The Algorithmic Mediation of Management Fashions: Authority, Amplification, Communication

Dag Øivind Madsen¹Kåre Slåtten^2*

• ¹University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), Kongsberg, Norway
• ²Universitetet i Sorost-Norge, Kongsberg, Norway

Management fashions have long been explained as the result of charismatic gurus, consultants, and professional media who confer legitimacy on new ideas. In the platform era, however, the circulation of management ideas is increasingly mediated by algorithms that privilege certain communicative forms while obscuring others. Building on management fashion theory, this paper conceptualizes algorithms as non-human actors that participate in the communicative construction of authority and legitimacy. The analysis draws on the concept of algorithmic meta-capital to explain how human actors navigate and exploit platform logics through reflexive adaptation. Using the diffusion of Agile as an illustrative example, the paper shows how visibility and meaning shift across platforms such as LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. Legitimacy is reframed as a hybrid outcome of authenticity performance and algorithmic amplification, extending management fashion theory into the domain of organizational communication. Six propositions outline how algorithmic authority, amplification, and meta-capital reshape diffusion dynamics, communicative lifecycles, and the politics of visibility in the platform age.Management fashions have long been explained as the result of charismatic gurus, consultants, and professional media who confer legitimacy on new ideas. In the platform era, however, the circulation of management ideas is increasingly mediated by algorithms that privilege some forms of communication while obscuring others. This paper conceptualizes algorithms as non-human actors that participate in the communicative construction of authority and legitimacy. Building on management fashion theory, it develops six propositions showing how algorithmic authority and amplification reconfigure diffusion processes. The analysis highlights the role of social proof and platform affordances in shaping not only the speed but also the communicative form of management fashions. The paper contributes to organizational communication by foregrounding the algorithmic infrastructures through which legitimacy is performed, amplified, and sustained, and it outlines a research agenda for studying how platforms mediate the visibility and authority of managerial discourse.