Operativity and Typicality: Studies of Meaning and Communication Theory in Organizational Research

The present text discusses sense-theoretical foundations of recent organizational research and makes them visible by analyzing epistemological terms of current discourses in organizational science (cognition, institution, practice, culture, communication, semantics). In a further step, communication is discussed as an operative guiding concept for understanding organizational reproduction and networking and applied to various organizational phenomena (managementization, standardization, circulation of ideas, translation, design). This book thus sees itself both as a contribution to theory development in organizational research and as a contribution to the research field of ＂(world) society and organization.＂ Overall, the individual studies in this text discuss and explore the relevance of an epistemological, social and societal foundation of organization theory on the basis of an operational theory of meaning.

Dr. Thomas Drepper is a private lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of Lucerne.