Teleacting an Authority in A Communicative Practice: Compliance Certificate as a Non-human Agent in Solid Waste Management

Abstract

This study is anchored on the Non-Human Agency Framework advanced by Francois Cooren (2006), which attempts to explain ‘how one can act from a distance’ or ‘teleact’ or the act of making present or presentifying something or someone in communicative practices. Teleaction can happen in a manner that non-humans represent other entities. By examining a compliance certificate used by a government regulatory body in solid waste management, the study sought to answer the research questions: 1) what figures appeared in the solid waste management compliance certificate that ventriloquized its authority; 2) what does the compliance certificate perform in solid waste management? Using Cooren’s (2010) Ventriloquial Analysis Approach, this study analyzed the Municipal Solid Waste Management Compliance Certificate (MSWMCC), a document issued by the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), a local government regulatory body in solid waste management in a municipality in the Province of (Name of the Province). From the analysis, it was revealed that there is a total of ten (10) figures explicitly invoked in the certificate – 1) official logo, 2) letterhead, 3) certificate number, 4) RA 9003, 5) declaration of compliance, 6) date of issuance, 7) place of issuance, 8) date of inspection, 9) signatory, and 10) QR code. These explicit figures that appeared in the compliance certificate implicitly convey significant messages relative to environmental protection and sustainability. Also found in the analysis are six (6) acts that the compliance certificate performs in accomplishing solid waste management – 1) representing the government, 2) regulating business operations in accordance with solid waste management practices, 3) affirming business entity’s compliance, 4) informing the general public of the business entity’s participation in solid waste management, 5) authorizing business operations in consideration with solid waste management, and 6) documenting business entity’s participation in solid waste management. From the findings of this study, the researcher advances the Ventriloquized- Animated Authority Theory. Non-human agents, like the compliance certificate, possess ventriloquized and animated authority. Ventriloquized-Animated Authority is that kind of authority that the non-human agents derive from their being ventriloquized (given voices to speak) and animated (acted upon to act) by some higher unseen principals. The voices given to non-human agents by more powerful unseen principals grant them the strength and the power to speak about influential messages that move human agents to act. Likewise, the force of persuasion exerted on the non-human agents by a more powerful unseen principal also pushes the human actors to perform something geared toward the accomplishment of organizational goals. Thus, as a textual agent, the compliance certificate possesses this authority that compels business entities to participate in solid waste management, contributing to the accomplishment of organizational goals and the national vision. With this, this study contributes this concept that non-human agents, like the compliance certificate which is a textual agent, really exert influences on and contribute to organizational dynamics and accomplishment as they participate in various communicative practices that shape and define organizations, as emphasized by the concept of CCO (Communication as Constitutive of Organization) under the Montreal School of Organizational Communication.