Decolonializing discourse: Critical reflections on organizational discourse analysis

Summary, in English

Organizational discourse has emerged as a large research field and references to discourse are numerous. As with all dominating approaches problematizations of assumptions are important. This article, partly a follow up of the authors' frequently cited 2000 Human Relations article, provides a critical and perhaps provocative overview of some of the more recent work and tendencies within the field. It is argued that discourse continues to be used in vague and all-embracing ways, where the constitutive effects of discourse are taken for granted rather than problematized and explored. The article identifies three particular problems prevalent in the current organizational discourse literature: reductionism, overpacking, and colonization and suggests three analytical strategies to overcome these problems: counter-balancing concepts - aiming to avoid seeing 'everything' as discourse - relativizing muscularity - being more open about discourse's constitutive effects - and disconnecting discourse and Discourse through much more disciplined use of discourse vocabulary.

• Author: Mats Alvesson; Dan Kärreman
• Department/s: Department of Business Administration; Institute of Economic Research
• Publishing year: 2011
• Language: English
• Pages: 1121-1146
• Publication/Series: Human Relations
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 9
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726711408629
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Topic: Business Administration; Economics and Business
• Keywords: discourse; language; methodology; organizational culture; power; subjectivity
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0018-7267