Communication-as-Constitutive Perspectives on Organization

Theoretical views that center the constitutive force of communication for organization and organizing have a long lineage across journals of the Academy of Management. Drawing from rhetoric, semiotics, linguistics, phenomenology, cybernetics, and pragmatism, among other traditions, this stream of research has established organizational communication as a key disciplinary approach within the Academy of Management, comparable to neighboring approaches such as organizational sociology, organizational psychology, and organizational economics. This collection puts together key articles published across journals of the Academy that have centered on communication as a main mode of explanation for managerial and organizational phenomena. This introductory essay locates three main clusters of articles corresponding to three stages of development in the literature that has come to be known as “communication as constitutive of organization” (CCO) scholarship: emerging, unpacking, and showcasing. By outlining this trajectory, the collection provides a platform for articulating these valuable contributions, offers a coherent framework to reflect on this body of work, and outlines an agenda for future research. The collection offers management scholars and practitioners both an overview of, and straightforward access to, scholarship published in Academy journals over the years that considers communication as the main constitutive element of organization.