Affiliations: University of Siegen, Siegen Institute for Applied
Languages, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: University of Siegen, Siegen Institute for
Applied Languages. E-mail: hartz@sisib.uni-siegen.de,
habscheid@sisib.uni-siegen.de
Abstract: Based on a research project dealing with a large automobile company
in Germany, the article presents a case study of what we call a "discourse of
unity". We choose the term "discourse of unity" to describe a particular
type of discourse that tries to attain consent and promote a form of
identification spanning the varied perspectives of organizational members. In
this way, the discourse seeks to play down latent struggles by offering
symbolic participation and unification and by dealing with inconsistencies in a
specific way. Empirically, we analyse a corpus of three different employee
magazines published between 2004 and 2005. The magazines relate to various
configurations in connection with the company – to a specific factory site, to
a product line, and to the global corporation. In analysing the discursive and
linguistic features of the articles, we will identify four main characteristics
of an organizational "discourse of unity". These are, in each case, a
specific way of addressing time, of appealing to the readers' common sense of
rational behaviour, to their affects and emotions, and, finally, of thematising
the life-world of the employees. We will argue that all three different
magazines are both vehicles and producers of such a discourse, of one which
attempts to create and support symbolic and normative control even in "hard
times".
