Communicative Action III: The Two Logics of Work Relations

Abstract

There are various forms of communication that have implications for labour and management and all of them have the potential to influence the outcome of communication. Concepts such as communicative rationality, ideal speech, and, most of all, communicative action also have major implications for the formulation of interests by management and workers. Management’s demand for instrumental action exists under conditions of instrumental rationality based on market demands. These demands are largely external to management’s realm of influence but can be successfully harvested for goals such as system integration. Any managerial communication inside the specifications of system integration results in limitations as it is constrained within means-ends confinements. It is for this reason that as long as management operates under severe system constraints, demands towards communicative action face acute challenges.