Discourse Analysis Organizational Analysis

Advances in Strategic Management, 2010

Organization, 2005

Fleetwood, S. (2005) The ontology of organisation and management studies: A critical realist approach. Organization, 12 (2). pp. 197-222. ISSN 1350-5084

Human Relations, 2015

Working at the intersection of narrative and psychoanalytic theory, we present in this paper an affective conceptualization of identity dynamics during times of career change, incorporating the notion of unconscious desires. We propose that frictions in career change narratives, such as the paradoxical co-existence of coherence and ambiguity, allude to unconscious subtexts that can become 'readable' in the narrative when applying a psychoanalytic framework. We point to the analysis of 30 life story interviews with former management consultants who report upon a past and/or anticipated career change for illustration. By linking three empirically derived narrative strategies for combining coherence and ambiguity (ignoring the change, admitting the ambiguity and depicting a wishful future) with three conceptually informed psychoanalytic ego-defenses (denial, rationalization and sublimation), we provide an analytic framework that helps to explain why workers in transition may try to preserve both coherence and ambiguity when constructing a sense of self through narrative. The analysis of unconscious subtexts reveals that, in times of career change, people's identity constructions are driven by conflicting unconscious desires for self-continuity on one hand and openness on the other.

British Journal of Management, 2013

This paper analyses how top managers account for their consumption of popular management concepts. By 'consumption' we refer to managers acting as active users of popular management concepts within their organizations. After reviewing the relevant literature, we argue that the logic of appropriateness is a better theoretical perspective to view, understand and analyse managers' accounts of concept consumption than is the logic of consequence. We apply this perspective to extensive interviews we conducted with top managers in Germany. Based on the managers' own accounts of how they understand and apply popular management concepts, we identified four discourse categories: (1) learning from others' experiences, (2) controlling organizational change, (3) gaining external legitimacy and (4) collective sensemaking. We argue that these discourse categories all draw on the social norm of rationality central to managerial identity, while differing in socially defined rules about how rationality is realized in typical management situations. Our findings strongly encourage researchers, when investigating popular management concepts in the future, to take into account the situational nature of rationality that circumstantiates the consumption of concepts.

Management Communication Quarterly, 2006

'Discourse', as Norman Fairclough and his co-editors noted in the introduction to their new journal, Critical Discourse Studies, (2004), is now well established as category in social sciences. And yet, as they also note, there are significant differences as to what 'discourse' and 'discourse analysis' refers. These differences are, they argue, due to different theoretical, academic and cultural traditions and how they 'push discourse in different directions' (2004:4). In this review essay I sketch out the key direction that 'discourse' has been pushed or pulled in organization studies (see also Alvesson and Karreman, 2000; Chia, 2000; Grant et al, 2004; Fairhurst and Putnam, 2004; Prichard et al, 2004). To set the scene for this I review two books that seek to advance our understanding of discourse and language analysis in organization studies. Each has its strengths but both are relatively disengaged from the journal literature in the same field. In response to this weakness I will present a brief citation-based analysis of 'discourse analysis' in the management and organization studies field. This analysis brings to light eight different streams of work that are underway. Various forms of language analysis do feature among these. But the most prominent form is concerned with the analysis of knowledge and practice (particularly the distribution and character of various forms of management knowledge). I conclude by arguing that this, rather than forms of language analysis, is the distinctive form of discourse analysis in organization studies. In other words, and following on from the point by Fairclough and his colleagues, the dominant approach to 'discourse' in organization studies takes a distinctive form. There are many examples of this kind of work (see for example Westwood and Clegg, 2003), and among the most cited (see table 2) are those that provide critical analysis of management discourse (Du Gay,1994; Townley, 1993; Kerfoot and Knights, 1998). The approach has some distinctive features including ambivalence over the particular 'media' in which (by which) it is articulated, performed or 'No, you don't, Vic.' 'I've been in love with you for weeks'. 'There's no such thing', she says. 'It's 'a rhetorical device' and a 'bourgeoisie fantasy'. 'Haven't you ever been in love, then?' 'When I was younger,' she says, 'I allowed myself to be constructed by the discourse of romantic love for a while yes.' 'What the hell does that mean?' 'We aren't essences, Vic. We aren't unique individual essences existing prior to language. There is only language'. 'What about this?' he says, sliding his hand between her legs. 'Language and biology', she says, opening her legs wider. 'Of course we have bodies, physical needs and appetites. My muscles contract when you touch me there-feel?' 'I feel, 'he says.

Organization, 2006

Cultural theories of organization generally focus on deciphering and deconstructing forms of meaning and social constructions of reality used in organizational behaviour. In line with this approach, Luhmann emphasizes the important role of distinctions and semantics for the production and orientation of organizations. However, producing organizations is, in his view, not just a matter of reality construction. It means the actual production of a specific social system using specific distinctions in recursively related communications. This paper first shows that Luhmann’s writings are helpful to identify the constitutive distinctions for organization as a specific type of social system. Relating Luhmann’s theory of organization to his theory of functionally differentiated society, it identifies, second, the specifying distinctions that are responsible for the specific problem orientations typical of modern organizations. In a third step, it shows how the distinctions and schemes used ...

Human Relations, 2006

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on the relationship between organizational discourses and subjectivity, revolving around whether organizational discourses determine individual subjectivity and the extent to which there is room for human agency. It does so by providing empirical illustrations of how organizational discourses constitute subjectivity during processes of recruitment in a large American consultancy firm operating in Sweden. The analysis illustrates how interviewers, by various discursive moves, initiate, support, control and follow up candidates' decision to join the company, as if it was an independent choice to join. Findings suggest that to the extent that subjectification takes place during the recruitment process it is dependent on the candidate's use and acceptance of organizational discourses as expressions of their own motives for working at the company. These findings have implications for the understanding of the relationship between organizational discourses and individual subjectivity and how subjectification processes may be studied in other practices and organizations. It argues that subjectification is an effect of the interaction between human agency and organizational discourses rather than in the determination of one to the other. Any attempt to analyse the impact of organizational discourse on individual subjectivity must take into account the possibility that subjects actively take part in their own self-construction and that this construction is produced in social interaction.

Journal of Management Inquiry, 2014

This article focuses on the process of writing where the purpose is to explore how it is possible to write a research account that is inviting and “alive” so that, in reading, novelty unfolds. The account includes an illustration of how I struggled with writing and eventually found a way forward in reading Bakhtin’s work on the polyphonic novel. Inspiration from this genre opened up a kind of “listening writing”: an embodied and prospective form of writing that questions the traditional role of plot, because it calls for a letting go of predesigned structures. Instead, it suggests a writing driven by the interplay of voices, curiosity, and openness to the next possible word. The article contributes to the discussion on how writing matters and, in particular, how “unfinalizable” writing practices, in which the author tries not to be the final mediator of meaning, can enrich organization studies.

Journal of Management Studies, 2020

The themes of organizing and sensemaking have reverberated throughout Weick's remarkable career and constitute one of the hallmarks of his contribution. We review his major works and show how Weick differentially emphasizes organizing and sensemaking over time and, eventually, arrives at a fuller integration of meaning and action. Initially, Weick (1969; 1979) models their relationship as linear, focusing on how organizing functioned as a context for sensemaking, an approach we label Sensemaking in Organizing. Later, however, Weick (1995a; 2005) construes their relationship in more dynamic, interactive, and reciprocal cycles, modeling sensemaking as the process whereby organizing is achieved, an approach we label Sensemaking as Organizing. We explore the evolution and implications of these approaches and discuss their impact on management scholarship. Finally, we draw out potential future research directions at the interface of organizing and sensemaking.

Organizações & Sociedade, 2015

Este trabalho tem como objetivo tratar o relacionamento entre vários discursos organizacionais, estudando o impacto das informações contidas no sistema de informações gerenciais sobre o discurso organizacional. Os discursos organizacionais são criados e trazem impactos na organização. A pesquisa surge motivada pela percepção de que existe uma lacuna relevante que pode ser minimizada ou eliminada ao proporcionar discussão sobre informações provenientes do sistema de informações gerenciais que reforçam, ajustam, legitimam ou destroem discursos. Foi desenvolvido um estudo de caso em uma organização industrial do setor de autopeças, em fase de crescimento, a partir de ferramentas da abordagem action research, em que foram analisados três níveis de discurso organizacional que são as crenças dos sócios, o empreendedorismo e os resultados financeiros reais. A partir da análise, foram estruturadas três proposições. Conclui-se que a ausência de informações gerenciais permite e demanda vários...

Cadernos EBAPE.BR, 2013

Nesse artigo se procurou analisar a articulação dos elementos concretos e/ou simbólicos do(s) lugar(es) que os sujeitos ocupam na organização com os aspectos relacionados ao modo como esses sujeitos produzem sentidos sobre si mesmos e sobre suas relações sociais. De maneira geral, a pesquisa aborda a problemática da produção (e controle) da subjetividade nas organizações. A organização em análise, uma prisão, foi abordada qualitativamente mediante um estudo de caso baseado em 15 entrevistas semiestruturadas que, após serem gravadas e transcritas, foram analisadas pela análise francesa do discurso. Identificou-se que o(s) lugar(es) no lugar organização, além de referência física, se referem a uma construção social relacionada a uma condição formal, a artefatos e a significações. O regime semiaberto, por exemplo, ao converter a frágil liberdade em ameaça ao "conforto" sólido da instituição total, fortalece a organização em detrimento do sujeito. Ajustar-se ao contexto organi...

Human Relations, 2006

Milton Friedman argues that moral development is not a proper concern for managers in their public role as agents of principals. For managers the sole criterion of good behaviour is the lawful promotion of the owners' interests; their moral development is presumed an entirely personal affair. From a critical perspective, Alasdair Mac In tyre also argues that moral concerns are antithetical to the technical and instrumental activities that characterize management. In this article, I argue that this separation of morality and management is neither necessary nor desirable. The purpose is to show that the development of a moral character is integral to good managerial practice. I describe this moral character as the more or less successful development of phronesis: a sensitivity to the appropriateness and limits of value convictions set within communities of practically oriented, purposive action. To further expand on this, I discuss the relevance of Aristotle's theory of rhetor...

International journal of qualitative methods, 2014

Discourse analysis is an important qualitative research approach across social science disciplines for analyzing (and challenging) how reality in a variety of organizational and institutional arenas is constructed. However, the process of conducting empirical discourse analyses remains challenging. In this article, we identify four key challenges involved in doing discourse analysis and recommend several "tools" derived from empirical practice to address these challenges. We demonstrate these recommendations by drawing on examples from an empirical discourse analysis study we conducted. Our tools and recommendations aim to facilitate conducting and writing up discourse analyses and may also contribute to addressing the identified challenges in other qualitative methodologies.