When Failure Means “Late”: Cadence Selection,Communication,and Structurational Divergence in a Safety-Critical Software Firm

Abstract

In innovation-driven firms, internal communication about “failing fast” often clashes with the everyday practices that define what counts as failure. Cadence routines, KPI dashboards, and release meetings tend to equate failure with missing a ship date, quietly pushing safety and learning to the margins. Using structuration theory and structurational divergence as a lens, this article analyzes 98 interviews, meeting observations, and artifacts from a public-safety software company to show how these communication practices order risk, authority, and participation. The study extends organizational communication theory by specifying cadence selection and language convergence/meaning divergence as communicative mechanisms that link temporal routines and failure definitions to whose expertise travels when. Practically, it identifies designable communication interventions that help leaders keep learning and reliability decision-visible under deadline pressure.