Discussion: View Thread

 Words are powerful in managerial and organizational life not only because they convey meanings, but also because words are critical for generating meanings. This symposium examines the role of words and examples in generating and changing meanings. It does so by bringing together work on materiality (in a talk by Candy Jones), framing (in a talk by Barbara Gray), complexity (in a talk by Jeffrey Loewenstein), and reification (in a talk by Mark Kennedy). In addition to the particular advances each paper presents for each of these areas, the papers also collectively indicate pathways for integrating diverse research on words and meanings, such as how material practices relate to words and meanings, how local communications can change field-level meanings, and how new words and examples can come to have taken-for-granted meanings. These integrations will be the emphasis of a discussant (Willie Ocasio). The intended result of this combination of papers is a deeper understanding of the power of words-for shaping thought and behavior, and also for advancing organizational theorizing.