Activity, materiality, and creative struggle in the communicative constitution of organizing

Abstract

Communication design practice involves transforming given situations into preferred courses of action. This ubiquitous feature of organizational and professional life presents an opportunity for advancing theory about the constitutive role of communication in organizing (CCO). Extant CCO argues that collective courses of action happen through a process of social reasoning involving the mediation of speech acts but this account misses some important features of activity, materiality, and creative struggle evident in communication design practice. Examination of two cases of communication design practice reveal that activity — its materiality and the creative struggle over it — is central to the social reasoning involved in constructing preferred courses of action. The alternative identified here has implications for developing a design stance that integrates design theory and research on language and social interaction to advance understanding of communication design practice in the constitution of organizing.