provides an informal communication link between the negotiator and the opponent.
   • Integrative bargaining. Negotiation that seeks one or more settlements that can create a win-win solution.
   • Mediator. A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by using reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for alternatives.
   • Zero-sum approach. An approach that treats the reward "pie" as fixed, such as that any gains by one individual are at the expense of another.

• Controlled processing. A detailed consideration of evidence and information relying on facts, figures, and logic.
• Automatic processing. A relatively superficial consideration of evidence and information making use of heuristics.
• Communication networks. The variety of patterns of vertical and horizontal flows of organizational communication.
• Grapevine. An organization's informal communication network.
• Grapevine. The informal organizational communication network.
• Jargon. Specialized terminology or technical language that members of a group use to communicate among themselves.

Practices

The successor lecture is Business Intelligence Quarter.