Deconstructing organizational communication for (productive) dissensus

Abstract

The metanarrative of ‘crisis’ is now often present in communication constructing an organization’s identity and culture. Processes by which certain interpretations of circumstances predominate over others have been theorized by Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, enriching communication research. Here, I develop an argument for an approach based not on normative and interpretive discourses, but instead on those that are critical and dialogic, an approach urgently necessary in researching the increasingly complex communicative situations of workplaces. I outline a methodology, an ethnography of a communication site (an Australian organization), which could be piloted to solicit a sample of employees to express their own views towards quotidian organizational communication.

Keywords:

• economic crisis
• organization
• communication
• hegemony
• critical
• dialogic