A New View on Innovation and Language: Design Culture, Discursive Practices, and Metaphors

Abstract

Although scholars increasingly look to design culture for governance insights that might make m/innovation-and-organizations more ethical, they have not fully explored the language and interpretive boundary language.html processes involved with designing. For this qualitative study, we conducted a literature deconstruction, evaluation activity, and role simulation. We applied a metaphors framework to analyze results. Our paper contributes insights about the dominant discursive practices used by designers in multi-constituent situations. The results reveal that architectural designers predominantly use language that is most consistent with the metaphors of lens, voice and performance. In general, filtering and controlling dialogs are very important to Architects who may use language in a manner that limits voice and power sharing. Furthermore, our reconstructed problem statement suggests that multi-constituent team challenges arise from certain decisions that are co-constructed through dynamic team dialogues and discursive practices. Lastly, our paper illustrates an application of the seven metaphors framework as an analytical device for gaining situational insight about intercultural communication. We conclude the paper with critical comments, recommendations for future research, and prescriptions for team communication.

Keywords: Change, design, creativity, innovation, architecture, Architect, buildings, communities, deconstruction, interpretive, narrative, power, reflexive, subcultures, communication, discourse, discursive practices, information, knowledge, transparency.