Forum: inconsistency and communication in organizations

In all organizations—whether corporations, public administrations, cultural institutions, community groups, non-governmental organizations, or political parties—activities take place under circumstances that are highly contradictory. Multitudinous objectives and professional norms, diversity in stakeholder expectations, interests and goals as well as varying structural conditions bring complexity, uncertainty, and fickleness to organizations. By defining what and who they are, by making decisions and performing different activities, organizations must find ways of dealing with circumstances stemming from different forms of generality, producing tensions and more or less precarious compromises (Jagd, 2011). In these contexts, communication plays a crucial role, allowing decisions and activities to be enacted and represented in public. To an increasing degree, much of what we know about organizational activities is based on second-hand information. In most fields, they are primarily mediated either by news media, environmental organizations, customers and other stakeholders, or by organizations’ own communication work (Pallas, Strannegård, & Jonsson, 2014).