Working under a black cloud:how to sustain organizational identification after a merger

This article argues against the merger folklore that maintains that a merger negatively affects well-being and work attitudes primarily through the threat of job insecurity. We hold that the workplace is not only a resource for fulfilling a person's financial needs, but that it is an important component of the self-concept in terms of identification with the organization, as explained by social identity theory. We unravel the key concepts of the social identity approach relevant to the analysis of mergers and review evidence from previous studies. Then, we present a study conducted during a merger to substantiate our ideas about the effects of post-merger organizational identification above and beyond the effects of perceived job insecurity. We recommend that managers should account for these psychological effects through the provision of continuity and specific types of communication. © 2006 British Academy of Management.

'Er's from off:the indexicalization and enregisterment of Black Country dialect

This article considers how conscious use of dialect in writing is an intentional act and can be accounted for through the notion of enregisterment. It does this by exploring the value of dialect in social and ideological contexts in relation to a regional dialect of British speech, that of the Black Country in the West Midlands region of England. The article provides a summary of recent directions in sociolinguistic research and an overview of the Black Country speech community, including a summary of its distinctive linguistic variables. This description is then used as an external evaluation of the authenticity of written representations of Black Country speech and the items enregistered in writing. Analysis of three written texts taken from three different genres across a time span of 30 years reveals the extent to which identified linguistic features are drawn upon in each one of the three texts and the extent to which any one is enregisterd across all three. The article discusses the social and linguistic contexts within which the writing occurs by way of accounting for their enregisterment as markers of identity linked to region and place. It also considers the ways in which the texts juxtapose norms and values of those "within" the community with those from "outside" the community in ways that subvert traditional notions of linguistic hierarchy.

West Midlands English:Birmingham and the Black Country

This chapter provides an overview, discussing firstly the boundaries of the West Midlands area today within which Birmingham and the Black Country are situated, taking account of how they have changed across time. It includes a section on the demographic make-up of the region across time, before moving on to consider issues relating to language, culture and identity in section 1.5 on the theoretical underpinnings of the research upon which much of this book is based, particularly in relation to Chapters 2, 3 and 4 is also included. Section 1.6 then considers issues relating to research design, and the different methodologies adopted in research design and data collection and analysis by three separate projects which inform the chapters of this book. The Geographical Limits of the west Midlands: Where does it begin and where does it end? The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (2010: http://www.lgbce.org.uk/) gives the geographical range of the west Midlands as the five counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The boundaries of these five shire counties date back to at least the twelfth century, being ancient subdivisions established by the Normans for administration purposes after the 1066 conquest. The shire counties were, in most cases, based on earlier Anglo-Saxon divisions. In 1974, as a result of population density concentrated in parts of the shire counties, a sixth county, that of the West Midlands, was carved out from parts of the three shire counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.