Organizational Rituals, Communication, and the Question of Agency

Abstract

This study explores the performative aspects of organizational rituals to explain their agentic capacity and understand how rituals participate in the accomplishment of organizational action. We develop an alternative framework of organizational rituals based on insights from communication theory and the literature on the communicative constitution of organization/ing (CCO) and demonstrate how rituals “make present” abstract representations of organizational power and value in ways that convey authority and bear down upon the activities and decisions of organizational members. This can be understood through a logic of “attribution and appropriation” that both constitutes rituals as actants and enables them to possess the actions of their participants. This represents a departure from previous research on organizational rituals but can also enhance our understanding of rituals, agency, and symbolic action in organizations—especially in terms of exploring sources of action and agency beyond human intentionality.