1996/08/01 by Dennis K. Mumby, Cynthia Stohl · 3 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Management and Organizational Studies #Public Relations and Crisis Communication #Communication in Education and Healthcare #Organizational communication #Organizational identity #Rationality #Field (mathematics) #Sociology #Organizational studies #Organization development #Epistemology #Organizational field #Organizational analysis #Organizational theory #Identity (music) #Object (grammar) #Frame (networking) #Public relations #Social psychology #Organizational commitment #Psychology #Political science #Social science #Knowledge management #Institutional logic #Management #Linguistics #Computer science #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1177/0893318996010001004
openalex publication_date 1996/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/03
The authors argue that, although ostensibly organizational communication as a field of study appears fragmented, one can make the case for its status as a discipline. This status is rooted in four central problematics that implicitly frame a sense of community and identity among organizational communication scholars. These are: (a) the problematic of voice, (b) the problematic of rationality, (c) the problematic of organization, and (d) the problematic of the organization-society relationship. Together, these problematics articulate a conception of organizational communication that defines it as both object of study and discipline in a way that is radically different from other fields that study organizational phenomena.