In recent years organizational communication has become an everyday term in business education; and the discipline of organizational communication has established itself firmly in business curricula. Even so, the meaning of organizational communication is confusing. So is the status of the discipline the term represents. Clearing these two areas of confusion is the goal of this inquiry. THE MEANING OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONAs in all questions of definition, defining organizational communication is made difficult by those tenets of meaning known to all students of communication-that meaning is in the mind and that meanings in no two minds are identical. In addition to emphasizing the difficulty of the definition task, these tenets suggest a method for finding the definition of organizational communication.This method is to look into the minds of the leaders in the field to see how they define the term. More precisely, it is to look into the literature-namely the books-to find out how organizational communication authors define the subject. Variation in DefinitionInspection of the twenty-odd current books in the field reveals a confusing picture. These books take one of four general approaches, the approach taken being influenced by the author's background. Each approach suggests a different definition.One general approach is that typified by authors with speech communication backgrounds. Authors THE BULLETIN WELCOMES RESPONSES TO PROFESSOR LESIKAR'S ARTICLE. PLEASE KEEP THEM SHORT AND TO THE POINT (600-800 WORDS)! I taking this direction apparently view organizational communication as a mixture of interpersonal communication and the applied areas of speech communication-listening, interviewing, small group communication, public presentation, and such. Some of these authors include a smattering of traditional management and perhaps even some applied writing; but the emphasis is not there.A second approach is that taken by writers with traditional management backgrounds. These writers see organizational communication as an extension of management. They stress organization theory and the structure and role of communication in it.For marketing purposes, their books may include some applied communication (speaking, writing, and such); but the emphasis is on the management subject matter.A third approach is that taken by authors with business writing backgrounds. As revealed in their books, these authors see organizational communication primarily as functional communicationespecially written business communication. Typically they include some communication theory as a foundation for the study of writing; but the theory receives secondary treatment. The emphasis is on writing.This review would not be complete without a fourth category, if indeed it can be called a category. This is the approach taken by a single bookHaney's Communication and Interpersonal Relations : Text and Cases. The content of this book is applied general semantics. The book views organizational communication as the interpersonal communication ...

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