Electronic Discourse, Agency, and Organizational Change at Enron Corporation

Abstract

This essay expands on Turnage’s (2013) examination of employees’ use of metaphor at the now defunct Enron Corporation. That article analyzed metaphors found in employee e-mail messages sent directly to former CEO Ken Lay before and during the Enron organizational crisis. Turnage argued that the metaphors employees used represented “organizational resistance through technological means.” Following that argument, the current essay more theoretically explores the role of e-mail messages as technological objects that can create, maintain, and instigate change in organizational discourse. Using actor-network theory, the analysis provides a rare, real-world example of “hybrid agency” taking place between user and technology.