Author:
Ângela Lacerda Nobre
Affiliation:
Instituto Politécnico de Setubal, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Organisational Meaning-making, Semiotics, Organisational Semiotics, Saussurean Sign Theory, Peircean Sign Theory.
Abstract:
There has been a systematic effort, among management and computing science scholars, to explore novel perspectives which may unveil the full potential of organisation’s capabilities. Among those efforts, semiotics stands out, in particular in information systems analysis and design. Semiotics is one of the most productive and yet still largely unexplored area in information systems research. The present paper argues that semiotics plays the crucial role of bridging the two extremes of organisational reality: the formal and the informal, the predictable and the unpredictable, and the linear and the complex. This paper addresses the issue of organisational meaning-making as a knowledge filed which directly connects to semiotics theory. This paper also revises the evolution of semiotics thought, the impact of Peircean and Saussurean semiotics in contemporary thinking, and the creative tensions between structuralist and post-structuralist perspectives on semiotics.