Visual strategies for addressing organizational tensions

This paper addresses the issue of how visual and verbal semiotic modes differently contribute to meaning making in organizational contexts under cognitive uncertainty. Whereas the visual mode is typically understood as being polysemous and thus prone to be interpreted in a plurality of ways, we argue that it has the capacity to reduce, rather than increase, cognitive ambiguity in organizational contexts loaded with tensions. Building upon the multimodal analysis of the Italian food company Barilla’s house organs, we show that while the verbal mode expresses organizational tensions and thereby preserves cognitive uncertainty, the visual mode addresses organizational tensions and thereby is meant to reduce cognitive ambiguity. Specifically, in organizational contexts where societal tensions manifest as paradoxes thus challenging organizational identity, the visual mode may provide a solution to the paradox by way of two strategies, namely paradox resolution and paradox dissolution.