The Organizational Author (and the Need for His/Her Disappearance)

The prevailing definition of authority does not sufficiently incorporate the non-hierarchic specificities of organizational processes. In this paper, I propose the metaphor of the “author” to refer to those agents who make a difference within organizations regardless whether or not they have a formal status. In so doing, the usual perspective is reversed: It is not the line of authority that would authenticate action but action itself that guarantees legitimacy. The definition of the “organizational author” encompasses the capacity of initiatives in interaction that results in various forms of inscriptions. Applied to the field of organizational communication, the disappearance of the author (Barthes, 1968; Foucault, 1969) is eventually interpreted as the necessary step to ensure organizational identity.