Short, exact entries on the models and tools of the field, shared by every series. Each one leads to the Executive Insight Brief that reads it for the decisions it affects.
Understand the structure
Choose a family or a category to see what it means and which entries belong to it.
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.
Family preserves the commissioned corpus grouping. Editorial category describes the nature of the particular unit independently. Some research methods belong to this family because of that production history; the category makes their nature explicit.
Editorial orientation · Family
Tool
In this series, Tool names the editorial family primarily used to act on, examine, measure or organize communication. It includes instruments, methods, practices, protocols, codes and institutional arrangements. Membership does not certify effectiveness, portability or safe use in every setting.
The family is an editorial grouping, not an instruction to apply a technique. Some conceptual frameworks remain in this family from the original commissions. Use the independent category, definition and limits to establish what the unit actually is.
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.
A named effect identifies a recurring pattern; an explanatory model proposes how that pattern arises. A framework can organize questions without proposing a causal mechanism.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Effects, Biases & Phenomena
Identifies a bounded pattern in judgment, behaviour or communication and the conditions under which it appears. Naming the pattern makes a recurring difficulty recognizable; it does not make the pattern inevitable or supply a complete explanation.
Distinguish the observed tendency from a theory explaining it, and a bias from a warranted disagreement. The category does not imply that every included pattern is an error.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Analytical Frameworks, Typologies & Heuristics
Organizes dimensions, distinctions, types or questions so that a situation can be examined systematically. A framework supplies structure, a typology distinguishes forms, and a heuristic offers a usable way to orient judgment.
Organizing an inquiry does not establish causality, validate a diagnostic test or prescribe a universally effective intervention. The entry states what its particular structure can support.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Paradigms, Traditions & Metatheories
Provides a broad intellectual perspective within which multiple concepts, theories or investigations are developed. Traditions carry histories and commitments; metatheories examine how theories themselves are organized or related.
A concept delimits a particular entity or relation. A paradigm or tradition supplies a wider perspective in which many such concepts can be used.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Doctrines, Principles & Normative Frameworks
Sets out principles or criteria for what should be pursued, considered legitimate or done. Its contribution is evaluative or prescriptive: it gives reasons for judging conduct and arrangements, rather than merely describing their frequency.
A normative commitment is not evidence that a practice works. A protocol instead specifies shared operational requirements; a theory explains processes. A single work can contain all three while receiving one principal category here.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Concepts & Constructs
Delimits an entity, property, relation or condition relevant to understanding communication. Its principal contribution is to clarify what something means, which features constitute it, and how to recognize or distinguish it.
This is a positive category, not a remainder. Mechanistic explanations belong with theories; organized dimensions with frameworks; schools of thought with traditions. Being a Key concept entry does not automatically assign this category.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Measurement & Assessment Instruments
Produces measures, scores, profiles or assessments through defined items, observations or measurement rules. The entry identifies what is measured and the conditions governing interpretation.
An instrument is not the construct it measures. Reliability does not by itself establish validity or diagnostic usefulness. A research method organizes inquiry more broadly; an intervention aims to change a situation.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Research & Analysis Methods
Establishes procedures for collecting, coding, comparing or interpreting information for inquiry or analysis. Its contribution is a defensible route from observations or materials to an account, finding or interpretation.
Methods differ in their purposes and standards of evidence. A method need not produce a standardized score, and a procedure for studying a situation is not automatically a method for changing it.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Intervention Methods & Practices
Organizes actions intended to facilitate, plan, train, negotiate, coordinate or change a situation. It connects a practical purpose with a way of working, whose conditions and consequences must be examined.
An intervention is distinguished by its intended action, not by guaranteed effectiveness. Measurement informs an intervention; protocols specify shared requirements; governance establishes authority and decision rights.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Protocols & Standards
Defines shared rules, standardized sequences or requirements for actions and exchanges. Its practical contribution is an explicit basis for coordinated use or conformity within a specified scope.
Compliance with a protocol does not prove understanding, safety or effectiveness. Codes represent information; protocols govern its handling or the conduct of a procedure. Editions and scope remain consequential.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Codes & Communication Systems
Articulates signs and conventions through which information or meaning can be represented, recorded or transmitted. Interpretation depends on the relevant language, practices, users and context, not on a sign looking self-evident.
A code is not a procedural standard. Some systems distribute meaning across an object, an interpreter and an oral account. Classifying them together does not imply that they share one grammar or can be translated without context.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Editorial orientation · Category
Governance Institutions & Procedures
Organizes authority, representation, participation, deliberation, collective decision or institutional resolution of conflict. Its contribution concerns who may act, speak, decide or challenge, and under what arrangements.
A meeting technique can structure discussion without establishing decision rights. An institution or governance procedure must be understood through its actual authority and setting, not inferred from participation or a familiar label.
Entries that stand on their own show the category of their source unit, as an association rather than a classification of their own.
Browse entries
For entries that stand on their own, the category is that of their source unit.
Model
Abilene Paradox
Groups & Decisions
Category: Effects, Biases & Phenomena
The Abilene Paradox concerns groups enacting a choice that members privately did not want. Misread preferences and feared social consequences create apparent agreement. Diagnosis requires evidence gathered before the outcome, while independent preference collection helps distinguish this pattern from genuine disagreement or ordinary decision failure.
Related entries
Groupthink
Model
Agenda-Setting Theory
Media, Publics & Society
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Agenda-Setting Theory examines how sustained media prominence relates to the issues audiences consider important. It distinguishes issue salience from agreement or persuasion, and requires separate measures of communication priorities and audience priorities alongside attention to timing, direct experience, and competing influences.
Model
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Persuasion & Argument
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Cognitive Dissonance Theory explains how psychologically inconsistent beliefs, choices, or actions can motivate efforts to restore coherence. People may revise behavior or attitudes, justify their position, or avoid challenging information, so exposing inconsistency does not guarantee learning, rational correction, or agreement with a message.
Tool
Concertive Control
Voice, Silence & Power
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Concertive Control traces how team members turn negotiated values into norms, rules, and peer-enforced expectations that can intensify discipline despite reduced supervision. Identification and self-authored legitimacy help explain that process, while responsible diagnosis distinguishes ordinary cooperation from coercion and participation in rule creation from continuing consent.
Model
Groupthink
Groups & Decisions
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Groupthink describes how pressure for agreement can displace realistic appraisal of alternatives through suppressed dissent, filtered information, and mistaken unanimity. It helps examine decision procedures and warning signs, but cohesion or a bad outcome alone does not establish the syndrome, whose full causal model remains contested.
Related entries
Abilene Paradox
Tool
ICA Communication Audit
Organization & Structure
Category: Research & Analysis Methods
The ICA Communication Audit combines survey, interview, network, critical-incident, and diary evidence to diagnose an organizational communication system. Separate analysis and triangulation preserve contradictions across methods. Local context, confidentiality, and cautious use of historical norms guide interpretation, with follow-up evidence needed to evaluate changes proposed from the findings.
Model
Organization as communication of decisions
Organization & Structure
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Luhmann’s theory treats organizations as networks of decision communications that become premises for further decisions. It helps distinguish discussion from a binding selection and trace how programs, personnel, channels, and positions sustain continuity, while leaving the substantive quality of each decision open to examination.
Model
Organizational Silence
Voice, Silence & Power
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Organizational Silence examines how shared beliefs that speaking is dangerous or futile can suppress information needed for decisions and reinforce themselves through lost feedback. Channel availability alone does not establish credibility, while low participation cannot by itself identify silence or prove the accuracy of withheld concerns.
Tool
Single- and Double-Loop Learning
Organization & Structure
Category: Analytical Frameworks, Typologies & Heuristics
Single- and Double-Loop Learning distinguishes improving action within existing rules from examining and revising the governing assumptions, goals, or values behind those rules. Argyris and Schön's framework requires evidence of actual reasoning and decision change, without treating repeated correction as a second loop or deeper questioning as automatically preferable.
Model
Spiral of Silence Theory
Voice, Silence & Power
Category: Theories & Explanatory Models
Spiral of Silence Theory explains how people may withhold opinions when they perceive little support and anticipate social isolation. Their reduced expression can make another position seem more dominant, creating a reinforcing pattern in which public visibility diverges from the distribution of private opinion.
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