A Communicative Ontology of Organization? A Description, History, and Critique of CCO Theories for Organization Science

Writing as an organizational communication scholar, I provide a brief descrip-tion and history of theories encapsulated by the phrase communication is constitutive of organizing (CCO). Then, I explain that CCO theory would ben-efit from an explicit differentiation between which conditions are prerequisite to and which conditions ensure the constitution of organization. Specifically, I argue that communication may be better thought of as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for organizing. CCO Theory CCO theories articulate a communicative ontology of organization. Although the specific mechanisms and processes by which communication is associated with organization are debated hotly among theorists, one premise remains con-stant across the tradition: Communication calls organization into being. A Brief History During the interpretive turn in the 1980s, some organizational communication scholars began to change their focus from “communicating in organizations”