Organizational scholars have lamented that modern organizations are havens for unhealthy psychological and social behaviors (e.g., workaholism, alcoholism, dysfunctional relationships), thereby creating organizational systems that “behave” or operate much like an addicted individual. Despite these systems being symbolically constituted, communication scholars have been noticeably absent from this dialogue. This study initiates the investigation of communication and organizational codependency by (1) exploring the literature which presents human organizations as both “open” and “closed” systems; (2) reviewing the literature which describes the symbolic construction of organizational systems; (3) identifying and describing those communicative behaviors and strategies that fuel codependent behavior in the organization; and (4) explaining how codependency functions to “close” the organizational system and predisposes it to operate dysfunctionally.
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