Corporate Dieting. Persuasive Use of Metaphors in Downsizing

Heiko Hoßfeld

doi:10.5771/0935-9915-2013-1-53

Contents
- Chapter Expand | CollapseAuthorsPage
- 1–4 Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis 1–4
- 5–11 Societal Prerequisites and Consequences of Human Resource Management Werner Nienhueser Werner Nienhueser 5–11
- 12–29 Embedded Flexibility Strategies and Diversity within National Institutional Frameworks: How many Flexibility Profiles are in the German Model? Stefan Kirchner Stefan Kirchner 12–29
- 30–52 Performance Principle and Organizational Compensation Practice in the Context of the Global Financial Crisis: A Discourse-analytical Study Ronald Hartz, Gabriele Fassauer Ronald Hartz, Gabriele Fassauer 30–52
- 53–70 Corporate Dieting. Persuasive Use of Metaphors in Downsizing Heiko Hoßfeld Heiko Hoßfeld 53–70
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mrev management revue , page 53 - 70

Corporate Dieting. Persuasive Use of Metaphors in Downsizing

Autoren

Heiko Hoßfeld

DOI
- doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2013-1-53
- ISSN: 0935-9915
- ISSN online: 1861-9908
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.
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