voice and isomorphism in organizational discourse

[Kenneth N. Ehrensal]

A few years ago I published an article titled "Discourses of Global
Competition: Obscurring the Changing Labor Processes of White Collar Work"
in the Journal of Organization Change Management (, Vol. 8, No 5, Fall
1995).  I think it may, in part, be making the kinds of arguments that you
are looking for.


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America Works Best When We Say, "Union YES!"
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Ken Ehrensal
Associate Professor
Management Department
Kutztown University
(610) 683.4599
ehrensal at kutztown.edu
http://www.kutztown.edu/~ehrensal
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Johnstone" <bj4 at ANDREW.CMU.EDU>
To: <DISCOURS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Thursday, 19 October, 2000 8:41 AM
Subject: voice and isomorphism in organizational discourse


> A student in sociology here with whom I'm working is developing a
> dissertation project in which she will be using discourse analysis to
> explore the idea that organizations are under pressure from their
> environments to make their practices (discursive and otherwise)
increasingly
> similar to those of other organizations.  Her  general framework is
> Institutional Theory.  She has run into difficulties with a faculty member
> in her department who mistrusts interpretive, non-quantitative work of
this
> sort and is looking for evidence that other people are doing this sort of
> thing.  I hope people on this list might be able to help.  Here is how
> Eleanor puts the issue:
> >
> > One of the things he [the other faculty member] really wants me to do is
> better support my argument that
> > texts written in the voice of the organization should display more
> > responsiveness to institutional pressures (be more isomorphic or
similar)
> > than those that use the voice of the individual.
> >
> > So I'm looking for any research on the difference between texts that
speak
> > for an organization and texts that speak for an individual (although
> created
> > by multiple people in an organization). Do you know of anyone who has
> > actually compared these types of texts or made this distinction? It's a
> > little different than research on the effect of multiple authorship.
>
> Please respond directly to Eleanor (lewis at andrew.cmu.edu) and/or me
> (bj4 at andrew.cmu.edu).  If there's anything to report, we'll post a summary
> to the list -- once Eleanor's proposal has passed!
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Barbara
>
>
>
> ____________________________
>
> Barbara Johnstone
> Professor of Rhetoric and Linguistics
> Department of English
> Carnegie Mellon University
> Pittsburgh PA  15213-3890
> bj4 at andrew.cmu.edu
> +1 412 268 6447
>




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