Things like power, identity, gender, ideology (or world view), ethnicity, culture, and so forth are
the “round earth” complexities of the organizational landscape that call for a more
sophisticated understanding of communication. And these complexities need to be accounted
for if we are to have a good understanding of organizational communication.
So this all has to do with our approach to communication—either as a thing that happens
within organizations, or a social process that actually constitutes organizations (and
organizational realities)…and our corresponding approach to organizations—either as relatively
neutral containers that exist apart from communication, or as contested sites of power,
resources, and strategies that converge into recognizable forms we call organizations.
Now I certainly recognize the importance of the conventional approach to organizational
communication—communication within organizations based on an informational view of
communication…but I’m trying to push us to a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of
organizational communication—organizations as communication, based on a constitutive view
of communication.