Directive acts and narration in corporate training events: framing structures and processes through language

The subject of this chapter is the evolving nature of contemporary organizational priorities as reflected in strategic internal communications between employees. A linguistic analysis of the multi-layered discourse produced in a series of employee training and development sessions reveals company purposes insofar as they relate to the interpersonal roles, relationships and organizational climate being formed. The use of conversational analysis and framing theory allows us to see both the macro-interpretative and the micro-interactional processes at work. The reflexivity of language use is demonstrated by identifying and analysing Goffmanian ‘linguistic clues and markers’ in the employee discourse: the directive acts and narrative episodes on which the training events hinge not only reflect organizational realities, but as importantly, actively constitute them, producing and sustaining accounts of corporate practices.