Organizational Semiotics by Louise Ravelli

Organizational Semiotics by Louise Ravelli

This edited volume brings together two largely separate fields – organization studies and multimodal social semiotics – to develop an integrated research agenda for the novel interdisciplinary field of ‘organizational semiotics’.

Organizations, whether for profit, non-profit, or governmental, dominate much of everyday life, and multimodal communication is not only an output of organizations, but is also constitutive of them. This volume argues in particular for the importance of organization studies for social semioticians – not just as a site of application, but also as a critical contemporary context that requires novel and expanded methods of analysis and critique, and new practices of partnership. The volume addresses a range of institutions and sectors, from civil to retail to medical, from corporations to universities, and reveals how a deep engagement with their meaning-making practices produces insights not just about communication but also about the broader contemporary cultural context in which organizations play such a significant role. Fundamentally, it reveals that the rich analytical and theoretical resources of multimodal perspectives on organizations studies can – and should – make a fundamental contribution to our understanding of organizations in social life.

This volume is relevant to social semioticians and organizational researchers as well as to practitioners and decision-makers in organizations.

"This new volume is a unique resource for anyone keen to apply their social semiotic expertise to life in organizations and institutions, as it is for those wanting to broaden their analysis and theorization of formal organization to cover the symbolic and interactive dimensions of its practices and communicationThe book’s hybrid approach is expertly exemplified in each of its individual chapters offering well-researched and supremely evidenced insights."

(Professor Rick Iedema, Director of the Centre for Team-Based Practice & Learning in Health Care, King's College London)

"Recently, we have seen a growing interest in organizational communication and processes beyond words. But how, exactly, should we go about studying such multimodal dynamics? This book offers a deep conceptualization of and rich empirical inquiries into organizational semiotics – the multimodal, social, and contextual meaning-making practices that constitute organizing and organizations. By bringing together social semiotics and organization studies, the book offers ways to capture, interpret, and theorize semiotic artifacts and practices in and around organizations."

(Professor Tammar B. Zilber, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Business School; Editor-in-Chief, Organization Studies)

Louise Ravelli is Professor of Communication in the School of Arts and Media at UNSW Sydney. Her research explores how multimodality works in specific communication contexts, such as museums. She has published widely with monographs, edited volumes and articles, and is joint Chief Editor of the journal Visual Communication.

Theo van Leeuwen is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark. He has published widely in the areas of visual communication, multimodality, and critical discourse analysis. His latest books are the third revised edition of Reading Images – The Grammar of Visual Design (with Gunther Kress) and Multimodality and Identity.

Markus A. Höllerer is Professor of Organization and Management at UNSW Sydney. His scholarly work currently focuses on social change, novel forms of organization and governance, and institutions as multimodal accomplishments. He has been widely published in leading academic outlets and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Organization Theory.

Dennis Jancsary is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Organization Studies at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). He is particularly interested in the role of language and multimodal communication at the interface of organizations and institutions. His work further includes methodological contributions to visual and multimodal analysis.