Communication for the Long Term

Abstract

In this commentary, we propose that two communication practices, information allocation and collective reflexivity, are dynamic capabilities that help develop a firm’s long-term viability. The concept that an organization’s actions or inaction constrain or enhance its future options and outcomes and—ultimately—its long-term survival, is the organization’s viability. We discuss two facilitating conditions—presence awareness and organizational identification—and three organizational issues influencing the two communication practices that affect organizational viability—organizational members’ perceived environmental uncertainty, organizational members’ perceived scarcity of time, and feedback cycles between actions and outcomes that shape and are shaped by their temporal focus.