ORG COMM, CHAPTER 5 TERMS: Constitutive Approach

What is the container metaphor?

• Communication occurs within the organization

• Constitutive - no such thing

• Organizations are produced through communication

• Organizations and communication produce each other

• **** Communication is the reason the organization is there.

What does CCO stand for?

Communicative Constitution of Organizations

What is Structuration Theory?

• Anthony Giddens

  • Famous sociologist

• Duality of Structures

  • Structures/Rules and Resources

  • Agency/Resist or oppose structure

What is Discourse Theory?

• Order and structure are socially constructed through interaction

  • Big D (Discourse): General and enduring systems of meaning and thought

  • Little D: Ways of Talking

What is Big D?

(Discourse): General and enduring systems of meaning and thought

What is Little D?

Ways of Talking

Montreal School

• James Taylor and Francois Cooren

• Co-orientation: the process through which people coordinate activities through interaction

• Text (Large D): Meaning and “Lasting Concepts”

  • Handbooks, memos, mission statements

• Conversation (Small D)

What is the first degree of separation?

The intent of the speaker is embedded in conversation. (Patrick, a worker at an urban nonprofit, suggests a new way to connect unhoused individuals with job opportunities.)

What is the second degree of separation?

The conversation is given a narrative representation. (Heather tells others about the ideas Patrick shared with her.)

What is the third degree of separation?

The text is transcribed into a more permanent form. (A written plan is developed based on Patrick’s ideas.)

What is the fourth degree of separation?

A specialized language is developed that is used in subsequent texts and conversations. (Specific terminology is created for components of Patrick’s plans so others in the city center can share in the planning.)

What is the fifth degree of separation?

The texts and conversations are transformed into material and physical frames. (Procedure manuals are created and kiosks are built in strategic locations.)

What is the sixth degree of separation?

The standardized form is disseminated to a broader public. (The new system is shared with nonprofits in other urban areas.)

What is CCO? (explain)

• CONSTITUTION OF ORGANIZATIONS

• CREATE, RE-CREATE, AND CHANGE ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH INTERACTION

• COMMUNICATIVE CONSTITUTION OF ORGANIZATIONS (CCO)

What are the four flows?

• A second influential CCO approach was developed by Robert McPhee and his colleagues!

Four Flows:

1. Membership Negotiation

2. Self-Structuring

3. Activity Coordination

4. Institutional Positioning

Membership Negotiaton

• Membership negotiation flow is the idea of crossing some boundaries

• Knowledge, legitimacy, and connection

• Process continually in flux - changing sense of connection increasing and decreasing

Self-structuring

• Processes that serve to design the organization

• Norms, Standards, Rules

• Legal Documents, Procedures, Repetitive Schedules

• Substitute for Ongoing Interaction - Everyone knows how things are supposed to proceed

• Don’t need to be spoken because they are codified

Activity Coordination

• Interaction that is necessary to get the job done

• Occurs when:

  • Essential aspect of task completion

  • Self-structuring flow doesn’t provide enough guidance

Institutional Positioning

• Organizations interacting with their environment

• Organizational Identity