‘Winter is Coming’: Constituting the Future in Problem Construction

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Organizational Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This project takes up the issue of the role of time and timing in the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) by drawing from Bakhtin’s (1991) concept of responsiveness. When CCO theorizing has taken up the issue of time, the focus has tended to be oriented toward the past and articulating how the past is brought into the present. I advocate for a dual focus by including responsiveness to an anticipated future as an aspect of how organizations are communicatively constituted. The case of the state of Georgia leadership’s response to a late January 2014 winter storm is examined. In this situation, the leadership failed to take pre-emptive actions to prepare its citizens and roads for the predicted winter storm, resulting in traffic jams, stranded motorists, abandoned vehicles, and stranded school children.

Author

• Theresa R. Castor, U of Wisconsin - Parkside