Book Review: Management and Organizational Communications Under the Microscope: A Review Essay

Abstract

Thomas Klikauer, a professor of human resource management and industrial relations at the University of Western Sydney in Australia, has written a complex and demanding new book, Communication and Management at Work. The title in no way prepares the reader for the dark and provocative arguments within. Klikauer draws on the insights of George Orwell and Jurgen Habermas to illuminate the nature of the “communicative relationships” between labor and management. More specifically, he is concerned with the means by which communication legitimizes management’s decisions and renders invisible the harsh outlines of exploitive relations.