ABSTRACT
Three foundational concepts underlie a good deal of organizational communication scholarship: structure, process, and agency. This chapter reviews two principal bodies of thought that have defined these three concepts and their interrelationships. We begin with systems theory, explaining how structural-functionalism, configurational approaches, and structuration theory frame these three notions. We then turn to process philosophy, a stance that provides a rather different route to understanding the three central concepts. Throughout, we illustrate the theoretical stances with lines of organizational communication scholarship employing the tradition. We conclude by considering the implications of various engagements with structure, process, and agency for organizational communication theory and practice.
