Nicolas Bencherki's research adopts an ethnographic approach to study organizational communication among community-based organizations, in particular when it comes to collaboration between groups to achieve collective action. Theoretically, his work explores the notions of property and possession of action, and its sharing between persons and organizations. By recognizing that property is not limited to its legal format, it is possible to empirically observe the multiple ways the organization, as well as the persons that populate it, attribute, appropriate, give, borrow, etc., the work and the activities that make the organization act and, indeed, exist as an entity. Nicolas Bencherki's work has been published, among others, in Academy of Management Journal, Human Relations, Organization Studies, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication, and Communication Research and Practice, and was regularly presented, including at the International Communication Association and at the annual conference of the European Group for Organizational Studies. Nicolas Bencherki is a member of the editorial board of journals Human Relations, Communication et professionalisation, Management Communication Quarterly and Organization Studies. He is a co-coordinator of the "Communication, Performativity and Organization" standing working group of the European Group for Organizational Studies, an he co-heads the Research group on communicating and organizing (RECOR).
Education
Postdoc, Department of Technology Management and Innovation, NYU Polytechnic Institute
Postdoc, Center for the sociology of innovation, Mines ParisTech
PhD in communication, Université de Montréal, and in sociology of action, Sciences Po Paris
Research Interests
- Organizational communication
- Strategy, collaboration and collective action
- Ethnography and interaction analysis
- Discourse, language, materiality and technology
- Theory and philosophy of communication and organization
Teaching
Courses
Courses under preparation
- COM 3040 - Interactions en ligne
- COM 6001 - Proséminaire en communication 1
- COM 6002 - Proséminaire en communication 2
- COM 6020 - Recueillir et analyser des données, des textes et des images
Publications & Presentations
This section shows the documents (if any) that are available in R-libre, TELUQ's open access research publication repository.
Journal articles (refereed)
Fortier, Gabrielle P. et Bencherki, Nicolas (In Press). Volunteering as Attachment. Management Communication Quarterly. 10.1177/08933189261438434
Bencherki, Nicolas et Trudel, Dominique (2026). The ventriloquial configuring of communication: International Communication Association Presidential Addresses as Legitimizing Rituals. International Journal of Communication, 20, 1035–1057. 10.65476/01are432
Dudink, Yentl, Taminiau, Yvette, Veenswijk, Marcel et Bencherki, Nicolas (2025). A ‘sticky’ past: The viscosity of organizational memory in navigating ethical change. Journal of Business Ethics. 10.1007/s10551-025-06210-7
Sénac, Coline et Bencherki, Nicolas (2025). Au nom d’une justice épistémique : l’implication bénévole et citoyenne dans les organismes communautaires au Québec. Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales. 10.7202/1119069ar
Bencherki, Nicolas, Brummans, Boris H. J. M. et Vézy, Camille (2024). Agency Without Agents: Affective Forces, Communicative Events, and Organizational Becomings. Organization Studies, 45 (9), 1349-1372. 10.1177/01708406241266310
Sénac, Coline et Bencherki, Nicolas (2024). The experience of epistemic injustice in volunteering: The case of community organizations in Québec. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 1-10. 10.1007/s11266-024-00634-x
Golden, Annis G. et Bencherki, Nicolas (2024). Navigating knowledges: Community health workers as liminal professionals. Journal of Professions and Organization, 11 (2), 163-177. 10.1093/jpo/joad013
Bencherki, Nicolas (2023). Comment la technologie opère le passage de l’action individuelle à l’action collective ? Une perspective possessive. Communication & management, 20 (1), 15-29. 10.3917/comma.201.0015
Létourneau, Alain, Boivin, Geneviève et Bencherki, Nicolas (2023). Practices of dialogue, dialogues in practice, with their problems. Language and Dialogue, 13 (2), 147-154. 10.1075/ld.00144.let
Cnossen, Boukje et Bencherki, Nicolas (2023). Artful legitimacy: The role of materiality in practices of legitimation. Organization Studies, 44 (6), 919–938. 10.1177/01708406221142962
Bencherki, Nicolas et Sénac, Coline (2023). Instrumental dialogue and the ethics of expressing solicitude for each other’s existence. Language and Dialogue, 13 (1), 3-25. 10.1075/ld.00138.ben
Beyes, Timon, Cnossen, Boukje, Ashcraft, Karen et Bencherki, Nicolas (2022). Who’s afraid of the senses? Organization, management and the return of the sensorium. Management Learning, 53 (4), 625-639. 10.1177/13505076221111423
Dawson, Veronica R. et Bencherki, Nicolas (2022). Federal Employees or Rogue Rangers: Sharing and Resisting Organizational Authority through Twitter Communication Practices. Human Relations, 75 (11), 2091-2121. 10.1177/00187267211032944
Vásquez, Consuelo, Bencherki, Nicolas et Del Fa, Sophie (2022). Quels rôles pour l’intervenante-chercheuse? Préfiguration, configuration et refiguration des partenaires de recherche. Communication & Organisation, 61, 65-78.
Basque, Joëlle, Bencherki, Nicolas, Sénac, Coline, Fortier, Gabrielle P., Morin, Alexis et Phaneuf, Gabrielle (2022). Une approche relationnelle à l’enseignement de l’ethnographie. Revue de l’Université de Moncton, 53 (2), 211-245. 10.7202/1117858ar
Bencherki, Nicolas et Elmholdt, Kasper Trolle (2022). The organization’s synaptic mode of existence: How a hospital merger is many things at once. Organization, 29 (4), 521-543. 10.1177/1350508420962025
Baillargeon, Dany, Bencherki, Nicolas et Boivin, Geneviève (2021). 20 ans des approches de la communication constitutive des organisations : de l’émergence aux innovations. Communication & Organisation (59), 13-25. 10.4000/communicationorganisation.9723
Bencherki, Nicolas et Iliadis, Andrew (2021). The constitution of organization as informational individuation. Communication Theory, 31 (3), 442-462. 10.1093/ct/qtz018
Bencherki, Nicolas, Sergi, Viviane, Cooren, François et Vásquez, Consuelo (2021). How Strategy Comes to Matter: Strategizing as the Communicative Materialization of Matters of Concern. Strategic Organization, 19 (4), 608-635. 10.1177/1476127019890380
Bourgoin, Alaric, Bencherki, Nicolas et Faraj, Samer (2020). “And who are you?”: A performative perspective on authority in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 63 (4), 1134-1165. 10.5465/amj.2017.1335
Bencherki, Nicolas, Cooren, François, Brummans, Boris H. J. M., Benoit-Barné, Chantal et Matte, Frédérik (2020). La culture en tant que cultivation : vers une conception communicationnelle de la culture organisationnelle. Communiquer : Revue de communication sociale et publique, 29, 89-109. 10.4000/communiquer.5674
Matte, Frédérik et Bencherki, Nicolas (2019). Materializing Ethical Matters of Concern: Practicing Ethics in a Refugee Camp. International Journal of Communication, 13, 5870–5889.
Cnossen, Boukje et Bencherki, Nicolas (2019). The role of space in the emergence and endurance of organizing: How independent workers and material assemblages constitute organizations. Human Relations, 72 (6), 1057-1080. 10.1177/0018726718794265
Bencherki, Nicolas et Bourgoin, Alaric (2019). Property and Organization Studies. Organization Studies, 40 (4), 497-513. 10.1177/0170840617745922
Bencherki, Nicolas (2018). La théorie de l’acteur-réseau entre Latour et Simondon. Symposium : Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, 22 (2), 72-87. 10.5840/symposium201822217
Vásquez, Consuelo, Bencherki, Nicolas, Cooren, François et Sergi, Viviane (2018). From ‘matters of concern’ to ‘matters of authority’: Studying the performativity of strategy from a communicative constitution of organization (CCO) approach. Long Range Planning, 51 (3), 417-435. 10.1016/j.lrp.2017.01.001
Bourgoin, Alaric, Marchessaux, François et Bencherki, Nicolas (2018). We need to talk about strategy: How to hold effective strategic dialogue?. Business Horizons, 61 (4), 587-597. 10.1016/j.bushor.2018.03.008
Bencherki, Nicolas (2018). Écrire les objets / Laisser les objets s’écrire. Revue internationale de psychosociologie et de gestion des comportements organisationnels, 24 (57), 133-152.
Pomerantz, Anita, Sanders, Robert E. et Bencherki, Nicolas (2018). La communication comme étude de l’action sociale : au sujet de la recherche sur le langage et l’interaction sociale : Entretien avec Anita Pomerantz et Robert E. Sanders, réalisé par Nicolas Bencherki. Communiquer. Revue de communication sociale et publique (22), 119-136. 10.4000/communiquer.2822
Bencherki, Nicolas (2017). A pre-individual perspective to organizational action. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 17 (4), 777-799.
Bencherki, Nicolas, Matte, Frédérik et Pelletier, Émilie (2016). Rebuilding Babel: a constitutive approach to tongues-in-use. Journal of Communication, 66 (5), 766-788. 10.1111/jcom.12250
Bencherki, Nicolas (2016). How things make things do things with words, or how to pay attention to what things have to say. Communication Research and Practice, 2 (3), 272-289. 10.1080/22041451.2016.1214888
Bencherki, Nicolas et Snack, James P. (2016). Contributorship and partial inclusion: A communicative perspective. Management Communication Quarterly, 30 (3), 279-304. 10.1177/0893318915624163
Books
Bencherki, Nicolas; Sénac, Coline, & Vásquez, Consuelo (Ed.). (2023). La communication organisante : Études de cas en communication organisationnelle. Québec : Presses de l'Université du Québec. ISBN 978-2-7605-5868-7
Basque, Joëlle; Bencherki, Nicolas, & Kuhn, Timothy (Ed.). (2022). Routledge Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organization. New York : Routledge, coll. « Routledge Studies in Communication, Organization, and Organizing ». ISBN 9781003224914
Bencherki, Nicolas; Matte, Frédérik, & Cooren, François (Ed.). (2019). Authority and Power in Social Interaction: Methods and Analysis. New York : Routledge, coll. « Routledge Studies in Communication, Organization, and Organizing ». ISBN 9781351051668
Book chapters
Plotnikof, Mie et Bencherki, Nicolas (2023). The communicative constitution of organizational continuity and change in, through and over time. In Hernes, Tor, & Feuls, Miriam (Ed.), A Research Agenda for Organisational Continuity and Change (p. 103-124). Cheltenham, UK : Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781802200157
Sénac, Coline et Bencherki, Nicolas (2023). L'injustice épistémique comme expérience affective : le cas du milieu du bénévolat et de l'engagement citoyen au Québec. In Bencherki, Nicolas; Sénac, Coline, & Vásquez, Consuelo (Ed.), La communication organisante : études de cas en communication organisationnelle (p. 307-322). Québec : Presses de l'Université du Québec. ISBN 978-2-7605-5868-7
Bencherki, Nicolas, Basque, Joëlle et Kuhn, Timothy (2022). Introduction to the Routledge Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organization. In Basque, Joëlle; Bencherki, Nicolas, & Kuhn, Timothy (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organization (p. 1-23). New York, NY : Routledge. ISBN 9780367480707 10.4324/9781003224914-1
Golden, Annis G. et Bencherki, Nicolas (2022). “I’m just saying:” Multivocal Organizing in a Community Health Initiative. In Benoit-Barné, Chantal, & Martine, Thomas (Ed.), Speaking with one voice: Multivocality and univocality in organizing (p. 41-64). New York, NY : Routledge, coll. « Routledge Studies in Communication, Organization, and Organizing ». ISBN 9780429297830 10.4324/9780429297830-3
Bencherki, Nicolas (2021). Using video methods to uncover the relational, interactional and practical constitution of space. In Grosjean, Sylvie, & Matte, Frédérik (Ed.), Organizational video-ethnography revisited (p. 99-116). New York, NY : Palgrave Pivot. ISBN 978-3-030-65551-8 10.1007/978-3-030-65551-8_6
Bencherki, Nicolas (2021). Speaking. In Cooren, François, & Stücheli-Herlach, Peter (Ed.), Handbook of Management Communication (p. 27-46). Berlin : De Gruyter Mouton, coll. « Handbooks of Applied Linguistics ». ISBN 9781501508059 10.1515/9781501508059-001
Bencherki, Nicolas, Basque, Joëlle et Rouleau, Linda (2019). A Sensemaking Perspective on Open Strategy. In Seidl, David; Whittington, Richard, & von Krogh, Georg (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Open Strategy (p. 241-258). Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108347921 10.1017/9781108347921.015
Bencherki, Nicolas, Bourgoin, Alaric, Chen, Huey-Rong, Cooren, François, Denault, Vincent et Plusquellec, Pierrich (2019). Bodies, Faces, Physical Spaces and the Materializations of Authority. In Bencherki, Nicolas; Matte, Frédérik, & Cooren, François (Ed.), Authority and Power in Social Interaction: Methods and Analysis (p. 77-98). New York, NY : Routledge, coll. « Routledge Studies in Communication, Organization, and Organizing ». ISBN 9781351051668 10.4324/9781351051668-5
Matte, Frédérik et Bencherki, Nicolas (2019). Being followed by an organization: A hauntological perspective on organizational ethnography. In Cooren, François, & Malbois, Fabienne (Ed.), Methodological and Ontological Principles of Observation and Analysis: Following and Analyzing Things and Beings in Our Everyday World (p. 202-232). New York, NY : Routledge, coll. « Routledge Studies in Communication, Organization, and Organizing ». ISBN 978-1-138-70678-1 10.4324/9781315201610-8
Bencherki, Nicolas (2017). Actor-Network Theory. In Scott, Craig, & Lewis, Laurie (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication (p. 1-13). New York, NY : Wiley. ISBN 9781118955567 10.1002/9781118955567.wbieoc002
Bencherki, Nicolas (2016). Action and agency. In Bruhn Jensen, Klaus; Craig, Robert T.; Pooley, Jefferson D., & Rothenbuhler, Eric W. (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (p. 1-13). New York, NY : Wiley. ISBN 9781118766804 10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect030
Cooren, François, Bencherki, Nicolas, Chaput, Mathieu et Vásquez, Consuelo (2015). The communicative constitution of strategy-making: exploring fleeting moments of strategy. In Golsorkhi, Damon; Rouleau, Linda; Seidl, David, & Vaara, Eero (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice (Second Edition) (p. 365-388). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139681032.022
Conference presentations (refereed)
Sénac, Coline et Bencherki, Nicolas (2023). Epistemic (In)justice as a Communicative Process of Individuation. Lecture presented at 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference (ICA), Toronto.
Sénac, Coline et Bencherki, Nicolas (2022). Epistemic Injustice as Affective Experience: Empirical Research on Volunteering and Civic Involvement in Quebec. Lecture presented at 15th International Conference of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR), Montréal.
Journal articles (non refereed)
Bencherki, Nicolas, Wright, Alex et Del Fa, Sophie (2025). Guest editorial: Research Methods for the Performative and Communicative Study of Organizing and Organizations. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 20 (2), 119-131. 10.1108/QROM-07-2025-013
Other non refereed contributions
Bencherki, Nicolas (2024). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Organizational Communication [review of the book from Brummans, Boris H. J. M.; Taylor, Bryan C., & Sivunen, Anu]. Communication Theory, 34 (2), 106-107. 10.1093/ct/qtae005
Fortier, Gabrielle P. et Bencherki, Nicolas (2022). Exploration des dynamiques de mobilisation dans le milieu communautaire et philanthropique au Québec (in collaboration with Barbeau, Jeanne; Phaneuf, Gabrielle; Sénac, Coline, & Vásquez, Consuelo) (Rapport de recherche du RECOR). Université du Québec à Montréal.
Sénac, Coline, Bencherki, Nicolas et Vásquez, Consuelo (2022). Agir dans les marges : l'expérience de l’injustice et de la discrimination dans les milieux du bénévolat et de l’implication citoyenne (in collaboration with Barbeau, Jeanne, & Routhier, Fé) (Rapport de recherche du RECOR). Université du Québec à Montréal, Groupe de Recherche en Communication Organisante (RECOR).
Sénac, Coline, Bencherki, Nicolas et Vásquez, Consuelo (2021). Cartographie des pratiques actuelles du bénévolat à Montréal et ses environs (in collaboration with Routhier, Fé) (Rapport de recherche du RECOR)..