Organizations as Constructions and Destructions of Meaning

Abstract

Organizations are dynamic processes through which meaning is simultaneously constructed and destroyed. Organizations may be conceived of as continua along which meaning varies according to its degree of coincidence. On the one hand, organizations are stable because coincident concepts, relationships, and values are developed through socialization. These coincident meanings eventually become crystallized as informal and formal structures and are sustained if powerful organizational leaders can suppress the expression of competing interpretations. On the other hand, organizations are precarious because coincident meanings are also regularly destroyed through action-taking. Destruction of meaning has its origin in fundamental contradictions, which, if raised, create the potential for individual and organizational transformation.

Technological frames

“…Borrowing from the concept of "schema" in cognitive psychology (Bartlett, 1932;Neisser, 1976), an individual's frame of reference has been described as "a builtup repertoire of tacit knowledge that is used to impose structure upon, and impart meaning to, otherwise ambiguous social and situational information to facilitate understanding" (Gioia, 1986:56). Recent literature in organizational behavior has extended the idea of individual cognitive structures and extended it to groups and organizations (Calder and Schurr, 1981;Gray, Bougon and Donnellon, 1985). A variety of terms has been used to convey this idea of shared cognitive structures, including "cognitive maps" (Bougon, Weick, and Binkhorst, 1977;Eden, 1992), 2 "frames" (Goffman, 1974), "interpretive frames" (Bartunek and Moch, 1987), "interpretative schemes" (Giddens, 1984), "mental models" (Schutz, 1970;Argyris and Schon, 1978), "paradigms" (Kuhn, 1970;Sheldon, 1980), "scripts" (Abelson, 1981;Gioia, 1986), and "thought worlds" (Douglas, 1987;Dougherty, 1992).…”

"Re-thinking Strategic Leadership: On Stars, Clans, Teams and Networks"

“…Put simply, networks are also a mechanism by which shared meanings are created and sustained over time. Gray et al (1985) support this in their conceptualizing of organizations as dynamic processes through which meaning is simultaneously constructed and destroyed (Gray et al, 1985: 83). Through the course of regular organizational interaction members generate coincident expectations about patterns of reciprocal behavior (Gray et al, 1985: 88).…”

A Proposed Conceptual Model of Military Medical Readiness

“…Mohammed et al maintain "a map frequently used in organizational literature is a cause (means-end) map" (p. 132), which according to Eden, Jones, Sims, and Smithin (1981) represents the causal links between concepts in the following way: "concept A has consequences for or can be explained by concept B." According to Gray, Bougon, and Donnellon (1985), "causality is conceptually and instrumentally the most potent of all relations" (p. 85).…”