Discourse Analysis

In Organizational Studies
 

What's the definition of 'discourse'?

It depends who you ask...
Talk and texts as parts of social practice (Potter, 1996)
Modes of thought and vocabularies characterising institutions; domains of culture or cultural practices; fields of study, or the language of different social groups (Brooker, 1999)
Discourse may mean almost anything (Alvesson & Karreman, 2011)
 

What is for certain is that there are many different strands of discourse that can potentially be focused on in organizational studies.


How is our view and understanding of CEO’s shaped by the political and public discourses?
How do expat workers construct their self-identities within their organization?
How do bank tellers display their gendered, racial, and cultural identities through their talk in the workplace?


To answer such questions many discourses can be considered.The entangled discourse strands can be teased apart to reveal subjective realities, and perhaps particular subjective truths.

Discourse analysis is research about what and how people communicate. Such communication can include anything, from a simple sentence to a detailed linguistic analysis or even non – verbal language such as images or music.

Discourse Analysis:

is it a methodology or method?

It can be both!

Discourse analysis as a methodology is informed by particular ontological and epistemological assumptions: e.g. a Foucauldian approach that explores power and knowledge 

Discourse analysis can be used as a method, a particular tool with which to uncover meaning: e.g. Critical Discourse Analysis
If you have read the readings for this week, you will most probably have come to the conclusion that Discourse Analysis is a complex beast. In our opinion, this excellent Youtube clip takes that beast and tames it, sort of.... (top tip, we recommend several viewing for clarity: the more you watch this clip, the clearer the concepts become).

Why would a researcher in the business school want to utilise Discourse Analysis?

“The study of organizational discourse, and the way it shapes our habits of thought, by legitimizing particular objects of knowledge and influencing our epistemological preferences, is crucial for a deeper appreciation of the underlying motivational forces shaping the decisional priorities of both organizational theorists and practitioners alike”

(Chia, 2000, p. 514).

So how do you 'do' Discourse Analysis?

 

There are no standardized methods available for Discourse Analysis. Various textual analysis techniques may be used, from focus on specific utterances, to an analysis of a range of texts over time. Also, the phenomena under investigation and the context in which it appears will influence the choices made. Most importantly, the approach to analysis taken should make sense and be justifiable.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      (Phillips & Di Domenico, 2009) 

 

 

 

 
 


 

Harvey, L. Master, D. Muth, M. Pang, M. J. Woo, S.
© Copyright 2014. 705 Discourse Analysis Presentation.