Exploring the Metaphor of Connectivity: Attributes, Dimensions and Duality

Abstract

The term 'connectivity' has wide usage as a technical term describing connections between electronic devices. Increasingly, however, the concept of connectivity is being used as a metaphor for intra-and inter-organizational interactions. This article explores some of the attributes that make the metaphor of connectivity applicable to social phenomena, namely latent potentiality, temporal intermittency, actor agency and unknowable pervasiveness. Furthermore, it identifies how 'connects' and 'disconnects' suggest an underlying theoretical duality, which is illustrated across multiple dimensions of connectivity, including: geo-physical, technical, interpersonal, group, organizational, networks, economic, cultural, political and philosophical. Implications for management and research are discussed.

Performing the Responsive and Committed Employee through the Sociomaterial Mangle of Connection

“…Secondly, we suggest a different perspective on connectivity than identifying various 'states' (Kolb, 2008), which conceives connectivity as pre-existing its production. In contrast, we offer a view of connectivity as an entanglement of different agencies that produces connection.…”

The Resilience Architecture Framework: Four organizational archetypes

“…These system characteristics can be structural system elements, such as actorsÕ connectivity (Kolb, 2008;Mason, 2005;Oliver 1997) and centrality (Friedkin, 1993;Ibarra, 1993;Sparrowe, Liden, Wayne, & Kraimer, 2001), or functional elements such as capacity of self-organization (Lichtenstein, 2000; Rycroft & Kash, 2004), learning and trust (Jarillo, 1993).…”

Merging, Masquerading and Morphing: Metaphors and the World Wide Web

“…Alternatively, new metaphors may be an outcome -as an organization changes so, too, may the metaphors that are used (Rodrigues 2006). Thus, recent changes in organizational practices may have led to a new metaphor -that of connectivityincreasingly being used in the context of organizations (Kolb 2008). Metaphors once in the background may become more prominent as metaphorical chains of figure-ground relationships evolve, that is, a metaphor, once explored as 'ground', can become the 'figure' for the next metaphor (Putnam et al 1996).…”