Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is a significant theory in the social sciences that offers insights into how individuals create, coordinate, and manage meanings within their communication processes.
It posits that human communication is a flexible, open, and evolving process that unfolds through ongoing joint interaction. CMM emphasizes how communication fosters interpersonal connection and open dialogue among individuals or groups, making it applicable across various academic fields and social scenarios. At its core, CMM suggests that people transform sensory perceptions into implications for meaning and action, and this transformation can be understood through the rules actors follow.
The Foundations of CMM
Developed in the mid-1970s by W. Barnett Pearce and Vernon E. Cronen, CMM highlights that individuals assign meanings to their messages based on past conversational experiences and previous social realities. Through communication, people negotiate common or conflicting meanings of the world around them, thereby constructing new social realities. CMM proposes that meanings can be productively managed to enhance communication by coordinating and managing the meaning-making process itself. It is identified as an interpersonal theory that describes causal forces in a conversation, specifically logical force and practical force.
Pearce and Cronen stressed that CMM encourages us to examine the communication process and the ways meaning is made, prompting reflection on how we might act in critical moments. This framework promotes a collaborative approach, enabling individuals to reach shared understanding and agreed-upon plans. Essentially, CMM is a theory of social construction, asserting that we create our relationships and even the world itself through communication. The exchange of information and interpretation of meaning occur through hierarchies and the coordination of meanings in our messages. CMM suggests that our task in interactions is to actively manage the meanings that constitute our lives and to coordinate these with others to bring coherence to our social world.
Models for Understanding Communication
CMM theorists have developed several models to help understand and improve communication. One such model is the hierarchy of meaning, which illustrates organized meanings. This model serves as a tool for individuals to explore the perspectives of their conversational partners while also gaining a more thorough understanding of their own personal perspective. The elements at the top of each list in the hierarchy form the overall context for a story and influence the elements below them. The levels of meaning, from lowest to highest, include content, speech act, episodes, relationship, life scripts, and cultural patterns.
Stephen W. Littlejohn and Karen A. Foss describe a type of logical force called contextual force, which leads a person to believe an action or interpretation is a direct and appropriate result of the context. For example, someone might think, "How else could I have reacted?" or "Naturally I acted that way, it was appropriate to the situation." Contexts are extremely important in CMM and are not static. A long-standing relationship, for instance, can contextualize an ugly argument as unpleasant but unavoidable, leading the couple to work through it. Conversely, an ugly argument on a first date might contextualize the relationship as not worth pursuing. The hierarchy of meanings is interlinked and can shift at any moment, with what contextualizes what being fluid.
Loops and Practical Applications
The serpentine model takes the hierarchy model further by emphasizing interaction and the aspect of time. Pearce highlights that communication is not a solitary act and usually occurs in sequence with others' actions. Understanding past events and their impact is crucial for improving communication. This model visually represents communication as a back-and-forth interaction rather than a simple transmission of information. It prompts questions like, "What do I want to make in the next turn?" and "How am I marking the beginning and end of this episode?"
CMM also introduces the concepts of charmed and strange loops. Charmed loops occur when interactions are consistent with the hierarchy, reinforcing each person's perceptions and actions. A strange loop, however, involves lower levels being inconsistent with higher levels, creating a repetitive interactional pattern that alternates between contradictory meanings. An example is an alcoholic who quits drinking, convinces himself he's not an alcoholic, and then starts drinking again. CMM is not just an interpretive theory but also a practical one, with extensive literature on its use to address issues like family violence, workplace conflict, and inter-community relations. It provides a framework for understanding how individuals negotiate complex messages at different levels of meaning, aiming to improve communication and foster better social worlds.
