ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main studies on organizational discourse, and explores how written and oral discourses influence an organization’s social reality. Some studies on discourse have relied on Foucault’s work and emphasise the constitutive, and not merely reflective, role of discourse. Constructivist studies regard discourses as builders of the organizing process within organizations. Critical studies regarding organizational discourse focus on the ways in which contending constituencies and players use power and political relations to privilege and affirm discourses that give advantage to their interests over others. Social-linguistic Analysis is constructivist and text-based. This research approach aims to take a close look at the structure and content of texts in order to explore organizations and the construction of their reality. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) defines discourse as a form of social practice which both constitutes the social world and is constituted by other social practices.
