Using a Discourse Lens to Explore Tensions and Contradictions in Organizational Theory and Change: A Conversation with Linda Putnam

ABSTRACT

In this article, we review the contributions made to the fields of communication and organization studies by Professor Linda Putnam. In conversation with the authors, Professor Putnam discusses her intellectual roots and reflects on her contributions to understanding the role that discourse plays in theorizing, analysing, and managing tensions in contemporary organizational settings. The extent to which these contributions align with new developments in the field of Organization Development, notably dialogic OD, and inform our understanding of the increasingly important role of social media in relation to organization and organizing is also considered. The article concludes by proposing ‘dialectical sensibility’ as a means by which to address the challenges posed by the oppositional tensions, power and politics that are associated with change, and, more specifically, with the role of the change facilitator.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialectics
• dialogic OD
• social media
• dualities
• interdisciplinarity
• microemancipation
• paradox
• pluralism

Acknowledgements

Linda Putnam’s address, which forms the basis of this article, was sponsored by the Journal of Change Management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

David Grant is Pro Vice Chancellor at Griffith Business School, Brisbane, Australia. His research focuses on how language and other symbolic media influence the practice of leadership and organization-wide, group and individual level change. Much of this work has been funded by government (Australian Research Council) and other grants amounting to over AU$1.2 m. He has published in a range of peer-reviewed journals, including: Organization Studies, Academy of Management Review, Gender Work and Organisation, Organization, British Journal of Management, Human Relations and Journal of Management Studies. He has also co-edited several books including the Sage Handbook of Organizational Discourse (2004, with Cynthia Hardy, Cliff Oswick, and Linda Putnam) and Discourse and Organization (1998, with Cliff Oswick and Tom Keenoy). He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2008 and is a member of the National Training Laboratory. He served as Division Chair of the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management in 2015. Email: [email protected]

Julie Wolfram Cox is Professor of Management in the Department of Management at Monash Business School and served as Department Head from 2013 to 2016. She is also the current Division Chair of the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management. Julie’s research interests include: Interpretive and critical studies of organizational change; Organization development and resistance dynamics; Organization theory and research metatheory; Organizational aesthetics and identity politics; and Occupational identity and professionalization. She has published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Organization, British Journal of Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, and Journal of Organizational Change Management. She has served as an associate editor for Culture and Organization and for Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management and has also edited or co-edited special issues of Journal of Organizational Change Management and Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

Transcription of the interview was funded by the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management.