Introduction: the aim and structure of the book

Abstract

The fundamental importance of communication for organized action has been acknowledged since the early days of management studies. In his seminal work, Fayol (1916 [1949]) stated that well-developed organ- izational communication systems are essential for command and control. The foundational role of communication for modern organizations is evident in the pragmatist philosopher Dewey’s assertion that communi- cation “is a means of establishing cooperation, domination and order” (Dewey 1925 [1958], p. 202). A “linguistic turn in organizational studies” (Alvesson and Kärreman 2000), which was preceded by the seminal work conducted in the early 1970s by Silverman (1970) and Clegg (1975 [2013]), but which only became mainstream in the 1990s, claimed that discourse is substrative for organizations. According to this more radical view language is a shaping force that produces knowledge, understand- ing, norms and behaviour, thus making it constitutive of, rather than merely instrumental to, organization.