Toward a Discourse-Centered Understanding of Organizational Change

Although organizational change involves a complex set of communicative and language-based processes, discourse-based approaches for understanding and managing change dynamics have been relatively underutilized by researchers and practitioners. To help address this situation, this article advances an analytic framework for explaining how discourse and organizational change are mutually implicated. Drawing on the research literature, the constructive, multilevel, conversational, political, reflexive, and recursive nature of organizational change discourses are presented and discussed. Implications for research and practice are then reviewed.