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Corporate Dieting. Persuasive Use of Metaphors in Downsizing

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  • Hossfeld, Heiko

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Hossfeld, Heiko, 2013. "Corporate Dieting. Persuasive Use of Metaphors in Downsizing," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 24(1), pages 53-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:nms:mamere:1861-9908_mrev_2013_1_hossfeld
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    File URL: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0935-9915-2013-1-53
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James G. March, 1978. "Bounded Rationality, Ambiguity, and the Engineering of Choice," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 587-608, Autumn.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hossfeld, Heiko, 2018. "Legitimation and institutionalization of managerial practices. The role of organizational rhetoric," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 9-21.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    metaphors; rhetoric; symbolic management; legitimacy; downsizing; layoffs; banks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

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