Book reviews 41

included-Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary,

Poland, Rumania, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Together with four
Western countries introduced to the guide for the first time-Cyprus,
Liechtenstein, Malta and Turkey-this brings the total number of countries
covered in the publication to 31. This compares with 18 in the 3rd (1980)
edition and 17 in the 2nd (1977) edition. (The reviewer has been unable to
trace a copy of the 1st edition.)
Like its predecessors, the guide is divided into two parts. Part One lists source
publications while Part Two includes indexes to subjects and publishing houses
together with an alphabetical index to all publications for quick and easy
reference. The guide’s editors both have wide experience in the economics and
market research field, although mainly in the developing countries rather than
Europe.
An obvious weakness of the guide is the variable length of the abstracts
accompanying the source publications. ‘Main economic indicators’ and
‘International financial statistics’, for example, both well known already to
most users of the guide, are accompanied by lengthy summaries, whereas the
abstracts which describe the contents of lesser known works are frequently
limited to a single sentence. It would have been better if the one could have
been sacrificed for the other. Another weakness is the omission of English title
translations for some of the foreign publications. The Swedish sources are
particularly poor in this respect. With so many British librarians speaking so
few foreign languages, a title translation, however unofficial, would provide a
valuable working tool.
But perhaps the guide’s major shortcoming is the arrangement of its
sections. Although in appearance the guide has only two parts, there are,
nevertheless, 28 separate indexes spread throughout the work, each one
subdivided by country. This involves the user in a lot of jumping around. For
example, to identify statistical sources on the mineral industry in Finland, the
user has to consult three separate indexes! And if he wants the name and
address of the relevant publisher as well he has to consult a fourth! A somewhat
simpler format surely is that adopted by CBD Ltd in its successful Stutistics-
Europe, Statistics-America, etc. series. Here publications are arranged in a one
country sequence with all information relating to a particular item-title,
contents, type of publication, publisher’s name and address, etc.-brought
together in one place.
These weaknesses apart, the 4th edition is a valuable signposting service to
the literature and will find its way onto the shelves of many economics libraries;
however at 245 a copy, many libraries may be prevented from purchasing.
P. Irving
The Lanchester Library
Coventry Lanchester Polytechnic

Linda L. Putnam and Michael E. Pacanowsky (Editors).

Communication and organizations, an interpretive approach. Beverly Hills, California:
Sage Publications, 1983. ISBN 0 8039 2109 8. g24.50 (hardback) g11.95
(paperback).
This volume is a collection of essays from the First annual conference on
interpretive approaches to organizational communication, held at Alta, Utah
42 Book reviews

in 1981. As such it is seminal work and the editors state their desire for it to
‘serve as a springboard for what we hope will be more conferences and
discussions of interpretive theories of research’. It is, then, an exploration into
new avenues of organizational research rather than a definitive guide to
communication in organizations. The reader should treat it as such.
Recent years have seen a growing demand for new, innovative perspectives
in organizational research. This may require a paradigmatic shift rather than
merely a methodological one. Paradigms set out what we assume to be true
about the social world and affect the way that we do social science research.
The dominant paradigm in sociology and in organizational research has been
the functionalist one. Here, the social world is viewed as a collection of hard,
empirical facts which can be observed, counted and predictable causal relation-
ships established. Research in this paradigm tends to be positivist, objectivist
and quantitative. It is from within this paradigm that the greatest attempts
have been made to bring the methods of the natural sciences to the analysis of
human affairs. The interpretive approach offers a different version of social
reality. Interpretivists see society and its inherent facets and structures as no
more than extensions of individual consciousness. Their analysis is concerned
with understanding the subjective meaning of individual experience. Above all
the interpretive approach seeks to analyse social action within the frame of
reference of the participant as opposed to the observer. All theories constructed
within this paradigm are anti-positivist and reject the view that the world of
human affairs can be studied in the manner of the natural sciences.
There has been little substantial organizational research produced from this
approach. Indeed, the nature of its philosophy questions whether organizations
can exist in anything but a conceptual sense. Such considerations are
problematic for this type of approach and hold it to a charge of, at least,
naivety. Firstly, in holding that social environment is shaped by individual
consciousness it cannot accept that individual social reality may, itself, have
been framed by that environment. Secondly, conflict, domination, contradic-
tion, potentiality and change play no part in the interpretive sociology
theoretical framework. Their outlook is one of awe! Organizations exist,
somehow, but no one is quite sure how. They ignore the persuasive/coercive
element in basic economic organization as evidenced through the clear
existence of reward structures, rules and punishments. The concentration on
the micro levels of analysis will clearly hold back this approach in its ability to
develop more general theory.
The book provides a definition and explanation of the interpretive approach
as it applies to organizational communication. Karl E. Weick lays down a
research agenda for organizational and communication scholars. He
challenges them to reassess organizational behaviours such as leadership and
decision-making in terms of the communicative processes involved. An essay
by Linda Putnam maps out the interpretive approach and distinguishes it from
functionalist/positivist thinking. Two strands of the approach are introduced-
naturalistic and critical studies. The former aims to describe organizational
reality as it is rather than what it might become. Critical studies introduce an
element of evaluation and extend into the realm of social change. Overview
essays for these two strands, by Charles R. Bantz and Stanley Deetz/Astrid
Kersten, respectively, are included. Exemplar essays describing naturalistic
studies and critical studies are provided. In all the work emphasis is placed on
analysis through techniques of observation, account-gathering and listening. It
 Book reviews 43

is the very stuff of communication that is under study-talk, conversation,

exchange, interaction and language. These are analysed and developed into a
reality of behaviour and action within the organization. The work is all
participant-based and this is where it breaks out from the functionalist
tradition.
The book is well organized with clear and lucid editorial comment between
each piece. One criticism has to be the lack of an index. While it is not a
management text it should be considered by anyone with a concern for
understanding organizations whether they be manager, worker or student.
Designers of information systems should bear in mind the fresh insights that
this work provides into the purposes and roles of communications within
organizations. It deserves attention as a new approach to old problems both in
practical and research terms.
D. White
University of SheffieLd

K. R. Brown (Editor).
The challenge of information technologv: Proceedings of the 41st FID Congress held in
Hong Kong, 13-16 September 1982. North-Holland, 1983. 355 pp. ISBN
0 444 86646 9. Dfl. 120.00.
Conferences rarely succeed in dissipating the confusion surrounding the
numerous issues now associated with information technology. The papers
presented here, however, constitute a useful starting point for those wishing to
follow the trails being laid through the piecemeal applications of information
technology (IT) in a variety of different information environments. Most
contributions are aimed at interested generalists rather than specialists in IT.
The first working session, Session B, contained seven papers which set out to
examine various aspects of IT as currently perceived and practised. There is
nothing to startle in these papers. Given the tendency of IT commentators to
live in the future, while sparing few thoughts for the present, the latter
observation must be regarded as commendatory. ‘Today’s technology-
problems and costs’ (P. J. Judg e ) concentrates more upon problems than costs.
Inevitably so, perhaps, given the shifting state of IT costs, but there are signs
that the uncritical treatment of costs may well be concealing the beginning of
severe organizational problems in the near future. A short paper on ‘The scope
of the Japanese information industry in the 1980s’ (S. Akazawa) reminds us
what can be done in the field of communications and IT on the basis of an
aggressive national policy and the belief that ‘monotonous repetitious work
should be left to machines, while human beings should spend much more time
in creative work’. The other papers deal with specific themes-consumers and
databases, IT and developing countries, integrated online systems in a
university library and standardization. All have useful points to make without
fully convincing this reader that they deserved prime conference time
exposure.
Session C consisted of the presentation of six papers on ‘Technology and
tomorrow’, a favourite theme with IT commentators, and one in which
imaginations are often allowed to roam freely. These papers are not of this
type. They are sober assessments of what may happen in the very near future.
‘Tomorrow’s technology-what can be taken seriously’ (J. C. Gray) sets the