Communicatively constituted reputation: applying the organizational communication perspective to reputation management

Constitutive communication theory has a long tradition within organizational communication studies. Since Karl Weick (1979) argued that communication is the essence of organizations, a broad body of work started to examine how organizations are communicatively constituted. Constitutive communication belongs to the so called context-centered approaches to the study of communication. More precisely, this approach goes beyond the classical functional approach to organizational communication, focused on messages, networks and channels, as well as the meaning-centered approach, focused on sensemaking, influence and culture (Shockley-Zalaback, 2009). Adopting a context-centered approach to the study and the practice of organizational communication means to recognize the growing interconnectedness among organizations and their stakeholders due to the exponential rise of turbulence and complexity which affect organizational settings as well as the pervasivity of new Information and Communication Technologies. This approach is also in line with the emerging perspectives on postmodernism, critical studies, global cultures and institutions. Our exploration is divided into two main sections. First we briefly discuss what is meant with “communication constitutes organizations”. Second, we consider the four main flows of constitutive communication and we discuss how these are linked to reputation management. Third, we discuss the main opportunities for future research on topic.