Communication, Meaning, and Organized Action
研究了沟通如何将意义与行动联系起来，发现即使组织成员对同一事物有不同理解，通过隐喻、逻辑论证等四种沟通机制也能产生等终意义，从而促成有组织的行动。
Gerald Salancik discussed this theory in a colloquium at the College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois, Champaign, in 1979. Two current perspectives on the relationship between meaning and action differ with respect to the amount of shared meaning necessary for organization. We argue that these two perspectives can be integrated if we understand how communication links meaning and action. We provide empirical evidence to show that through communication, organized action can occur despite differences of interpretation among organizational members. Communication enables members to create equifinal meaning, from which organized action can follow. Our data revealed four communication mechanisms that generate and sustain equifinal meaning: metaphor, logical argument, affect modulation, and linguistic indirection.e