COMMUNICATION, COGNITION, AND INSTITUTIONS
Guest Editors
John Lammers - University of Illinois
Joep Cornelissen - VU University Amsterdam
Eero Vaara - Hanken School of Economics
Rodolphe Durand - H.E.C.
Peer Fiss - University of Southern California
Submissions are due between July 1- August 3, 2013
BACKGROUND
Recent arguments by institutional theorists suggest that one of the most
promising planks for the development of institutional theory is
combining an analysis of the structural and practical aspects of
organizations and institutions with a theorization of the microprocesses
of cognition (e.g., framing, categorization, or sensemaking) and
communication (e.g., interaction or rhetoric) through which those
structural and practical aspects are maintained, challenged, or changed.
For some time institutional researchers have recognized the importance
of language, discourse, and communication in the very processes that
constitute institutions. Yet while communication is clearly central to
the construction of institutions and their logics, we are still lacking
theories about the microprocesses through which categories, logics,
practices, genres, or identities come into being in everyday
interaction. In turn, in communication research, broadly defined,
researchers have developed a number of theories and methods with the
potential to elucidate precisely such processes and the interactions
between the micro and macro levels. Yet, to date, institutional theory
has not been infused with these insights.
The purpose of this special topic forum is to bring together these two
strains of research-cognition and communication-to advance our
understanding of the crucial role of communication in
institutionalization. This involves bringing insights from various
theories of social cognition, sensemaking, discourse analysis, and other
cognitive and communication-related perspectives to institutional
theory. In particular, we believe it is necessary to focus attention on
the microlinkages among communication, cognition, and institutions in
and around organizations. Such analysis should not merely focus on
management, professions, and organizations per se but should link those
to wider national and global institutional structures and processes,
such as markets and emerging or declining economies.
With this call for papers we therefore seek to expand communication and
cognitive perspectives on institutions and institutionalization by
encouraging scholars to
examine the cognitive, communicative, and social bases of institutions
and institutional change;
seek or develop models that incorporate or make use of cognitive and
communication theories and concepts, such as voice, frames, rhetoric,
dialogue, discourse, interaction, speech acts, and institutional
messages, events, orders, or memory;
theorize how communication affects the dualities of institutional
maintenance and change, conformity, and deviance; and
explore the connection between the micro worlds of organizational
communication and sense making, cognition, and the taken-for-grantedness
of institutions.
A key focus of papers submitted should be recognition of the
interpersonal and interorganizational acts of communication that
maintain and transform local, national, and global institutions. The
concepts employed may include but are not limited to audience analysis,
studies of cognitive categories, discourse analysis, frame analysis,
genres, message construction, narratives, prototypes, and sense making,
among others.
Accordingly, we invite contributions that include the following
potential approaches:
A focus on communication processes that sustain or transform
institutions-For example, communication and institutions may be viewed
as conformity regimes such that institutional conformity or deviance is
seen as a speech act. Alternatively, researchers could theorize the role
of the media in institutionalization and change, specifying the link
between micro-interactions and microstructure.
Similarly, a formulation of the ways in which institutional messages
have consequences for organizations or a model of the ways that
legitimacy and legitimization are communicative processes.
A focus on the contributions of category, frame, genre, and other
cognitive constructs and processes to the study of institutions-For
example, a potential paper could tie communication and cognition to
institutions through specifying the role of social media in transmitting
institutional logics and frames.
A focus on the roles of governments, markets, and NGOs as national and
international carriers of institutions and institutional logics-For
example, researchers could demonstrate the role of professional and
trade associations or consultants as communication media in structuring
industries internationally or they could theorize the role(s) of
international institutions in the acceptability of institutional logics.
TIMELINE and SUBMISSION
All submissions should be uploaded to the Manuscript Central/Scholar One
website:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amr between July 1, 2013 -
August 3, 2013. Please do not submit your article prior to July 1, 2013
or after August 3, 2013. Contributions should follow the directions for
manuscript submission described in the Information for Contributors at
the back of each issue of AMR and on the AMR web page:
http://aom.org/Publications/AMR/Submitting-a-Manuscript.aspx
For queries about submissions, contact AMR's managing editor, Susan
Zaid, at
szaid@pace.edu. For questions regarding the content of this
special topic forum, contact one of the guest editors: John Lammers
(
jclammer@illinois.edu), Joep Cornelissen (
j.p.cornelissen@vu.nl); Eero
Vaara (
eero.vaara@hanken.fi), Rodolphe Durand (
durand@hec.fr), or Peer
Fiss (
fiss@marshall.usc.edu).
Manuscript Type: Special Topic Forum
Deadline for submissions: August 3, 2013
Website:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amr
Contact Info: Tiffiney Johnson
Phone: (914) 944-2915
Email address:
tjohnson@pace.edu
--
Eero Vaara
Professor of Management and Organization
Hanken School of Economics
PB 479, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland
t. +358 50 3059 359
http://www.hanken.fi/staff/vaara