The Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is a communication theory that offers a framework for understanding how individuals create, coordinate, and manage meanings during their interactions. It posits that human communication is a flexible, open, and evolving process that occurs through ongoing joint interaction. Essentially, CMM highlights how communication fosters interpersonal connections and open conversations among people or groups, making
it applicable across various academic fields and social situations. The theory suggests that our social world is constructed through communication, emphasizing that we actively manage the meanings in our messages and coordinate them with others to bring coherence to our social reality.
Foundations of CMM: Meaning, Coordination, and Management
At its core, CMM relies on three interdependent elements: coordination, management, and meaning. These elements collectively explain how social realities are formed through conversation and serve as the basis for further applications and models within the theory. Coordination, in this context, refers to the degree to which individuals perceive that their actions have fit together into a mutually understandable sequence or pattern. It exists when people in an interaction can recognize what their partners are discussing, leading to a shared understanding. Scientists believe that the desire for coordination stems from the subjective nature of meaning, where the same message can hold different interpretations for different people. To overcome this, individuals collaborate to share meanings, with sense-making forming the foundation of coordination.
Management, as part of CMM, involves the process by which people transform sensory perceptions into implications for meaning and action. This transformation is often described in terms of the actors' rules. The theory suggests that it is our task in interactions to actively manage the meanings that constitute our lives and to coordinate these with the meanings of others. This collaborative approach aims to arrive at a shared understanding and agreed-upon plans moving forward. Communication, according to CMM, follows rule-governed patterns of interactions that mimic the logic behind how people act and respond. Social and cultural norms also play a role in influencing how information is disclosed, processed, and communicated interpersonally, which can lead to disparities in meaning due to cross-cultural or contextual differences.
Historical Development and Evolution of CMM
The theory of CMM was developed in the mid-1970s by W. Barnett Pearce and Vernon E. Cronen. Their scholarly collaboration at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst significantly contributed to the philosophy of communication, emphasizing its story-centered, applicable, and human meaning-focused nature. Pearce famously articulated three principles of CMM: that multiple social worlds exist, these worlds are created through interactions and conversations, and individuals are active agents in their formation. This perspective highlights that our social worlds are constantly changing through the conversations we exchange over time.
Pearce described the creation of CMM as an effort to synthesize insights from social science research, rhetorical studies, philosophy, theology, and practical experience. He felt that existing communication models were useful but limited, necessitating the invention of something better. He concluded that communication is about the coordinated management of meaning because while life is filled with meanings, managing them to make social worlds coherent and live honorably is a challenge never undertaken in isolation. We are always, by necessity, coordinating our meaning management with others.
CMM as a Performative and Constitutive Theory
CMM is recognized as one of a growing number of theories that view communication as "performative" and "constitutive." Performative means that communication is about
