Abstract
The newest work from the prolific Montreal School (TMS) is a collection edited by Robichaud and Cooren that explores the relationship between discourse and organization. Contributors from a range of disciplines apply this hermeneutic perspective and other theories to interrogate one of the most basic concerns in organization studies and organizational communication: what is an organization? The editors explain that the 12 chapters ‘offer new metaphors and constructs to recast the reality of contemporary organizing and organization’ (p. xii). In addition, the collection pursues a secondary goal: to address the state of TMS, an interpretive approach to organization communication. Also called text-conversation theory, TMS exemplifies the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) perspective. The collection’s two goals combine well. A rich interpretive theory like TMS facilitates addressing the ontology of organization.
Although centred upon TMS, the text builds from and applies many different perspectives. For those unfamiliar with TMS, the contributions by Putnam and Chaput include clear primers of the perspective. Other chapters extend TMS and place it in conversation with additional theories. Labour’s reprinted contribution alone includes actor-network theory, structuralism, systems theory and more. Readers will also encounter Castoriadis’ philosophy of perception (Tsoukas), dialectics (Putnam and Taylor), deconstruction (Brummans), structuration theory (multiple authors), narrative theory (Pipette) and several more. The number and quality of connections between theories and different contributors struck me. Nicotera provides a productive example of this synergy, building from other chapters to develop a model of organizational conception and birth. Her compelling analysis describes how an organization comes into being, or becomes ‘it’. Co-ordinating these various linkages, the editors’ introduction and Taylor’s closing chapter chart the path ahead for TMS. Going beyond mere summary, Taylor responds to and critiques the contributions to the collection. He also proposes a relational perspective as a guiding understanding of communication, which offers another avenue for further research.
Taken together, the chapters create some insightful harmonies, as when similar concepts are explained and explored from contrasting perspectives. Some authors explicitly note points of contrast (e.g. whereas Putnam calls for incorporating dialectic theory to enrich TMS, Labour dismisses it as inadequate). The positive side of contrasting viewpoints is perhaps best illustrated by the juxtaposition of a chapter on narrative analysis and one exploring rational argument. Although narrative and debate are contrasting perspectives, Chaput’s chapter on argument and Piette’s narrative analysis fit side-by-side in this collection, illustrating the depth and flexibility of TMS. In short, the collection resembles a tug-of-war, with individual contributors advancing particular interests and arguments to pull TMS in different directions. Epitomizing the notion of triangulation, readers will see TMS from many perspectives. Undoubtedly, this diversity stands out as a strength of the collection.
Most contributions to Organization and Organizing are theoretical. Even the four explicitly empirical chapters focus on organizational ontology, which gives them a philosophical bent also. Building from constitutive understandings of organizations, several authors make organizations seem like minor miracles: somehow actors managed to re-create the organization today as they did yesterday! This is not to say that the text overstates the role of communication in creating organization; rather contributors describe, highlight and unpack the complexity of organizing. Latour, for example, examines the dynamic relationship between being under a script—when the organization guides actors—and being above the script, when organizational actors author the organization. As another example, the opening chapter by Czarniawska develops the concept of an ‘action net’, an alternative way to theorize a network. Action net emphasizes the role of communication (action) in creating actors, organizations and linkages. Reflecting a constructive view of communication, action net is a useful analytic framework that other contributors built upon in subsequent chapters. In various ways, the contributors invite us to pause and reflect on organizing and the myriad complexities through which organization occurs.
The theoretical depth and rich debates about TMS in this collection fill an important role. Readers encounter a state-of-the-art description from TMS about how to understand organization. The text is grist for a lively debate and analysis of TMS and the nature of organization; all interpretive organization scholars should read it. Although Organization and Organizing is beyond most undergraduate students, it would make an excellent capstone reading for a graduate seminar on organizations or communication theory, where it would foster an engaging clash of perspectives.
Although complexity and depth of analysis are generally strengths of Robichaud and Cooren’s text, there are associated limitations. First, with terms such as chaosmos and ‘entitiative beings’ in the chapter titles, this text is not for the theoretically faint of heart. Second, the collection of 12 heavily theoretical chapters (plus an introduction) lacks an author index. Given that there is so much going on here, a more comprehensive index would make the collection easier to use. Third, as with any edited collection, individuals make contributions of varying quality. On a few rare occasions, competing conceptualizations lacked clear exposition or were incomplete. For example, the concept of co-orientation from TMS has considerable overlap with similar concepts, namely Vásquez’s ‘space-time movement’ and McPhee and Iverson’s ‘activity coordination’. Because these alternative terms were not fully developed, readers who are unfamiliar with them may be left with unanswered questions about how they differ from co-orientation. Finally, despite the advantages of emphasizing TMS in unpacking organization as both process and product, there is also a downside to this cohesive and sustained application of one theory. The collection contains no truly alternative perspective on organizing and no direct critiques of TMS. For example, definitions of organization informed by critical theory, such as a site for or product of power struggles, were not developed. Whereas organization scholars will be able to supply their own competing voices, newer scholars may miss the true outsider’s perspective.
Despite these caveats, most contributions to Organization and Organizing are clear, readable and well argued, with clarifying examples and solid support. This text takes seriously the notion of fuzzy foundations, calling us to re-examine core concepts at the heart of organizational scholarship. Careful consideration and reflection upon basic ideas are reinvigorating. This collection facilitates this examination, which not only refreshes the mind but also has the potential to renew TMS in particular and organization studies in general. For TMS, the collection gives a detailed, multilayered picture of the state of the theory and makes many suggestions for advancing and further developing TMS. For organization studies, it advances a conversation about important core concepts. Robichaud and Cooren’s sustained focus upon foundational concepts in the study of organization recommends this collection to a range of scholars in the field, beyond those interested in interpretive analysis and discursive approaches. The conversation about the nature of organizing and what an organization is should continue, with other perspectives adding to the debate undertaken by Organization and Organizing.