This book showcases various methodological approaches to the analysis of organizational talk and text. Arguing that organizations are discursive constructions that are communicatively constituted, the authors use the analysis of transcripts of audio-recordings of naturally-occurring workplace talk and authentic written texts to demonstrate what applied linguistics has to offer to scholarly research into organizations as well as management practice and training. The authors discuss the theoretical underpinnings of discursive approaches to the role language in the communicative constitution of organization, and then each chapter focuses on one particular analytical approach. The chapters cover conversation analysis; membership categorization analysis, positioning theory; ventriloquism; metaphor analysis; and metadiscourse analysis and computer-mediated discourse analysis. Consequently, this interdisciplinary work presents a number of methods that allow researchers unfamiliar with fine-grained linguistic analyses of naturally-occurring talk and text to explore ways of adding to their repertoire of research skills.

With a focus on outcomes-based education, this business communication manual caters to the needs of students of business communication at universities, technikons, and private colleges with updated information on writing e-mail messages and using the Internet. Adopting the premise that poor communication can cost an organization business and competitive status in the marketplace, this text focuses on refining and clarifying the products of communication within the company and with the public. Particular focus is paid to interpersonal conversation in small groups, formal meetings, and interviews; written clarity in internal business plans, e-mails, and memos; accessible materials for mass communication and public relations; and rules of basic grammar and punctuation. Examples of all mentioned tools are provided along with the theory and practice of their use.

With the growing influence of discursive and narrative perspectives on organizing, organizational scholars are focusing increasing attention on the constitutive role that language and communication play in organizational processes. This view conceptualizes language and communication as bringing organization into being in every instant and is therefore inherently sympathetic to a process perspective. However, our understanding of the role of language in unfolding organizational processes and as a part of organizational action is still limited. This volume brings together empirical and/or conceptual contributions from leading scholars in organization and communication to develop understanding of language and communication as constitutive of work, and also analyze how language and communication actually work to achieve influence in the context of organizations. It aims to elucidate the role language, communication, and narrativity play as part of strategic and institutional work in and around organizational phenomena. In keeping with the preceding volumes in the Perspectives on Process Organization Studies series, this collection demonstrates why we need to start thinking processually and offers a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying these 'works in process' that we call organizations, companies, businesses, institutions, communities, associations, or NGOs

What is an organization? What are the building blocks that ultimately constitute this social form, so pervasive in our daily life? Like Augustine facing the problem of time, we all know what an organization is, but we seem unable to explain it. This book brings an original answer by mobilizing concepts traditionally reserved to linguistics, analytical philosophy, and semiotics. Based on Algirdas Julien Greimas’ semio-narrative model of action and Jacques Derrida’s concept of écriture, a reconceptualization of speech act theory is proposed in which communication is treated as an act of delegation where human and nonhuman agents are mobilized (texts, machines, employees, architectural elements, managers, etc.). Perfectly congruent with the last development of the sociology of translation developed by Michel Callon and Bruno Latour, this perspective illustrates the organizing property of communication through a process called ‘interactoriality’. Jacques Lacan used to say that the unconscious is structured like a language. This book shows that a social organization is structured like a narrative.

Communication as Organizing unites multiple reflections on the role of language under a single rubric: the organizing role of communication. Stemming from Jim Taylor's earlier work, The Emergent Organization: Communication as Its Site and Surface (LEA, 2000), the volume editors present a communicational answer to the question, "what is an organization?" through contributions from an international set of scholars and researchers. The chapter authors synthesize various lines of research on constituting organizations through communication, describing their explorations of the relation between language, human practice, and the constitution of organizational forms. Each chapter develops a dimension of the central theme, showing how such concepts as agency, identity, sensemaking, narrative and account may be put to work in discursive analysis to develop effective research into organizing processes. The contributions employ concrete examples to show how the theoretical concepts can be employed to develop effective research. This distinctive volume encourages readers to discover and develop a truly communicational means of addressing the question of organization, addressing how organization itself emerges in the course of communicational transactions. In presenting a single and entirely communicational perspective for exploring organizational phenomena, grounded in the discourse of communicational transactions and the establishment of relationships through language, it is required reading for scholars, researchers, and graduate students working in organizational communication, management, social psychology, pragmatics of language, and organizational studies.

Communication in organizations has changed drastically since the release of the first edition of this bestselling textbook. This fully revised and updated edition delves into state-of-the-art studies, providing fresh insights into the challenges that organizations face today. Yet this foundational resource remains a cornerstone in the examination of classic research and theory in organization communication.

This volume explores communication in organizations and advances the theory that an organization is both a pragmatic and cognitive construction. It is written for scholars in organizational communication, org studies, management, and related fields.

This volume presents mayor contributions of Applied Linguistics to the understanding of communications in the professions. The first two parts of this book deal with the theoretical and methodological orientations of professional communication studies, the history and development of professional communication studies, highlighting the discursive turn of Applied Linguistic research that goes far beyond the established paradigm of Language for Specific Purposes. The third part - the core of this book - presents research into professional practices from various domains (e.g. law, healthcare, business and management, organizations), sites of engagement (as e.g. lawyer-client-conference, doctor-patient interaction) and with respect to different themes that are generalizable across domains and sites (as e.g. communicative aspects of action and practice, of assessment and appraisal). In the final part, professionals from various domains evaluate the contribution to their work so far made by Applied Linguistics.

`Makes fascinating reading and at the same time provides a good grounding in the study of the language of organizations, both for those who know little of the area and for those who are looking for a comprehensive overview of the field. Overall I would warmly recommend this book as an asset for students and teachers of organizational behaviour and for those with a general interest in the way in which language shapes our lives and work′ - Organization Studies `The book is extremely clear in its explanation of how language works.... The authors treat their readers as curious, intelligent and concerned to find new and powerful tools to come at the workings of organizations from a lateral and newly illuminating perspective′ - Virginia Valentine, Semiotic Solutions, London `The authors are able to apply their personal fascination with language to give students insights into organisational behaviour that significantly surpasses what is normally achieved by the tired old rituals of standard organizational behaviour texts and teaching′ - Tony Watson, Nottingham Trent University Taking issue with functional approaches to communication, Understanding Organizations through Language offers a viable alternative based on `webs of meaning′. Instead of viewing communication as a thing that can be unproblematically controlled and managed, the authors use semiology as a theoretical bedrock to develop a new metaphor for communication. Understanding Organizations through Language applies this approach to areas of interest, including: metaphor, story-telling, discourse, gender, leadership and electronic communication. Spanning the gap between highly theoretical organization studies texts and highly prescriptive communication texts, the book talks to the reader in a sophisticated yet approachable style. This style is complemented by a range of examples, activities and mini case studies. Also included are chapter summaries and further reading suggestions, making this a useful text for both academics and students. Advanced undergraduates and postgraduates will utilize this book for any course dealing with communication, particularly courses in HRM and organizational behaviour.

This text provides a forum where the relationship between language and organization is represented and critically explored. It deals with issues such as power, knowledge and organizational discourse.