Putting Coworkers in the Limelight: New Challenges for Communication Professionals

Abstract

Coworkers have received remarkably little attention in research and in practice within the field of strategic communication. The heroic view of leadership has nourished a view of coworkers as passive recipients rather than active and influential communicators. The first aim of this article is to illuminate how coworkership can be described and understood from a communication perspective. A greater focus on coworkers in strategic communication research will give a better understanding of the complex relationship between communication and organizing as coworker interpretations and actions constitute an organization. A second aim is to discuss new challenges for communication professionals resulting from coworkership. When communication professionals also support coworker communication processes, they will be perceived as a natural part of basic organizational processes. This conceptual paper emanates from the CCO (Communication Constitutes Organizing) perspective as a general meta-theory. We argue that coworkers must be put in the limelight since changes in organizational life have resulted in new demands on coworker communication practices and skills – not only in relation to their manager, but also in relation to colleagues and in relation to their employer as ambassadors. The article concludes with a discussion about five challenges for communication professionals.

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