Discourse Culture And Organization

This edited volume brings together leading international researchers from across the social sciences to examine the theoretical premises, methodological options and critical potentials of the Essex School of discourse analysis, founded on the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. In doing so, it presents a clear picture of a poststructuralist and post-foundational research program to postdisciplinary discourse research. Divided into three parts, it begins by elaborating the ontological, theoretical and methodological foundations of the Essex School’s approach to discourse analysis. The second part provides empirical case studies showing how the Essex School research program informs and instructs empirical discourse research. In the concluding third part authors explain how and with what possible consequences this strand of discourse research contributes to social practices of critique. It offers a crucial contribution to the further methodologization and operationalization of the Essex School’s approach so as to make it a viable alternative to discourse-analytical approaches that take dominant positions in today’s ‘field of discourse studies’. The book's transdisciplinary focus will attract readers who use discourse analysis in all areas of the social sciences and humanities, particularly applied linguistics, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy and history.

This major work from renowned scholars in the field, analyzes the role of language and symbolic media and shows how this enables us to move to new levels of understanding of contemporary organizational issues. An introductory chapter examines the role and growing importance of discourse in the study of organizations. It critically evaluates the contributions of various disciplines and defines organizational discourse as a subject area. The chapters in the first section, Talk and Action, explore the relationship between discourse, action and interaction and their impact on organizational structure and behaviour. Stories and Sensemaking focuses on the analytical potential of the `story′ as a means of illuminating the ways in which organizational members make sense of their experience of organization. Discourse and Organization includes contributions which demonstrate the fundamental significance of linguistic uSAGE and discursive construction to the ontologies of `organization′. Finally, a concluding discourse explores the claims and limitations of organizational discourse as a means of enriching our understanding of organization.

Providing an overview of domains such as study, methodologies and perspectives used in research, this text shows how discourse analysis has moved beyond its roots in literary theory to become an important approach in the study of organizations.

How can we study organizations from a discursive perspective? What are the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each perspective on organizational discourse? To what extent do discourse and communication constitute the organizational world? This accessible book addresses these questions by showing how classical organizational themes, objects and questions can be illuminated from various discursive perspectives. Six approaches are presented and explained: semiotics, rhetoric, speech act theory, conversation analysis/ethnomethodology, narrative analysis, and critical discourse analysis. These six perspectives are then mobilized throughout the book to study coordination and organizing, organizational culture and identity, as well as negotiation, decision making and conflicts in the context of meetings. The unifying thread of this volume is the communicative constitutive approach (CCO) to organizations, as implicitly or explicitly advocated by the great majority of organizational discourse analysts and theorists today. Throughout Organizational Discourse, this theme will help readers distinguish between discursive perspectives and other approaches to organizational life, and to understand how discourse matters in organizations.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BAAL BOOK PRIZE* Culture, Discourse, and the Workplace brings new theoretical and methodological insights to the complex relationship between language, culture, and identity in professional settings. Examining the politics of language use at work via a critical sociolinguistic approach, this book: Utilises three case studies from institutional and business contexts to provide a unique illustration of participants’ roles and ways of negotiating membership within the business meeting; Questions essentialist meanings of culture and the ways in which they constitute a powerful resource for employees to perpetuate or challenge the status quo in their professional setting; Includes a core section on methodology for the workplace discourse researcher as well as a section dedicated to FAQs and a worked example on data analysis; Provides future directions for workplace sociolinguistics as a field and makes a case for holistic research and multidisciplinary enquiry. Culture, Discourse, and the Workplace constitutes a key resource for students and teachers of intercultural communication and ESP and will also be of significant interest to researchers in the fields of workplace studies and business interaction.

Culture is an all-pervasive concept and phenomenon that exerts influence on our social lives in many different ways, not least in business and working life. Taking a discursive - and practice-related - approach to culture and intercultural collaboration, this book offers insight into a number of situations and incidents from the world of business and public organizations in which ways of talking about culture play a salient role in the development of collaboration and the shaping of identities and social roles. Thus, through the highlighting and discussion of cases from various professional contexts, the book provides an understanding of the mechanisms at play when we meet, talk, and work with people from other cultures, while suggesting how opportunities may be seized and challenges met. The book is comprised of ten case studies which provide theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives on the interplay between discourse, culture, and collaboration, and the effect of this on identity formation and the construction of social roles. This involves the presentation and discussion of these concepts in various organizational settings, such as large cross-border and multinational businesses, the public health sector, and education. The contributors are scholars from universities and business schools who have contributed substantially to the development of the field through the publication and dissemination of research in international journals and with international publishers. The book is for scholars, students, and professionals alike who take an interest in cultural issues and the way they are constructed in professional settings.

Trust and Discourse: Organizational perspectives offers a timely collection of new articles on the relationship between discursive practices in organizational or institutional contexts and the psychological/moral category of trust. As globalization, the drive for efficiency and accountability, and increased time pressure lead groups and individuals to rethink the way they communicate, it is becoming more and more important to investigate how these streamlined and impersonal forms of communication affect issues of responsibility, authenticity and – ultimately – trust. The book deals with a variety of organizational settings ranging from in-hospital bedside teaching encounters and government communication following a nuclear accident to job interviews and foreign news reporting. This comprehensive study of an emerging new field will provide essential reading for linguists, discourse analysts, communication scholars, and other social scientists interested in a range of perspectives on oral, written and digital language use in society, including interactional sociolinguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, ethnography, multimodality and organizational studies.

Bringing together prominent scholars from a variety of disciplines, "Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations" offers readers an engaging set of essays on the complicated relationship between discourse and the many institutions within which people act. Each author brings a unique theoretical perspective to conceptualizing how discourse is regulated and how it regulates when human activity is organized for such purposes as work or belonging to a profession. Together, the contributors to this collection offer a provocatively complex picture of what regulation means and the means of regulation.