This book accounts for the transformation of organizations in a post-bureaucratic era by bringing a communicational lens to the ontological discussion on organization/disorganization, offering a conceptual and methodological toolbox for studying dis/organizationascommunication.


Increasingly, scholars acknowledge that communication isconstitutive oforganization; because meaning is always indeterminate, communication also (and simultaneously) generatesdisorganization.


The book synthesizes the major theoretical trends and empirical studies in communication that engage with dis/organization.　Drawing on dialectics, relational ontologies, critical theory, systems theory, and affect thinking, the first part of the book offers communicational explanations of　how　dis/organization　unfolds. The second part of the book grounds this theoretical reflection,　providing　empirical studies that mobilize diverse methodological and analytical frameworks　(e.g.,　ethnography,　situational, interactional　and genre analysis)　for studying the practices of dis/organization. Overall, the book　exposes　organizations　(and organizing processes) as　significantly messier, irrational (or a-rational),　and paradoxical than scholars of organization typically think. It also offers readers the conceptual and methodological tools to understand these complex processesascommunication.


This book will be essential reading for scholars in organizational communication or management and organization studies, together with senior undergraduate and graduate students studying organizational communication, organizational discourse, discourse analysis (including rhetoric, semiotics, pragmatism, narratology) and courses in management studies. It will also be richly rewarding for organizational consultants, managers and executives.