Some Proposals for Strengthening Organizational Activity Theory

Abstract

This paper seeks to highlight a perceived ‘drift’ of organizational activity theory: from an original concern with the social mediation of human consciousness through intersubjective interaction, to a focus on networked relations between organizational communities through intercollective interaction. It is argued that such a drift threatens the explanatory power of Vygotsky’s original formulation, which offers an explanation for the social conditioning of meaning, but which nonetheless acknowledges its location within individual human beings, not groups. In an attempt to address this perceived situation and to contribute to the further development of organizational activity theory, the paper draws upon two ideas from the Russian semiologist Bakhtin, incorporating these within a proposed framework for the application of activity theory within organizational settings that remains consistent with Vygotsky’s original ideas.