The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics

Paper Info
Page count 1
Word count 315
Read time 2 min
Topic Sociology
Type Essay
Language 🇺🇸 US

The Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is a social constructionism-based theory that explains how people create meaning from communication and manage their reality. According to W. Barnett Pearce, one of the founders of CMM, “we live in lives filled with meanings and one of our life challenges is to manage those meanings so that we can make our social worlds coherent and live within them with honor and respect” (“Coordinated Management of Meaning,” n.d., para. 4). Indeed, as a practical theory, CMM is frequently applied to everyday conversations to improve communication and behavior, avoid conflicts, help people enhance their interactions with others, and make social worlds better in general (“Communication theory: Coordinated Management of Meaning,” n.d.). However, CMM has several critical disadvantages that impact the efficiency of its application.

In general, CMM may be regarded as an extremely complex and broad theory with multiple views and different terms. It does not have consistency and any hypothesis to test. Moreover, the theory emphasizes the uniqueness of every situation – that is why, using it, an individual has no structure for the evaluation of communication. In other words, CMM does not provide critical criteria for a person to consider what is important in interaction to improve it. At the same time, CMM is a practical theory that cannot be applied autonomously. As individuals create meanings on the basis of their unique characteristics and the understanding of others’ peculiarities is essential for appropriate messaging, people require additional communication and interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. With a lack of them, communication will not improve and may become even more complex. In addition, the theory does not consider any other ways of social worlds’ creation except interaction with others. Finally, CMM does not provide learning – if a person succeeds in a particular situation, he has no algorithm for the solution of even the same communication issue in the future.

References

Communication theory: Coordinated Management of Meaning. (n.d.).

Coordinated Management of Meaning. (n.d.).

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NerdyBro. (2023, April 13). The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics. Retrieved from https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/

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NerdyBro. (2023, April 13). The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/

Work Cited

"The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." NerdyBro, 13 Apr. 2023, nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.

References

NerdyBro. (2023) 'The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics'. 13 April.

References

NerdyBro. 2023. "The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." April 13, 2023. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.

1. NerdyBro. "The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." April 13, 2023. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.


Bibliography


NerdyBro. "The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." April 13, 2023. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.

References

NerdyBro. 2023. "The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." April 13, 2023. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.

1. NerdyBro. "The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." April 13, 2023. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.


Bibliography


NerdyBro. "The Coordinated Management of Meaning: Definition and Key Characteristics." April 13, 2023. https://nerdybro.com/the-coordinated-management-of-meaning-definition-and-key-characteristics/.