Communicative power: A linguistic approach to the study of the microdynamics of organizations

Beatriz Dorriots and Inga-Lill Johansson

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 1999, vol. 15, issue 2, 193-211

Abstract: This article addresses the question of how communicative power is exercised in an organizational setting which is characterized according to its members as a "feminine" culture type (Hofstede, 1980, Organizational Dynamics, 9(1), 42-63). The purpose is threefold: firstly, to operationalize the concepts of "dominance" and "control" in an organizational setting by using a linguistic approach; secondly, to investigate the contribution of a linguistic approach to organizational research in exploring social interaction and, thirdly, to discuss some practical and theoretical implications for managerial work. The linguistic approach, involving a microanalysis, provided an analytical basis for understanding the fine web of interaction in the organization. In this way it served as an instrument for rendering visible the various steps in the interpretation, and the links between them. Against our theoretically grounded expectations, the empirical results suggest that the distribution of power cannot alone explain the extent to which institutional and cultural resources can be mobilized and organizations changed.

Keywords: Organizational; change; Communicative; power; Feminine; culture; Consulting; firm; Linguistic; approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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