James R Taylor

Who is James R Taylor?

James Renwick Taylor is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Communication of the Université de Montréal, which he founded with Annie Méar and André H. Caron Ed.D in the early 1970s.

Drawing from research in fields such as organizational psychology, ethnomethodology, phenomenology and collective minding, Taylor developed an original theory of organizational communication, suggesting that communication is the "site and surface" of organizations, rather than a phenomenon taking place within pre-existing organizations. He uses interaction and conversation analysis to understand the processes by which organizations and organizational roles emerge and are maintained.

The line of thought initiated by James Taylor has come to be known as "The Montreal School" of organizational communication, sometimes referred to as TMS, and has been acknowledged as an original theory by such authors as Haridimos Tsoukas, Linda Putnam, Karl E. Weick, Barbara Czarniawska.