Cliff Oswick

Discourse and organization

Introduction - David Grant, Tom Keenoy and Cliff Oswick Organizational Discourse: Of Diversity, Dichotomy and Multi-Disciplinarity PART ONE: TALK AND ACTION A Discourse on Discourse - Robert J Marshak Redeeming the Meaning of Talk Workplace Conversations - Jill Woodilla The Text of Organizing Emotional Discourse in Organizations - Iain L Mangham Talk and Action - Cynthia Hardy, Thomas B Lawrence and Nelson Phillips Conversations and Narrative in Interorganizational Collaboration PART TWO: STORIES AND SENSE-MAKING Same Old Story or Changing Stories? Folkloric, Modern and Postmodern Mutations - Yiannis Gabriel As God Created the Earth... A Saga That Makes Sense? - Miriam Salzer-M[um]orling The Struggle with Sense - Anne Wallemacq and David Sims PART THREE: DISCOURSE AND SOCIAL THEORY Linearity, Control and Death - Gibson Burrell An Organization Is a Conversation - Gerrit Broekstra Metaphor, Language and Meaning - Didier Cazal and Dawn Inns Organizational Analysis as Discourse Analysis - Mike Reed A Critique PART FOUR: A CONCLUDING DISCOURSE Discourse, Organizations and Paradox - Richard Dunford and Ian Palmer

A Dialogic Analysis of Organizational Learning

Dialogue is often seen as the process through which the gap between individual and organizational learning is bridged. Here we demonstrate how the enactment of a discursive epistemology – a process which involves the social construction of a dramatized narrative – can be used to generate insights into organizational learning. Using extracts taken from the transcripts of 90 hours of tape-recorded dialogue, we illustrate how a small group of organizational stakeholders construct, deconstruct and re-construct meaning in relation to a critical organizational event (i.e. a learning opportunity)through a generative dialogical process. As a result of this analysis the dominant conceptualization of the role of dialogue in organizational learning – exemplified in Peter Senge’s work – is challenged. Here Senge’s output-driven, univocal account is rejected in favour of a polyphonic perspective which enables a deeper, richer and less constrained understanding of organizational learning to be developed.

Organizational Discourse: Domains, Debates, and Directions

Interest in the analysis of organizational discourse has expanded rapidly over the last two decades. In this article, we reflect critically on organizational discourse analysis as an approach to the study of organizations and management, highlighting both its strengths and areas of challenge. We begin with an explanation of the nature of organizational discourse analysis and outline some of the more significant contributions made to date. We then discuss existing classifications of approaches to the study of organizational discourse and suggest that they fall into two main categories: classifications by level of analysis and classifications by type of method. We argue that both of these approaches are inherently problematic and present an alternative way to understand the varieties of approaches to the analysis of organizational discourse based on within domain and across domain characterizations. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges that remain in the development of organizational discourse as...

Organizational Discourse: Key Contributions and Challenges

Abstract This article highlights the increasing significance of “organizational discourse” as a field of inquiry. It defines the term, identifies its antecedents, and provides a commentary on the articles published in this issue. In so doing, it outlines several ways in which organizational discourse contributes to the study and understanding of organizations. It also identifies a number of challenges faced by proponents of organizational discourse. It addresses each of these challenges in turn and suggests that in some cases they are not insurmountable while in others they are unwarranted.

Guest editorial: discourse and organizational change

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the contribution that discourse analysis can make to understanding organizational change.Design/methodology/approach – It identifies five key contributions. Discourse analytic approaches: reveal the important role of discourse in the social construction of organizational change; demonstrate how the meaning attached to organizational change initiatives comes about as a result of a discursive process of negotiation among key actors; show that the discourses of change should be regarded as intertextual; provide a valuable multi‐disciplinary perspective on change; and exhibit a capacity, to generate fresh insights into a wide variety of organizational change related issues.Findings – To illustrate these contributions the paper examines the five empirical studies included in this special issue. It discusses the potential for future discursive studies of organizational change phenomena and the implications of this for the field of organizational change more generally.Origina...

Looking forwards: discursive directions in organizational change

Purpose – This paper aims to review the discursive formation of organizational change and to consider the possible directions that change management initiatives may take in the future.Design/methodology/approach – This closing piece identifies a traditional change discourse and an emerging change discourse. This is achieved through a review of the extant literature and the contributions to the special issue.Findings – The paper highlights a shift of emphases in organizational change due to environmental imperatives. In particular, it reveals a move from problem‐centred, discrete interventions to a focus on continuous improvements. It also draws attention to the emerging significance of discourse‐based approaches concerned with image, identity, organizational learning and knowledge management.Originality/value – Provides a framework for classifying different forms of organizational change activity and posits directions for future development.

Boundary Objects Reconsidered: from Bridges and Anchors to Barricades and Mazes

Boundary objects have been presented in the extant literature as playing a pivotal role in initiating and facilitating change as they are considered to be an important means of transforming knowledge and changing practice across specialist knowledge domains. Boundary objects are typically developed and used in change programmes to provide a common frame of reference for communication across different domains of knowledge and practice. In this paper an alternative framing, based upon boundary objects as forms of texts, is developed. Three discursive approaches are used to re-analyze existing contributions to the literature. First, ‘intertextual analysis’ (Allen, 2000) is applied to Browns (2004) work on public inquiry reports. Second, ‘recontextualization’ (Bernstein, 1996) is used to reconsider Sapsed and Salters (2004) work on project management tools. Finally, Gantt charts (Yakura, 2002) are re-examined using Iedemas (1999) concept of ‘formalization’. By providing a discursive analysis of boundary objects the power implications of boundary objects are amplified in terms of aspects of authorship, readership and plurivocality which suggest that whilst in some instances boundary objects may operate as ‘bridges and anchors’ (Star and Griesemer, 1989, p. 414) supporting and promoting change, in others they might equally be perceived as barricades and mazes, reinforcing existing power structures and occupational hierarchies, and creating barriers to change.

IMAGES OF AN ORGANIZATION: THE USE OF METAPHOR IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY

This article presents the results of a metaphor‐based investigation of managers, supervisors and team leaders drawn from the UK subsidiaries of a large US multinational. Participants were asked two main questions, namely: if you were asked to compare your organisation to an animal – what animal would it be? and If the organisation was part of a car – what part of a car would it be? The selection of animals equates to aspects of organisational change. Images of heavy and slow moving animals exemplified low levels of change activity while lean, fast moving, and often predatory animals portray an adaptive organisation responding to a turbulent environment. The car part descriptions were largely concerned with aspects of corporate strategy and primarily conveyed the characteristics “movement” and “direction”. The article discusses these insights in relation to the case study organisation. It also considers the role, status and utility of metaphor in the study of organisations.

From Outer Words to Inner Worlds

Drawing primarily on the articles published in this edition of The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, this article examines two significant lacunae in the organizational discourse literature. First, the authors examine the methodological and practical implications of incorporating a discourse-sensitive perspective into everyday organizational analysis. Second, the authors explore the potential insights to be gained from discourse analysts developing a more focused methodological and substantive concern with the inner worlds from which discourse springs.

Burgeoning workplace spirituality? A textual analysis of momentum and directions

This paper provides a text‐based exploration of the extant discourse of workplace spirituality. A bibliometric analysis of more than two decades of books (n = 72), social science articles (n = 3129) and management articles (n = 232) is undertaken to examine the general trajectory of the phenomenon. A narrative approach, based on thematic analysis, is also applied to the sample of books. The analysis reveals a marked increase in workplace spirituality output in recent years and a classification of contributions based upon three dominant discursive themes (i.e. self‐help, spiritual leadership, and institutional and social change) is presented. The implications for future spiritually informed work in management are also discussed.