Organizational Meaning Science: Integrating Process and Structure in Meaning Dynamics

Abstract

Organizations do not operate only through coordination and control; they operate through meaning. Leaders signal direction, teams interpret priorities, and individuals translate those interpretations into action. Although prior research has examined sensemaking, communication, and organizational climate, these perspectives remain fragmented in explaining how meaning forms, stabilizes, and shifts across organizational levels. Building on prior work in Organizational Meaning Science, which introduced the Meaning Loop as a process model of interpretive dynamics, this paper extends the framework by conceptualizing meaning architecture as the structural system through which meaning is formed, transmitted, and sustained. Meaning is reconceptualized as a system-level property shaped by layers, nodes, and pathways that influence how signals are interpreted and how meaning circulates. The framework develops key constructs-including meaning alignment, neutrality, and drift-and explains how these states emerge through ongoing feedback between communication, interpretation, and behavior. By linking micro-level interpretive processes with macro-level patterns, the paper advances a multi-level account of how meaning stabilizes, diverges, and evolves over time. This work contributes to organizational theory by integrating structure and process within a unified model of meaning formation and identifying mechanisms that shape meaning dynamics across organizational systems.

Keywords: Organizational meaning, Sensemaking, Organizational communication, Meaning architecture, Interpretive dynamics, Organizational alignment, Multi-level theory