Organizational communication as a field of study focuses on the role of messages, media, meaning, and symbolic activity in constituting and shaping organizational processes. Researchers also study communication ties or connections between organizational members and the nature and patterns of information flow. More recently, scholars have centered on discourse, interactions, conversations, and texts as they constitute and alter organizational processes. These constructs, however, embody ways of thinking about the very nature of organizing and how communication permeates and shapes organizational processes and structures. They guide the field’s pursuit of several key problematics grounded in the nature of organizations, namely, the integration of internal and external communication in organizing, tensions between the individual and the organization, the interdependence of action and structure, and the role of multiple voices in the organizing process. Several principles also guide the research in organizational communication. The field is pluralistic in topics, methods, and underlying perspectives; that is, scholars have an allegiance to both social sciences and humanistic methods. The bibliography that follows exemplifies the history and development of this rapidly changing field by focusing on overviews, theories, key constructs, and selected research topics.
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