***APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING***
Dear all,
The EGOS Standing Working Group (SWG) No. 06 Communication, Performativity & Organization (CPO) is glad to announce the sub-theme for the EGOS 2026 Colloquium (online) (July 9-11, 2026). While the EGOS 2026 conference will be held in a virtual form this time (more info on this here), within the CPO SWG we will make sure that the format will feature a high degree of discussions and interaction (instead of having only a series of virtual presentations).
The sub-theme is titled Facts, Fiction, and the Fabric of Organizing: Exploring the Performative and Constitutive Power of (Non-)Truth Communication (see Call for Submissions on the EGOS website and copied below for your convenience). This sub-theme explores how the erosion of truth as a guiding value affects organizations and democratic societies. It invites research on how "non-truths"- from mis- and disinformation, fake news to corporate bullshit and false pretense - are communicated and enacted, shaping how organizations construct meaning, exercise power, and uphold (or undermine) ethical responsibility. It calls for nuanced explorations of how truth and non-truth are performed through organizational communication. Just like in the past, we are inviting paper submissions that address the particular focus of the sub-theme – or that are concerned with studying the relation between communication and organization from a performative and/or constitutive lens more generally.
We look forward to receiving your submissions (short papers of 3,000 words max.) via the EGOS Website by Jan. 7, 2026, at 12.00noon CET!
In case of any questions, feel free to contact the sub-theme convenors.
With kind regards
Dennis, Ellen & Salla
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Sub-theme 06: [SWG] Facts, Fiction, and the Fabric of Organizing: Exploring the Performative and Constitutive Power of (Non-)Truth Communication
Convenors:
Dennis Schoeneborn, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, ds.msc@cbs.dk
Ellen Nathues, University of Twente, The Netherlands, e.nathues@utwente.nl
Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, University of Helsinki, Finland, salla.laaksonen@helsinki.fi
Call for Papers
This sub-theme is concerned with the eroding orientation toward truth as a value that guides our organized action in democratic societies (Winkler & Schoeneborn, in press). We use the notion of 'non-truth' as an umbrella term to capture the alarming proliferation of unsupported, misleading, and deceptive communication in public discourse. In a world characterized by multiple global and interconnected crises (Lawrence et al., 2024), mis- and disinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories (Bennett & Livingston, 2020; Meyer & Quattrone, 2021), it becomes increasingly difficult to make sense of competing truth claims and their relation to social realities: What is true and non-true if truthfulness comes in varied and misleading shapes? This communication-centered phenomenon also affects organization and organizing, which generates a call to interrogate how (non-)truths are (co)constructed, how they constitute organizational and other collective phenomena, and what performative effects they entail. On a broader note, the increasing proliferation of non-truths raises the question of the moral duty of organizations, including business firms, to help safeguard democracy (Bennett & Uldam, 2024), also considering that the idea of democracy is based on orientation toward truthfulness explored in deliberative discourse (Scherer & Palazzo, 2007).
Scholars have been alarmed by the proliferation of non-truth communication, as it can result in a fragmentation into distinct language games and thus a disintegration of social and organizational realities (Bail, 2021; Knight & Tsoukas, 2019). At the same time, research highlighted that determining the truth-value of business language is no easy accomplishment either (Arthur, 2003). A growing number of studies pointing out that organizations are increasingly accepting of 'bullshit', that is, obscure, empty, or pretentious talk (Christensen et al., 2019; Spicer, 2013), or that institutions make commitments and speech acts that seem performative but are actually failing to bring the effects they name (Ahmed, 2009). That being said, fictions, expectations, and other 'non-truths' are inherent part of the ways we organize and move forward (e.g., Savage et al., 2018), with their own performative effects on what is enacted in organizational settings and how power relations are maintained or even enforced (Sharma, 2014). Organizations and organizing always involve projections toward what does not (yet) exist – such as imagined futures (Wenzel et al., 2020; Beckert, 2021) or aspirations (Christensen et al., 2021). Organizational actors materialize values, missions, principles, beliefs, rules, and other seemingly intangible and 'unverifiable' things (Cooren, 2018). Yet, once materialized, these abstractions can affect us in very tangible and consequential ways (Ashcraft et al., 2009).
Organizational scholars and practitioners alike thus tend to be caught in a double bind: We cannot just go back to a simple opposition between truth and non-truth, as we know that fiction and anticipation are also part of how we organize and act collectively. This conundrum calls for reconsidering the relationship between truths and non-truths in organizational settings, an issue that seems more salient today than ever – and invites us to consider our ethical responsibility as scholars. Accordingly, we welcome submissions that address the particular focus of this year's sub-theme through nuanced, careful, and creative explorations, studying the relationship between truth and non-truth, the performativity of the communication practices through which they are expressed, and how they constitute organizations and organizing. Below is an indicative (but not exhaustive) list of topics and questions suitable for this sub-theme.
- What roles do non-truths play in the creation, maintenance, or disruption of organizational realities? In other words, what are the (dis)organizing properties of communicating non-truths? (Winkler & Schoeneborn, in press)
- How are truths performed, materialized, negotiated, or reconfigured as organizational actors make present and confront competing voices? For example, how are voices of truth and non-truth opposed in organizational counter-acts and resistances, such as whistleblowing or activist work?
- How do silences – whether deliberate, strategic, or unintended – contribute to the emergence and persistence of (non-)truths in organizing?
- How do material artifacts, technologies, infrastructures, and so forth facilitate the creation and proliferation of (non-)truths in organizational settings?
- How do processes of legitimation change in a context where it has become increasingly difficult for societal observers to distinguish between truths and non-truths (Schoeneborn et al., 2024)?
- How do organizational (non-)truths evolve over time, and what makes some truths appear inevitable while others fade into irrelevance? How can an ethnography of texts reveal the ways in which (non-)truths are performatively reinforced or undone in organizations?
- In which ways are non-truth constructions altering how organizing is performed and comes to matter, for instance, in the form of 'bullshit' or by practicing 'stupid' or 'ignorant' ways of organizing (see Christensen et al., 2019; Knudsen et al., 2023)?
- What is the role of (non-)truths in driving organizing process in different contexts, such as in constituting digital and/or political movements, and how do they affect democratic will formation in public discourse (see Bennett & Livingston, 2020; Farkas & Schou, 2020)?
- When and how do organizational claims – such as commitments to diversity, sustainability, or ethics – function as non-performatives (Ahmed, 2006), maintaining the status quo rather than enacting real change?
- How can a communicative and performative perspectives help explore the ethical dimension of an orientation toward (non-)truths and (ir)rationalities in organizational contexts?
- What kind of organizations and society are we creating when truthfulness matters less? How can we, as researchers or as practitioners, advocate for organizations founded on truth – particularly in a world where anti-enlightenment tendencies are on the rise (see also Scherer et al., 2023)?
In addition to this, and in staying with the traditions of EGOS Standing Working Group (SWG) 06 on "Communication, Performativity, and Organization", we also invite papers that are concerned with studying the relation between communication and organization from a performative and/or constitutive lens more generally.
References
- Ahmed, S. (2009): "Commitment as a Nonperformative." In: B.Ö. Fırat, S. Mul, & S. Wichelen (eds.): Commitment and Complicity in Cultural Theory and Practic. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 23-44.
- Arthur, A. (2003): "A Utility Theory of 'Truth'." Organization, 10 (2), 205–221.
- Ashcraft, K.L., Kuhn, T.R., & Cooren, F. (2009): "Constitutional Amendments: 'Materializing' Organizational Communication." Academy of Management Annals, 3 (1), 1–64.
- Bail, C. (2021): Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Beckert, J. (2021): "The Firm as an Engine of Imagination: Organizational prospection and the making of economic futures." Organization Theory, 2 (2), https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211005773.
- Bennett, W.L., & Livingston, S. (2020): The Disinformation Age. Politics, Technology, and Disruptive Communication in the United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Bennett, W.L., & Uldam, J. (2024): "Corporate social responsibility in the disinformation age." Management Communication Quarterly, 38 (4), 864–896.
- Christensen, L.T., Kärreman, D., & Rasche, A. (2019): "Bullshit and Organization Studies." Organization Studies, 40 (10), 1587–1600.
- Christensen, L.T., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2021): "Talk–Action Dynamics: Modalities of aspirational talk." Organization Studies, 42 (3), 407–427.
- Cooren, F. (2018): "Materializing Communication: Making the Case for a Relational Ontology." Journal of Communication, 68 (2), 278–288.
- Farkas, J., & Schou, J. (2020): Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood. New York: Routledge.
- Knight, E, & Tsoukas, H. (2019): "When Fiction Trumps Truth: What 'post-truth' and 'alternative facts' mean for management studies." Organization Studies, 40 (2), 183–197.
- Knudsen, M., Grønbæk Pors, J., & Bakken, T. (2023): "Organised ignorance." ephemera – theory & politics in organization, 23 (1), 1–18.
- Lawrence, M., Homer-Dixon, T., Janzwood, S., Rockstöm, J., Renn, O., & Donges, J.F. (2024): "Global polycrisis: the causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement." Global Sustainability, 7, https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.1.
- Meyer, R.E., & Quattrone, P. (2021): "Living in a Post-truth World? Research, Doubt and Organization Studies." Organization Studies, 42 (9), 1373–1383.
- Savage, P., Cornelissen, J.P., & Franck, H. (2018): "Fiction and Organization Studies." Organization Studies, 39 (7), 975–994.
- Scherer, A.G., Neesham, C., Schoeneborn, D., & Scholz, M. (2023): "New Challenges to the Enlightenment: How Twenty-First-Century Sociotechnological Systems Facilitate Organized Immaturity and How to Counteract It." Business Ethics Quarterly, 33 (3), 409–439.
- Scherer, A.G., & Palazzo, G. (2007): "Toward a political conception of corporate responsibility: Business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective." Academy of Management Review, 32 (4), 1096–1120.
- Schoeneborn, D., Golob, U., Trittin-Ulbrich, H., Wenzel, M., & O'Connor, A. (2024): "CSR Communication and the Polarization of Public Discourses: Introduction to the Special Issue." Management Communication Quarterly, 38 (4), 751–774.
- Sharma, S. (2014): In the Meantime. Temporality and Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Spicer, A. (2013): "Shooting the shit: the role of bullshit in organisations." M@n@gement, 16 (5), 653–666.
- Wenzel, M., Krämer, H., Koch, J., & Reckwitz, A. (2020): "Future and Organization Studies: On the rediscovery of a problematic temporal category in organizations." Organization Studies, 41 (10), 1441–1455.
- Winkler, P. & Schoeneborn, D. (in press): "The escalating dis/organization of post-truth communication." Organization Theory
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Dennis Schoeneborn
Professor
Copenhagen Business School
Frederiksberg
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