Communicative Practices in Organizational Analysis
Summary
Communicative practices are increasingly recognised as constitutive processes through which organisations emerge, evolve and sustain their activities. Rather than viewing communication as a conduit for transmitting pre-defined messages, contemporary organisational analysis treats language, symbols and interactions as generative forces that shape decision making, authority relations and collective identity. Five overarching perspectives have proven influential: communication as transfer (the exchange of information), discourse (systems of meaning), conversation analysis (the sequential unfolding of talk), narrative (stories that organise experience) and the Communicative Constitution of Organizations (the enactment of organisation through communicative acts). Beyond verbal exchange, paralinguistic cues such as tone and pacing contribute to relational dynamics, while sociomaterial approaches highlight how artefacts and environments co-produce communicative events. Across global contexts—from high-tech firms to cross-sectoral networks—scholars have demonstrated how attention to communicative detail can enhance conflict resolution, innovation and change management. For example, analysing how workplace rituals and digital platforms frame staff interactions has informed strategies for hybrid working, while discourse studies of technology adoption have revealed power asymmetries in digital transformations. Together, these strands underscore that rigorous attention to communicative practice offers both theoretical insight and practical levers for shaping organisational life in an interconnected world.
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Communicative Practices in Organizational Analysis publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in communicative practices in organizational analysis across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Communicative Constitution of Organizations: The notion that organisations are enacted and sustained through communicative interactions rather than pre-existing structures.
Discursive repertoire: A set of recurrent ways of speaking that frame and shape organisational phenomena and power relations.
Paralinguistic dimension: Non-verbal elements of communication such as tone, pace and pauses that influence meaning in organisational interaction.
Vectorial perspective: An analytical lens viewing actors and texts as carriers of communicative content that shape relationships and outcomes.
References
- Communication in organizations: An overview and provocations. International Journal of Management Reviews (2024).
- The work of conflict mediation: Actors, vectors, and communicative relationality. Human Relations (2021).
- Digital transformation and power relations. Interpretative repertoires of digitalization in the Swedish steel industry. Scandinavian Journal of Management (2022).
- Navigating Tensions in the Organizational Change Process towards Hybrid Workspace. Journal of Change Management (2024).
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