Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/98186 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Citation: 
[Journal:] Management Revue [ISSN:] 1861-9916 [Volume:] 24 [Issue:] 1 [Publisher:] Rainer Hampp Verlag [Place:] Mering [Year:] 2013 [Pages:] 53-70
Publisher: 
Rainer Hampp Verlag, Mering
Abstract: 
This paper considers how companies use their own mass communication media to create, with the aid of metaphors, a legitimizing image of their practices. The analysis is based on the example of two banks, both of which undertook massive staff and cost reductions between 2001 and 2003. Downsizing measures like theirs are often met with resistance if they conflict with the interests, values or worldviews of stakeholders. Companies approach this threat of resistance by building a linguistic façade of legitimacy that suggests conformity with prevailing ideas of good or correct managerial conduct. Our metaphor analysis, which covers all publicly accessible texts of the two banks' own mass communication, identifies nine metaphoric concepts, which we further condense into three persuasive meta concepts: concealing metaphor, euphemistic metaphor, and urgency and control metaphor each fulfil different persuasive functions and vary systematically according to the conditions surrounding the managerial practice.
Subjects: 
metaphors
rhetoric
symbolic management
legitimacy
downsizing
layoffs
banks
JEL: 
D83
G21
J63
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Article

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