The Constitution of Organization as Informational Individuation

Abstract

Communication scholars, especially in organizational communication, call for a constitutive approach to communication that considers communicating and organizing as a single process. Yet, current theorizing seems unable to embrace that equivalence. As an alternative, we present an informationally grounded view of communication drawing from French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. Doing so, we extend scholarship on the communicative constitution of organization by highlighting the importance of framing communication in the context of informational individuation. Following a critical summary of constitutive communication theories, we provide a brief exegesis of Simondon’s concepts of individuation and transduction, which bind information and communication, and contribute four propositions to guide informationally-grounded work on the constitutive power of communication. We then emphasize how a Simondonian view contributes to discussions on the communicating–organizing equation. We end by providing a brief empirical example and analysis using key take-aways from a Simondonian framework and offer areas for further discussion.