Common language in the workplace: An approach devoid of social perspective?

Abstract

This paper puts under scrutiny a contemporary management tool called “common language”. This concept derives both from the idea of “freedom” of speech in the workplace, as set up by the Auroux Act, and from the “participative” management approach that emerged in the early 1980s. “Common language” has been developed as part of corporate culture consisting in creating a common culture in which workers can identify themselves; the aim being to coordinate the workers’ actions so they contribute to corporate success. We analyze “common language” as a theoretical construct within a corpus of corporate communication manuals. This study is multidisciplinary: it is mainly based on sociology, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. We postulate that “common language” is a vision devoid of social perspective, based on an endemic culture where linguistic, cultural, historical and thus social questions are minimized. This interpretation leads us to question whether freedom of speech in the workplace is real or not. Indeed, in the corporate communication manuals studied, language at work is limited to a “theoretical reason”. Ultimately, the rationalization of language in the workplace suggests a technological rationality close to classical management.