Claim, Intent, and Persuasion

One of the most notorious differences between the academic production on management carried out in Europe, compared to that in the United States, is the attention that European scholars give to the managerial discourse and rhetorics, especially in their textual or written embodiments. In fact, it is one of the few topics where the usual dominance of American scholarship (Engwall, 1998) does not hold. Discourses in management address basically two issues, most often of analytical intertwined in practice, differentiated here only because requirements. One, is the legitimization, both ideological and political, of management, basically geared at the justification of the differentials of power present in the coordination of collective action aimed at the consecution of economic objectives. As Bendix points out in Work and Authority in Industry, the most pressing challenge for this ideological work stems from the fact that in capitalism the logic of efficiency is hegemonic, and this is not easily conducive to the justification of status differentials. This is why managerial discourses are never open, straightforward, and why they are, in sum, clearly ideological.

Klappentext

The issue of organizational legitimacy is increasingly gaining the attention of researchers and managers. While legitimacy can be described in a number of ways, defined by the harder social sciences it has usually been considered a static, one-dimensional characteristic. As a result, previous studies have often failed to explore organization's operational strategies for gaining wide social legitimacy. The goal of Claim, Intent, and Persuasion: Organizational Legitimacy and the Rhetoric of Corporate Mission Statements is to explore how organizations enact strategies to gain legitimacy. The book employs a pluralistic definition of legitimacy that draw its concepts from the fields of organizational theory, sociology, political science and law. The dynamics of the legitimation process are explored through a study of corporate mission statements analyzed from a semiotic perspective. The book argues that various interpretations of the legitimation process can coexist through differing narrative strategies that offer corporations alternate ways to present themselves internally and externally. By setting up a multi-faceted theory of organizational legitimacy, supported by an empirical study of corporation mission statements, this book offers a new, more integrated interpretation of the legitimation process that seeks to advance the dialogue regarding the political and institution views of organizations.

Inhalt
1 Legitimation, Words, Organizational Politics: an Introduction to the Missing Links.- 2 Legitimacy: Landscapes and Organizational Dramas.- 3 Organizational Legitimation and the Process of Management Discourse Legitimation.- 4 Legitimacy of Organizational Missions and Missions of Organizational Legitimacy: Words and Narratives of Legitimation and Success.- 5 Conclusions. Beyond Legitimation: Sketches of a New Politics for Organizational Action.