Managers on managerial discourse. Studies on the rules of critiquing of expert public communication patterns

Abstract

This paper is concerned with two topics. First, it presents exploratory research on the relationship between public discourse and the world of work. Secondly, it presents a research procedure intended to be a methodological proposal for discourse analysts and sociologists of work. To begin with, the paper outlines the main theoretical problem of the study which is the process of the civilizing of objectification. Next, the purpose and procedure of the research are discussed, as well as the important and controversial issue of using elicited data in discourse analysis. The focal point of the paper is the analysis of conversations between corporate managers. They discuss a short text containing not immediately apparent manifestations of the objectification of human aspects of work. The analysis of their talk makes it possible to reconstruct two ways (two interpretative repertoires) in which participants publically account for their critical attitude towards the text. The conclusions of the research concern the possibilities and limitations of putting these two interpretative repertoires to public use. The paper ends with comments on the prospects for broadening the limits of common-sense criticism of managerial discourse with discourse analytical measures.