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Lookup NU author(s): Professor John Sillince
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‘Organisation ’ as a linguistic construct. “As the idea of an ultimate foundation for moral and political beliefs has become increasingly implausible, theorists have turned to ‘discourse ’ to provide a basis on which to defend the legitimacy of social and political practices. The turn to discourse, which includes but is not limited to communicative ethics, is in part a move from a substantive to a procedural conception of moral and political theory ” (Moon, 1995: 143). The paper introduces four linguistic (and socio-cognitive) processes: firstly the process of integration together (categorisation, integration), secondly the process of linguistic progression (cognitive differentiation, subdividing old categories into new subcategories), thirdly the process of recognition of voice (social differentiation, identifying each individual’s rhetorical position) and fourthly the process of metacommunication (distinguishing one context of communication from another). These four process variables are linguistic and are defined at the organisational level, because any conversation refers to events beyond the specific setting to the organisation. There are eight norms (stability, balance, variety, reconciliation, appropriate integration and progression, and attuning to organisational change and group formation) which apply to how these process variables relate to each other. The coherence of a communication (the unit of analysis is a conversation or a meeting) is the extent to which it complies with these norms. Coherence influences five effect variables (comprehensibility, controllability, identity, cognitive complexity, and group effectiveness).
Author(s): Sillince JAA
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: 17th Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies The Odyssey of Organizing
Year of Conference: 2001
