James R. Taylor

James Renwick Taylor is a Canadian academic and 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.rnrnDrawing from research in fields such as organizational psychology (Karl E. Weick), ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel, Deirdre Boden), phenomenology (Alfred Schütz) and collective minding (Edwin Hutchins), 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.rnrnThe line of thought initiated by James Taylor has come to be known as “The Montreal School” of organizational communication.