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Communication as Organizing

Empirical and Theoretical Explorations in the Dynamic of Text and Conversation

• Edited by Francois Cooren, James R. Taylor, Elizabeth J. Van Every

• Price: $32.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 256
• Published by: Psychology Press
• Publication Date: 23rd May 2006
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-5813-6

About the Book

Communication as Organizing unites multiple reflections on the role of language under a single rubric: the organizing role of communication. Stemming from Jim Taylor's earlier work, The Emergent Organization: Communication as Its Site and Surface (LEA, 2000), the volume editors present a communicational answer to the question, "what is an organization?" through contributions from an international set of scholars and researchers. The chapter authors synthesize various lines of research on constituting organizations through communication, describing their explorations of the relation between language, human practice, and the constitution of organizational forms. Each chapter develops a dimension of the central theme, showing how such concepts as agency, identity, sensemaking, narrative and account may be put to work in discursive analysis to develop effective research into organizing processes. The contributions employ concrete examples to show how the theoretical concepts can be employed to develop effective research.

This distinctive volume encourages readers to discover and develop a truly communicational means of addressing the question of organization, addressing how organization itself emerges in the course of communicational transactions. In presenting a single and entirely communicational perspective for exploring organizational phenomena, grounded in the discourse of communicational transactions and the establishment of relationships through language, it is required reading for scholars, researchers, and graduate students working in organizational communication, management, social psychology, pragmatics of language, and organizational studies.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. F. Cooren, J.R. Taylor, E.J. Van Every, Introduction. Part I: Integration, Differentiation, and Ambiguity. S. G�ney, Making Sense of a Conflict as the (Missing) Link Between Collaborating Actors. J.A. Saludadez, J.R. Taylor, The Structuring of Collaborative Research Networks in the Stories Researchers Tell. J.M. Katambwe, J.R. Taylor, Modes of Organizational Integration. Part II: Agency and Narrativity. F. Cooren, The Organizational World as a Plenum of Agencies. D. Robichaud, Steps Toward a Relational View of Agency. J.R. Taylor, F. Cooren, Making Worldview Sense: And Paying Homage, Retrospectively, to Algirdas Greimas. Part III: Coorientation. J.R. Taylor, Coorientation: A Conceptual Framework. C. Groleau, One Phenomenon, Two Lenses: Understanding Collective Action From the Perspectives of Coorientation and Activity Theories. Part IV: Some Implications. R.J. Varey, Accounts in Interactions: Implications of Accounting Practices for Managing. B.H.J.M. Brummans, The Montr‚al School and the Question of Agency.