Applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research

Critical discourse analysis has become an increasingly popular methodology in organization and management studies. In this article, the authors explore the potential for this methodology to be more widely used in strategic management research. They begin by identifying three research approaches that, to a greater or lesser extent, share a concern with the relationship between language and the formulation and implementation of strategy—strategy as a system of shared meaning, strategy as text and talk, and strategy as truth. They then discuss how critical discourse analysis can be used to extend and develop these approaches by exploiting their underlying complementarities. Finally, using the example of a recently completed case study of strategic change in a large banking and financial services institution, they explore the practical implications of applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research.

Does e-governance facilitate citizen empowerment in democracies? A critical discourse analysis

E-governance is professed to be a facilitator for citizen empowerment in both developed and developing democracies. Governments believe that being accessible online with no time barriers facilitates uniform services delivery, increasing the reach in developing democracies, while re-engaging passive citizens in developed democracies. Examining varied selected examples, in this paper, we take a closer look at this perception of e-governance being a catalyst in empowering citizens in democracies, through a critical discourse analysis. We focus on the elections and related issues, in particular, amongst some nations, as this process is regarded as crucial for the existence of democracies.

The politics of 'sustainability': a critical discourse analysis of Victorian Government policy discourse, 1999-2006

Since its emergence during the 1980s the idea of sustainability has come to provide the dominant frame within which environmental policy is debated. Thus, for many ‘sustainability’ represents the best way to address the economic, social and environmental effects of the myriad of environmental issues facing human societies, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, pollution of waterways, ozone depletion and climate change. There are however, widely divergent views advocated as to what sustainability means, which has important implications for how serious environmental issues are understood to be, why they are important, what has caused them, and what needs to be done to address them. Given the diversity of such views, the consequences for policy making, and the likelihood of effective responses being developed, are self evident. Within this context, this thesis investigates the politics of sustainability, focussing particularly on the way in which it is defined, because of the implications this has for the way in which environmental issues are understood and addressed. Following a review of various approaches to analysing environmental policy (traditional, mainstream, ecopolitical and discursive), Norman Fairclough’s approach to discourse analysis (Critical Discourse Analysis) was identified as having particular merit. Fairclough’s approach avoids the assumption that policy issues exist independently of the way they are framed and offers a perspective on discourse that links the social theoretical concerns of Foucault with the micro level concerns of linguistics. It also provides a means for taking environmental policy analysis in directions that that have attracted relatively limited attraction, namely the detailed analysis of the ideological effects of language on environmental policy. In this thesis Fairclough’s approach is used to explore how three storylines of sustainability (sustainable development, environmentally sustainable growth and transforming society) and their associated discourses shaped environmental policy making in Victoria, Australia, between 1999 and 2006. In undertaking this analysis, I examined the political and institutional context informing policy making (social practice); the contested process of text production (discourse practice), and; the detailed wording of a policy text (textual analysis). A major policy statement on environmental sustainability released by the Victorian Government in 2005 is subjected to detailed analysis. Based on the analysis undertaken, the substantive finding from this research is that rather than moving beyond neoliberalism, the Victorian Government embraced an approach to sustainability that was informed by neoliberalism and (weak) ecological modernisation, which constructs sustainability in ways that limit its importance and constrain the types of responses that could be advocated. In doing so, it drew heavily on notions of natural assets and ecosystems services as ways to make sense of the environment and why it is important. The Victorian Government also highlighted that environmental issues are caused by the cumulative effects of individual choices, and emphasized the importance of individual choice and behavioural change as central features of sustainability, while restricting opportunities for more transformative ideas to be heard. The broader conclusion arising from this research is that approaches to environmental policy that rely on neoliberal and (weak) ecological modern discourses are flawed, because, in commodifying nature, limiting the nature and magnitude of change required, and placing responsibility onto individuals they offer a constrained understanding of the challenge of sustainability and what needs to be done about it. The overall contribution made by this research is an improved understanding of the discursive nature of the politics of sustainability and the influence of neoliberalism and ecological modernisation, the use of a methodology that has attracted relatively limited attention within environmental policy (despite its widespread use in other areas of policy) and the documentation of a period of significant environmental policy reform in Victoria.

Making strategic change: a critical discourse analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a discourse model that was developed for an empirical study of a strategic change program.Design/methodology/approach – The perspective informing the discourse model is that discursive processes are central to strategic change in organizations, and that strategic change works by constructing a particular organizational reality in which the possibilities for change are preconditioned. This perspective offers a discursive understanding of how strategic change is formed, articulated, engaged, and contested by managers and employees.Findings – The paper reports the findings from a study in which the discourse model was applied to a strategic change program in a Bank. The findings demonstrate the inter-discursive nature of strategic change in showing how different levels of discourse, from the grand to the local, were intertwined in an organizational and situated context.Research limitations/implications – This paper builds on the small but growing body of empirical work that studies organizational strategy as a discourse. In this paper it has been argued that discursive processes are central to strategic change in organizations - central to the understanding and the practice of how strategic change is formed, articulated, and engaged by managers and employees. This argument was informed by a post-structuralist definition and articulation of language and an understanding of language as discourse in organizations.Practical implications – The paper demonstrates the central role of language and discourse in the formation of a strategic change program. The findings reported in the paper show the importance of strategy discourse in providing a framework for strategic change, for mobilizing change in an organization, and for legitimizing the change imperative.Social implications – A critique of the management of emotional intelligence is set out. The centrality of employee identity and subject position to the processes of change is illustrated. Originality/value – The discourse model made possible an investigation of how a program of strategic change was formed through the discursive framing of organizational reality.

Response to Islamophobia in the Arabic Islamic discourse: a critical discourse analysis

In the aftermath of September 11, Muslim scholars made numerous attempts to explain Islamophobia from the Islamic perspective; they presented arguments that are not addressed in the Western narrative. Two texts in Arabic by the prominent Muslim preacher, Mohammad Hassan and by the Muslim orator Fadhel Sliman are analysed from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) viewpoint. This analysis aims to demonstrate how language is inextricably linked with ideology. This paper demonstrates that textual strategies in the Arabic Islamic discourse and their ideological implications show distinct characteristics some of which add to the present literature on discourse. The aim of the chosen texts is to educate and create solidarity between the speakers and the audience in fighting Islamophobia. The reliance of the speakers on tactics such as quoting from the Holy Qur’ān and ḥadīth to defend Islam, and choice of words and sentence structures may instigate discussions about the persuasive power of the Arabic Islamic narrative.

Improving how sustainability reports drive change: a critical discourse analysis

In this paper we use a form of discourse analysis to explore the 'activity' that three quite different sustainability reports set up as companies communicate their social and environmental performance. Our aim is to show what sustainability reports 'do' - in order to offer insights about what they 'could do'. We show that the companies are using sustainability reporting strategically, and that sustainability is embedded in to the company's strategic priorities. Where they mostly narrate and argue a point of view, sustainability reporting can offer additional benefits by transiting towards dialogue. Dialogue provides stakeholders with the means to engage substantially with companies, and also introduce new discourses that may open up new directions in how companies contribute to sustainability.

Values underlying the National Service Framework for coronary heart disease in England : a discourse analysis

OBJECTIVES: The National Service Framework (NSF) for Coronary Heart Disease--published by the English Department of Health in 2000--sets out how those within the health service should seek to prevent and treat coronary heart disease and care for people with the disease. Its prescriptions are partly based on what is known about coronary heart disease and partly on its underlying 'values'. This paper seeks to identify those values.

METHODS:An analysis of the discourses within the text of the NSF based on critical discourse analysis.

RESULTS: Three different discourses can be identified: the managerial, the clinical and the political. The managerial discourse is dominant. Each discourse has its own values. The main 'aspirational' values within the NSF are efficiency, effectiveness, autonomy (choice), universalism and equity. Some aspirational values--particularly equity--appear to be largely rhetorical and lead to few recommendations or prescriptions. Some values that might have been expected to underlie the framework, such as compassion and democracy, are largely absent.

CONCLUSIONS: Discourse analysis provides a more systematic and transparent method of describing the values behind health care policy than the methods that have been used previously.

Foucault's 'What is an author' : towards a critical discourse of practice as research

A vexed issue for many artistic researchers is related to the need for the artist/researcher to write about his or her own work in the research report or exegesis. In the creative arts, the outcomes that emerge from an alternative logic of practice are not easily quantifiable and it can be difficult to articulate conclusions objectively given the emotional and ideological investments and the intrinsically subjective dimension of the artistic process. How then, might the artist as researcher avoid on the one hand, what has been referred to as 'auto-connoisseurship', the undertaking of a thinly veiled labour of valorising what has been achieved in the creative work, or alternatively producing a research report that is mere description or history?

In this paper I suggest that a way of overcoming such a dilemma is for creative arts researchers to shift the critical focus away from the notion of the work as product, to an understanding of both studio enquiry and its outcomes as process. I’d like to draw on Michel Foucault’s essay ‘What is An Author ‘ to explore how we might move away from art criticism to the notion of a critical discourse of practice-led enquiry that involves viewing the artist as a researcher, and the artist/critic as a scholar who comments on the value of the artistic process as the production of knowledge.

Foucault’s essay provides artistic researchers with a template for more objective and distanced discourse on the practice-led research process and its writing. It allows researchers to locate themselves within contexts of theory and practice and provides an analytical framework though which researchers might locate themselves and their work within the broader social arena and field of research, As I will show with reference to the work of Donna Haraway and a number of commentaries on Pablo Picasso’s Demioselles d’Avignon, an application of Foucault’s ideas need not negate those subjective and situated aspects of practice as research.

Governing employees in the "Bank": a discourse analysis of strategic change

This paper reports the findings from a study of ‘Transform’, a Bank’s strategic change program. The study was carried out by developing and applying a discursive model of strategic change to Transform. Findings are presented about how Transform was constructed from ‘grand discourses’ of business and science that were drawn on by senior management, and how a ‘local discourse’ of the self was formed at the intersection of these grand discourses. This paper is concerned with how senior management has attempted to govern employee identity and practices through the construction of Transform. In this respect Transform can be understood as a discourse which was designed to regulate identity and influence employee practices by constructing and disseminating a particular reality for the Bank and its employees.

Using critical ethnography to explore issues in health promotion

In this article, the author outlines the need for a critical research method in the field of health promotion to explore the determinants of health. These determinants, including healthy child development, employment and working conditions, and education, for example, underlie many of the health issues that individuals experience. They are, in turn, influenced by nebulous factors such as patterns of inequality, and cultural norms, which are difficult to research using conventional methodologies. The author provides an overview of critical ethnography as a method for health promotion research. She describes specific data collection and analysis techniques, with the addition of critical discourse analysis to add scope to ethnographic findings. She concludes with an overview of the congruence between critical ethnography and health promotion research, including a discussion of the differences between critical ethnography and participatory action research.

Perceived discrimination in Mapuche discourse : contemporary racism in Chilean society

This paper documents the experiences of perceived discrimination by Mapuches, the largest aboriginal group in Chile, focusing on their oral discourse about the phenomenon. As part of a national research project, 100 Mapuches were interviewed about their perception of discrimination toward them. These interviews were analyzed using the four-level method developed by Merino, which is mainly based on local semantic strategies and argumentative sequences and topoi. The analysis suggests that racism is experienced in everyday interethnic interactions by means of four modes: verbal, behavioral, institutional and macro-social. Verbal racism includes name-calling (e.g. 'indio' [Indian]) and stereotyping (e.g. 'primitive'), and prejudiced remarks. Behavioral racism includes looking, ignoring, avoiding, segregating and denial of identity. In the institutional mode, denial of opportunities and discrimination in various public offices, private institutions and services are frequent, with perpetrators acting on behalf of the institution for which they work. The macro-social mode includes cultural dominance of the economic and educational systems, and an ethnocentric perspective of history. The findings suggest the presence of a racist ideology underlying Mapuche's discursive reproduction of the way Chileans talk and think about them and behave toward them.