Developing an FPDA Approach: The Management Team Study

Abstract

In this chapter, I introduce the second research study to which I apply the method of feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis (FPDA). A case study was conducted over a period of a few weeks in Hook3 (a pseudonym), a small but successful British dotcom company. The study focuses upon the speech and non-verbal interactions of a group of senior managers within the setting of two in-house business meetings. The purpose of this chapter is therefore to set the scene for the management team study, highlighting the particular process by which I came to identify four intersecting discourses at work in this setting which appeared not only to govern the spoken interactions of this group of managers, but also to constitute the business culture of Hook3. The feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis is conducted in Chapter 7.