Rethinking organisational communication through an ecological perspective

Purpose This article introduces an ecological perspective on organisational communication, offering a robust alternative to prevailing and representational theories. Responding to recent calls for theoretical renewal (Izak et al., 2024), it foregrounds the embodied, material and temporally extended aspects of communication that traditional models often overlook. Drawing on ecological psychology (Gibson, 1986), distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995a; Hollan et al., 2000) and embodied interaction (Goodwin, 1994; Linell, 2009), the article reframes organisational communication as a context-sensitive, relational process embedded in the ecological environment. This reframing captures how understanding emerges through action, perception, and coordination – also beyond symbolic processes. Design/methodology/approach The article employs cognitive video-ethnography (Hutchins, 1995a) to examine communication as a distributed and embodied phenomenon. Through empirical cases from cross-cultural organisational settings, it illustrates how communicative meaning-making is shaped by spatial arrangements, shared histories, tools and bodily practices. Findings The findings reveal that communication is not reducible to symbolic exchange – it is materially anchored and enacted through embodied participation. Organisational actors routinely rely on gestures, artefacts, spatial cues and tacit routines to navigate and coordinate their work. These practices are often culturally specific and historically sedimented, challenging Western-centric, disembodied models of communication and revealing alternative forms of organisational agency. Research limitations/implications While this study advances an ecological perspective on organisational communication, its scope is limited by the specific empirical cases examined. The findings are drawn from European healthcare and Japanese education, which, while illustrative, may not capture the full variability of organisational contexts. Additionally, cognitive video-ethnography, while well-suited for analysing embodied and distributed communication, requires extensive data collection and interpretation, limiting its scalability. Further research is needed to test the ecological framework across diverse organisational settings and to explore its applicability in large-scale quantitative studies, ensuring broader generalisability and methodological integration with existing communication theories. Practical implications Adopting an ecological perspective on organisational communication has practical benefits for leadership, team dynamics and workplace design. By acknowledging the importance of embodied interaction, material environments and non-symbolic communication, organisations can improve decision-making, problem-solving and adaptability. Cognitive video-ethnography provides a method for identifying inefficiencies in communication flows, revealing overlooked barriers in spatial configurations, tool usage and embodied coordination. These insights can inform training programmes, technological design and organisational policies that better align with human cognitive and communicative processes, ultimately enhancing productivity, employee well-being and the overall effectiveness of organisational communication strategies. Social implications This study challenges Western-centric models of organisational communication, advocating for a more inclusive understanding that recognises cultural, embodied and material influences. By highlighting how different traditions structure engagement, it encourages organisations to embrace diverse communication practices, fostering greater cultural sensitivity and equity. The ecological perspective also emphasises the role of communication beyond symbolic exchanges, underscoring its impact on social cohesion, identity formation and collective agency. These insights can inform policies in education, healthcare and workplace diversity, promoting interaction models that respect different cognitive and communicative traditions while enhancing inclusivity and collaboration across organisational and cultural boundaries. Originality/value By advancing an ecological framework, this article redefines organisational communication as both symbolic and non-symbolic, distributed and embodied. It argues that cognitive ethnography offers a powerful methodological lens for uncovering these dimensions. In doing so, it provides an inclusive and empirically grounded account of communication that better reflects the complexity of organisational life.