“No dig, No Ride”: The Communicative Constitution and Consequences of Imperfect Authoritative Texts in Fluid Collective Organizing

Abstract

Drawing upon the theoretical roots of Montreal school communicative constitution of organizing (CCO), this study extends the notion of “authoritative texts” (Kuhn, 2008) to loose, emergent, and fluid forms of organizing. Based on interviews and observations among a fluid collective of bicyclists that maintain a public jump course, findings show how repetitive stories and labor analogies are communicative elements giving rise to an authoritative text, that, although imperfect in many ways, exerts influence on organizing practices. Despite lacking conventional organizational structures, the article demonstrates how the emergence and disciplining function of authoritative texts is made possible by a unique form of indirect assertive speech acts. This work contributes to organizational communication theory by extending authoritative text research to fluid organizing, theorizing differences in the coorientation and scaling up processes forming authoritative texts, and providing precise explanations of how texts discipline through intertextual relations.