Tuesday, January 28th - Organizational Rhetoric

This week our readings were focused on the field of organizational rhetoric. The most important takeaway I personally experienced was the characteristics of organizational rhetoric. Many of these were mentioned in the Cheney (1991) article, such as managing multiple identities, de-centering, personification, strategic use of passive voice, and so forth. In class we added to this list with ideas such as the corporate "we", slogans and catchphrases, and strategic ambiguity. It may seem like this multiple takeaways, but to me, it is one. I can now conceptualize the practical ways in which organizations use rhetoric. Before this week, I thought that there was just a certain professional language that corporations use, such as the tense and vocabulary we use on resumés. I did not recognize that it was rhetoric at work.

A single example of this is the use of strategic ambiguity. This was explored in depth in the Eisenberg (1984) article. I would like to focus on the idea of strategic ambiguity promoting unified diversity. Whenever I would apply to internships or jobs, I would survey the company's website, including their mission statement and values. Most of the time, I would be pleasantly surprised with how my values aligned with those the company stated. When reading these types of things, I would think to myself, "How convenient, I should definitely apply here." For example, P&G's values include statements such as "We believe that people work best when there is a foundation of trust," and "We strive to be the best in all areas of strategic importance to the Company." Now, however, I realize that these values are stated in a way that is strategically ambiguous, so that any individual will interpret it to align with their perspective. Additionally, the bigger the company, the more likely they are to have these type of ambiguous statements. My acquisition of the concept of organizational rhetoric will allow me to be more discerning in the future and take messages from organizations with a grain of salt.

Cheney, G. (1991). Rhetoric, identity, and organization. Rhetoric in an organizational society: Managing multiple identities (pp. 1-33). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

Eisenberg, E. M. (1984). Ambiguity as strategy in organizational communication. Communication Monographs, 51, 227-242.

 Policies & Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2020, from https://us.pg.com/policies-and-practices/purpose-values-and-principles/

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