Organizational Talk Research Articles

Enabling selves to conduct themselves safely: Safety committee discourse as governmentality in practice

A developing body of literature argues that workplace safety is increasingly becoming the responsibility of employees who are the potential victims of hazards. Although interaction is an integral part of enacting and justifying these responsibilization processes, previous research has not provided detailed analysis of organizational talk in this regard. Following Brownlie’s (2004) ‘analytic bridging’ of Foucault and close discourse analysis, this study centres on a safety committee meeting, and demonstrates how governmentality is exercised as senior managers seek the consent of other employees for behavioural-safety implementation. Three discursive strategies are analysed in detail, examining the construction and invocation of: 1) an equal partnership through collaborative and vague talk; 2) hierarchy through directives and declaratives; 3) competitiveness by the establishment of a factory-versus-factory contest. In sum, these discursive strategies forcefully combine constructions of reciprocal relations together with disciplinary discourse that mandates compliance with program implementation.

Change, talk and sensemaking

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the change experience of a regional health centre that was merged in the late 1990s and shows how organizational talk becomes privileged in the change process, and how some talk becomes meaningful in the constitution of organizational identity.Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyzes the process through which some talk is privileged in the organizational change process. The deconstruction of language used throughout this analysis highlights the relationship between sites of power and the ability to affect sensemaking among organizational members. Using a post‐structuralist approach, the authors apply the analytic framework of critical sensemaking (CSM) and critical discourse analysis.Findings – Organizational talk is presented as the enactment of a sensemaking process and insights are offered into the process of how organizational identities are maintained, altered or constrained during change. The discursive effects of the language of change, inc...

Coping with the talent shortage

PurposeReviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsThere is no doubt that the war for talent is raging. Armies of recruitment consultants, brigades of head‐hunters and battalions of HR professionals are all joining the fight in a bid to identify and recruit the brightest stars. But what is talent? How can it be defined? Some organizations talk about their talent management programs that cover the whole organization which makes their definition too broad to carry any meaning whereas other companies see talent as only their new recruits which rules out any high potential performers already within the company.Practical implicationsProvides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

Investigating Classroom Discourse Surrounding Partner Reading

This study examined the functions that student talk served during partner reading events in a second grade classroom. Five major themes of talk emerged from the data including organizational, disputational, word strategy, meaning making and personal talk. All of these types of talk functioned to support partner reading except for personal talk, which occurred infrequently. The classroom teacher also provided support for these same discourses through her mini-lessons and read alouds.

Constructing identity and participation during technological change

The organizational practice of user participation in IT system development remains problematic. Two of the major issues identified are establishing the most effective strategy and selecting the most appropriate user representatives. Opinions on these issues vary according to theoretical perspective and empirical evidence does not provide definitive solutions. Taking a social constructionist perspective, this longitudinal case study of a contested technological change process allowed the exploration of organizational talk about user participation over time. In particular, we focus on differing and changing constructions of ‘the user’ and ‘effective participation’. We argue that claims about who represented an appropriate user and what was an appropriate participative strategy varied across time and fulfilled particular political functions. We conclude that issues identified as problems in the literature on user participation may rather be manifestations of the political and socially constructed nature of organizations.

‘Full-timer in a Part-time Job’: Identity Negotiation in Organizational Talk

In this article I explore the ways in which people talk about part-time work, with a particular focus on links which people make between working time, gender and professional identity. I investigate how women and men working part-time in financial sector organizations talk about their career, and their orientations to paid and unpaid work, and also how colleagues of these people talk about them. The analysis shows the links which participants routinely make between full-time work, professional commitment and gender. I demonstrate the ways in which participants negotiate with difficulty the category of ‘part-timer’, and in particular the problematic use of this category for men. The constructions of work, time and gender raised by the researchers are compared with the way participants themselves orient to categories, and implications for the research interview context are considered.

Fracturing the Real-Self?Fake-Self Dichotomy: Moving Toward "Crystallized" Organizational Discourses and Identities

This article begins with the following question: Why, even with the proliferation of poststructuralist theoretical understandings of identity, do people routinely talk in terms of “real” and “fake” selves? Through an analysis of critical empirical studies of identity-construction processes at work, this article makes the case that the real-self↔fake-self dichotomy is created and maintained through organizational talk and practices and, in turn, serves as a constitutive discourse that produces four subject positions with both symbolic and material consequences: strategized self-subordination, perpetually deferred identities, “auto-dressage,” and the production of “good little copers.” The article challenges scholars to reflexively consider the ways they may perpetuate the dichotomy in their own academic practices. Furthermore, the authors present the metaphor of the “crystallized self” as an alternative to the real-self↔fake-self dichotomy and suggest that communication scholars are well-poised to develop alternative vocabularies, theories, and understandings of identity within the popular imagination.

Places and Spaces: The Role of Metonymy in Organizational Talk

abstract Cultural meaning making as reflected in, and constituted by, organizational talk is an established field of interest in organizational analysis. However, the discursive mechanics of the process whereby this cultural meaning making is created and maintained are less well understood. The premise of this paper is that taken‐for‐granted assumptions embedded in organizational talk can be explored through the analysis of metonymy, a trope which is under explored in the linguistic turn in organization studies. This lack of focus on metonymy is, we believe, related to the fundamentally conventional nature of the trope in use, which expresses ideas, values and relationships that seem natural, normal and routine but which are culturally bound. We address this gap and carry out a metonymical analysis of organizational talk about physical places and spaces in one organization, to show how cultural norms and meanings are reflected, maintained, and potentially changed in these figures of speech. We show how metonymic chains based on buildings can reflect, reify and simplify the symbolic order of the organization, how these symbolic meanings can be transferred on to other inanimate objects and the constructions thereby spread, how people can be constructed within this symbolic chain, and how these metonymic chains can be invoked to potentially confirm, challenge or change the organizational order.

Future perspectives including fuel cells, gas turbines, USC and HGCU the US perspective

Both the US Department of Energy (DOE) and EPRI are developing models for the evolution of a secure energy future for the USA. Our general views are very similar. However, there are some differences in approach. DOE is concerned with all energy issues in the US future, including electricity, transportation fuels, and the industrial, commercial, and residential energy sectors; EPRI is concerned specifically with the electricity component, principally in the USA, but, as does DOE, also takes a global view.Both organizations take what is now known as a ‘Roadmapping’ approach. Roadmapping is an example of a ‘Top Down’ planning method: it involves the specification of a “destination” which the research and development program is aimed towards. In the DOE case, the destination refers to a secure energy future. Typically, Roadmapping is concerned with relatively long time scales. Time scales for different technologies are, of course, very different; in a fast-moving technology such as semiconductors, five to ten years may be a long time. For energy, the equipment is large; planning and construction times are long, and the expected lifetimes of the major components are not less than twenty years, and more typically up to forty years. The time scale that both of our organizations talk about is in the range 20–50 years in the future. The DOE model is called ‘Vision 21.’ The specific destination for Vision 21 is the technical design bases for near-zero emission fossil fueled energy plants. The EPRI model is called the ‘Electricity Technology Roadmap’, and more recently we have ‘A Vision of the Electricity System of 2020.’ An important aspect of the method common to both DOE and EPRI is that the destination is developed by what is called a ‘Stakeholder’ group: this involves not only the researchers and developers, but also the eventual customers for the technology, and the users of the products. This will include members with environmental and societal concerns.In this paper, we will highlight some of the scenarios that emerge from these models. The first part will concentrate on the Department of Energy program; the latter part on the EPRI view, remembering that we are in close agreement on most aspects.

Perspectives on roadmaps: how organizations talk about the future

Roadmaps, in the traditional sense, are concerned mostly with space and position. In the way that industrial and public research institutions use the term, though, roadmaps reveal the time dimension of technological progress. The many and increasing applications of roadmaps have generated confusion about what they are for and what they accomplish amid the many tools and techniques of managing technology. Roadmapping is itself a trend, while it seeks to exploit the trends underlying technology. The practice has side effects, biases, and behavioral consequences that are often not visible to practitioners, and until now, were unexamined by researchers. This study provides an organizational perspective on roadmapping as currently practiced, presents the experience of several organizations that have implemented it, and evaluates the results.Using a case‐based, exploratory method the author addresses several practical questions, such as: What are the effects of roadmapping? How are they measured? Is roadmapping always appropriate? How would an organization know if it was roadmapping well? What are the various kinds of roadmaps and how do they relate to each other? In addition, some more general lessons about organizational behavior emerge from the case data. Cases were selected from several large industrial firms participating in a research consortium exploring the modern challenges and tools of technology management. These firms granted extensive access to the research team and actively participated in the analysis, demonstrating a unique and productive model of research collaboration between academic researchers and business practitioners.Central to an understanding of roadmapping behavior is noticing the tension between its dual nature. Roadmaps are both forecasts of what is possible or likely to happen, as well as plans that articulate a course of action. They are, in a sense, personal to their authors. Roadmaps can be used to align organizations in times of predictable change, but have limited insight into disruptive change. The most influential roadmaps originate as responses to perceived threats, and link the technical storyline to organizational and personal concerns. For those who would implement the technique, the article suggests practical ways to use these and other findings and offers basic definitions and vital questions for future research.

Perspectives on roadmaps: how organizations talk about the future

Roadmaps, in the traditional sense, are concerned mostly with space and position. In the way that industrial and public research institutions use the term, though, roadmaps reveal the time dimension of technological progress. The many and increasing applications of roadmaps have generated confusion about what they are for and what they accomplish amid the many tools and techniques of managing technology. Roadmapping is itself a trend, while it seeks to exploit the trends underlying technology. The practice has side effects, biases, and behavioral consequences that are often not visible to practitioners, and until now, were unexamined by researchers. This study provides an organizational perspective on roadmapping as currently practiced, presents the experience of several organizations that have implemented it, and evaluates the results. Using a case-based, exploratory method the author addresses several practical questions, such as: What are the effects of roadmapping? How are they measured? Is roadmapping always appropriate? How would an organization know if it was roadmapping well? What are the various kinds of roadmaps and how do they relate to each other? In addition, some more general lessons about organizational behavior emerge from the case data. Cases were selected from several large industrial firms participating in a research consortium exploring the modern challenges and tools of technology management. These firms granted extensive access to the research team and actively participated in the analysis, demonstrating a unique and productive model of research collaboration between academic researchers and business practitioners. Central to an understanding of roadmapping behavior is noticing the tension between its dual nature. Roadmaps are both forecasts of what is possible or likely to happen, as well as plans that articulate a course of action. They are, in a sense, personal to their authors. Roadmaps can be used to align organizations in times of predictable change, but have limited insight into disruptive change. The most influential roadmaps originate as responses to perceived threats, and link the technical storyline to organizational and personal concerns. For those who would implement the technique, the article suggests practical ways to use these and other findings and offers basic definitions and vital questions for future research.

Everyday rhetoric: Argument and persuasion in everyday life

While the study of rhetoric in the humanities has an impressive pedigree, rhetorical analysis in organization studies is rather less developed. In this article, I want to provide an introduction to rhetorical analysis, drawing particularly on the work of Billig (1996) and Potter (1996), and illustrate its application to organizational issues through a case example concerning technological change in a public sector organization. In doing this, I demonstrate how alternative approaches to traditional positivism may augment the explanatory power of research in work and organizational psychology. In particular, I want to argue that an awareness of the everyday rhetoric of organizational talk can be illuminating in explaining how the work of an organization is accomplished.

Strategically Speaking: The Problem of Essentializing Terms in Feminist Theory and Feminist Organizational Talk

This paper examines the discursive construction of collective identity in several feminist organizations, as a way of shedding new light on the debate over “essentializing” or “totalizing” terms in contemporary feminist/postmodernist theory. We argue that while this debate is about language, it has remained largely untouched by the insights of a discursive approach. The latter as we take it up here treats language as irremediably “strategic” or “interested.” In contrast, the feminist argument over essentializing terms appears to hold to a correspondence version of language, a position which limits the debate in fatal ways. Part 1 reviews the argument that terms such as “women”, “feminist” and “feminist identity” are essentializing discourses which dominate by silencing difference. Part 2 then considers the way one such concept – feminist identity – is actually constructed and used in the routine talk of members of feminist organizations. In Part 3 we draw out the implications of a discursive approach to such terms for the feminist/postmodernist debate.

Gender stereotypes as cultural products of the organization

This study seeks to understand how organizational cultures produce gender stereotypes. It is suggested here that interpretations of what it means to be “successful” in a corporate culture, and the stories reflecting these ideals in organizational talk, can be a crucial means to an understanding of the phenomenon. Ethnographic interview material is used to illustrate the way in which contrasting ideals for male and female behaviour evolve and remain in organizational memory in an enterprise with highly gender-segregated work structures. These stereotypes will restrict individual choices within the organizational boundaries. It is further suggested that a tendency to glorify strong organizational cultures imbued with heroic ideals may favour male ways of acting in organizations.

Quality Improvement and Quality Management: Complementary or Contradictory?

Quality improvement processes (QIP's) and quality management systems (QMS's) are becoming part of manufacturing and service company language. In some cases, there are perceived differences between the concepts of continuous improvement and documented systems to ensure quality. The author has seen examples of QIP's and QMS's working in a complementary fashion to improve existing manufacturing and administrative processes. These examples show that quality improvement activities are compatible with and can enhance the effectiveness of QMS's if the two are integrated properly.

Metaphor analysis of social reality in organizations

Many organizational theorists have adopted models of organizations as consensual social realities. These realities are often inadequately described because the process by which they are produced and reproduced in organizations is not discussed. This paper briefly describes how this process takes place in discourse, providing a basis for analyzing organizational social realities. Following research on the metaphorical structure of language, a method of metaphor analysis which reveals these meaning structures is described. Analysis of metaphors displayed in organizational talk allows the explication of the implied possibilities inherent in the current organizational reality.