Communication is nowadays more and more frequently considered an essential parameter in the construction, maintenance and change of organizations. This has resulted in a growing importance of qualitative conceptualizations in organization theory and of perspectives on organizational communication in sociolinguistics. Nevertheless, overlaps in the research between the qualitative branch of organization theory and the sociolinguistic research of businesses have been to date very sparse. Difficulties in tying both academic perspectives together seem to be related to the lack of theoretical assumptions which could bridge the gap between linguistics and organization theory, for example, as far as the construction of macrostructural models out of the analyses of interactive behavior is concerned. This collection develops suggestions on how to set starting points for an interdisciplinary research program.

Contents: Alfred Kieser/Andreas P. Müller: Foreword - Christina Wasson: The Janus-Faced Power of Language in Organizations - Stephan Habscheid/Elke Weik: Talking Structure: The Shaping of Organizational Reality in Consulting Conversations - Anni Borzeix: Language and Agency in Organizations - Jetta Frost/Margit Osterloh: Dialogue Devices: Bridging between «Mode 1» and «Mode 2» Knowledge Production - John A. A. Sillince: Coherence as the Regulation of Four Communicative Processes: Integration, Progression, Voice, and Contextualization - Alfred Kieser/Anja Muley: The Importance of the Storyline - Cliff Oswick/Tom Keenoy/Phil Jones: Rethinking Organizational Metaphors: Beyond (M)Organization Theory - Monika Knassmüller: Mission Statements - Identifying Underlying Concepts. An Empirical Study of Austrian Corporate Mission Statements - David Seidl: Metaphorical Self-Descriptions of Organizations - Michèle Grosjean: Communication within Groups: How it Reveals the Nature of Organizational Culture in Hospitals - Bernt Schnettler: Sociability: The Ethnotheory of Co-operation - Thomas Spranz-Fogasy: What's the Boss Doing? Everyday Communication of High-level Personnel - Karl-Heinz Pogner/Anne-Marie Søderberg: The Discourse of all.department E-mails: A Case Study - Agita Luse: The Rise of Network Society and Structural Transformations in the Field of Religion.