What I’m advocating, therefore, is a communicative approach to our understanding of
organizations. Organizational communication is all about taking a communication perspective
to the study of organizations—exploring organizations through the lens of communication.
Communication is not the thing to be explained; communication actually provides an
explanatory framework from which to understand the complexities of organizational life. 6
Of course our natural tendency is to relapse back to the conventional view, the container
metaphor‐‐communication within organizations—because it seems simple and intuitive from a
limited perspective. But I’m trying to push us towards a deeper understanding, a perspective
that better accounts for the complexities of organizing and human interaction.