Transformative Organizational Communication Practices

Most efforts at transformational organizational change fail. In order to explain that failure and the potential for success, this chapter introduces the construct of organizational communication practices and develops a theory to explain how these processes constitute organizations as complex adaptive social systems. Five axioms anchor the theory, and the author derives theorems explaining the important features of attempting to change transformative organizational communication practices.

Transformative Organizational Communication Practices

Most efforts at transformational organizational change fail. In order to explain that failure and the potential for success, this chapter introduces the construct of organizational communication practices and develops a theory to explain how these processes constitute organizations as complex adaptive social systems. Five axioms anchor the theory, and the author derives theorems explaining the important features of attempting to change transformative organizational communication practices.

Managing Complex Adaptive Social Systems

Complex Adaptive Systems, for our purposes, are social systems that that evolve and display new, emergent properties, and self-organizing behavior of their components; they are based on a reasonably stable infrastructure, on the satisfaction of the most basic needs, and flexible, frequent, and open communication and interaction. Complex Adaptive Systems may be based on a few, simple rules, but can yield complex and unpredictable outcomes. The ‘Hole in the Wall’ project is an interesting case in point in the design of spaces for complex adaptive systems, or complex adaptive networks. In this project, touch screen computers were literally put in ‘holes in walls’ in places where unschooled children congregated. The children were given no instructions on how to use the computers, or what to do with them, but with startling results: the children soon taught themselves how to use the computers and the Internet, and much more (Mitra, 2003).