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Soviet Metapolicy: Information-Processing in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Erik P. HoffmannView all authors and affiliations
Volume 5, Issue 2
https://doi.org/10.1177/009539977300500204
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1. Almost none of the articles by Beliakov and Shvets identifies the positions of the authors. I am assuming that they hold (or at least held until recently) the same positions that they occupied in the late 1960s.
2. Beliakov and Shvets are perhaps discussing the unpublished Central Committee decree of January 25, 1954, "O ser'eznykh nedostatkakh v rabote partiinogo i gosudarstvennogo apparata."
3. 'Technical communication" refers to messages that are relevant to the performance of specific tasks already defined. Information of this kind provides an employee with material, physical, and technological assistance in carrying out responsibilities he clearly understands and accepts as legitimate. "Normative communication," on the other hand, refers to messages that help to delineate tasks, rules, and responsibilities-for example, the expectations of higher-ranking officials that help to define or clarify the roles of regional CPSU officials and to prescribe proper behavior in situations when they are forced to choose among seemingly conflicting professional, social, or personal obligations. Normative communication within an organization consists largely of information from one's superiors, peers, and subordinates that attempts to or does in fact influence one's social behavior on the job (Hoffman, 1970: 737 ff.).

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