Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 484
Whoever defines the object assigns the work
Organizational Co-Orientation Theory shows how people organize around a common object, negotiate relationships and obligations, and stabilize coordination through conversations and texts traveling beyond the encounter
Premise
An organization is not produced simply because employees exchange messages. Organizational coorientation becomes visible when two actors orient toward one another and toward a third object: a task, client, risk, document, problem, product, rule, or decision that their interaction must address. The shared object gives communication an organizing direction beyond interpersonal exchange.
This changes what a leader should look for in a meeting or escalation. The issue is not whether participants agree. It is whether they are dealing with the same object, recognize that each other’s actions matter to it, negotiate enough relation and obligation to act, and create something durable enough to carry that coordination into later interactions.
What the model is: Organizational Co-Orientation Theory in Knowledge →
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- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainOrganization & Structure
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.