Organizational Communication Design Logics: A Theory of Communicative Intervention and Collective Communication Design

Theorizing communication as design can support the development of theories of intervention by focusing attention not just on how groups, organizations, and communities communicate, but also on how they make and try to enact choices about their communication. We posit a theory of organizational communication design logics aimed at clarifying how collectives intervene in their own communication. We argue that collective communication design (CCD) is comprised of (a) individuals’ overlapping communication designs, focused on goals and governed by communication design logics, and (b) the fit, function, and fragmentation of collectives’ communication proposals and choices. Future research guided by this theoretical framework should explore the communication skills associated with CCD and the influence of power, authority, emotion, and temporality in CCD.