Discourse and Organization

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.

Inhalt
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