Displaying Competence in Organizations: Discourse Perspectives

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Displaying Competence in Organizations

and Priscilla Heynderickx

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Displaying Competence in Organizations Discourse Perspectives Edited by

Katja Pelsmaekers, Craig Rollo University of Antwerp

Tom Van Hout Leiden University, University of Antwerp

and

Priscilla Heynderickx Lessius University College, Antwerp


Selection and editorial matter © Katja Pelsmaekers, Craig Rollo, Tom Van Hout, Priscilla Heynderickx 2011 Chapters © their authors 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–0–230–28263–6

hardback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Displaying competence in organizations : discourse perspectives / edited by Katja Pelsmaekers ... [et al.]. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978–0–230–28263–6 (hardback) 1. Communication in organizations. 2. Competence and performance (Linguistics) 3. Discourse analysis. I. Pelsmaekers, Katja. II. Title. HD30.3.D57 2011 306.44—dc22 2011004154 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne


Contents List of Figures

vii

List of Tables

viii

Acknowledgements

x

Notes on Contributors

xi

1 Discourse Perspectives on Competence in Organizations Tom Van Hout, Katja Pelsmaekers, Priscilla Heynderickx and Craig Rollo

1

2 ‘Taking Ownership’: Language and Ethnicity in the Job Interview Celia Roberts

10

3 Equality for Those Who Are Competent. Discourses on Competencies, Diversity and Equality in the Public Sector Sarah Scheepers

27

4 The Language of Power: an Analysis of a Corpus of CEO Letters Berna Hendriks and Margot van Mulken

45

5 The Successful 2008 Presidential Candidate: How Political Weblogs Have Contributed in Shaping the American Electorate’s Preferences Giorgia Riboni 6 The Representation of Competence in Newspaper Interviews: a Linguistic–Pragmatic Discourse Analysis of the (Self-) Representation of Journalists and Politicians in Written Interviews Martina Temmerman

60

90

7 Competence on Display: Crafting Stories during Newsroom Editorial Conferences Tom Van Hout and Ellen Van Praet

111

8 Interpreting Competence: Nursing Staff and Family Members as Ad Hoc Interpreters in Hospitals Birte Pawlack

131

v


vi Contents

9 The Discursive Construal of Purpose by Means of Competence in German and English Corporate Mission Statements Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse

150

10 ‘Adam Smith for Diocesan Missioner’: Legitimation in Religious Discourse Gerlinde Mautner

180

References

194

Index

208


List of Figures 4.1 Frequency distribution of modifiers for three types of letter content 9.1 Source–path–goal schema

51 161

vii


List of Tables 3.1 Occurrence of the term ‘competency’ in the diversity plans of the Flemish government, 2003–9

38

4.1 Low-power and high-power linguistic elements

50

4.2 Distribution of letters for CEOs and content categories

51

4.3 Occurrences of low-power modifiers for writers and type of letter

53

4.4 Occurrences of high-power modifiers for writers and type of letter

53

4.5 Comparison of focus words

54

Appendix 4.1 Frequency distribution of modifiers for different categories of letter content

58

5.1 Collocates of ‘we’ in the Republican corpus

66

5.2 Collocates of ‘we’ in the Democratic corpus

66

5.3 Keywords of the Democratic corpus

70

5.4 Collocates of ‘Bush’ in the Democratic corpus

71

5.5 Collocates of ‘American’ in the Democratic corpus

73

5.6 Collocates of ‘American’ in the Republican corpus

73

5.7 Collocates of ‘Obama’ in the Democratic corpus

75

5.8 Concordance of ‘Obama has’ in the Democratic corpus

76

5.9 Concordance of ‘Obama will’ in the Democratic corpus

76

5.10 Concordance of ‘Obama support*’ in the Democratic corpus

77

5.11 Keywords of the Republican corpus

79

5.12 Collocates of ‘energy’ in the Republican corpus

80

5.13 Concordance of ‘Obama is’ in the Republican corpus

82

5.14 Collocates of ‘McCain’ in the Republican corpus

83

5.15 Collocates of ‘tax*’ in the Republican corpus

85

5.16 Concordance of ‘Palin’ in the Republican corpus

86

viii


List of Tables ix

8.1

The different use of modals in announcements: number of occurrences

133

Translation methods for medical terms in transcript 29 from ‘DiK’

137

9.1

Corpus description

153

9.2

Mission, vision and strategy: examples

156

9.3

Proposal for categories of competence in corporate mission statements

165

Frequencies for expressions of competence in terms of volition, ability and participants in two corpora of English and German corporate mission statements

165

9.5

Frequencies for subtypes of participant-related competence in two corpora of English and German corporate mission statements

169

9.6

Frequencies for subtypes of competence as ability in two corpora of English and German corporate mission statements

172

8.2

9.4


Acknowledgements Our thanks go to Francesca Bargiela for her supportive comments when we first launched the idea for this volume, to Priyanka Gibbons, the Commissioning Editor at Palgrave Macmillan, and Melanie Blair for administrative assistance. The volume was first inspired by the Second Discourse in Organizations International Workshop, held in Ghent in September 2009. We would like to thank the convener, Geert Jacobs, for encouraging us to undertake this publication, and Chris Braecke and Sylvain Dieltjens for their share in moral support and practical work. Thanks are also due to the institutions and departments that supported the Workshop and our interest in Discourse in Organizations, FWO (Research Foundation Flanders), the Department of International Business Communication at the University of Antwerp, Ghent University, Ghent University College, and the Department of Applied Language Studies at Lessius University College.

x


Notes on Contributors Berna Hendriks is Assistant Professor of Business Communication at Radboud University Nijmegen. She has published on intercultural pragmatics and cross-cultural differences in communication styles. Over the last ten years she has undertaken research on aspects of (business) English as a lingua franca and accentedness. Priscilla Heynderickx is Assistant Professor of Dutch and Business Communication at Lessius University College and Affiliated Researcher at the Catholic University in Leuven. Since 2005 she has been the chief editor of Ad Rem, a journal of business communication. She is the author of two books on text revision and of several articles and chapters in books. Gerlinde Mautner is Professor and Director of the Institute for English Business Communication at WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), the Vienna University of Economics and Business. She has published widely on marketing communications, the use of corpus linguistics in discourse analysis, and the influx of marketized language into a variety of lifeworlds. Birgitta Meex is a Lecturer of German in the departments of Applied Language Studies and Business Studies at Lessius University College. Her academic research is inspired by the ambition to incorporate the disciplines of discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics. She is currently investigating corporate identity in terms of the discursive and grammatical construction of values and purpose in the mission statement genre. Birte Pawlack is a research assistant in the Research Centre on Multilingualism at the University of Hamburg, where she is working on a project to develop, perform and evaluate an interpreter-training module for bilingual nursing staff. Her doctoral work compares the interpreting activities of nursing staff and family interpreters. Katja Pelsmaekers is a Lecturer of English for Business and Business Communication at the University of Antwerp. Her research interests lie in discourse in organizational settings, linguistic pragmatics and multilingual comprehension. xi


xii Notes on Contributors

Giorgia Riboni obtained a PhD from the University of Milan. Her main research interests lie in web-mediated communication platforms such as micro-blogs. She has also investigated how identity is discursively constructed in legal language. Her research is characterized by a methodological approach based on discourse analysis, integrated with the quantitative examination typical of corpus linguistics. Celia Roberts is Professor of Applied Linguistics at King’s College London. She has published widely on intercultural communication and second language socialization, urban discourse, language and cultural learning. Over the last ten years she has undertaken research on effective practice in ESOL, in doctor–patient communication in linguistically diverse settings and in job interviews and ethno-linguistic disadvantage. Craig Rollo is a Lecturer in the Department of International Business Communication at the University of Antwerp. His research interests include contact linguistics (especially in Central and Eastern Europe) and discourse in organizational settings. Sarah Scheepers works as a researcher in the Public Management Institute at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Catholic University Leuven. Her main fields of research are gender, equality and diversity in the public sector. At the moment, she is completing her doctoral dissertation: a critical discourse analysis of the concepts of equality and diversity in the public sector. Martina Temmerman teaches in and coordinates the master’s course in Journalism at Erasmus University College in Brussels (associated with the Free University of Brussels). Her current research interest lies in the linguistic discourse analysis of journalistic texts and interviews. Tom Van Hout is Assistant Professor in the Humanities Faculty at Leiden University and Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Management at the University of Antwerp. He holds a PhD in linguistics from Ghent University and specializes in the ethnography of institutional communication and new(s) media. He has recently published work on intertextuality, news production and news sourcing. Margot van Mulken is Professor of International Business Communication at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her research focuses on the effects of style and culture in the field of persuasive communication. In particular, she is interested in the effect of visual metaphors, puns and irony in advertisements. In addition, she studies the effects of different


Notes on Contributors xiii

styles of communication in successful and less successful intercultural encounters. Ellen Van Praet is Assistant Professor at University College Ghent and postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University. She teaches English business communication, organizational communication and intercultural communication to master’s course students of multilingual business communication. Her research interests include organizational/institutional discourse, business communication, media language and linguistic ethnography. Heidi Verplaetse is a postdoctoral research assistant and English Lecturer at Lessius University College. Her current research attempts to integrate the fields of modal semantics and cognitive linguistics on the one hand and corpus-based research and discourse analysis on the other.


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1 Discourse Perspectives on Competence in Organizations Tom Van Hout, Katja Pelsmaekers, Priscilla Heynderickx and Craig Rollo

In their review of organizational discourse research, Grant and Iedema (2005) distinguish between two traditions: organizational discourse studies and organizational discourse analysis. The former is rooted in management and organization theory, the latter derives from work in theoretical and applied linguistics. While both traditions share an interest in the complexities of institutional life and in the application of discourse analysis to grasp those complexities, the authors note a lack of cross-fertilization between the two traditions. Acting on this observation, Grant and Iedema map the scientific conversations that are taking place in the organizational discourse studies literature. The authors carve up the organizational discourse studies literature using five binary dimensions. The first dimension contrasts studies that prioritize theoretical discussions about abstract organizational principles with studies that privilege empirical data to make claims about discourse processes, practices and patterns. The second dimension involves analytical scope and distinguishes between work that takes a monomodal approach to meaning (e.g. the role of language in organizations) and studies which see meaning as a multimodal phenomenon (e.g. human–computer interaction). The third dimension contrasts organizational discourse research that analyses discourse as observable, patterned behaviour with studies that highlight discourse as a site for engendering organizational change and innovation. The fourth dimension draws a line between the idea that human thought determines discourse (discourse as cognition) and the notion that discourse indexes ways of doing and saying (discourse as social practice). Grant and Iedema’s fifth and final dimension discerns between critical and interventionist research. The former applies discourse analysis to critique forms of organizational power while the 1


2


latter privileges discourse analysis as a means to achieve organizational change. Taking a cue from Grant and Iedema’s literature review, the research presented in this book continues the conversation between organizational discourse studies and organizational discourse analysis, but rather than identifying commonalities and divergences in one strand of organizational discourse research and publishing it in a journal targeted at a different scholarly audience, this book illustrates how work in the applied linguistic tradition speaks to a central concern in management and organization theory: competence. Specifically, this book offers analyses of displays of competence based on the idea that such displays are extensively signalled and encoded in organizational discourse. Returning to Grant and Iedema’s dimensions of organizational discourse studies, the research presented here is characterized by an empirical, monomodal approach to socially situated instances of text and talk that is analytically concerned with describing patterns, regularities and implicit meanings as they are manifested in the organizational practices that agents, groups and communities engage in. With regard to Grant and Iedema’s fifth dimension, the research presented in this book resonates with both critical and interventionist agendas (cf. the chapters by Roberts, Scheepers and Mautner) but also with primarily descriptive analyses of organizational discourse (cf. the chapters by Meex and Verplaetse, Hendriks and van Mulken).

1.1 Competence At the intersection of language and organizations, the term ‘competence’ is fraught with various and connected meanings, which is also apparent in the chapters of this volume. In the subsequent paragraphs we will try to create some clarity about the ways in which the term is relevant. In the context of institutions, public governance, management and education the term ‘competence’ or its countable nexus ‘competency’ primarily refers to the capability necessary or sufficient to reach a specific goal (Weinert, 2001, p. 45). In contrast to virtue, for instance, competence is tied up with notions of learned skills and technical efficiency; it generally highlights action over internal states (Macauley and Lawton, 2006, p. 702). In human resource management it is currently taken to refer to specific, identifiable and measurable knowledge; moreover, it refers to skills, ability or attitudes which a person possesses (or should possess) and which is necessary for, or material to, the performance of an activity within a specific job context.


Tom Van Hout, Katja Pelsmaekers, Priscilla Heynderickx and Craig Rollo 3

At one level, this kind of specific capability and willingness that actors construct and negotiate in situated work practices is the kind of competence that is referred to in the chapters of this volume. In contrast to management or HRM literature, however, the emphasis is much less on a conceptual exploration of what these competencies mean or should involve in terms of expected action in a specific job, but, as indicated above, how these expectations are signalled and shaped discursively. At another level, the matter is further complicated by the fact that apart from other job-specific competencies, the ability to verbally interact adequately in a particular context is a competency in itself. In sociolinguistics, this is commonly referred to as communicative competence, ‘the competence that enables members of a community to conduct and interpret speech’ (Hymes, 1972, p. 52). In this view, language use is seen as ordered, stratified complexes of genres, styles and registers that users deploy and interpret in (types of ) situations that are linked to them. For instance, doctor–patient interactions, business meetings, commercial transactions and the like trigger patterns of behaviour, including language use, that ‘fit’ the typical as well as the particular social context and that are interpreted as meaningful by other socialized participants in those situations. As Roberts reminds us in the second chapter, judgements of a person as having the competencies that are deemed desirable for a specific job are frequently based on the extent to which that person’s talk is perceived as exemplifying these attributes. The ability to produce discourse in the expected forms thus leads to a kind of ‘linguistic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1991) which fits the forms of reasoning and inferencing required – and expected – by those who are in a position to judge the applicant under scrutiny. Those who do not have access to this linguistic capital are penalized. This is demonstrably true for the job interview, which usually has a weighty role in organizational gatekeeping processes. In cases like these, communicative competence thus assumes importance far beyond and sometimes in contradiction to what is stated in an organizational competency framework. The relevance of communicative competence as some kind of overriding competency obviously extends to situations beyond the job interview. Especially in work and organizational situations where an important part of the tasks at hand is constituted through talk, success in the sense of achieving the goals that were set is to a large extent convergent with the measure with which actors produce discourse forms appropriate to that situation, i.e. discourse that stands a good chance of being interpreted by initiated or ‘socialized’ participants as fulfilling the task at hand.


4


Taking a discourse perspective on displays of competence thus entails attempting a fine-grained investigation of the discursive forms and processes that signal more generally job or task-related competencies in a specific organizational or institutional context. This should not only bring us closer to understanding how organizational communication is propelled by ‘a provisionally stable discursive system for creating, negotiating, circulating, and applying specialized knowledge’ (Smart, 2006, p. 12), but also how ‘competency’ notions in management and social theory are discursively manifested. There is, however, no ‘one’ way of doing this, and ‘a discourse perspective’ needs to be unpacked further in a variety of approaches, which constitutes another topic of conversation between organizational discourse studies and organizational discourse analysis: methodology.

1.2 Methodological perspectives Within the frame that the chapters in this volume all present empirical, monomodal approaches to socially situated instances of text and talk that is analytically concerned with describing regularities and implicit meanings manifested in organizational practices, there is still a diversity of methodological and analytical frameworks in the chapters that attests to the conceptual breadth of discourse analysis. To situate these different approaches to discourse analysis within the equally broad field of linguistics, it is helpful to bear in mind that discourse analysis has crystallized within language studies in two directions. On the one hand, one can note a continuation of a linguistic use of the term in which discourse is viewed as the layer of meaning which is tied directly to situations of language use. The focus here is often on large collections of verbal material of a particular situation or activity type and the use of quantitative methods and techniques of corpus linguistics. […] On the other hand, recent decades have witnessed the formulation of a broad project of discourse studies which views language use holistically, often in combination with other forms of semiotic behaviour, from the angle of what one can broadly refer to as ‘social practices’. […] Within this second tradition, discourse analysis has often (if not mostly) stood in an applied relationship to the social, with discourse research being oriented to the identification, investigation and offering solutions for the […] real-world problems and issues in which language plays a central role. (Slembrouck, 2010, p. 121, emphasis in original)



In its more narrow articulation, discourse analysis describes and quantifies grammatical, rhetorical and structural properties of language in context. This particular brand of discourse analysis is represented in Hendriks and van Mulken’s chapter which quantifies the occurrence of hedges, intensifiers, engagement markers and other linguistic features related to ‘power speak’ in a corpus of Dutch and English CEO letters to employees. It is also exemplified in Meex and Verplaetse’s chapter, which analyses and quantifies markers of competence as modality in German and English mission statements. However, the bulk of the chapters in this volume sample Slembrouck’s second direction in the development of discourse analysis within linguistics and offer qualitative accounts of social practices such as ad hoc interpreting (Pawlack), gatekeeping (Roberts) and decision-making (Van Hout and Van Praet), political journalism (Temmerman, Riboni), marketing (Mautner) and human resource management (Scheepers). These social practices are analysed using analytical frameworks drawn from linguistic pragmatics (Verschueren and Östman, 1995), interactional sociolinguistics (Gumperz, 1982), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992), linguistic ethnography (Rampton, 2007) and critical management theory (e.g. Alvesson and Willmott, 2003; Chia, 2000). Variety in terms of analytic units is also characteristic of these chapters. The chapters by Roberts and Van Hout and Van Praet, for instance, take a micro-approach to interactional data which are then linked up with higher-level issues such as ethnicity and authority. Conversely, Scheepers and Mautner focus on macro-level discourse formations such as new management and the market society. It is here that discourse analytical ‘accumulative dialogic engagement with social theoretical work on questions of language, representation, ideology, power, equity and identity’ (Slembrouck, 2010, p. 120) becomes tangible.

1.3 Thematic development Thematically, this volume presents discursive perspectives on a whole network of organizational themes that interconnect in several ways and together cover major areas of professional and public life such as business, public administration, education, health services, journalism, politics and religion. The contribution by Celia Roberts starts from the question to what extent the competency-based job interview is a factor in the disadvantaged position of ethnic minorities and the continuation of a two-tiered labour market. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of linguistic capital,


6


she argues that there is a ‘linguistic penalty’ constructed by the job interview which indirectly discriminates against those who do not have English as their dominant language. Moreover, focusing on the different ways in which candidates narrate the self as they respond to competency-based questions, she shows how the distinction between quotation and the description of internal states, and the strategic use of both, is a successful way of self-narrativization. It allows candidates who are rated highly to manage the contradictions of the job interview. Roberts concludes that these findings raise much wider questions about both the value and fairness of these interviews. Taking a complementary macro-perspective on competency-based recruitment, and moving to the public sector, Sarah Scheepers looks back on the so-called New Public Management reforms which brought along competency management and diversity management. Whereas competency-based management and diversity management were meant to imply a neutral selection and recruitment process, Scheepers argues that a combination of these policies may well contain a number of problematic inconsistencies, making it difficult to conduct an effective equal opportunity and diversity policy. By means of a discourse analysis of the main equal opportunity and diversity policy documents in the Flemish public sector, she argues that competency management and diversity management are in fact more about enhancing employees’ employability than about the empowerment of certain target groups. Difficult access to organizational membership is thus reinforced by discursive criteria and processes that only emerge after a careful analysis of the discursive practices that surround and constitute the gatekeeping events. At the other, upper end of organizational membership the question is raised of how leadership competence is signalled in discourse. Starting from the intuition that leadership entails strategies and effective ways to direct the members of the organization along a particular path, Berna Hendriks and Margot van Mulken investigated two sets of CEO letters to their staff members for discursive traces of precisely that competence. Conceptualizing six functional categories of meaning modification associated with speaker/writer power (or the absence of it), they make a quantitative analysis of forms judged to serve those functions. A powerful style, it turns out, is hard to characterize in terms of positive features such as cause–effect attributions, but the CEO letters fairly consistently display a relative absence of low-power markers. Leadership is also a core theme in Giorgia Riboni’s chapter, which turns our attention to political leadership and how it was presented during the 2008 American presidential campaign. Examining the discursive



strategies deployed in political parties’ and politicians’ weblogs, she researched two parallel corpora of Democratic and Republican blogs respectively. As could be expected, the studied political bloggers consistently presented their preferred candidate as more efficient and right for the role than his competitor. The negative campaigning frequently resorted to mostly boiled down to a demonstration of the adversary’s lack of competence. The preferred candidate, in contrast, was presented as showing a deep understanding of the country and its people’s problems. There, however, the parallelism between Democrats and Republicans ends. The Democrats’ coherent depiction of their candidate as the embodiment of the American Dream contrasts with the Republican presentation of McCain as a fierce opponent of the Democrats’ tax proposals. Riboni reflects that it would be too easy to conclude that negative campaigning does not pay, but suggests that the leader’s articulate portrayal in positive terms has contributed to his success. Martina Temmerman’s chapter dwells further on the theme of political leadership, but here the journalist’s authorial voice intermingles with the representation of the politician’s views. Investigating a corpus of newspaper interviews published during the Belgian federal government formation period of 2007, she discusses the ways in which political leaders are shown to refer to their own competences, and the discursive strategies journalists use to present themselves as competent reporters while topicalizing politicians’ competencies. What becomes apparent is that overlaying the topic of the politician and his or her competencies as a leader, the interviews primarily index the competence of the journalist. In the next few chapters the focus shifts entirely to the role of the mediator. Staying in the organizational setting of journalism, Tom Van Hout and Ellen Van Praet look beyond newspaper reports as instances of performance, and investigate in what way journalists display their competence in editorial meetings. Newsroom editorial meetings provide rich arenas for displaying journalistic competence and making decisions on story selection and design. Drawing on ethnographic data collected at the economics news desk of a major quality newspaper in Belgium, this chapter examines the link between journalistic competence and linguistic performance. More specifically, it investigates which linguistic features index qualities such as domain knowledge, authority, balance, accuracy and investigative grit, and how these connections are established during editorial meetings among a group of senior economic journalists. Zooming in on transcripts from the meetings, the analysis demonstrates reporters’ intertextual competence and exceptional verbal talent at juggling with multiple dialogic positioning. As a result, the


8


traditional notion of journalistic craftsmanship is reframed, suggesting it extends beyond the classic dual conceptualization of reporting and writing, and attention is drawn to the crucial impact of reporters’ verbal backstage performance in the display of competence. Another kind of mediator competence is studied in Birte Pawlack’s chapter, which looks into the work of ad hoc interpreters mediating multi-ethnic doctor–patient talk in German hospitals. She scrutinizes the view that a crucial aspect of interpreting competence is the level of institutional knowledge displayed by the interpreter. Focusing on doctors’ informed consent announcements in a small sample of interpreted doctor–patient talk, she finds that interpreters do not always formulate the institutional knowledge they have and that ‘breaking‘ this norm of interpreting competence is sometimes needed to achieve what might be seen as a higher level of competence in interpreting, i.e. generating understanding among the interaction participants. The final chapters deal with organizational documents that have recourse to discursive repertoires outside their own fields of experience to legitimize their existence and plans for future action. By indexing their competence at least partly in terms of qualities that belong to other, socially prestigious fields, they instantiate the broader phenomenon that legitimization often needs a source that is seen as powerful but independent. Whereas corporate mission statements are found to frequently index the reason for their existence (purpose) and the means to achieve it (competence) in terms that are reminiscent of non-business contexts, religion even (cf. mission), religious online publications are found to draw on the discursive repertoire of the market economy to demonstrate competence. Working with a corpus of English and German corporate mission statements, Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse draw on concepts from the management literature and linguistic semantics to develop a threefold typology for the expression of competence in this text genre. A broad discourse-based analysis of the mission statements yields a finer grained subcategorization and quantification of meanings encoded to signal competence, and shows that practices may differ according to the language in which texts are formulated. The chapter also illustrates how linguistic semantic analysis combined with discourse analysis is able to characterize a genre in ways that could be relevant not only for language studies but also for management practice and research. The book then closes with Gerlinde Mautner’s avowedly critical perspective on the phenomenon of marketization in the public sphere. More specifically, this chapter analyses how a not-for-profit institution



such as the Christian Church draws on market principles of competence and professionalism to legitimize their institutional goals. Combining critical discourse analysis and critical management studies in her analysis of online materials, she identifies five discursive practices that emerge as performing such a legitimizing function. Her contribution ends with an explicit call to arms for social scientists to counter the infiltration of market economy discourses and concepts into all other fields of experience. As a closing chapter, it brings together many of the different strands of thought underlying the other chapters in the book and it illustrates in a magisterial way how organizational discourse studies and organizational discourse analysis can be combined in discourse research.


2 ‘Taking Ownership’: Language and Ethnicity in the Job Interview Celia Roberts

2.1 Introduction In the globalized cities of the Western world, the number of qualified and experienced workers in low-paid insecure jobs is increasing. Minority ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in these jobs and in unemployment figures generally. The UK is no exception. There is a clear gap in employment rates between the white British majority and ethnic minorities (Department for Work and Pensions, 2005), and a study of London’s low-paid workers, enduring the poorest conditions, found that 90 per cent were migrants (Evans et al., 2005). This is a stark illustration of the marginalization of migrant and minority ethnic groups within the two-tiered labour market. The higher tier represents the better-paid, more secure jobs with better working conditions and often the protection of trade unions and pension schemes. The lowertier jobs such as cleaning jobs, care work and rubbish collecting have no such advantages. One of the most significant barriers to progressing from a lower to a higher tier job is the selection interview. While low-paid and unpleasant jobs are often contracted out to organizations that recruit informally, sometimes through work gangs organized by and for particular minority ethnic groups, more secure jobs with better conditions are only available through a formal selection process. This chapter is based on two sociolinguistic studies that put the spotlight on the British job interview and explore the extent to which the competency-based job interview is a factor in the continuing social and economic exclusion of contemporary migrants.1 These studies, drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of linguistic capital, argue that there is a ‘linguistic penalty’ constructed by the selection interview 10


Celia Roberts 11

which indirectly discriminates against those not socialized into the demands of the British job interview. The first study shows that migrants applying for secure but low-paid jobs are significantly more likely to fail than other groups (Roberts and Campbell, 2006). The second study focuses on junior management posts (Roberts et al., 2008) and, in this chapter, illustrates the nuanced way in which candidates have to narrate the self if they are to avoid this ‘penalty’. The use of competency frameworks to structure selection practices and to assess performance at work is now commonplace (Wood and Payne, 1998). A typical competence, ‘take ownership’, is used here to raise several questions about how the competency framework, while championed as a means of producing fair selection practice, creates inequalities for just those groups who are already marginalized or excluded. The ‘take ownership’ competence is one of five key competences used by a large delivery company for its junior management positions and is, in turn, broken down into four sub-competences: • • • •

Take responsibility for my impact on my team’s performance Display high personal standards Honest about my strengths Open about my mistakes and learn from them

Implied in this abstract formulation and the four more explicit statements are notions of agency, trustworthiness, communicative ability, the value of reflection and laminated over all of them a sense of the ‘moral self’. In other words, the competence stretches far beyond any narrow concept of skills or ability to engage with the identity of the candidate as a particular type of person within the organization. I will return to the discursive demands on responding to questions based on this competency in the data analysis section below.

2.2 Competency frameworks and linguistic capital Competency frameworks reflect and help to constitute the ‘new/fast capitalism’ or ‘new work order’ (Gee et al., 1996) of the globalized workplace. The flattened hierarchies, devolved decision making and emphasis on flexibility of the new capitalism play up the demands of individuals to be responsible, self-aware and resilient and align their personal characteristics and attitudes to the institutional categories required of the organization’s mission to be accountable and fair. So, although ‘personality’ is rarely mentioned in the discourses of competency, the ideology of new


12


capitalism focuses on personality and the importance of individuals buying into the core organizational values in the ‘enterprise’ culture (du Gay, 2000). This focus on the ‘self’ and on individual agency is required even in selection interviews for relatively low-paid jobs where candidates are expected to show that they can be autonomous, self-regulating and part of a self-managing team. Paradoxically, while job interviews are routinely structured around competences for both new capitalism and equal opportunity reasons, these very frameworks produce disadvantage for black and minority ethnic groups who are born abroad (Roberts and Campbell, 2006). The competences themselves, such as ‘teamworking’ or ‘coping with change’, already assume an understanding that personal attributes and attitudes must be aligned to organizational priorities. In addition, the institutional ‘gatekeeping’ event of the interview (Erickson and Shultz, 1982) invokes particular modes of argumentation, reasoning, categorization and inferencing – in other words specific ways of communicating and presenting the self (Levinson, 1992; Mäkitalo and Säljö, 2002) – which are taken for granted by the interviewer and are assumed to be known by the candidate. Several problems flow from the competency framework. Decisionmaking processes operate on the basis that candidates are what they talk. So judgements of a candidate as consistent, credible, effective or dynamic are based on the extent to which the candidate’s talk is perceived as exemplifying these attributes. Perceived consistency and credibility, for example, depend heavily on the extent to which candidates can synthesize more personal discourses with institutional discourses (see Campbell and Roberts, 2007, and below). Impressions of effectiveness and dynamism depend largely on whether candidates structure their talk in expected ways and on performance features in the telling of stories of past experience. The blending of discourses and the ability to produce answers in standard Western narrative forms so that they are ‘bureaucratically processable’ (Iedema, 2003; Roberts and Campbell, 2005) produce a form of ‘linguistic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1991) which fits the special forms of reasoning and inferencing required by the gatekeepers. Those who do not have access to this capital are penalized by the interview process. On the analogy of the ‘ethnic penalty’ (Heath and Cheung, 2006) which describes the inbuilt disadvantage faced by minority ethnic workers, the interview creates a ‘linguistic penalty’. Bourdieu’s notions of capital are based on the economic logic of social practices and structures within relations of power. The different forms of


Celia Roberts 13

symbolic capital, Bourdieu argues, function within specific markets, and the linguistic market has to be a unified one in which all talk is measured against the ‘legitimate or official language’ of the dominant group. Interviews are one means of serving institutional interests either by screening for the forms of communicative competence that they require or through polls, market research and research interviews generally where apparently open and democratic means of gaining public opinion mask the social inequality produced by the interview tools themselves (Bourdieu, 1977, 1990). Here Bourdieu echoes Foucault’s notion of technologies which produce knowledge and discourses which appear legitimate and are widely used as the conventional wisdom for conducting public affairs, but whose very machinery obscures the powerful interests they serve (Foucault, 1983). The competency-based interview is one of the ‘linguistic technologies’ that helps to produce and maintain the linguistic market. It combines both the Foucauldian technology of the confessional and that of the formal selection process. The competences are abstractions from the concrete doing and saying as the ‘taking ownership’ example shows. This formulation of a present participle verb ‘taking’ and a conceptual noun ‘ownership’ with no hint of what is to be ‘owned’ or how the process should happen is not untypical of management coinage of new terms and phrases. Power, Iedema suggests (Iedema, 2003), inheres in increasingly abstract forms of talk which have little connection with the actual ways of doing things in the workplace. These more abstract forms require more intense participation to make them meaningful. So those candidates, particularly for the junior management posts, who have access to worlds where such abstractions are routinely used and instantiated in talk – for example in a team or management meeting where an employee is talked about as ‘taking ownership’ – are able to bring understanding to the term when it is used in the selection interview. Although Bourdieu’s formulation deals with the social dynamics of the symbolic marketplace, it does not home in on the actual language practices that are regulated by it. His notion of linguistic capital suggests there is only one form of such capital and that it consists of a formal register in a lexico-grammatical standard variety only, associated with the literate language of the dominant class. However, a micro-interactional analysis of the selection interview presents a more complex and hybrid picture. Although the official language of the job interview is highly conventionalized and structured around the abstract formulation of competences, those candidates who were most successful presented a mix or


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blending of what Bourdieu calls ‘legitimate language’ and a more narrative, personal or dramatic mode, as mentioned above. So the particular field of the job interview for low-paid or junior management positions in manufacturing and service industries requires a nuanced form of linguistic capital that cannot be easily acquired through short job preparation training courses.

2.3 Linguistic capital in the ‘entry level’ job interview Although our first study looked at interviews for relatively low-paid work – that is the first level or entry level in the organization – they were still jobs in the higher-tier labour market. They were secure, paid above the minimum wage with possibilities of progression and in some cases, strongly unionized. So they represented for many candidates the first rung of the ladder. For many migrant applicants this was a first step towards recovering some of the lost cultural capital that had resulted from their migration to the UK or, at the least, a steady income and job which would give them the stability from which to start this recovery process. However, the linguistic demands of the competency-based interview represented a significant barrier to migrant candidates and those minority ethnic groups who came to the UK during or after the period of formal education (Roberts and Campbell, 2006).2 The typical competences assessed in the interview, such as teamworking, customer service, coping with change and managing yourself, and the ways questions were designed to elicit them, required a synthesis of institutional and personal discourses and the following of a particular narrative structure. Appropriate self-presentations also included the ability to make inferences from relatively abstract or what might be called ‘neo-academic’ formulations. For example, one large organization required interviewers to ask a question related to the competence of ‘managing yourself’ (which in this case focused on assessing how candidates would cope with boring jobs): ‘What are the advantages of repetitive work?’ Not surprisingly, many candidates failed to give the preferred response. They were then faced with a subsequent question: ‘What are the disadvantages of repetitive work?’ which required even more careful linguistic footwork in giving an appropriate answer. The blending of institutional and personal discourses in response to competency-based questions is central to the production of an ideal synthetic personality which embodies the competences and dispositions required by the recruiting organization (Fairclough, 1992). The


Celia Roberts 15

institutional discourses are realized both at the macro level in the internalization of the ideologies discussed above relating to the entrepreneurial self, and at the micro level both through the linguistic system and rhetorically (Campbell and Roberts, 2007). For example, Bourdieu characterizes institutional talk as impartial, balanced and discrete (1991) and candidates fluent in this institutional discourse were able to give analytic lists (such as a list of advantages of repetitive work) and use more abstract and technical vocabulary. However, unblended institutional discourse was rarely successful. It needed to be blended with personal discourses; talk which is not strictly work-related and which is designed to display the candidate as a fully rounded human being. To this extent the interview corresponds to the Foucauldian ‘confession’ (Foucault, 1978) in which, for example, candidates admit to weaknesses and how they will overcome them as part of the personalized disclosure now expected in the interview. ‘Personalization’ is largely done through narratives of the self using vivid detail and concrete examples. This is illustrated in Example 1 where Pippa, a local white candidate, is successful in her application to work for the delivery company. The competency area that is being assessed is ‘coping with change’ and she is asked about the rather disparate set of jobs she has done over the last few years: Example 1: Interview with Pippa (white British, successful) (C = candidate (Pippa), I1 = interviewer 1, I2 = interviewer 2) 1. C: erm well it is I think t-m-majority of the jobs that I have worked in I 2. have been erm customer focused and deadlines and under pressure (.) 3. hhh erm catering I’ve m-you know 4. I1: mmm 5. C: my family own a business and I’ve worked in that since the age of nine (.) 6. you know helping them out (.) erm but that that’s I suppose that’s a 7. different field altogether from= 8. I1: = yeah 9. C: customer focus but (1) I’ve sort of gone off on a tangent now. hhh (3) 10. I1: nno it’s (1) I mean the range of experience just [shows you 11. C: mmm] 12. I1: in many ways that you’re used to =


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13. C: = yeah I’m quite 14. I1: having new things thrown at you so (.) no I-I don’t see anything (.) to 15. (.) anything you need to add to that ((interviewer’s name))? 16. I2: no I’m comfortable with that Here Pippa synthesizes the institutional and personal by using her personal history to link an analytic overview with disclosure about her childhood experience working in the family business. In lines 1–3 she gives an evaluative overview using the more abstract language of management such as ‘customer-focused’ and so displaying her competence with this institutional language and drawing in another key competence (customer focus). This overview also shows that she understands the institutional game in which responses need to be tied back into the general competence that frames this section of the interview. While candidates need to show they are flexible and can manage change, the interview is also about fixing the candidate with a set of attributes that are judged to make them acceptable or not. Too many changes in a personal history without an underlying stable theme could undermine this fixing of Pippa with an integrated (synthetic) personality and set of attitudes. At line 5 she moves to a personal story, conjuring up the image of a little girl helping in the catering business and so enlivens the institutional discourse with a fleeting image of her young self at such a tender age already identified as a worker. At lines 6–9 she switches back to institutional discourse, revealing a reflexive consciousness of the rules of the game and how the interviewers might perceive her potentially off-target response. And the last seven lines provide evidence that her discursive work has been successful as interviewer 1 gives positive feedback and interviewer 2 states that he too is ‘comfortable’ with her reply. Competency-based questions, especially for entry-level jobs, are routinely designed around questions eliciting examples of each competence, in effect drawing out a narrative from the candidate. So, in addition to the general but unspoken requirement to blend institutional and personal discourses, candidates are expected to perform institutionally appropriate narratives which themselves produce blended discourses. Successful candidates were those who used a conventional ‘Anglo’ narrative structure and managed through detailed content and features of their spoken delivery to engage the interviewers in their story and make it ‘bureaucratically processable’ (Iedema, 2003). The importance of the appropriate narrative structure is illustrated in Example 2 where Duncan


Celia Roberts 17

is asked about how he manages himself when he has to do repetitive work: Example 2: Interview with Duncan (white British, successful) (C = candidate, Duncan, I = interviewer) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

C: well one specific agency contract I got (.) it was only four months but it was the complete mind numbingly same repetitive stuff I: okay C: I was working for (name of company) in Harrow and we were building headsets for helicopter pilots and my specific task was to get this tiny little ear piece and get a little drill and glue that and that was all I had to do (.) all day everyday (.) I didn’t have a problem with that because I was sat round a table with half a dozen other blokes and you know (.) you don’t really need to turn your brain on to do something like that you can just chat and get the job done and it’s (.) you got to keep yourself amused for boring jobs

Duncan’s narrative follows the well-known Labovian structure (Labov and Waletzsky, 1967) for Anglo narratives. In lines 1–3 he provides the ‘abstract’ which tells the listener what the story is to be about. In lines 5–8 he gives the orientation: who? what ? where? etc. Lines 9–10 show the crisis or turning point which in institutional narratives, as in this case, often constitutes the crux of why the story is being told. In this case ‘I didn’t have a problem with that’ shows the interviewer the necessary display of competence. Finally lines 11–14 constitute the evaluation, that is the speaker’s attitude to the story. As Labov and Waletzsky comment, evaluation is not a fixed stage and an evaluative component is already introduced in lines 9 and in the opening abstract. The final two stages of the conventional narrative structure, the result and coda, are usually collapsed into the evaluation phase, as in this case. Given that Duncan is telling the tale of repetitive work, there is no final result, and the coda which often returns the listeners to the present is implied in his final words about ‘boring jobs’ which relate back to the interviewer’s initial competency question.3 Although it seems unlikely that the human resource experts in the US who contributed to the design of competency-based questions were


18


familiar with Labovian narrative structures, they have produced a startlingly similar structure: the STAR structure which is widely used in the US and UK. The STAR structure, situation, task, action and result, maps onto the Labovian framework, albeit in a somewhat elided form. So Duncan’s response which follows the STAR structure – situation lines 1–3, task 5–8, action 9–10 and result 11–14 – both fits the Anglo structure of ordinary conversations and the looked-for structure in the institutional narrative of job interviews. These stories can be easily fitted into the interviewers’ boxes on the forms they are required to fill out on each candidate (Roberts and Campbell, 2005). They are readily processable from personal account to institutional record, and all the more so since the organization that Duncan has applied to also uses the STAR structure explicitly on its forms. Not only does the story sound well-ordered and persuadable but there is an isomorphic relationship between tale and text. The two competences discussed – the blending of institutional and personal discourses and the production of a conventional narrative structure – are the hidden competences of the job interview. They could be said to override the stated competences of the interview since knowledge of the other competences is only successfully displayed through these two hidden ones. And as I have indicated above, these are discursive competences which are gradually acquired over time if individuals’ social networks afford the opportunities for this language socialization process. Our research on selection interviews for low-paid work shows that candidates who have not had these opportunities, despite often having considerable symbolic capital in the form of higher education and or professional jobs, will face a ‘linguistic penalty’ constructed by the selection process and are much more likely to fail (Roberts and Campbell, 2006).

2.4 ‘Taking ownership’ and the linguistic penalty In the second project, which was concerned with the promotion prospects to junior management positions, the competency framework was remarkably similar. While many of the same broad competences were used to structure the interview, candidates were expected to go beyond bureaucratically processable narratives to what one senior staff member called ‘thinking like a manager’ (Roberts et al., 2008). Typically, the narratives were probed for how the candidate dealt with incidences, what they explicitly said and what they had learnt about the encounter. So, the interviewers were looking for some display of manager identity through the positioning of the self in narrative (Bamberg, 1997). While


Celia Roberts 19

all identity work is discursive work (Hall, 2000) and is routinely done through narrative (Schiffrin, 1996) as the examples above show, the talk and interaction of the junior management posts required what Blommaert calls ‘delicately organised packages of identity features’ (Blommaert, 2005, p. 128). These packages are part of the stylization of the self in narrative (Ochs and Capps, 2001) to fit the definitions and expectations of the interviewers. Such performances in institutional contexts require a delicate tuning to the criteria and standards of evidence of a particular genre. In this case the junior management selection interview requires, within the display of competence, both a strong sense of agency and a reflexive self-awareness of the structures, people and events that constrain that agency. In other studies of institutional narratives such as the asylum seeker and immigration interviews (Maryns, 2005; Jacquemet, 2005; Maryns and Blommaert, 2002), the test of the stories is: are they true? The test of the management interview stories is: are they acceptable? While in the low-paid job selection process, suitability is an adequate criterion, for the management jobs, it is acceptability ( Jenkins, 1986). In these cases, narratives are expected to blend the more abstract formulations in which the competences are introduced such as ‘taking ownership’ with the concrete here and now of everyday drama. These ‘experientially grounded’ accounts (Edwards, 1991) persuade through sensory experience, vivid and detailed description and direct speech quotations. It is to this delicate management of vivid experience and agency with a more distant and reflective stance in order to position the speaker that I now turn. It is useful here to make a distinction between ‘direct verbatim quotations’ (Schiffrin, 2000) and ‘descriptions’ of facts or internal states (Hickmann, 1993). The advantage of the former is that agency and identity can be displayed in more effective ways (Schiffrin, 2000; De Fina, 2003), while the latter can call up the speaker’s stance on the event. The use of both strategies in blended and complementary ways contributes to the success of the candidate as the next example shows. This is a selection interview for a junior management position in the same delivery company as the examples above. This segment comes from the phase of the interview where the candidate is asked about the competence of ‘taking ownership’ in which candidates are expected to be open about their mistakes and learn from them. Gladston responds to the question: ‘Can you give me an example of how you dealt with a mistake you have made?’ Such questions are problematic for all candidates since they have to admit failure but project success. This tension represents particular challenges for black and minority ethnic applicants who


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face potential discrimination and so have often developed an ‘immigrant story’ which consists of always appearing positive and upbeat and avoiding any disclosures which suggest anything to the contrary. The narrative that Gladston tells relates to a time when he owned a small garage and an apprentice forgot to lower the electrical aerial when reversing a car brought into the garage. The aerial was bent and Gladston had to decide whether to admit to the problem or not: Example 3: Interview with Gladston (black British, successful) (C = candidate, Gladston, I = interviewer) 1. C: ..yeah so I thought well the the thing to do is to be honest take ownership it’s my fault 2. you know put me hand up and and I’ll I’ll ask the customer just give me a chance to put it 3. right you know and if and if they’re still not happy with it after I put it right then they can 4. take any action that they feel [needs to be taken 5. I: okay tell me a] little bit about that conversation then that you [had 6. C: yeah] 7. I: with the customer 8. C: well what I said to the customer was that er:m you know w:e er:m I I I invited him into 9. the office and said well I’m I’m sorry but we had a little bit of erm a mishap with your 10. vehicle those are the words I used er:m [and 11. I: mishap ((slight laugh))] 12. C: ((laugh)) yeah] 13. C: not accident we don’t like them to to get them alarmed= 14. I: = okay= 15. C: = so I said we had a bit of a mishap with o- with your vehicle er:m w- we didn’t realise 16. that the your aerial was up and when one of our guys I- it was an apprentice (.) you know 17. these young boys who just really (.) er just like to drive flash cars [and 18. I: yeah] 19. C: just didn’t take note and as he was driving it out we we damaged your aerial (.) I says 20. er:m (.) er it will be of no cost to you we’ll fix it if you just give us the opportunity to fix it


Celia Roberts 21

21. we we apol- apologise for it e:r if you just give us the opportunity to fix it is it doesn’t 22. interfere with your rights of course if you feel that e:rm you want to do something else er:m 23. er take it further then please do so but give us the opportunity to fix it we’ll put it right and 24. er:m whatsoever you need we’ll (.) we’ll we’ll d- we’ll get it done (.) e:r if you need a er:m 25. a hire car we’ll pay for it while it’s done for the day because it won’t take us more than 26. another day to do it 27. I: okay what was the customer’s reaction 28. C: er:m they in fact they they were quite taken aback that that we actually told them about it 29. because he because he looked he went and had a look at at his car and the aerial was 30. down (.) so er:m he he could not have seen that 31. it was damaged and he said I don’t see anything wrong with it (.) 32. so well I said it’s not up at the moment but if you put it up you’ll f- you’ll soon notice it you know In the analysis I shall focus on how reported speech is used to position the narrator Gladston so that he can manage the tension between admission of a fault and his identity as an agentive, reflective manager. G starts with a description of an internal state in the past, lines 1–4, ‘... yeah so I thought …’ reporting on himself in the past and embedding the competence in this description. However, aspects of this past internal state are realized in the future and present tenses as if he is doing a verbatim quote of himself, instead of in a more standard hypothetical mode ‘I’d ask’ and ‘if they were still not happy (line 3). In response to the interviewer’s request for more information about the ‘conversation’ at lines 9–26 he starts an extended account, framing direct verbal quotations with ‘said’ and ‘says’ but embedding in them a descriptive internal state ‘we apologise’ (line 21). At line 28, again in response to the interviewer requesting more detail, he reverts to a descriptive state ‘he was quite taken aback’ before giving further details, using framed direct quotation (lines 31–2). He also demonstrates a double-voicing and positioning by performing the vivid drama of the incident verbatim while also stepping out to comment metalinguistically at lines 10–13 about the ‘mishap’. So while shifting between descriptive states and direct verbatim quotation within his ‘storyworld’ (Bamberg, 1997), Gladston also orientates


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explicitly to the relationship between himself as the narrator and the interviewer. He does this in three ways: firstly as we have just seen through metalinguistic comment, secondly through evaluative side sequences designed to align with the interviewer (lines 16–17 on the young showoff apprentice) and thirdly by using subtle pronoun shifts within his direct verbatim quotes. For example, the shift between ‘I’ and ‘we’ and ‘he’ position him as taking ownership – that is both taking (final but not total) responsibility for the accident – while also maintaining his identity as a competent professional who can deal with these matters. Simply producing a descriptive internal state utterance such as ‘I would apologise and take responsibility’ would not contextualize his answer in ways that would allow him to manage the tensions of the story and the relationship between himself and interviewer in its telling.4 This delicate packaging of his identity in displaying his ‘taking ownership’ competence suggests a ‘linguistic capital’ that is rather different from Bourdieu’s conceptualization of it as the resource of the dominant group. Gladston does not always choose to use modes of literate English which reflect Bourdieu’s description. Nor, except fleetingly in line 1, does he use the competence talk of the interviewers’ training for interviews or of the guidelines for competency-based interviewing. However, he successfully reads the institutional requirements of interview talk as they are played out in the social occasion of the face-to-face encounter. In the final example, Junior, who, by contrast with Gladston, is rated quite low on his job interview performance, fails to use narrative resources in a persuasive manner. In the same question on ‘taking ownership’ he tells the story of a member of staff who was frequently absent from work. As her acting manager, he was expected to raise questions with her about her absenteeism. The interviewer then presses him on what the rest of the team thought about his action, just as Gladston’s interviewer asks him about the customer’s reaction (line 27): Example 4: Interview with Junior (black British, unsuccessful) (C = candidate, Junior, I = interviewer) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

C: so I told th- the guys that only empty the (yorks) if= I: = yeah but what I’m trying to [find is C: yeah] I: how did the other members of the team feel about I: you challenging (1) this person C: oh ri- oh no they were pr- they were (fine yeah) they were well pleased


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7. I: okay 8. C: yeah because they said she (.) got away with (.) away with it for so long 9. I: okay 10. C: so oh yeah they were [er and 11. I: how do] you know they were well pleased 12. C: because er:m (.) a couple of guys did say to me er:m (4) well er:m (.) well the other 13. manager let her go- get away with 14. I: okay (^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^) is that what happened ((slight laugh)) okay alright then Junior’s response to the interviewer’s question is to produce a brief descriptive internal state answer, ‘they were fine yeah they were well pleased’ and then a framed direct verbatim quotation at line 8. However, neither are sufficiently elaborated as the interviewer’s probing question at line 11 suggests. This leads to a further framed quotation but without any of the vivid, grounded detail of Gladston’s narrative. Crucially, there is no active agency in the quote or any evaluative stance which would depict what the ‘couple of guys’ thought about him as taking action in contrast to the previous manager. There is an implicit comparison (lines 12–13) between Junior and the other manager but this is never made explicit or elaborated. Later in the interview (not transcribed here) when he is asked a similar question about how he encouraged a member of staff, he again gives a general descriptive statement: ‘Just general talk’. While the content of Junior’s example of taking ownership is less problematic than Gladston’s since Junior takes action to try and resolve a difficult issue with one of his staff while Gladston has to admit a mistake, it is Gladston who produces the persuasive narrative. Although Junior uses both descriptive internal states and framed verbatim quotations, he neither positions himself vividly within the story world nor takes up a more distant self-evaluative stance. It is the telling of the competence rather than the fact of having experienced it which counts.

2.5 Conclusion The widespread use of competency frameworks in the British job interview is a response to the demands of the new work order. Workers in even low-paid jobs are expected to display both an enterprising and a


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moral self. Competency frameworks are also justified in terms of equal opportunities since they structure the interview and arguably render it more objective. However, microanalysis of these encounters shows that they produce a ‘linguistic penalty’ for those not socialized into the discourses of the interview. Indeed, the linguistic demands of the interview are greater than the demands of the job itself. The ‘linguistic capital’ required in the particular field of the job interviewer is somewhat at odds with Bourdieu’s original characterization, or certainly requires a more nuanced description. Here, the capital has to be a blend of institutional discourses – analytic and discrete – and personal discourses, which usually take the form of vivid personal narratives. In the interviews for low-paid work, candidates have to produce a synthesis of these discourses and a standard narrative structure which is bureaucratically processable. In the junior management interviews, the manager identity has to be displayed through a strong sense of agency, particularly in relation to people management but also through a reflexive self-awareness. A well-structured but simple story is not enough at this level. Rather, the candidates have to subtly position themselves in relation to the interviewer through their narrative resources. Drawing on these flexible resources the narrativized self is expected to manage the unspoken contradictions and face wants within relations of power which constitute the British job interview. While the competency frameworks of the selection interview have transformed the unstructured interview of the 1960s and 1970s, it still remains a linguistic technology that serves to maintain inequality. The linguistic penalty excludes many candidates with considerable cultural capital in the form of qualifications and experience because of the unspoken rules of the competency-based interview.

Transcription conventions Throughout this chapter, the transcripts use ‘C’ to refer to the candidate, and ‘I’ to refer to the interviewer. Where there is more than one interviewer, the interviewers are labelled I1 and I2. The report uses the transcription conventions shown below, which are adapted from Psathas (1995): [

Beginning of overlap e.g. T: I used to smoke[a lot] B: [he thinks he’s real tough


Celia Roberts 25

]

End of overlap e.g. A: I used to smoke [a lot] B: he th]inks he’s real tough = Latching, i.e. where the next speakers turn follows on without any pause A: I used to smoke a lot= B: =He thinks he’s real tough (.) Untimed brief pauses (0.5) Timed pauses approx. seconds and tenths of a second e.g. (0.5) / (0.1) / (2.0) : Sounds stretch e.g. I gue:ss you must be right Cut-off prior word or sound e.g. ‘I thou- well I thought Yes Emphasis, i.e. perceived stress indicated by volume and pitch change (s’pose so/spoke to) Unclear talk/possible hearings in the case of multiple possibilities (^^^^^^^) Unrecognizable talk, words replaced by insertion marks to indicate length of talk ((child’s name))

Description of named person/anonymized name e.g. ((interviewer’s name))

((laugh))

Description of vocal sound that interrupts talk e.g. ((cough))

N.B. This list is not definitive. It has been simplified for the purpose at hand. Reference to intonation and pitch is marked in transcripts only where it has particular significance.

Notes 1. The two studies were funded by the Department for Work and Pensions and are available on their website, Talk on Trial Research Report 344 and Talking Like a Manager Research Report 510: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrsindex.asp 2. Over the last 50 years in many Western countries so-called ethnic work units/shifts have become increasingly common. The experience of such work is well documented in Waldinger and Lichter (2003). 3. The prioritization of the orderly temporal sequence in defining narrative put forward in the work of Labov has been called into question in recent work on narrative (Baynham and de Fina, 2005; Fabian, 2001; Georgakopoulou, 2003). Some work on narrative has called into question the universalization


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of Labovian narrative structure by both linguists and institutions such as courts, and argued that this leads to the dismissal of non-standard narratives produced by certain groups (see, for example, Trinch, 2003). Others argue that the Labovian narrative structure is in fact universal, and that it is only the rhetorical features in which it is couched which are culturally specific. However, this is a contentious issue which it is beyond the scope of this chapter to address. 4. I am grateful for Sarah Hilsig’s comments on this section of the data.


3 Equality for Those Who Are Competent. Discourses on Competencies, Diversity and Equality in the Public Sector Sarah Scheepers

3.1 Introduction Since the 1990s, public administrations in OECD countries have undergone fundamental reforms to become more efficient service providers. The changing global economy, dramatic technological change and increased expectations of government performance required new attention to a complex set of public skills and capacity (Šiugždiniene˙, 2006). The goal was to make state administrations operate more like privatesector companies, and so flattened hierarchies, modern management systems that increase accountability, performance management and the like were introduced. This evolution in public administration was captured under the name ‘new public management’ (NPM) (Pollit and Bouckaert, 2000). NPM practices augmented the demand for more functional and social diversity in public organizations. Otherwise, the reasoning was, the public sector would not be able to compete with private-sector organizations. In order to attract the most talented personnel, recruitment and selection of civil servants were based more on competencies and less on rigid criteria such as diploma requirements. Competency management was seen as a neutral way of selecting the ‘best’ person for the job and it became part of modern human resources management (HRM). Another newcomer in public administration HRM in the 1990s was diversity management (DM). DM was developed in the private sector, more specifically in the context of multinational companies that were confronted with the need to manage their multinational and multicultural workforce. Although the original arguments for DM were mainly economic, there was also an ethical legitimization for introducing DM in public sector administrations. A diverse workforce would make state 27


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bureaucracies more representative of the general population, and guarantee a more democratic service delivery. As from the late 1990s, DM began to influence the more traditional equal opportunity policies in public administrations. The main argument was that differences between employees should be seen as an asset to an organization, not as a problem to be solved. DM became more and more integrated in regular HRM practices (recruitment, selection, training, promotion and evaluation). Diversity management and competency management (CM) have in common that they are both considered to improve neutrality and antidiscrimination policies, given that a person’s talents are the only selection criteria. We would like to state, however, that a DM based on the principles of CM can lead to problematic contradictions and inconsistencies that make it very difficult to conduct an effective equal opportunity policy. In fact, we would like to state that this is because DM and CM are more about attaining the organizational objectives and enhancing employees’ employability, than they are about the emancipation and empowerment of certain target groups. In this chapter, we will therefore investigate how DM and CM are connected and what the consequences are for equal opportunity policies in public administrations. As a case study, we take the Flemish public administration. We will investigate the connection between DM and CM by studying how the Service for Emancipation makes use of the ‘competency’ concept in their diversity policy. The method used is a critical discourse analysis of the main policy documents of the Service for Emancipation, the Diversity Action Plans (Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Dienst Emancipatiezaken 2003–9). The chapter is structured as follows: first, we will sketch the context of our analysis by providing a short theoretical outline of the principal ideas behind equal opportunity policies, DM and CM. Then we will describe the research context, namely the Flemish administration and more specifically the Service for Emancipation, the corpus material and the method we used for the discourse analysis and we will present the results of the analysis. Finally, we will formulate our conclusions concerning the use of the concept of ‘competency’ within the equal opportunity and diversity policy of the Flemish public administration.

3.2 Equal opportunity, diversity and competency management in the public sector We provide this theoretical outline of basic ideas behind equal opportunity policies, DM and CM, to show that our specific research field, the


Sarah Scheepers 29

Flemish public administration, is not a stand-alone case. The conclusions that we will come to after the discourse analysis can therefore be assumed to take on a more general nature, and will allow other public administrations to benefit from them. 3.2.1 Working on equality: the merit principle, equal opportunity policies and diversity management In the recruitment and selection of public sector personnel, two contrasting approaches can be distinguished. The first approach involves employment and admission based on merit, selecting the ‘best’ candidate regardless of race and gender. The second approach allows group membership to influence selection decisions, which theoretically dilutes the strict merit principle. As for the first approach, we will discuss the merit principle. As for the second approach, we will go into equal opportunity and diversity. 3.2.1.1 Merit In a merit bureaucracy, officials are appointed on the basis of their merit, which is usually tested in (written) examinations. A merit bureaucracy is supposed to guarantee a stable civil service, and is subservient to politics (Hondeghem, 1990). During the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, bureaucracies based on merit (instead of class or patronage) became dominant in Western societies. It is also during this period that the ‘modern’ civil service originated, in the sense that a professional corps was employed on a permanent basis. This does not mean that civil service systems are structured only through merit, but that it is the most preponderant principle (Hondeghem, 1990). The crucial element in the shift towards a merit bureaucracy seems to be that civil servants were recruited on the basis of their capabilities. Although in the beginning merit was used as a guiding principle in the recruitment of civil servants, later it also became the basic principle of the organization of personnel matters in general (promotions, remuneration, training, etc.). Since the public administration reforms, the traditional definition of merit as educational qualifications (Hondeghem, 2000; Colley, 2006) was replaced with a more practical focus on vocational competencies and clerical aptitude (Colley, 2006). 3.2.1.2 Equal opportunity policies Equal opportunity policy is located in the anti-discrimination legislation that was adopted in the United States and member states of the European Union in the 1970s and 1980s. Basically, there are two models of equal opportunity: the ‘liberal’ and the ‘radical’. The liberal approach


30


emphasizes fair procedures. The formula for eliminating discrimination thus centres on the use of procedures which formalize methods of access to jobs and encourage employers to assess applicants on their merits and to exclude considerations of other aspects. Unequal outcomes in the distribution of jobs and resources would then be the result of unequal merit. The radical approach, on the other hand, emphasizes positive discrimination and the redistribution of jobs and resources in favour of those previously disadvantaged. This model views the meritocratic principle as ideology and seeks the politicization of decisions (Webb, 1997). Various reasons can be mentioned for the ‘failure’ of instruments such as affirmative action. A problem already lies in the way that affirmative action, and equal opportunities as a whole, are defined. In EU law, we have to do with an exemption allowing affirmative action. Member states are permitted to adopt measures to promote equal opportunity for men and women, in particular by removing existing inequalities which affect women’s opportunities (Bacchi, 1999). Zillah Eisenstein (1988) claims that such an exemption reveals the implicit (male) norm structuring the legislation. Similarly, the way in which affirmative action is ‘allowed’ in anti-discrimination legislation highlights the conceptual limitations around it. By being located as an exemption, affirmative action programmes are placed on the defensive and need to argue for exemption status (Bacchi, 1999). In fact, defining affirmative action as an exemption to anti-discrimination policies confirms and strengthens the dominant view that affirmative action is in opposition to and incompatible with ‘genuine’ equal opportunity. As Bacchi (1999) and Radin (1991) write, ‘the dominant ordinary language view is that affirmative action gives benefits to people who are less qualified or less deserving than white men or indeed are wholly unqualified or undeserving’. Within this understanding, notions of merit remain unquestioned. Also, the continual framing of affirmative action, and equal opportunity as a whole, as ‘preferential treatment’ readily produces the conclusion that its targets are receiving ‘preference’ beyond need and are thus paradoxically ‘advantaged’ (Radin, 1991). There is no way within these terms to question the standards which were applied to those currently holding positions of power and authority, or which continue to be used in hiring and promotion (Bacchi, 1996). 3.2.1.3 Diversity ‘Diversity’ is typically discussed in organization literature in reference to the benefits of variety in workforce attributes (Ospina, 2001). Workforce


Sarah Scheepers 31

attributes range from those that are directly related to work or tasks such as differences in skills, to those that are social in nature and – in theory – only indirectly related to work, such as gender. Research suggests that depending on the social, historical and organizational context, some attributes will be more salient than others (Ethier and Deaux, 1994; Ospina, 1996; Williams and O’Reilly, 1999). But social categories (which include gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, age and family, economic, educational and geographical backgrounds and status) appear to influence employment contexts in most societies. Of course, each employee in an organization fits into several potential social categories and, furthermore, many identities occur simultaneously. In addition, social diversity involves both self-definition and attributes perceived by others. Categorizing individuals on the basis of one single identity attribute may therefore produce equivocal judgement calls (Ospina, 2001). DM originated in the private sector, where the arguments for diversity were mainly economic, and research on what might be called ‘managing for diversity’ did not appear in public management until the late 1980s and early 1990s (Pitts, 2006). During that time, two types of demand began to affect public service in particular. While a demand for increased performance emerged, whereby diversity becomes a performance requirement, the other emergent demand was a legitimization demand, whereby diversity stems from political and ethical mandates for representative bureaucracy in a democratic context (Ospina, 2001). These two demands produce a strong incentive to pursue diversity and to manage it effectively. DM is said to be characteristically different from previous employment equity approaches directed at under-represented ethnic minority groups, such as equal opportunity and affirmative action approaches, in a number of ways. In contrast to the explicit targeting of groups in affirmative action policy, the emphasis in DM is upon expanding diversity to ‘multiple diversities’ (Thomas, 1992). The focus lies on individual enablement. Its rationale is primarily one of improving organizational competitiveness and efficiency, driven by business purpose and market advantage. In relation to this it stresses the necessity of recognizing cultural differences between groups of employees, and making practical allowances for such differences in organizational policies (Wrench, 2003). The idea is that encouraging an environment of cultural diversity, where people’s differences are valued, enables people to work to their full potential in a richer, more creative and more productive work environment. An advantage of DM is said to be its more positive approach,


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rather than the negative one of simply avoiding transgressions of antidiscrimination laws. Unlike previous equality strategies, DM is not seen as a policy solely directed towards the interests of excluded or underrepresented minorities. Rather it is seen as an inclusive policy, one which therefore encompasses the interests of all employees, including white males (Wrench, 2003). As a result, DM is at least in its original form framed by the language of economic rationalism. In effect, DM undermines the starting premises of anti-discrimination law that groups like women, ethnic minorities, those with disabilities, etc. are the targets of discriminatory practices and therefore ought to be the targets of reform. There is thus a shift away from any sense that specified groups experience ‘disadvantage’. 3.2.2 Competency management One of the management concepts that have entered the public management and HRM vocabulary from the private sector is CM. It involves identifying the competencies that people need to perform a job well, constructing a framework and using it as the foundation for recruitment, selection, training, rewards and other aspects of HRM. Whereas the traditional approaches to personnel management tended to emphasize people’s formal qualifications and experience as indicators of likely performance in a job, CM stresses the varied knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that people need, to be able to achieve the strategic objectives of the organization (Horton, 2002). There may be several reasons for an organization to start with CM. There is the context of globalization, the wish for more efficiency, and the continuous need to keep up with new ways of working and collaborating with others. The implementation of CM not only benefits the organization, but also the individual employee. There is a consistency in identifying and measuring the quality of people’s performance at all stages in the employment cycle. This will, for instance, give employees a clearer idea of what is expected from them, so that they can develop themselves and meet these expectations. Moreover, each personnel member receives regular feedback on their work and their development, so that they are better able to evaluate the connections between their own competencies, the results of their work, and the contribution to the organization’s objectives (Van Beirendonck, 2002). In other words, CM is not a goal in itself, but a way to come to better performances. It represents a cultural change with its emphasis on greater employee self-direction and responsibility and the search for excellence rather than standard performance. There are, however, also problems associated with CM, namely identifying


Sarah Scheepers 33

competencies, constructing competency frameworks, and predicting future competency needs (Horton, 2002). 3.2.3 Conclusion Both DM and CM are based on the idea that people should be judged by their individual talents and competencies. This way, the organization does not miss out on talent that, for whatever reason, is not accompanied by the correct diploma, and the candidate is not judged on the basis of social characteristics such as ethnicity or gender. Combining DM with CM thus seems a win–win situation for the organization as well as for the (candidate) employee. By conducting a critical discourse analysis of our corpus, however, we will show that the combination of DM and CM does not necessarily lead to the end of discrimination or to more inclusion and can in fact be problematic when it comes to maintaining an effective equal opportunity policy. In Section 3.3, we will describe the research context, the method of discourse analysis and go into the main results of the empirical analysis.

3.3 Discourse analysis of the Flemish diversity plans: competency management in the framework of diversity 3.3.1 Research context Our research focuses on the way that the concept of ‘competency’ is used within the equal opportunity and diversity policy of the Flemish public administration. Therefore, we will provide some background on the Flemish public administration, its equal opportunity and diversity practices and its experience with CM. The research context shows a good deal of resemblance with the ideas and principles outlined in Section 3.2. As a result, linking back our analysis to the theoretical framework allows us to formulate conclusions that reach beyond the Flemish context. 3.3.1.1 The Flemish public administration Flanders is the geographical region located in the northern part of Belgium. It is also the (political) community of the Flemish and one of the political institutions in Belgium. Germany is made up of Länder. Switzerland has cantons. Belgium is a federal state made up of communities and regions. Federalization began in the 1970s and is still an ongoing process. The constitutional system grants Flanders its own legislative


34


and executive powers, which are the Flemish Parliament and Flemish government respectively. Thanks to this autonomy, Flanders can outline its own policies. The Flemish public administration was subjected to a root-andbranch reform in 2006 (called the ‘Better Administrative Policy’), designed to make public administration more efficient. The tasks of the Flemish public administration are now organized into 13 policy areas. Each policy area comprises a department and a number of autonomous agencies. The departments lend support to and offer advice to the government on policy-making, while the agencies then apply the government policy in the context of services provided to citizens, companies and organizations. In the context of this chapter, we focus on the policy area of public governance. This policy area consists of seven departments and agencies. We will look at the Department for Public Administration, and more specifically at the Service for Emancipation which has been located there since 1991. The mission of the Service for Emancipation is to prepare, implement, follow up and evaluate the policies on equal opportunities and diversity. These policies are aimed at five target groups within the public workforce, i.e. women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, low-qualified workers, and older workers. 3.3.1.2 Equal opportunity policies and diversity management in the Flemish public administration Equal opportunity policies for women have been implemented since 1985 in the Belgian federal administration, mainly under international pressure of the UN conference in 1980 and the European Union directive of 1976, and it was not until 1992 that equal opportunities became a portfolio. Since 1990, European legislation has allowed affirmative action, also in the public sector. In the Flemish public sector (and also in the Belgian federal public sector), the affirmative action programme (within the framework of the equal opportunity policy) entailed that there was (at least) one public servant in every public organization who took on the responsibility of making sure that equal opportunity policies were followed up. She or he could suggest initiatives or actions to improve equal opportunities in the organization, and annually (s)he had to report on the actions that were taken. These ‘affirmative action officials’ were volunteers (at least in theory), but were permitted to spend some working time on their tasks in that capacity. They did not have any budget at their disposal, however.


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In 2006, the Service for Emancipation started to work explicitly on DM in the Flemish public sector. In practice, DM in the Flemish administration comes down to an equal opportunity programme, be it this time for more target groups instead of one. In their diversity approach, however, the administrations also try to maintain a stronger link with HR processes. This is in contrast to equal opportunity and affirmative action, which are more linked to regulation and law than to actual HRM. 3.3.1.3 Competency management in the Flemish public administration The introduction of CM is quite new to public organizations in Belgium. There have been initiatives since the 1990s – particularly at the level of the Flemish administration – but despite all the efforts, they mostly lacked an integrated vision of competencies and CM. In the field of recruitment and selection in the Flemish administration, for example, the most important indicators are still the application covering letter, the CV and the selection interview. CM, however, demands the use of simulation exercises and assessment centres. Also, the HRM department does not play enough of a role in the organization’s strategic decisions. As a consequence, there is a gap between the organization’s objectives and the individual competencies of the public servants. The idea behind the introduction of CM in the Flemish public sector, however, is very similar to other public administrations. Since the new public management reforms, it has been crucial for the Flemish public sector to be as efficient and effective as a private-sector company. Given the context of an ageing workforce and the ‘war on talent’ on the current labour market, rigid selection criteria had to be replaced by a system of CM in order to be able to attract the most competent personnel. 3.3.2 Research method 3.3.2.1 Ways of knowing: interpretive research in public administration We chose discourse analysis as our method to investigate our research question, because it is our opinion, as Teun van Dijk (1997) expresses, that for social scientists, discourse analysis stresses that social and political institutions, organizations, group relations, structures, processes, routines, and many other relevant phenomena, also need to be studied at the level of their actual manifestations, expressions or enactment


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in discourse as language use, communication and interaction. (van Dijk, 1997) Although there has been some interest in interpretative and critical research in public administration and related fields, the explanatory approach still dominates the research scene, and this limits our ability to change administrative or policy situations (White, 1999). The interpretative approach stresses the centrality of meaning in social actions. Social reality is constituted through the words, symbols and actions that people invoke. Language use, as well as the meanings enacted from verbal and non-verbal messages, create and sustain social reality (Tietze et al., 2003). We see discourse as a social practice, more precisely as ‘systems of meaningful actions that form the identities of subjects and objects’ (Foucault, 1989). The social realities and actions that make the discourse are intrinsically political, and connected to power relations (Wodak, 1989). The discourse that is dominant consequently defines concrete applications and actions. Controlling the dominant discourse equals defining what is ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ and making it easier to execute political agendas (Fairclough, 1989, p. 92; Wodak, 1989; Wodak et al., 1997). Or to put it like Fairclough (1989): ‘The stake is more than “mere words”; it is controlling the contours of the political world, it is legitimizing policy, and it is sustaining power relations.’ For this reason, we believe it is important to study the main policy documents in the equal opportunity and diversity policy of the Flemish administration, the diversity action plans, and investigate how the concept of ‘competency’ is used. After all, following from the discourse theory, a policy discourse that is marked by vagueness, contradictions and inconsistencies can indicate a flawed policy implementation. 3.3.3 The corpus Our corpus material consists of written texts, namely the diversity action plans written by the Service for Emancipation. The action plans are the most important policy documents in the equal opportunity and diversity policy of the Flemish public sector. One action plan is jointly written every year by the employees of the Service for Emancipation, and sent out to all the civil servants that have a responsibility for diversity in their respective departments. The action plan is also read by the Flemish government and Parliament, so they can approve the actions planned for the coming year. For this analysis, we study the action plans


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of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. We do not include any plans written before 2003, because they did not contain the word ‘competency’ or refer to CM in any way. 3.3.4 Analysis: discourses on competencies in the diversity action plans of the Flemish public administration We have all the plans in a digital form, so automatic word frequency, distribution and co-occurrence can be performed. In other words, we conducted a content analysis of the action plans. In the seven documents, we marked all the uses of the Dutch term competentie (‘competency’). The term was also marked when it was used in combination with another term, as can be seen in Table 3.1. As Table 3.1 shows, there is no well-aligned vocabulary or jargon used when references are made to CM in the Flemish public sector. Words are invented (e.g. waardegebonden competentie, which can described as ‘competency concerning norms and values’ in English), or used only once (e.g. competentiekloof, ‘competency gap’). This already shows the vague character of the competency discourse, at least as it is used in the field of the diversity policy. In the diversity plans, CM is often referred to as a way to achieve more equality. Here are some translated examples from the corpus material: (a) To recruit people on the basis of their (future) competencies means more equal opportunity, because also those who for some reason do not hold a diploma can enter the organization. (Plan 2005, p. 44) (b) The Service for Emancipation prefers that the candidates’ competencies be more important than their seniority. The criterion of seniority could lead to capable candidates being excluded from the selection procedure. (Plan 2005, p. 14) (c) The Flemish administration finds equal opportunities and diversity very important. We select on the basis of competencies. They are more important than age, sex, ethnicity or disability. (Plan 2003, p. 39) However, the plans also mention that if people are judged only on the basis of their competencies, some groups would experience disadvantages in the selection process. That is why, for example, some tests are adjusted for persons with a disability. This way, everybody has an equal opportunity to demonstrate their competencies.


English translation

Competency(ies) Primary competencies Competency centre(s) Aimed at competency Competency gap Competency management Competency measuring Competency development Competency profile Competency project Competency dictionary Computer competencies Subcompetence Previously acquired competencies Behavioural competencies General competencies Core competency Professional competencies Competencies concerning norms and values

Dutch term marked in the corpus (sing. or plural)

Competentie(s) Basiscompetenties Competentie-centrum (a) Competentiegericht Competentiekloof Competentie-management Competentiemetingen Competentie-ontwikkeling Competentieprofiel Competentieproject Competentie-woordenboek Computercompetenties Deelcompetentie Elders/Eerder Verworven Competenties (EVC’s) Gedragscompetentie Generieke competentie Kerncompetentie Vaktechnische competentie Waardegebonden competentie


1 1

1

3

5

1 3

2

7

7

6 1

1

1

10

Plan 2005

2

11

Plan 2004

4

11

Plan 2003

1

3

1

1

5

Plan 2006

1 1

1

1

2

4

Plan 2007

Table 3.1 Occurrence of the term ‘competency’ in the diversity plans of the Flemish government, 2003–9

1

9

1

1

18 1

Plan 2008

1

6

1

2

1

1

12

Plan 2009

38

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(d) However, it is clear that some disabled people, those with a mental disability, unskilled employees with a handicap, or persons with multiple disabilities, will fall by the wayside, even if selections are made on the basis of competencies. They will rarely be the ‘best’ when having to compete with a candidate without disabilities. Before, this problem was taken into account. There was a 2 per cent quota on level D1 to employ persons with a disability outside the regular selection exams. They were tested on their abilities and, if found fit, they could get a job. If the Flemish administration really wants to be a role model and offer these people an opportunity to work, then it will be necessary again to provide a possibility for people from target groups to be hired without having to compete with people without disabilities. (Plan 2005, p. 44) (e) In the selection procedures, the administration attempts to assess the candidates’ competencies and select the best candidate. The principle here is that all candidates are treated equally. Disabled persons therefore have a right to ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the selection process. (Plan 2008, p. 63) So, on the one hand, there is the conviction that recruitment on the basis of competencies will lead to getting the right person in the right place: (f) Target numbers are not quota: in the Flemish administration competencies remain the most important selection criterion. (Plan 2008, p. 8) (g) In the Flemish administration, competencies are the most important. Somebody less suitable should not get priority over a person that is more suitable. [The author refers to the possibility of affirmative action.] (Plan 2008, p. 85) On the other hand, they are convinced that recruiting solely on the basis of competencies holds a certain degree of unfairness and unequal treatment (cf. (d) and (e)). And sometimes it even remains unclear whether people from target groups should receive extra help or not, as we read in this excerpt from the 2006 plan: (h) Line management and the Service for Emancipation want to make sure that in a recruitment process, candidates from target


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groups show us what they are made of. That is why we would like for candidates to make themselves known as early as the pre-selections. That way, candidates from target groups can demonstrate their competencies during the tests and interviews, without being given any preferential treatment however in the final selection. (Plan 2006, p. 31) As we already mentioned, the final goal of linking DM to competency management seems to be achieving more equality, or equal opportunities (the distinction is not made clear), for all public servants. However, on several occasions it is mentioned that difference is not a bad thing as such. For example: (i) Diversity is profitable, on the work floor as well as outside of it. When everybody’s competencies are used correctly, with respect for differences and departing from the principle of equality, this will benefit the quality of the work. (Plan 2006, p. 1) (j) The Flemish administration should be an organization where ‘other’ competencies, background and cultures are appreciated and are not seen as an obstacle but indeed as enrichment. (Plan 2006, p. 24) (k) In 2006 the department therefore offers training in intercultural communication on the work floor. Aspects that will be treated are: […] How can the variety of talents and competencies of a diversely composed group be an added value and enrichment for the whole team? How far can and must we go in our diversity policy so that every co-worker feels respected in their difference? (Plan 2007, p. 46) Briefly, we can state that the discourse on the link between CM and DM is marked by (at least) two contradictions. First of all, the goal seems to be equality, but with respect for differences. Second, people should be judged on the basis of their competencies, except when they are disadvantaged. Hence, the questions we have to ask here are first, which differences deserve to be respected and which need to be eradicated in favour of equality? And second: which people are disadvantaged ‘enough’ so that an exception can be made to the ‘competency rule’? In other words, what is not mentioned in the action plans is the group of (advantaged) people who are in the position to decide which differences, disadvantages, and competencies matter in which situation. What is also not mentioned is how the diversity approach and


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CM improve the emancipation of the target groups. We would like to propose the argument that this is the case because achieving emancipation is the main goal neither of DM, nor of CM. The main goal, however, is keeping people employable and flexible. In all the action plans it is stated what the benefits are for the Flemish government to have people from target groups working there. The arguments have an ethical (improving social justice and democracy) as well as an economic foundation (labour shortage, war on talent). However, no references can be found, even after a close reading of all the action plans, mentioning why it is good for people from target groups to work for the Flemish administration. When it is said that people should train and develop their competencies and talents, it is not because this improves their individual empowerment, but because it keeps them employable in the future. Although employability of course also benefits the employee, we think it is fair to state that the main concern of the Flemish administration is not the emancipation of certain social groups, but achieving the organization’s goals. Even the Service for Emancipation seems to be more preoccupied with the broader organizational objectives. Here are some citations from the diversity action plans: (l) In the management code the following principles are mentioned that relate to equal opportunities and diversity: All employees receive sufficient opportunities to grow to other positions and to increase their employability […] (Plan 2005, p. 53) (m) The Maritime Department intends to continue providing useful work for low-qualified staff members, by screening the competencies of staff members that are being transferred and by filling up the possible competency gap with existing vacancies through specific coaching and training. VIZO also intends to use the existing potential more creatively and prepare the staff members for other job descriptions. (Plan 2006, p. 91) (n) Career development Career perspective interviews will contribute to improving career opportunities, increasing staff employability and supporting the principle of ’the right person in the right place’. Subsequent to the interviews information will be given on the possibilities to take on other roles within one’s own position.


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Within the framework of competency management, employees may get training that is not specifically aimed at one’s current position, but at a future position. (Plan 2007, p. 75) (o) Personnel regulation As from July 1 2006, it is possible for employees over 60 who have been absent due to sickness for more than 222 working days, to continue working. Personnel who work in shifts will be given priority to change to the daytime shift, if they have the necessary competencies. That way, older workers will be able to work longer. (Plan 2007, p. 76) (p) Labour shortage: will the Flemish administration succeed in presenting itself as an attractive employer, also to the target groups? Will the administration, next to finding new talent, also be able to draw to a much larger extent on the talent that is already present and support its employability, paying special attention to older and low-qualified staff members? (Plan 2009, p. 7) Working to achieve the administration’s objectives as a service provider on the one hand and the emancipation of public servants (individual and groups) on the other is not necessarily mutually exclusive. People grow within and through their work, and an organization grows through the people that work in it. The question we would like raise here, however, is whether it should be the Service for Emancipation’s concern to look after the administration’s ‘business’ interests, filling up competency gaps, improving the image of the Flemish government as an employer, etc. Should its main concern instead not be to provide a counterbalance to everything that is already being done in the interest of the organization? It is one thing to manage the diversity within an organization, so that people feel appreciated and are able to function properly. But this is not the same as working on eliminating racist, sexist, homophobic and other exclusionary elements from the structures, processes and philosophies on which the organization is built. This asks for a different approach, one that will not always coincide with the objectives of the Flemish administration. To quote from the 2006 action plan, ‘In the end, the goal of the equal opportunity policy is to create an atmosphere of tolerance on the work floor and beyond’ (p. 1). We would like to suggest that the stakes should be raised much higher.


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3.4 Conclusion On the basis of the theoretical outline in Section 3.2 as well as the analysis in Section 3.3, we can now formulate our main conclusions. Since the NPM reforms, public administrations, including the Flemish, have been forced to operate more like private organizations. To become more efficient and cost-effective, they need to attract the most talented personnel available on the labour market. This makes it difficult to conduct a traditional equal opportunity policy, since that kind of policy is directed precisely at those target groups who have some difficulty in belonging to the group of ‘the best’. It is therefore no surprise that DM has been indicated as the logical follow-up or addition to those traditional equal opportunity policies, as has happened in the Flemish administration. However, DM does not have as its main goal the emancipation of certain target groups. Although people are encouraged to increase their competencies, flexibility and employability, in the end they remain personally responsible for their own success or failure. Thus, DM can be empowering for successful employees; it is not concerned with antidiscrimination or the emancipation of disadvantaged groups. In our view, it is therefore problematic when a service concerned with emancipation adopts the principles of DM. One of those principles is that people should be solely selected on the basis of their competencies. From our analysis, we can however conclude that the discourse on the link between competency management and DM is marked by contradictions. First, the goal is stated to be equality, but respect for differences is also promoted. Second, employees should be judged on the basis of their competencies, except when they are disadvantaged. These contradictions show that the principles of DM (and competency management) are being combined with those of a traditional equal opportunity policy. This makes it a very difficult exercise to translate the policy of the Service for Emancipation into concrete actions. After all, it remains unclear which differences should be respected, and which people are disadvantaged enough to count as an exception to the competency rule. The excerpts from the action plans show that the Service for Emancipation is concerned with attaining the organizational goals of the Flemish administration as a whole. In that respect, it is a logical consequence that they promote employability and flexibility. Those principles are however difficult to combine with their original mission of emancipation. Although we appreciate the efforts the Service delivers in


44


searching for a balance between contradicting values and goals, it seems necessary to question whether (or how) DM, competency management and an equal opportunity policy can effectively be combined and be beneficial to the administration as well as its public servants.

Note 1. Level D is the lowest level in the Flemish public administration. It is reserved for low-skilled workers.


4 The Language of Power: an Analysis of a Corpus of CEO Letters1 Berna Hendriks and Margot van Mulken

4.1 Introduction One of the many competences (among which developing vision and strategy, incorporating ethics and integrity, building alliances, possessing maturity and judgement – to cite only a few) an effective CEO is supposed to display is communicator competence. Madlock (2008) rightfully points out that leadership is a behaviour enacted through communication. Due to globalization, corporate communication executives are increasingly faced with the challenges of effectively addressing their diverse and dispersed internal and external audiences, which has prompted a heightened interest in research investigating (cross-cultural) variability in style conventions in corporate communication genres such as, for example, annual reports (de Groot, 2008; Hooghiemstra, 2003) or CEO letters (Hyland, 1998). Annual reports, CEO statements and CEO letters to shareholders, in particular, have become important public relations tools for organizations in communicating corporate actions, decisions and developments to external audiences (Bournois and Point, 2006). Research has analysed CEO letters and has looked at how CEOs promote the corporate image (Bowman, 1984; Cross, 1990) and employ rhetorical devices to create positive perceptions of the organization and themselves (Hyland, 1998). For internal audiences, CEOs are supposed to lead the way and to devise the policies of the organization with regard to the future. Consequently, CEOs not only need to walk the walk but, perhaps more importantly, to talk the talk, so as to persuade the organization’s workforce to follow the directions the CEO wishes the organization to take. Therefore, it is interesting to observe how CEOs, in times of prosperity, but also in times of recession, address the organization’s employees in internal CEO messages. 45


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It might be expected that, if a CEO wishes to communicate positive developments, the nature of his linguistic choices will differ from when he has to reveal negative information, such as policy failure, financial cutbacks or job redundancies. Therefore, we will examine CEO-speak in three situations: negative, positive and neutral information. For our investigation of CEO style in the letters, we used a framework consisting of six stylistic features that previous studies have shown to be indicative of powerless or powerful language styles. We isolated these stylistic devices from content-related messages and used them to differentiate between CEO communication styles. In sociolinguistic and social psychological research on language and power, a powerful (or high-power) communication style is generally operationalized as lacking the characteristics of ‘powerless (or ‘low-power’)’ language. The distinction between powerful and powerless speech styles derives from Erickson et al.’s (1978) analysis of oral speech in courtrooms. Erickson et al. showed that individuals with low social power and low status more typically made use of low-power language characteristics such as intensifiers (e.g. ‘very’, ‘surely’), hedges (e.g. ‘kinda’, ‘I think’), hesitations (e.g. ‘uh’, ‘you know’) and polite forms (e.g. ‘please’, ‘thank you’). Highstatus people rarely use these low-power language elements and therefore employ what Erickson et al. dubbed a powerful speech style. Subsequent studies have investigated the impact of powerful and powerless speech styles on perceptions of speakers’ personality traits and have found that speakers who use a less powerful speech style may be regarded as less credible, attractive, knowledgeable and self-assured than speakers using a more powerful speech style (Bradac et al., 1981; Fragale, 2006; Hosman and Siltanen, 2006; Parton et al., 2002). In the present study, six linguistic characteristics were included to differentiate between powerless and powerful speech styles in the CEO letters: hedges, boosters, engagement markers, attitude markers, cause–effect markers and presuppositions. Hedges can be regarded as low-power linguistic elements in that they tend to convey a sense of speaker uncertainty about the message. By hedging a message, a speaker communicates doubts about the validity of his/her intended meaning, thus conveying a sense of speaker reticence toward the message. High-status people would be expected to refrain from using hedges since they tend to reduce audience perceptions of speaker authoritativeness and speaker social attractiveness (Blankenship and Holtgraves, 2005; Hosman, 1989; Hosman and Wright, 1987). However, there are situations in which hedges may be useful devices even for people in high-power positions. Since hedges have an attenuating function, they may help to mitigate message impact when CEOs need to communicate


Berna Hendriks and Margot van Mulken 47

negative news. Consequently, although we expect hedges to occur less often in CEO-speak than other stylistic markers, we would expect them to occur more often in negative messages than in positive ones. Although Erickson et al. (1978) classified intensifiers as low-power devices, other evidence suggests that intensifiers may not be uniformly perceived as powerless and may even have powerful connotations in certain contexts (Bradac and Mulac, 1984; Hosman, 1989; Hosman and Siltanen, 1994) because they may indicate certainty or control (Hosman and Siltanen, 1994; McMullen and Pasloski, 1992). Intensifiers such as boosters and hyperbolic statements may indeed be characteristic of CEO-speak as they may help CEOs to underline their enthusiasm, their successful policies, and the ambitions of the company. Therefore, we expect boosters to be the most frequently occurring stylistic device in CEO-speak, especially in positive messages. CEO-speak may also be characterized by the way CEOs establish, through language, the (authoritative) relationship with their employees and the message they communicate. Engagement markers are those textual aspects that explicitly serve to engage the audience. Their role is to establish and maintain contact between the writer and the reader and between the writer and the message (Hyland, 1998; De Groot, 2008). For CEOs, enhancing reader involvement might be viewed as lacking in power, since placing too much emphasis on the relationship between leader and employees may be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Therefore, CEOs would be expected to use fewer engagement markers in conveying negative news to their staff. By attitude markers, we refer to characteristics of the language that signal the writer’s attitude towards the message. Attitude markers communicate feelings such as surprise, importance and indignation. Attitude markers always imply an evaluative, non-objective stand through which writers explicitly express their opinion and evaluation of the message. For CEOs, attitude markers may be regarded as potentially dangerous language features. By using attitude markers, a CEO may wish to come across as ‘one of the guys’, a caring and concerned manager, who shares his feelings with recipients of the message. On the other hand, the use of attitude markers betrays the personal touch of the CEO, and makes the message less factual and interpretative. By using attitude markers, a CEO plays the vulnerability card. Consequently, the expectation is for the use of attitude markers to vary depending on the nature of the CEO message. As mentioned above, powerful language has often been defined as the absence of powerless language in the literature. Few scholars have ventured to describe powerful language in positive terms, i.e. in terms of the presence of particular linguistic features. A characteristic that can be


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qualified as a positive trait of power is the presence of causal attribution. Bournois and Point (2006) point out that CEOs use the device of causal attribution to create an illusion of being in control of any situation so as to reassure and demonstrate that they are in command of events (Bournois and Point, 2006). Therefore, it is expected that CEOs use cause–effect statements more frequently in times of prosperity and positive news than in times of recession and negative news, when causal attribution, in the sense of a self-serving attribution bias (Hooghiemstra, 2003), is best avoided. Along similar lines, the characteristic of presupposition (Marston, 1995) – anticipating knowledge that is not explicitly mentioned, but supposedly shared by the audience – is a way of creating a line of reasoning that allows the user to come across as someone who is in the know, and more so than his audience. Moreover, by leaving out information, but at the same time pretending this information to be common knowledge, the user creates the impression of being in control. Presupposition can be considered as an out-grouping device, used to mark insider knowledge, but it may also be viewed as an in-grouping device, as a means of flattering the audience. Consequently, we would expect presuppositions to be typical of a CEO’s speech in positive messages in particular. Stylistic properties, and the way power is perceived by its possessor, may vary from culture to culture. In globally operating companies, a CEO’s audience is composed of a variety of cultures and nationalities. And indeed, the nationality of the CEOs themselves may influence their tendency to use powerful or less powerful language. For instance, in countries that score high on Hofstede’s (2001) Power Index, it is not uncommon to find higher frequencies of use for expressions that can be qualified as powerful (the use of modalities such as ‘must’, ‘have to’, etc. and language intensifiers such as ‘very’, ‘utmost’, etc.), whereas in countries with lower scores on the power index, such expressions tend to be more hedged or simply absent. With regard to causal attribution, Bournois and Point (2006) hint at intercultural differences between American and Asian CEO letters. In the American letters in their study, the emphasis was more often on the decisions taken by the president, whereas the Japanese letters more frequently included acknowledgements of the quality of competitors (Tsang, 2002). Therefore, differences between the two CEOs with respect to their choice of lexical items in addressing their employees are likely to occur. However, since we only have one American and one Dutch representative in our corpus, we will not go so far as to claim to be able to pinpoint cultural differences with regard to the use of powerful language: personal preferences may be



responsible for possible differences in style between the two CEOs. We will therefore only tentatively discuss the stylistic differences between the CEOs in the light of intercultural stylistic differences. These six linguistic characteristics were used to identify the language of power of two different CEOs (one native Dutch, one native American). The following expectations were central to our investigation: 1. Hedges occur less often in negative messages than in positive messages. 2. Boosters are the most frequently used modifiers and occur more frequently in positive messages than in negative messages. 3. Engagement markers occur less frequently in negative messages than in positive messages. 4. Attitude markers occur as often in negative messages as in positive messages. 5. Cause–effect markers occur more frequently in positive messages than in negative messages. 6. Presuppositions occur more frequently in positive messages than in negative messages.

4.2 Method From a corpus of 157 letters addressed to employees, a selection of 100 were analysed, written by two different CEOs, in which we analysed the language of power in relation to message content. In this analysis we hope to combine a quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the occurrence of linguistic high-power elements (as opposed to the lack of typically low-power language elements). A sample of 20 per cent of the corpus was analysed by three judges (the two authors and a research assistant) in four sessions to refine and calibrate the coding scheme. All letters were analysed for the occurrence of the linguistic characteristics shown in Table 4.1. If cases could not be indisputably attributed to one of the coding classes, they were left out. Borderline cases were solved after discussion. It should be noted that a clause could receive more than one label.

4.3 Results 4.3.1 Frequency of modifiers The corpus of letters that we analysed was written by two different CEOs of a Dutch-based leading multinational over a period of eight years.


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Table 4.1 Low-power and high-power linguistic elements Characteristics

Function

Examples

Hedges

Tone down writer’s full commitment with information

modals; ‘maybe’, ‘probably’

Attitude markers

Express writer’s attitude towards message

‘I hope’, ‘I regret’

Engagement markers

Establish and maintain contact between writer and audience

‘as you can see’

Boosters

Emphasize writer’s certainty; enable writer to display commitment with message

‘highly’ (important); ‘utmost’ significance

Cause–effect markers

Create an illusion of writer being in control of events

‘as’, ‘causes’, ‘because’, ‘determines’

Presuppositions

Create a line of reasoning to show that writer is more knowledgeable than audience

‘easily’, ‘truly’, ‘readily’, ‘unlimited’, ‘naturally’, ‘repeatedly’

Based on Hyland (1998), de Groot (2008) and Marston (1995).

The letters were sent out to all employees in the multinational as a way of informing them about developments in the organization. One sample of letters was written by a native speaker of (American) English, who was in charge of the organization between 2001 and 2005. The second sample of letters were written by his successor, a (Dutch) non-native speaker of English, who was CEO between 2005 and 2009. All letters were in English, the organization’s official corporate language. A global content analysis revealed that the letters could be classified in three categories: letters written to inform employees about positive developments, letters commenting on negative developments, and letters containing neutral field reports from the CEO. For both CEOs, the majority of letters were neutral field reports, whereas in roughly a third of the letters the CEO commented on positive developments with regard to the organization, the market or the global economy. Roughly a fifth of the letters addressed issues that might have a negative impact on the organization (Table 4.2). On average, the letters contained 555.3 words (SD 222.47) and included .06 modifiers (SD .19). The Dutch CEO was somewhat more verbose than the American CEO: he used on average 620 words (SD 164) per letter


Berna Hendriks and Margot van Mulken 51 Table 4.2 Distribution of letters for CEOs and content categories Content

Neutral Positive Negative Unclassifiable

Dutch CEO

American CEO

n

%

n

%

19 17 10 4

38.0 34.0 20.0 8.0

25 14 9 2

50.0 28.0 18.0 4.0

800 Content NEU POS NEG

Count

600

400

200

0 Hedge

Booster

Attitude Engagement Cause– Presupposition marker effect marker marker Modifier

Figure 4.1 Frequency distribution of modifiers for three types of letter content

versus the American CEO (501 words/letter; SD 250). The difference between the two writers was significant (F(1, 86) 6.70, p .05). The most prominent modifiers in the letters were boosters and attitude markers, followed by hedges and engagement markers. Cause–effect markers and presuppositions were hardly used at all. Across all categories of modifier, the neutral content letters seemed to include slightly more modifiers than both the positive and the negative content letters (Figure 4.1). A chi-square analysis revealed a significant relationship between content of the letter and use of modifiers (2 (10, n 3124) 30.08, p .01, Cramer’s V .07). A more detailed analysis of the adjusted standardized residuals showed that the most substantial differences in use of modifiers


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across the three types of letters could be attributed to differences in the use of hedges, boosters and engagement markers in particular (see Appendix 4.1). Hedges, which have a downgrading effect, occurred relatively more frequently in the neutral and negative content letters, and relatively less frequently in the positive letters in particular. Boosters, which tend to intensify a writer’s content, occurred relatively more frequently in the positive content letters and less frequently in the neutral content letters. The third category for which differences were found, engagement markers, occurred relatively less frequently in the positive content letters and more frequently in the neutral content letters. 4.3.2 Average use of modifiers Analysis of variance2 revealed no significant differences for average use of modifiers between the two writers (F 1) or across the three types of letters (F (2, 84) 1.76, p .18). As we distinguished between two types of modifiers (low-power vs high-power modifiers), additional analyses were carried out with these two categories as dependent variables. The low-power modifier category consisted of hedges, attitude markers and engagement markers, whereas the category of high-power modifiers included boosters, cause–effect markers and presuppositions. On average, the CEOs included more high-power modifiers (M .034; SD .011) than low-power modifiers (M .029; SD .012) in their letters (t (87) 3.37, p < .01). This difference could mainly be attributed to a more frequent use of boosters (M .032; SD .011). An analysis of variance for the overall category of low-power modifiers revealed a main effect for writers (F (1, 85) 5.38, p .05). The Dutch CEO included fewer low-power modifiers in his letters than the American CEO. The analysis also revealed a main effect for type of letter (F (2, 85) 3.67, p .05). Post hoc tests (Bonferroni) showed that low-power modifiers occurred significantly more often in the neutral content letters than in the positive or negative content letters ( p .05) (Table 4.3). Interaction was not significant ( p .05). A closer look at the three individual categories of low-power modifiers pointed to differences for two categories of modifiers, in particular hedges and engagement markers. The Dutch CEO used fewer hedges in his letters than did the American CEO (F (1, 86) 19.40, p .001), irrespective of the content of the letter (F (2, 86) 2.26, p .053). The analysis for engagement markers revealed a significant main effect for letter content (F (2, 86) 3.58, p .05). Post hoc tests (Bonferroni) showed a significant trend (p .072) in that neutral content letters tended to include more engagement markers than positive letters. No significant


Berna Hendriks and Margot van Mulken 53 Table 4.3 Occurrences of low-power modifiers for writers and type of letter Content writer

Hedges

Engagement markers

Attitude markers

Total low-power modifiers

Neutral Dutch CEO American CEO Total

53 109 162

101 92 193

206 173 379

360 374 734

Positive Dutch CEO American CEO Total

27 42 69

63 23 86

135 121 256

225 186 411

Negative Dutch CEO American CEO Total

16 50 66

24 33 57

71 79 150

111 162 173

Table 4.4 Occurrences of high-power modifiers for writers and type of letter Content writer

Booster

Cause–effect marker

Presupposition

Total high-power modifiers

Neutral Dutch CEO American CEO Total

371 383 754

19 3 22

16 11 27

406 397 803

Positive Dutch CEO American CEO Total

352 211 563

4 4 8

6 6 12

362 221 583

Negative Dutch CEO American CEO Total

131 174 305

4 2 6

3 6 9

138 182 320

differences were found for the use of attitude markers (p .05). The analysis of high-power modifiers revealed no significant differences for the category as a whole or for the use of the three categories of modifiers together (all p’s .05; Table 4.4). 4.3.3 Word frequency analyses Following Bournois and Point (2006), we analysed the frequencies of the 10 most popular focus words that occurred in their sample of French CEO letters. Table 4.5 presents the 10 most frequent words in


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Table 4.5 Comparison of focus words (Bournois and Point, 2006) Focus word

Growth Strategy Strength Performance Success Results Improvement Management Sales Customer Business Company Market Team People Key

Bournois and Point ranking (% of occurrence in 28 letters) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

(96.4) (92.8) (92.8) (85.7) (82.1) (75) (75) (71.4) (71.4) (67.9) – – – – – –

CEO sample – ranking

No. of occurrences Dutch CEO

9 (88)

10 (87) 6 (121) 7 (114) 1 (289) 2 (210) 3 (177) 4 (137) 5 (127) 8 (111)

25 (28%)

57 67 77 173 95 142 100 63 78

(65%) (55%) (67%) (59%) (45%) (80%) (72%) (49%) (70%)

No. of occurrences American CEO

63 (72%)

30 54 37 116 115 35 37 64 33

(35%) (45%) (33%) (41%) (55%) (20%) (28%) (51%) (30%)

our sample, and the comparison with the 10 most frequent focus words in the French letters. What is striking is that the five most frequent words in the CEO sample in the present study did not occur in the French sample, although the letters were collected over the same period of time (2002–5). Bournois and Point (2006) do not mention their selection criterion for focus words, and it might be that they discarded highly evident content words such as ‘company’ and ‘business’ from their sample. However, the words ‘people’ and ‘team’ can hardly be qualified as evident and obligatory terms. The high frequency of these words in our sample seems to indicate a different orientation on the part of the CEOs in the present study in comparison to the French sample. There might be a cross-cultural explanation for this: the company under investigation has Dutch origins, and Dutch managers have been qualified as more people-oriented than French managers (D’Iribarne, 1989). This orientation may be reflected in a preference for concepts highlighting the human resources aspect of management. The Dutch CEO seems less eloquent than the American CEO (even if we account for the fact that the American CEO was somewhat less verbose): the major part of the most frequently used words can be attributed



to the Dutch CEO. Only the words ‘growth’, ‘people’ and ‘company’ were more frequent in the letters of the American CEO; all other highly frequent words were used considerably more frequently by the Dutch CEO. Apart from the word ‘team’, the Dutch CEO appeared to have a strong preference for the word ‘key’, which can be qualified as a booster, but also as a conceptual metaphor. The frequency of this word typically highlights the aspirations of this CEO, whereas the word ‘growth’ seems to typify the style of the American CEO. Different stylistic preferences will also become more evident in a more qualitative analysis of the letters. The next section will address some of the stylistic differences between the two CEOs in our sample. 4.3.4 Qualitative analysis The style of the Dutch CEO can be qualified as more informational and motivational than the style of the American CEO. The Dutch CEO typically uses phrases such as: (1) We have to select our key battles where we want to win, and focus our resources on these. (FvH 1) (2) Now, flying back, let me stop beating the drums of what went well, but also ask your attention for a concern. Yes, I believe we did a pretty good job, yes, we have good technology and yes, we have a good customer base, however, what struck me is the eagerness and the aggressiveness of our competition [..] So I call on our Business Lines and Marketing, as well as our R&D people, to be aggressive, and make bold moves. Only then can we capitalize on our promise – to be the best at delivering compelling Connected Consumer applications. (FvH 27) The American CEO, however, is more anecdotal and narrative in his style and uses everyday life exemplars to illustrate his points: (3) Today in a number of countries, children celebrate Halloween. They dress up variously as monsters or princesses, famous or infamous people, or their favorite fantasy. In the early evening, they go door to door around the neighborhood, revealing themselves when the door is opened and calling “trick or treat?”, in hopes of receiving a treat. This quarter feels a bit the same, but with more monsters than princesses, and more tricks than treats. Business is down across all the segments. (SmG 6)


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(4) In the United States, people are celebrating the annual holiday called “Thanksgiving”, commemorating the successful first harvest of the Pilgrims and the generosity of their Native American neighbors in 1621. Today, the holiday is also an excuse for eating turkey, and the beginning of the largest holiday shopping weekend of the year. Why does this matter to us? Two very different reasons … (SmG 40) These idiosyncratic stylistic choices are only to be expected. These excerpts show that both CEOs have their own preferences and their own style.

4.4 Conclusion and discussion The purpose of the corpus analysis carried out in the present study was to investigate if CEOs make use of powerful language in their letters addressed to employees in their organization. Findings for the frequency distribution of modifiers show that, on average, high-power modifiers, especially boosters, were used more frequently than low-power modifiers. Moreover, both writers tended to use relatively more boosters in positive messages, which was as expected (hypothesis 2). Contrary to expectations, findings indicated that hedges were relatively infrequent in positive messages (contra hypothesis 1). This is understandable since hedges, which tend to have a downgrading or softening effect on a writer’s message, would reduce the force with which positive developments for the organization are presented. As expected, CEOs used engagement markers less often in negative messages (hypothesis 3), but used these modifiers relatively frequently in letters with neutral content. If CEOs place too much emphasis on the relationship between themselves and company employees through the use of engagement markers, this might be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Moreover, CEOs might be inclined to distance themselves from negative news or developments affecting the organization, which might explain the relatively low frequency of engagement markers in the negative letters. As expected, we did not find any differences in the use of attitude markers for the different types of letters (hypothesis 4). We found no differences in the use of cause–effect markers nor in the use of presuppositions (contra hypotheses 5 and 6). The question is to what extent the language of CEOs can be classified as powerful. High-power modifiers were used more frequently than low-power modifiers and in positive content letters, in particular, the message is indeed enhanced by boosters. Conversely, in negative content letters, the relative absence of hedges and engagement markers



seems to underscore what the literature says: the absence of low-power language characterizes the authoritative leader. For low-power modifiers, we found effects for both type of letter and writer. In neutral content letters, more low-power modifiers were used than in positive or negative content letters, which corroborates what we concluded earlier. Since low-power modifiers tend to soften the impact of a message, they were expected to occur more in letters conveying negative news. However, this is not what happened, since it was the neutral letters that contained most low-power modifiers. In addition, the two writers were found to differ in their use of hedges. The Dutch CEO, a non-native speaker of English, used fewer hedges than the American CEO. This underuse of hedges might be related to differences in proficiency in English between the two writers. In general, non-native speakers of English have been found to use less modification than native English speakers (e.g. Hendriks, 2008). With regard to high-power modification, no significant differences were found. Apparently, our attempt to redefine the language of power, by referring to positive features such as boosters, presupposition and cause–effect statements, instead of the absence of low-power language, was unsuccessful. This may have been due to the relative frequencies of these markers. Presuppositions might indeed occasionally betray the power of the speaker, but are not, apparently, a strategy that is used very often. In a quantitative approach such as in the present study, a more commonly used feature may be needed in order to be found more indicative of a person’s style. Our extra analyses revealed some noteworthy findings. The comparison of the most frequently used focus words with a French sample (Bournois and Point, 2006) has shown that the orientation of the two CEOs in the present corpus is somewhat different. The words ‘people’ and ‘team’ distinctly appeared to be focus words, whereas they were absent in the top ten focus words of French company heads. The letters in both samples approximately cover the same period in time, therefore the general global economic or financial circumstances cannot explain this difference in orientation. Perhaps the Dutch origins of the company under investigation are relevant in this respect: Dutch companies are known to be more people-oriented than French companies. Obviously, CEO discourse is not qualified by the use of power markers alone. A characteristic of a competent communicator is that he or she develops his or her own style and rhetoric. The qualitative analysis showed that both CEOs had a distinct personal touch: whereas the Dutch CEO had a preference for rather aggressive or warrior metaphors, the American CEO showed a predilection for anecdotal comparisons, drawing from his personal experience.


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In our study, we investigated written discourse. The characteristics of powerful language, such as we defined them, were all based on literature that also focused on written discourse, such as annual reports and CEO letters. The question remains, however, whether these same characteristics have the same effect and the same distribution when used orally in speeches. Nowadays, CEOs in multinational corporations often use video messages to address their workforce. Future research should investigate the use, frequency and effects of the language of power in spoken discourse. In order to investigate whether the use of powerful markers is really effective, future research should include the analysis of the reception of CEO letters, by inviting potential readers to participate in an attitudinal survey. In this way, it can be uncovered whether there is truly a link between the display of powerful language, the perceived communicator competence of the CEO and the motivation of the workforce. The corpus of letters that we analysed was relatively small and consisted of letters written by just two individuals, who worked at the same multinational company. However, the range of subjects and the variety in subject matter (ranging from bad to neutral to good news) allowed us to make an in-depth analysis of the variety of strategies that a CEO may use to talk the talk.

Appendix 4.1 Frequency distribution of modifiers for different categories of letter content Modifier

Neutral

Positive

Negative

Hedge % within modifier adj. residual

162 54.4 1.9

69 23.2 –3.3

66 22.2 1.5

297 100.0

Booster % within modifier adj. residual

754 46.5 –3.2

563 34.7 3.6

305 18.8 –.3

1622 100.0

Attitude marker % within modifier adj. residual

379 48.3 –.6

256 32.6 .6

150 19.1 .1

785 100.0

Engagement marker % within modifier adj. residual

193 57.4 3.2

86 25.6 –2.6

57 17.0 –.1

336 100.0

Cause–effect marker % within modifier adj. residual

22 61.1 1.4

8 22.2 –1.2

6 16.7 –.4

36 100.0

Presupposition % within modifier adj. residual

27 56.3 1.0

12 25.0 –1.0

9 18.8 .0

48 100.0


Total


Notes 1. The authors wish to thank Nienke de Waal, Sander Arts and an anonymous reviewer for their help and valuable comments. 2. All statistical analyses are based on average occurrences of modifiers divided by total number of words per letter.


5 The Successful 2008 Presidential Candidate: How Political Weblogs Have Contributed in Shaping the American Electorate’s Preferences1 Giorgia Riboni

5.1 The rhetorical presidency and online political communication The idea that ‘popular or mass rhetoric has become a tool of presidential governance’ (Tulis, 1987, p. 4) and that a president’s authority finds its legitimacy in direct communication with the citizens started spreading during the twentieth century with political figures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Scholars use the expression ‘rhetorical presidency’ to refer to this modern conception of government and highlight the fact that parties invest many resources to ‘sweeten’ and, when possible, to bypass the media in order for their candidates to be successful ‘rhetorical presidents’ (Mazzoleni, 1998, p. 50). The latter undoubtedly exert a mediating function between government and citizens and have obtained some power over parties (Bentivegna, 1999, p. 39). With the advent of the Internet, political organizations have acquired the possibility of avoiding media influence and establishing a direct connection with the public. The informative/pedagogical function is among the most important ones performed with the aid of the Internet: parties mainly use their websites to spread the information they deem important either by publishing it online or by placing links to outside sources. The fact that the Internet allows parties to communicate with the electorate independently from the media does not mean that media news is not to be found on their sites, but rather that a selection is operated from media coverage: positive news items are given prominence and unwanted ones are filtered out.

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Giorgia Riboni 61

The possibility of spreading information is just one of the advantages brought about by the advent of the Net. If, at first, parties opened email accounts or websites only to appear modern, dynamic and to show that they moved with the times, later on more importance was attached to these communication means as it was realized that they were cheaper than others and could reach a potentially infinite audience: ‘[t]he Internet not only collapses space and time, but beyond bandwidth, there is no additional structural cost between communicating with ten people and broadcasting to millions’ (Boyd, 2008). All these characteristics make the Internet environment suitable to host electoral campaigns; online it is possible to create networks of supporters, to collect donations2 and to advertise parties’ initiatives. Many different text genres can be found online: some, like for instance press releases and newsletters, have existed for a long time and have simply undergone a process of migration and adaptation to the Internet environment; others have emerged thanks to the properties of the Net ‘through the interplay of already established generic conventions with new technological and semiotic possibilities’ (Gruber, 2008, p. 59); blogs, chat lines and websites represent a few examples of genres which are web autochthonous. Official weblogs represent one of the new means political organizations use to communicate with the electorate: usually defined as ‘frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological order’ (Herring et al., 2005, p. 143), these online diaries have attracted many readers as they provide a first-hand account of events and ‘the blogosphere [has] emerged as an important forum for politics’ (Cornfield, 2007, p. 133). In particular, political blogs became extremely widespread in the years 2000–4 and this sudden popularity induced parties to use them during the electoral campaigns (Polsby and Wildavsky, 2007, p. 186). One of the reasons why weblogs have become such an important communication tool is the fact that they are interactive: readers can make their voices heard by posting a comment or leaving a note in the tag board, thus having the possibility of being in direct contact with those who represent them. In the digital era an appearance of openness and accessibility is of fundamental importance for the success of parties and candidates. However, having a blog and attracting readership does not automatically mean having many voters. As social media researcher Danah Boyd stresses, ‘simply having a digital presence doesn’t convert people’ (Boyd, 2007): persuasive strategies have to be adopted to convince readers to cast their vote for the desired party or candidate.


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5.2 Aims and methodology One of the characteristics that contribute to the success of a political blog is its ability to persuade undecided citizens to cast their vote for the promoted candidate or party. This chapter investigates the linguistic and rhetorical strategies deployed during the 2008 electoral campaign by party bloggers to represent their favourite presidential runner as the one deserving to be elected. In particular, the study focuses on the prominent role played within the blogs by the candidates’ competence. As Popkin (1991, p. 61) maintains, voters tend to greatly evaluate this aspect, which seems to be as important as other crucial elements like, for instance, issue proximity. Unsurprisingly, then, during the 2008 electoral campaign, bloggers of both political orientations tried to portray their preferred candidate as the most competent. The reason why blogs have been chosen for this analysis is that, unlike newspapers, they offer the possibility of entering into direct contact with parties’ discursive construction of themselves, their adversaries and, more in general, of the political scene. The intimate relationship between discourse and politics has been the object of many studies. For instance, Teun van Dijk (2002, p. 203) points out that ‘political information processing often is a form of discourse processing, also because much political action and participation is accomplished by discourse and communication’. As a consequence, the discursive construction of candidates or political parties plays an essential role in the way they are perceived by the community. The methodology which is considered most suitable for the investigation of the representation of public identities is critical discourse analysis (CDA), given that it studies the way social actors interact, encoding and constructing reality through language (cf. Fowler, 1991; Fairclough, 1992; van Dijk, 1997b). The qualitative approach generally used by CDA is combined in this study with the quantitative examination typical of corpus linguistics (CL) to obtain a more systematic delineation of the protagonists of the 2008 American political scene. The joint use of CDA and CL represents ‘the most appropriate linguistic tool’ to investigate the labelling of social identities (Stubbs, 1996, p. 128) because it activates a useful synergy (cf. Baker et al., 2008) that helps reduce the shortcomings of both methodologies. In particular, the data-driven, bottom-up approach of CL guarantees more objectivity to the studies conducted with the CDA analytical framework. As a matter of fact, a possible limit of discourse analysis may be represented by the impossibility of separating the examination of texts from their interpretation


Giorgia Riboni 63

(cf. Widdowson, 1995): this risk can be significantly reduced using CL in combination. What is more, using corpora allows the investigation of larger and more representative amounts of data than the samples usually analysed in CDA (Garzone and Santulli, 2004, p. 354). Ad hoc corpora were preferred to standard ones in this analysis because its focus is on the discursive practices of a very specific kind of text, parties’ and Congress people’s blogs. Two corpora consisting of five Republican and five Democratic weblogs (each amounting to ca. 10,000 tokens for a total of about 100,000 tokens3) were collected for this study. The material under investigation was published online in the 18 weeks before the elections and the following two. The Republican corpus includes posts from the Republican Party blog (REP), the Kansas Republican Party blog (‘the Trunkline’ – TKL), the California Republican Party blog (CRP), and the blogs of Republican House Representatives Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Jack Kingston (R-GA). The Democratic corpus consists of posts of the Democratic Party blog (DEM), the Kansas Democratic Party blog (‘The Buffalo’- BFL), the California Democratic Party blog (CDP) and of the blogs of Democratic House Representatives Mike Honda (D-CA) and Steve Cohen (D-TN).4 As Mautner (2005, p. 814) recognizes, using web-based corpora ‘presents the critical discourse analyst with not only opportunities, but also challenges’. The remarkable dynamism of a web genre like blogs, together with the huge variety of accessible material, made it difficult to devise unitary parameters for the collection of the corpora: some bloggers prefer writing very long articles once in a while, others like publishing many short posts at a daily pace. Given the circumstances, both unitary and ad hoc criteria had to be established for every single blog taken into analysis5 so that the same amount of data of the same period could be collected. The software tool Wordsmith 3.0 was used to process the selected material. In the following paragraphs, similarities and differences between the Democratic and the Republican blogs will be highlighted. As regards similarities, it will be shown that bloggers of both political parties tried to make their readers feel very involved in the electoral campaign and represented their candidates as good leaders in a time of crisis while depicting their opponents as incompetent. Moreover, in both groups of blogs a negative campaign strategy was adopted together with advocacy advertising. Democrats maintained that McCain was very likely to fail, just like the Bush administration had proved an utter failure. Obama, instead, would be the right man for the presidency of the country, because he was close to his people and embodied the American dream. Republican bloggers gave prominence to energy and taxation


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issues, underlining that, while Democrats had lost their understanding of people’s needs, McCain was very well aware of them and would promote American energy independence as a way out of the economic crisis, and would oppose Obama’s proposal to raise new taxes.

5.3 The successful candidate and the electorate In this and in the following paragraph the most recurrent words of both the Democratic and the Republican blogs will be identified and analysed. The present paragraph focuses on the way the candidates and the electorate are referred to in the blogs. The software applications which are preliminarily used in corpus analysis are frequency word lists because they provide meaningful information about the content and topics of a corpus as they are ‘a quick guide to the way words are distributed in a text’ (Sinclair, 1991, p. 30). As normally happens, grammar words like articles and prepositions are to be found at the top of the lists obtained from the corpora examined in this study. Right after them there are content words referring to the participants and the events bloggers mostly wrote about during the electoral campaign. The 2008 elections witnessed the victory of the first African American nominee, the Democratic leader Barack Obama, and the defeat of his rival John McCain, known to the American electorate as a Vietnam hero and famous for his reputation as a party ‘maverick’ due to his past departures from Republican orthodoxy. Unsurprisingly, the names of the candidates occur very frequently in both corpora; however, in each case the name of the adversary recurs much more than that of the favourite aspirant president. ‘Obama’ has a higher percentage frequency in the Republican corpus (0.35 per cent) than in the Democratic one (0.27 per cent); conversely, ‘McCain’ occurs more in the Democratic (0.48 per cent) than in the Republican corpus (0.21 per cent). Although referring to these politicians by surname is only one possible way of mentioning them, the fact that in each case the rival candidate’s name prevails over the name of one’s own candidate seems meaningful. There are various explanations for this fact; one could be that both parties have adopted a political strategy called ‘negative campaigning’ (cf. Swint, 1998) which consists in providing the electorate with negative information about the opposite candidate.6 As will be demonstrated in the following paragraphs, the 2008 American elections were indeed characterized by negative campaigning. The frequent use of the adversary’s name in blogs signals that the strategies adopted involved attacks


Giorgia Riboni 65

on the opposite candidate and not on his party, as political consultants suggest (Polsby and Wildavsky, 2007, p. 201). Conversely, bloggers prefer referring to their own political party rather than focusing on their favourite presidential candidate. This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by both word lists: the personal pronoun ‘we’ is among the most recurrent words in the corpora (its percentage frequency is 0.57 in the Republican blogs and 0.49 in the Democratic ones). This pronoun can be utilized in various ways: exclusively, i.e. to indicate the text producer and the people belonging to his/her group and not the recipient, or inclusively, that is including the latter. Anyway, it is not always possible to distinguish between inclusive and exclusive ‘we’; for instance, whereas the pronoun is clearly used inclusively in sentences like ‘We need to break our addiction to oil’ (CDP), sometimes it proves more difficult to determine whether the recipient is included or not, like in the sentence ‘We need each and every Democrat who hasn’t voted early to come out and vote on Election Day’ (CDP). Dieltjens and Heynderickx (2007, p. 236) maintain that this vagueness in meaning can be exploited in order to persuade or manipulate the audience (cf. also Maitland and Wilson, 1987; Fairclough and Wodak, 1997; Blas Arroyo, 2000; Pyykkö, 2002; Iñigo-Mora, 2004; Bull and Fetzer, 2006). As far as political bloggers are concerned, the incorporation of their readers into a shared, collective ‘we’ (which is juxtaposed to the opposite candidate) evokes an opposition and an alliance at the same time. In the Democratic corpus, the words ‘McCain’ and ‘we’ have exactly the same percentage frequency, as if they possessed the same specific weight. In the Republican corpus, instead, the collective ‘we’ recurs more frequently than Barack Obama’s name; significantly, also the adjectives ‘our’ and ‘Republican’ – which characterize the identity of both the blogger and his/her implied readership – rank higher than the opposite candidate. All this contributes to conveying the message that, if the preferred aspirant president wins the elections, then his victory will be a group achievement, something all readers/voters have helped accomplish. The analysis of the collocates of ‘we’ of both corpora7 evidences that this personal pronoun is often followed by either the adjective ‘all’ (which further reinforces the idea of including the whole audience) or by modal verbs indicating will or intention, necessity, possibility and obligation,8 as can be observed from Tables 5.1 and 5.2. However, sometimes ‘we’ is used not to emphasize the communion existing between the party, the blogger and his/her readership, but simply to refer to the latter. In a sentence like ‘We must recognize that it


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Displaying Competence in Organizations Table 5.1 Collocates of ‘we’ in the Republican corpus N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 .. 26

The And Have Are That For Our This All Not Will Must But We?re Can Energy … Need

136 75 52 46 45 42 38 34 30 24 23 18 17 17 16 16 … 11

73 48 9 13 17 14 15 18 7 12 3 2 15 2 3 13 … 1

63 27 43 33 28 28 23 16 23 12 20 16 2 3 13 3 … 10

Table 5.2 Collocates of ‘we’ in the Democratic corpus N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ...

The And That Have Our This Are Will For Can Need More Must All Economy ...

126 62 60 37 35 30 28 24 22 17 15 13 13 12 12 ...

62 49 38 2 13 19 3 4 12 3 1 4 1 0 11 ...

64 13 22 35 22 11 25 20 10 14 14 9 12 12 1 ...

will be many years […] before we discover alternatives to […] petroleumbased products …’ (R-MN) the first ‘we’ is semantically equivalent to ‘you (singular)/you (plural)/he/she/one/everyone’; in this case the use of ‘we’ allows the blogger to implicitly tell their readers what they


Giorgia Riboni 67

should do, as they are already aware of the necessity of recognizing that it will be many years before alternatives to petroleum-based products are discovered. The pronoun ‘you’ is also among the most recurrent words in both corpora (even though it has a higher percentage frequency in the Democratic one: 0.35 per cent against 0.29 per cent). ‘You’ often collocates with ‘can’ (11 per cent of times in the Democratic corpus and 13 per cent in the Republican one); this is often due to the fact that bloggers illustrate the possibilities offered to readers by the electronic medium: for instance they can learn about the multimodal options characterizing this web genre (e.g. ‘you can watch the video here’, D-TN) or follow links (e.g. ‘you can click here to listen online’, CDP; ‘you can read it here’, TKL). These sentences represent a kind suggestion to access the material the blogger has selected and linked to his/her blog, but much more explicit directions can be found as well (e.g. ‘if you haven’t done so already, click here’, R-GA; ‘I urge you to check out their site and sign [the petition]’, R-MN). After analysing the way mention is made to the electorate/readership and the presidential runners, in the next paragraph I will concentrate on bloggers’ representation of Obama and McCain as competent leaders able to deal with a difficult economic situation.

5.4 The leader in a time of crisis Together with the surnames of the candidates and the personal pronouns ‘we’ and ‘you’, at the top of both word lists one can find words referring to the issues considered important by each party along with the names of the protagonists of the presidential elections. Among the most recurrent content words of the Democratic corpus the terms ‘economic’ (its percentage frequency is 0.22 per cent), ‘veterans’ (0.15 per cent), ‘help’ (0.15 per cent) and ‘health’ (0.14 per cent) can be found.9 As a matter of fact the Democratic campaign emphasized the need for a reform of the health system and the necessity to guarantee adequate assistance to American veterans. Republican bloggers, instead, attributed more importance to the taxation and the power issue: ‘energy’ (0.49 per cent), ‘oil’ (0.25 per cent), ‘tax’ (0.22 per cent) and ‘gas’ (0.16 per cent) rank very high in the word list. According to the principles of classical democratic theory, citizens decide for whom they will cast their vote on the basis of how candidates approach crucial issues (Asher, 1976, p. 79); for this reason, remarkable prominence is given to them in the blogs of both parties. However, even


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though issue proximity is one of the most important factors in shaping the electorate’s preferences, more recent studies give a different image of voters, emphasizing that the latter ‘care about the competence of the candidate, not just the candidate’s issue positions, because they do not follow most government activity and because they care about what the candidate can deliver from government’ (Popkin, 1991, p. 61). To evaluate the competence of an aspirant president, electors could base their assumptions on his/her past political activity, but since this would be a long and complex process, they mainly rely on the information they can assess during the campaign (Popkin, 1991, p. 62). In that strategic period it is therefore essential for parties to represent their candidate as the most capable and the only one possessing the qualities of a true leader. Voters tend to assess a candidate’s potential ability to manage the affairs of the country by evaluating how well he/she can handle the concerns of the moment (Popkin, 1991, p. 63). In particular, the economic situation of the country strongly influences the electoral outcome as ‘the economy affects how late deciding voters change or make up their minds during the course of the campaign’ (Campbell, 2000, p. 128). During the last phase of the presidential campaign a financial crisis hit the US and both word lists examined in this study indicate that the country was experiencing a remarkably difficult moment: the word ‘crisis’ ranks high in the blogs of both parties, especially in the Democratic one where it ranks among the first 100 most frequent words. The greater attention given to the crisis by Democratic bloggers may partially be explained by the fact that they represent it as an extraordinarily difficult moment, comparable to the period of the Great Depression: 1) America’s economy faces a crisis unseen since the time of the Great Depression. (D-CA) 2) … have plunged us into the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression. (D-TN) 3) We are in the midst of a worldwide crisis of dimensions not seen since Hoover and the Great Depression. (D-TN) As can be observed, there is no reference to the Great Depression in the Republican blogs. This is probably because it was a Democratic president, F. D. Roosevelt, who proved skilful enough to guide the country out of the terrible crisis following the 1929 Wall Street Crash; reminding potential voters of that particular success of the opposite


Giorgia Riboni 69

party would not be a good strategy. Investigating the language context where the noun ‘crisis’ occurs, one notices that in both corpora it often appears as complement to verbs such as ‘to address’, ‘to confront’, ‘to solve’ or synonyms (24 per cent of times in the Democratic corpus and 30 per cent in the Republican). The presidential candidates or their party are the subjects of those verbs; this way they are represented as active, competent, ready to respond. Barack Obama probably succeeded in appearing the most apt to deal with this critical situation and this contributed to his victory. Having taken place under such particular circumstances, the 2008 presidential elections may constitute a case of ‘realignment’, that is to say a situation in which the basic partisan attachments of the electorate change, resulting in a new partisan balance, one possible outcome being that the previous majority party becomes the minority and vice versa […] Realignment occurs infrequently, but when it does, it is usually associated with severe crises and upheavals, such as wars or depressions. (Asher, 1976, p. 24)

5.5 The Democratic campaign 5.5.1 The negative campaign So far the similarities existing between the two groups of blogs have been analysed; in the following paragraphs, instead, the peculiarities of each corpus are highlighted and investigated. In order to do so, the keywords of the Democratic corpus have been calculated by comparing its word list to that of the Republican corpus (used as a reference) and then the opposite has been done. Keywords are those which have a usually higher frequency than the words of the reference corpus. As can be seen in Table 5.3, the names of John McCain and George W. Bush not only have a higher frequency than in their adversaries’ blogs but also rank among the most important words of the Democratic blogs. As already underlined, the massive presence of the names of these Republican leaders within the blogs of the opposite party may be due to a negative campaigning strategy. To verify whether this hypothesis is correct and to study how Bush and McCain are discursively represented, the language contexts where their names appear have been analysed. The period of the electoral campaign coincided with the last phase of George W. Bush’s presidency; Democratic bloggers associate the eight


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Table 5.3 Keywords of the Democratic corpus N

Word

Freq.

Demblo~2.

Freq.

3 ... 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ... 13 14 ... 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ...

Education ... McCain Gramm Bush Students Roberts Economy Veterans ... Medicare John ... Student I Health Unemployment Financial H Family ...

59 ... 232 25 93 28 63 101 72 ... 25 121 ... 19 324 67 23 81 34 36 ...

0.12 ... 0.48 0.05 0.19 0.06 0.13 0.21 0.15 ... 0.05 0.25 ... 0.04 0.67 0.14 0.05 0.17 0.07 0.07 ...

2 .. 106 0 31 1 16 39 22 ... 1 56 ... 0 218 22 1 31 5 6 ...

Republ~1 ... 0.21 0.06 0.03 0.08 0.04 ... 0.11 ... 0.43 0.04 0.06 0.01 ...

Keyness 70.2 ... 55.5 36.1 36 33 32.6 32 30.9 ... 28.9 28.2 ... 27.4 27.3 26.4 26.2 26 25.8 25.5 ...

years of his administration with the idea of failure, as emerges from the analysis of the collocates of the word ‘Bush’ contained in Table 5.4. Significantly, among the collocates the only adjectives used to describe Bush’s presidency are ‘failed’ and ‘discredited’ (the fact that they collocate to the left of the search word evidences that these past participles are employed as attributes). A very explicit reference to Bush’s inadequacy can also be found in the cluster ‘the failed Bush’ which is part of expressions such as ‘the failed Bush administration’ or ‘the failed Bush agenda’. Democratic bloggers also represent the Bush presidency as characterized by ‘failed economic policies’; their insistence on the length of the period during which the president’s economic incompetence has been harmful for the entire nation seems to imply that Americans have given too much time and credit to the highly disappointing Republican leadership and it would be unthinkable for them to trust it with their vote once again. More importantly, the repetition of words connected to the idea of failure10 allows bloggers to establish in their readers’ minds a causal link (Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1969, p. 263) between Bush’s presidency and the current financial crisis, between the past and the present.


Giorgia Riboni 71 Table 5.4 Collocates of ‘Bush’ in the Democratic corpus N

Word

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Bush The President And George McCain That Has This Bush’s For His Like Policies With Campaign Failed John Just Years Discredited Our Taxpayers

Total

Left

Right

94 74 27 20 16 14 13 11 10 9 9 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5

2 45 26 11 16 9 6 2 3 0 4 1 3 3 5 3 6 3 6 4 5 1 2

2 29 1 9 0 5 7 9 7 0 5 6 4 4 2 3 0 3 0 2 0 4 3

As regards the future, bloggers warn their audience about the fact that, if elected, John McCain may represent an element of continuity with the wrong decisions of the past and prolong the difficulties the United States is facing at the moment. Significantly, the Democratic negative campaign motto is ‘No More of The Same’, a slogan which emphasizes the idea that voting for McCain would mean having another four years of a presidency similar to that of George W. Bush. The Democratic corpus is rich in possible examples which indicate the bloggers’ will to demonstrate the similarity between McCain and Bush; here is just a sample: 1. Of course, McCain is just another Bush. (CDP) 2. McCain opposed the Farm Bill, saying he would have vetoed it just as Bush did. (CDP) In Democratic blogs, McCain’s possible presidency is represented as doomed to fail because Bush’s presidency was a failure and McCain is


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similar to Bush. For their argumentation to be stronger, the premises on which this syllogism rests – that is to say Bush’s failure and the resemblance existing between him and the new candidate – are presented as given truths even though they could as well be criticized. This is confirmed by the fact that they attribute to Senator McCain the awareness of his predecessor’s failure and the will to appear different from him: 3. John McCain says he’s not George Bush, but he’s voted with him over 90% of the time. (DEM) 4. He is following in the footsteps of the man who defeated him for the nomination in 2000 – George W. Bush. While claiming he is different, McCain has morphed with the Bush legacy in order to squeeze into those footsteps. (DEM)

5.5.2 The Democratic Party and Barack Obama In order to be successful, a presidential campaign cannot limit itself to providing voters with good reasons not to vote for the opposite candidate; first and foremost it has to convince electors to cast their vote for the favourite aspirant party on the basis of its qualities and programme. That is why Democratic bloggers not only tried to demonstrate Republicans’ inaptitude to lead the nation, but also supplied their readers with reasons to consider their candidate and party as the best possible choice. Traditionally, the Democrats present themselves as people who care about all citizens as opposed to the party of the rich, i.e. the Republican Party; this characteristic also emerges in the analysis of the keywords, where words indicating important issues for weak categories such as students, veterans, unemployed and sick people rank very high in the list. Moreover, whereas both Republicans and Democrats often use ‘American’ with reference to the people (in both corpora, this nationality adjective collocates with ‘people’ 15 per cent of the times), the former attaches more importance to the energy issue, as the frequency with which ‘American’ is followed by ‘energy’ demonstrates (29 per cent of times, almost the double of that of ‘American people’). In the Democratic blogs, instead, ‘American energy’ recurs half the times that ‘American people’ does (7 per cent of times). Tables 5.5 and 5.6 indicate the collocates of the adjective ‘American’ in both corpora; as can be observed, the word ‘dream’ only belongs to the collocates of the Democratic corpus. This term stands out because it refers to a different semantic area than the others. The reason why


Giorgia Riboni 73 Table 5.5 Collocates of ‘American’ in the Democratic corpus N

Word

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

American The And For People That Taxpayers Our This Dream Energy Economy With

Total

Left

Right

85 69 31 18 13 10 8 7 7 6 6 5 5

3 50 10 14 0 9 0 6 2 1 1 2 3

3 19 21 4 13 1 8 1 5 5 5 3 2

Table 5.6 Collocates of ‘American’ in the Republican corpus N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ...

American The And Energy For People That Families With Act Our Economy ...

121 96 46 36 19 19 12 9 9 8 7 6 ...

5 70 21 8 14 1 10 0 4 1 2 1 ...

5 26 25 28 5 18 2 9 5 7 5 5 ...

‘American dream’ appears at the top of the collocate list has to do with the personal history of Senator Obama, who presents himself as someone who has managed to achieve success in spite of belonging to a disadvantaged ethnic minority. What bloggers imply is that America is a land of opportunity where all citizens can accomplish their goals if they believe that they can; Obama represents the proof that the American dream is still possible and voting for him contributes to keeping the dream alive: if elected, he would be the first African American candidate to hold the highest office in the United States.


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In addition, the expression ‘American dream’ establishes an implicit link between Barack Obama and one of the most charismatic African American figures, Martin Luther King. As a matter of fact, many consider Obama King’s ideal heir; just like the leader of the African American civil rights movement ‘offered a version of the American Dream that had popular appeal because at its basis was the elimination of ethnicity in the formation of American national identity’ (CharterisBlack, 2005, p. 61), the Democratic candidate wants all his compatriots to partake in his dream. The connection to the black activist may have been seen as an advantage for Obama since King is still very popular and admired; besides, Obama’s ethnicity played a crucial role in the elections because, as scholar James E. Katz (2009) points out, a meaningful number of people voted for the African American candidate thinking that otherwise they could be considered racist. However, it was important for Democrats not to overemphasize Obama’s ethnic background as voters belonging to other ethnic groups may have felt detached or neglected. As a matter of fact, no allusion to the candidate’s ethnicity is ever made in the blogs. This choice may also have to do with the bloggers’ desire to attract attention to the senator’s qualities rather than to his ethnicity. The collocates of his name (contained in Table 5.7) give useful information about the way he is represented discursively. The verbs collocating most frequently with ‘Obama’ are the auxiliaries ‘has’ and ‘will’ (which refer to the past and the future actions of the candidate) and the main verbs ‘say’, ‘vote’ and the noun/verb ‘support’ (none of which is to be found in the collocates of ‘McCain’). Whereas the reporting verb ‘say’ is often used to attribute statements directly to Obama, ‘vote’ and ‘support’ (as highlighted in the concordance lines below) recur in combination with the name of the Democratic candidate to emphasize what policies he has endorsed in the past and what his plans for his possible future presidency are. As underlined at the beginning of this paragraph, Obama and the Democrats desire to benefit weak categories such as the young, the sick (references to his health system reform can be found in Tables 5.8–5.10), veterans and farmers, therefore ‘support’ and ‘vote’ are often followed by what the candidate has done or is going to do for these people. The preposition ‘for’ too relates to the idea of help and benefit; interestingly it collocates with ‘Obama’ in 30 per cent of cases (whereas ‘for’ only collocates with ‘McCain’ in 15 per cent of cases in the Republican blogs). This preposition can be found both to the left and to the right of ‘Obama’, thus indicating that support is given to and by the Democratic


Giorgia Riboni 75 Table 5.7

Collocates of ‘Obama’ in the Democratic corpus

N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Obama Barack The Senator For And Obama’s Campaign President Sen Has McCain That Elect From John This Will With Off Said State Kick RSVP Support Voted Against America Former His Plan Republicans

138 59 54 48 42 19 18 17 14 14 12 12 12 9 9 9 9 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5

7 57 23 44 24 10 0 2 10 10 0 4 7 9 8 3 5 0 3 0 5 3 0 6 3 2 4 0 0 2 2 3

5 2 31 4 18 9 1 15 4 4 12 8 5 0 1 6 4 8 5 7 2 4 6 0 3 4 1 5 5 3 3 2

leader. The clusters in which his name occurs reinforce this mirror effect, as they include reference to the ‘Obama for America’ campaign as well as expressions like ‘Veterans for Obama’. What emerges from the analysis of these data is that bloggers represent Obama as a candidate who is ready to work for and with all Americans, as he feels close to all his compatriots. Minorities and disadvantaged groups, instead, give the candidate their support back through their vote: 1. A new poll released Thursday shows overwhelming support from Latinos for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain. (BFL)



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Concordance

mocratic National Convention where Senator Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination for pr ccept Nomination in Front of 75,000 Senator Barack Obama will accept the nomination of the Democratic ry reason for his decision. ‘I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis bet d investing in the development of new fuels. Senator Obama will help create five million new jobs by inves to for a new wind farm near Rio Vista). As president, Obama will implement an economy-wide cap-and-tra

N

1 2 3 4 5

Table 5.9 Concordance of ‘Obama will’ in the Democratic corpus

Concordance

o have combat-related psychological injuries. President-elect Obama has a strong record of helping our heroes, and I know rogram. Senator McCain repeatedly voted against it. Barack Obama has a comprehensive energy plan to help Americans rn to consider legislation by December 8th. Just as Barack Obama has brought change to the White House, the Democr i Allen, who just graduated from Free State High School, said Obama has ignited the interests of young voters, and some R road to develop effective emissions reduction efforts. Senator Obama has proposed a plan to extricate the U.S. from the mi sure combat veterans can obtain a college education. Barack Obama has received an 80% rating from the DAV, recognize the previous Farm Bill, although it is far from perfect. Senator Obama has repeatedly voted to fund agriculture programs whi hn McCain has only one field office open in the state, Barack Obama has two on the same block. One is a large phone ba s. Senator McCain voted against capping subsidies. Senator Obama has voted for emergency assistance for farmers in ti ry Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid until three months ago – Obama has wound up with an inner circle whose members h

N

Table 5.8 Concordance of ‘Obama has’ in the Democratic corpus

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Concordance

e in rural areas can feel confident that I’m not a newcomer to this. Senator Obama supported passage of the current Farm Bill, but said he wanted mo ided war in Iraq. Senator McCain would prolong the Bush policies. Senator Obama supported the expansion of the successful State Children's Health terest in the well-being of the United States,’ Carlson said at a gathering of Obama supporters at the state Capitol. Carlson added, ‘He has laid out fo t funding for rural Medicare health care providers. On immigration, Senator Obama supports comprehensive reform, including secure borders, an Ag J n has repeatedly voted against emergency assistance for farmers. Senator Obama supports immediate implementation of Country of Origin Labeling, ident Bush in opposing the expansion of this successful program. Senator Obama supports increasing access to health care in rural areas by investin Senator Obama supports the limits that will be in effect in 2009, which is $3.5 millio legislation, but has since backed away from it. For the estate tax,

able 5.10 Concordance of ‘Obama support*’ in the Democratic corpus


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2. With the support of all of the major veterans’ organizations … (D-TN) Obama is portrayed as so perfect for the presidency that even members of the opposite party have decided to endorse him. Much prominence is given in the Democratic corpus to the news that eminent figures like General Colin Powell, the former Republican mayor of Los Angeles and the former Republican governor of Minnesota have decided to cast political differences aside and back the senator of Illinois: 3. Former Republican Governor Arne Carlson is supporting Barack Obama for president. (DEM) 4. Gen. Colin Powell endorses Senator Barack Obama for president. (DEM) The message bloggers are conveying is that Obama is running to be president and take responsibility for all Americans, and all Americans – whatever their economic condition, political creed, ethnicity, etc. – are supporting Obama because he is the right person for the presidency and because he is one of them. The already mentioned mirror effect between the aspirant president and his people highlights this idea. Americans play a fundamental role in the ‘Yes we can’ rhetoric: the president of the United States is a leader, but he needs the vital contribution of all his people. After examining the discursive strategies utilized by Democratic bloggers to represent their favourite candidate and the adversary party, in the next paragraph I will focus on the analysis of Republican blogs.

5.6 The Republican campaign 5.6.1 The negative campaign In order to examine the peculiarities of the Republican corpus its keywords have been calculated using the Democratic corpus as a reference. As clearly emerges from Table 5.11, the Grand Old Party is particularly concerned about the energy issue. The collocates of the noun ‘energy’ indicate the Republican bloggers’ will to emphasize not only the topicality of the question, but also the need to develop policies and technologies that would help increase production so as to reach America’s energy independence. Most of the highlighted words in Table 5.12 refer to the semantic field of ‘business’


Giorgia Riboni 79 Table 5.11 Keywords of the Republican corpus N

Word

Freq.

Republ~1.txt

Freq.

Demblo~2.txt

Keyness

1 2 3 … 6 … 12 … 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 …

Posted Energy Republican … Production … Pelosi … Bailout Democrat Gas Her Speaker Oil S Taxes Exploration Here Anwr Independence Drilling Article Fuel …

181 248 208 … 56 … 54 … 51 61 82 112 54 127 391 66 24 121 23 34 49 21 36 …

0.35 0.49 0.41 … 0.11 … 0.11 … 0.1 0.12 0.16 0.22 0.11 0.25 0.77 0.13 0.05 0.24 0.05 0.07 0.1 0.04 0.07 …

8 47 62 … 2 … 4 … 6 10 20 37 9 48 234 15 0 46 0 3 9 0 4 …

0.02 0.1 0.13 …

187.8 141 76.6 … 60.5 … 48.9 … 38.5 38.3 37.5 36 33.5 33.3 32.8 32.3 32.1 31.4 30.8 29 28.5 28.1 27.9 …

… … 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.08 0.02 0.1 0.48 0.03 0.09

0.02

…

and confirm that Republicans are able to promote effective and efficient strategies to achieve their aim. The energy issue is presented in Republican blogs within the wider context of the crisis. As a matter of fact, the current economic difficulties are portrayed as connected both to the world of high finance and to the wrong energy policies adopted so far. This is also confirmed by the fact that among the left collocates of the noun ‘crisis’ (which recurs 44 times) there are ‘financial’ (with 8 occurrences) and ‘economic’ (5 occurrences), but also ‘energy’ (11 occurrences) and ‘fuel’ (2 occurrences).11 According to the Republican argumentation, reaching the objective of energy independence would be a meaningful step out of the crisis, because it would mean guaranteeing citizens lower prices and helping them through the hardships they are currently facing. It is important to notice that not only do bloggers describe energy self-sufficiency as highly desirable, they also highlight the fact that the Democrats (and the Speaker of Congress Nancy Pelosi in particular) are an obstacle to it. As a matter of fact, the Democratic majority in


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Displaying Competence in Organizations Table 5.12 Collocates of ‘energy’ in the Republican corpus N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 … 21 … 25 … 30 31 32 33 … 40 41 42 43 … 47 …

Energy The And American Our For Policy Prices Production Alternative That Gas Technologies … Independence … Crisis … Domestic Resources Efficiency Exploration … Increasing Oil Promoting Strategy … Development …

263 110 90 36 34 27 22 20 18 17 16 15 15 … 12 … 11 … 9 9 8 8 … 7 7 7 7 … 6 …

7 63 37 28 24 17 4 1 1 16 7 10 1 … 0 … 0 … 8 2 0 2 … 5 3 6 0 … 2 …

8 47 53 8 10 10 18 19 17 1 9 5 14 … 12 … 11 … 1 7 8 6 … 2 4 1 7 … 4 …

Congress opposes Republican demands to lift a ban on offshore oil drilling and exploration, an attitude which is depicted as reckless and indifferent towards the problems of the American people: 1. To still not address the energy challenges facing our nation is simply irresponsible. (R-MN) 2. The truth is the Democratic leadership [in Congress] has failed the American people on energy reform. (R-MN) As emerges from these examples, Republican bloggers maintain that, if the crisis is also an energy crisis and lifting the ban would alleviate it, then the Democratic do-nothing energy policies are somewhat responsible for the current situation. The GOP seems to lay part of the


Giorgia Riboni 81

blame for the crisis on the adversary party, exactly as the Democrats do. In particular, the Democratic denial to lift the ban on offshore drilling is portrayed as stubborn and unreasonable, as the following examples where the name ‘Pelosi’ (a synecdoche representing the whole of the Democratic leadership) occurs demonstrate: 3. Even as Speaker Pelosi refuses to act, we will not be halted. (R-GA) 4. How long do the American people have to struggle before Speaker Pelosi takes notice? (R-MN) In the words of blogs, a contrast emerges between the Republican efficient, business-like approach to the energy crisis and the obstinate, almost fearful refusal to do something about it of their adversaries; this allows bloggers to depict the Democratic Party as an assembly of scared, unprogressive politicians who prove to be ‘out of touch’ with people’s urgent needs in a very critical moment. Democrats reveal their inability to understand the difficult present situation and to find solutions to it also by proposing to raise taxes. This term also appears in the keywords of the Republican corpus as it is one of the major preoccupations of the party. Obama proposes to raise taxes so that more money can be invested in public education, health and the environment. His ambitious project involves one of the largest tax increases in US history, which has earned him the nickname ‘Taxman’. Republicans think that, under the current circumstances, asking the American people for more money and increasing public spending in the middle of an economic crisis is simply irresponsible and naïve. In order to help the economy, both corporate and individual taxation should be cut. In the topical fields of the economy and energy (which are discursively presented as highly interdependent), the Democratic Party appears to be stifling valid proposals which could alleviate the American people’s problems and represent a first step out of the crisis. Describing ‘opponents […] as barriers to obtaining desired goals and outcomes’ (Muntigl, 2002, p. 52) is not uncommon in political discourse. Democratic inability to understand citizens’ problems seems to imply that this party is unable to provide viable solutions to help them and that the image of ‘the people’s party’ Democrats want to cultivate is a mere strategy to win the elections. Barack Obama, in particular, is portrayed as a clever orator with no political vision or experience: he is dangerously naive on security policy both internationally and at home12 and wants to raise taxes and spend public money in the middle of an economic crisis. The concordance lines of ‘Obama is’ (Table 5.13) well exemplify Republican bloggers’ desire to depict the adversary as an unreliable and unskilled politician:


Concordance

hcare. From the Wall Street Journal opinion article: Mr. Obama is also proposing more ‘stimulus,’ by which he m aphic (perhaps, his most important). A demographic that Obama is counting on to help make the difference in Nove ead. The weak and naive foreign policy espoused by Sen. Obama is dangerous for the U.S. and dangerous for Israel le conclusion, anyway, based on the folks President-elect Obama is eyeing for his administration - folks such as for nges nor certain fundamentals of energy policy, this week Obama is hyping the idea that the government should tak ing us closer to final victory over Al Qaeda in that country, Obama is intent on snatching defeat from the jaws of vict didate has not put forward a specific plan. It sounds like Obama is offering real leadership on this issue. Mind you ound. And the list goes on. Precisely how weak Barack Obama is on security policy can be found by paying caref on healthcare, a business or whatever. He explained how Obama is planning to raise taxes and spend billions in th old his tax cut in 1993 as a way to reduce the deficit; Mr. Obama is proposing to take federal spending to heights n be making a dent. Interestingly, McQ at Q and O thinks Obama is slipping among this demographic (perhaps, his ently) was, uh, constitutional. It’s not tough to argue that Obama is the most anti-gun presidential candidate in US re of it being handed over to the federal government, which (Obama is no doubt confident) can do a better job of spen

N

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Table 5.13 Concordance of ‘Obama is’ in the Republican corpus

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Giorgia Riboni 83

5.6.2 The Republican Party and John McCain Senator McCain is discursively represented mainly in contrast to the rival candidate. The analysis of the words that collocate with the name ‘McCain’ (contained in Table 5.14) emphasizes the importance he attaches to the tax issue. McCain is described as a fierce opponent of this proposal and his electoral promise not to augment taxes is depicted as a highly reliable one, as in the following examples: 1. Sen. McCain: ‘I want to look you in the eye. I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase.’ (CRP) 2. Sen. McCain is rock solid in his opposition to tax increases. (CRP)

Table 5.14 Collocates of ‘McCain’ in the Republican corpus N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

McCain The John And Senator For McCain’s Sen That From His Obama Tax Barack This Republican Campaign New Palin With California McCain?s Not Our Than Today What Will

104 56 41 27 27 16 13 13 13 11 11 11 10 9 9 8 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

2 31 39 17 27 11 0 12 6 9 1 3 4 4 1 5 3 3 0 5 1 0 2 2 3 4 4 3

3 25 2 10 0 5 0 1 7 2 10 8 6 5 8 3 3 3 6 1 4 0 3 3 2 1 1 2


84


Republicans endorse policies that go against tax increases and support ‘tax cuts’, ‘tax depreciation’ and ‘tax credit’, all of which are frequent collocations in the corpus of this party. Lowering taxes, especially corporation taxes, is presented in GOP blogs as a way of protecting property rights and, first and foremost, of supporting the economy, since it means reducing the fiscal pressure at a very critical moment. According to Republican bloggers, improving the difficult situation of companies indirectly means benefiting the average American citizen by saving or creating job opportunities, as Table 5.15 highlights. Apart from his commitment to a tax cuts policy, no particular characteristic of Senator McCain stands out in the blogs. The collocates and the clusters where his name occur include reference to his running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin (10 per cent of times). The random concordance lines given in Table 5.16 show that she is represented in the Republican blogs as a strong, enterprising woman. The reference to the McCain–Palin ticket rather than to the single presidential candidate may have weakened his image because the Alaska governor, who was running only for vice presidency, may have appeared as the stronger of the two. At any rate, she undoubtedly attracted vast media attention and coverage: as media scholar Douglas Kellner (2008, p. 16) maintains, ‘from the moment McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate through the Republican convention […], Palin became one of the most astounding spectacles in U.S political history’. After investigating the way bloggers represent political parties and candidates, in the next section I am going to concentrate my analysis on the role played by blog readers.

5.7 The voting readership As already underlined in the first section, blogs are an interactive web genre which allows readers to enter into direct contact with those who write them. Often, it is bloggers themselves who elicit feedback from the readers; the latter can make their voices heard via email and/or via comment (unless comments are disabled). In both cases the exchange of opinions is asynchronous and not visible (or not immediately visible) to the rest of the blogosphere. As a matter of fact, whereas emails are private, comments are not normally displayed when the blog is accessed and it is necessary to click on the corresponding link to read them. This means that, when blogs are visited, only the words of the blogger (party blogger in this case) appear and any possible critical comment cannot be spotted right away. In other words, the interactive quality of blogs


Table 5.15 Collocates of ‘tax*’ in the Republican corpus N

Word

Total

Left

Right

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 …

Tax The Taxes And For Taxpayer Taxpayers That Income Money Are Not Will His Their From McCain Property Spending This State With Would Billion Government New American Cuts Have More Raise They Boyda Corporate Energy Higher Increases Pay Plans Posted Said Sales She What After Business Her How Increase Lower …

133 126 74 73 49 36 32 28 15 14 13 13 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 …

10 74 6 34 24 0 4 19 10 1 2 6 5 9 6 4 8 8 2 5 6 8 4 8 6 6 7 2 6 3 8 4 4 7 3 6 0 6 4 1 3 5 5 2 3 3 3 3 1 6 …

14 52 2 39 25 1 2 9 5 13 11 7 8 3 6 7 3 3 9 6 4 2 6 1 3 3 1 6 2 5 0 4 3 0 4 1 7 1 3 6 4 2 2 5 3 3 3 3 5 0 …


Concordance

Giuliani, and the Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Governor Palin rocked the house last night ing has marred the Republican brand. Governor Palin has proven herself to be a reformer unafraid Ron Nehring at 2:09 PM Cindy McCain and Todd Palin Highlight LA Republican Fundraiser While eems that whenever I’m with Sen. McCain or Gov. Palin in California, Voight is right there, engaging ska in 2006. Only nine months in office, Governor Palin instructed the state to abandon the notoriou , Sarah Palin stood strong for fiscal responsibility. Palin is also a persistent advocate of drilling in A in energy alternatives and conservation. Governor Palin is right: As the state most directly impacte ach independent voters as well. Governor Sarah Palin on taking office sold off the Governor’s jet an s a Vice Presidential nominee. It’s called Sarah Palin on the Energy Challenge Facing America. T nother reason to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. posted by Ron Nehring at 4:00 PM Thurs Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Governor Palin rocked the house last night as she received emocrats put politics ahead of country. McCain-Palin senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin In AM Below is a letter that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid i t as volunteers picked up McClintock and McCain/Palin signs before gathering in the parking lot for n Nehring at 8:57 AM Friday, August 29, 2008 Palin: Solid Conservative and Proven Reformer S antagonize Washington’s biggest porkers, Sarah Palin stood strong for fiscal responsibility. Palin i

N

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Table 5.16 Concordance of ‘Palin’ in the Republican corpus

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and the subsequent possibility of expressing criticism or discontent on party blogs may be somewhat overemphasized. Out of the 20 I analysed, two blogs had comments disabled (The California Republican Party blog and Steve Cohen’s blog), one had moderated comments (Mike Honda’s blog) and in all other cases readers either had to register or enter their names and email address in order to post a comment. This caution is due to bloggers’ wish to exert control on what is published on their blog so that they can avoid spam comments, but it may discourage potential commentators from expressing their views. The number of comments varies widely from blog to blog13 and from post to post but, by and large, party blogs are not often commented on: this is owing not only to the fact that comments are mediated but also to the general perception that this kind of blog, unlike for instance citizens’ blogs, is not really written to interact with the citizens but rather to disseminate information. This idea is further reinforced by the fact that party bloggers, unlike other categories of bloggers, rarely reply to the comments, even when they contain questions. Since most of the readership of party blogs consists of people who vote for that party, it is practically impossible to find overt criticism in the comments. This was confirmed in my analysis, as the comments of the blogs selected showed support for the endorsed party and candidate; commentators exchanged views on the topic dealt with in the post among themselves, thus creating a kind of parallel (albeit subordinate) communication channel. To conclude, in party and Congress people’s blogs the voice of the audience is not given much prominence even though readers are potential voters. They are often addressed as or included in a collective ‘we’ obviously to make them feel involved and important, but what they write in the comments is not brought out.

5.8 Concluding remarks The 2008 presidential campaign will be remembered for many reasons: first of all it led to the victory of the first African American candidate in the history of the United States. Secondly, it took place in a particular historic moment: in the period right before November 4th a terrible economic crisis hit the country and this influenced the ways campaigns were conducted (and possibly the electoral outcome). Another important aspect deserving mention is the massive impact the Internet exerted on this event. Even though scholars disagree about the degree to which the Net conditioned the electoral result, the new web genres undeniably played a key role (Owen and Davis, 2008): both parties


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widely exploited them because thanks to them they could bypass the mediating presence of traditional media and communicate directly with their voters; official party blogs primarily serve that function. During the electoral campaign, the discursive strategies deployed by bloggers focused on showing how competent their preferred candidate was because leadership and capacity are perceived as essential qualities a president must possess, especially in a critical situation like an economic crisis. Additionally, bloggers of both political creeds put great effort into making their audience feel involved: their candidate’s possible election was represented as a collective achievement, a success all voters would share. Another common feature of the blogs analysed is that they all adopted a negative campaign strategy: using argumentation by analogy, Democratic bloggers tried to convince their readers that a possible McCain presidency would equal a third term by Bush and, since the latter’s presidency had proven a great failure, Americans should avoid making the mistake of voting Republican again. On the other hand, Republican bloggers accused the Democrats of being scared of progress and indifferent to people’s needs because they did not endorse offshore drilling policies. As regards the discursive representation of their candidate, Democratic bloggers were able to successfully portray Senator Obama as a competent leader who embodied the American dream. They maintained that, if he was elected, his plans would benefit the whole nation, minorities and weak categories included: he was close to the people and acted in their interests. His qualities were so evident that they had induced prestigious GOP members to publicly endorse him. They way Republican bloggers represented John McCain, instead, was less articulate and, possibly, less successful: the only trait that really emerged in their blogs was his commitment to a tax cuts policy. GOP bloggers mainly concentrated on attacking his adversary rather than providing good reasons to vote for McCain. An electoral outcome is always determined by many and complex factors: the results of this analysis may corroborate those studies which maintain that negative campaigning does not represent a more efficient political strategy than advocacy advertising (cf. Lau and Sigelman, 2000, p. 36) and that it probably guarantees more votes when combined with an effective promotion of one’s candidate and programme.

Notes 1. The author gratefully acknowledges the help and support of her mentors, Dr Sylvain Dieltjens and Dr Els Tobback, as well as her PhD supervisor


Giorgia Riboni 89

2. 3. 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. 11. 12.

13.

Professor Giuliana Garzone, in the shaping of this chapter, which was originally presented on the occasion of the DiO International workshop (Ghent, Belgium, 16–18 Sept. 2009) and of the 10th ABC Europe Convention (Antwerp, 27–29 May 2010). This chapter is part of a national research project on Tension and Change in English Domain-Specific Genres supported by the Italian Ministry of Education (COFIN Grant No. 2007 JCY9Y9). For the 2008 Democratic campaign (in which the Internet played a very influential role) record-smashing donations were collected (Katz, 2009). The Republican corpus consists of 51,087 tokens, the Democratic one of 48,335. Whereas it was possible to collect posts from the official Republican and Democratic Party weblogs of the same state (California and Kansas), no material from blogs of House Representatives from the same state would match the required criteria, therefore I had to select blogs from different parts of the United States (Minnesota, Georgia, California and Tennessee). This was taken into account in the interpretation of the collected data. I selected all the entries of Jack Kingston’s and of ‘The Buffalo’ blog, one post per day two days a week of the Republican Party, ‘The Trunkline’, Michele Bachmann’s and Mika Honda’s blogs, two posts per day two days a week of the Democratic Party and the California Republican Party, one post per day once a week of the California Democratic Party and one post a week of Steve Cohen’s blog. As Polsby and Wildavsky underline, ‘negative advertising that simply criticizes the other side for its issue positions or record in office is a constant part of every presidential campaign. Somewhat less common, but often effective, is a more personal attack by a candidate or campaign on an opponent’ (Polsby and Wildavsky, 2007, p. 197). Due to space constraints, a selection of the collocates and concordance lines was operated so that only the most relevant samples were included in the chapter. In the Democratic corpus ‘we can’ not only recurs very frequently but is also part of the famous slogan ‘Yes, we can’ which characterized the Democratic campaign and that appealed to the enormous potential of the American people who can become protagonists and bring about change. Although their percentage frequency may seem relatively low, these terms are also the keywords of the Democratic corpus and therefore remarkably important. If considered jointly, ‘discredited’ and ‘failed’ collocate with ‘Bush’ 11 per cent of times. If considered jointly, ‘financial’ and ‘economic’ collocate with ‘crisis’ 29.5 per cent of times, exactly like ‘energy’ and ‘fuel’. McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin not only overtly criticized Obama for his policies towards terrorism – which she deemed to be too soft – but she went as far as to accuse him of having connections with terrorists, especially after the New York Times published an article (Shane, 2008) on him and former Weather-underground activist Bill Ayres. However, this variation seems to have nothing to do with the comment policy of the blogger: there seems to be no correlation between the fact that the comments may be heavily mediated and the number of comments.


6 The Representation of Competence in Newspaper Interviews: a Linguistic–Pragmatic Discourse Analysis of the (Self-) Representation of Journalists and Politicians in Written Interviews Martina Temmerman

6.1 Representation of competence in political interviews When we apply the competence concept to newspaper interviews with politicians, we may safely assume that in political interviews, journalists as well as politicians will want to present themselves as competent, just like any other professional would do in a professional situation. A first question that comes to mind on this issue is which competences journalists and politicians define for themselves and for each other. Secondly, competence may be a topic which is explicitly talked about, but it may also be shown in the way the interviewer directs the interview and in the way the interviewee answers the questions. Therefore a second, and for our purposes more important, question is which linguistic and communicative devices both categories of participants use for describing and showing competence. As we are dealing with newspaper interviews, we only have direct access to the language of the journalist. The language of the politician reaches us through the mediating labour of the journalist. And as Cotter (2010, p. 185) remarks, ‘there are implications for the transmission of meaning that are inherent in even the most innocuous […] forms of text’. Carvalho (2008, p. 164) states that ‘journalism is typically a discursive re-construction of reality. […] The media’s depictions of social problems will obviously depend largely on the preferences and options of media professionals.’ 90


Martina Temmerman 91

However, we think that of all written journalistic texts, interviews come closest to the original message of the speakers. When asked about their method for writing out an interview, one of the journalists1 of whom an interview has been included in our corpus, stated that he first writes out the interview literally, that he downsizes the text and reorders questions and answers in a second phase, at the same time trying to remain with the original wording as much as possible, and that he has the interviewee authorize the interview before publication. He also stated this is the common way of proceeding for political journalists. Anyway, as the politicians’ words are mediated by the journalists, it should be clear that it is impossible to get proper access to the intentions behind the authorial voices. It is however possible to study what the resulting text allows us to say about the mediated self-representation of politicians and to point to the discursive means that are used to achieve these effects. We will elaborate on this line of thinking in Section 6.4.

6.2 The notion of competence In psychology and human resources research, much work has been done on the definition of the notion of competence. Sometimes a distinction is made between competence (referring to an individual’s capacity to perform job responsibilities) and competency (referring to an individual’s actual performance in a particular situation) (McConnell, 2001). Another distinction is that between the individual competence/competency just mentioned and core competency, which is organizational competency (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). As it is used here, the term ‘competence’ refers to the ‘the latent capacity of a person to perform effectively in a particular task or problem situation in a way which is objectively perceivable and assessable, which consists of a combination of expert knowledge and behavioural repertory and which is learnable to a certain extent’ (Hoekstra and van Sluijs, 2003, pp. 33–4, translation mine). 6.2.1 Competence and politicians Apart from research about the correlation of politicians’ appearance with their election scores (e.g. Todorov et al., 2005) or about their eloquence (e.g. De Jong and Andeweg, 2008), there is not much academic work to be found on competence and politicians. When trying to establish an inventory of competences for politicians, we have noticed that in fact they need two kinds of competences: oratory skills and statesmanship. The competences connected to statesmanship are those


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which are named when newspapers publish reports and give marks for achievements made (e.g. coaching capacities, negotiating capacities). They can be related to the leadership capacities defined by Wood and Payne (1998).2 6.2.2 Competence and journalists There is even less academic research to be found on competence and journalism. Cotter (2010, pp. 32–3) gives an account of how the notion of craft is integrated in journalistic practice. According to her, journalists are socialized into the profession by acquiring the primary skills of reporting, newswriting, editing and interviewing (Cotter, 2010, p. 50). Regarding (written) interviews, the main competences she mentions are interactional skills like being able to ask hard questions, to keep opinions to oneself and ‘to understand the communicative norms, interactional styles, and roles, values, and actors – as well as the jargon – that go along with the community […] they [journalists M.T.] are covering’ (Cotter, 2010, pp. 51–2). Unfortunately, Cotter only discusses interviewing techniques and skills as part of reporting and newswriting, she does not treat the interview as a genre. We can expect that journalists in an interviewing situation will want to demonstrate (a number of ) these competences and that, if they lack (any of ) them, interviewees might observe this.

6.3 The corpus During the 2007 Belgian federal elections, it became clear that the image of the other on both sides of the linguistic boundary was disrupted. Both politics and media in Belgium are split along linguistic borders. Federal politicians, however, have to represent the whole country and they appear or are referred to in the Dutch-speaking as well as in the French-speaking media (Temmerman and Sinardet, 2008; Deschouwer, 2009). In this context, politicians of the elected parties were facing the complex task of representing themselves as willing to compromise in order to establish a sound government on the one hand, and at the same time as striving to execute their party programme in order to remain acceptable to the rank and file of their parties on the other. Representing themselves as competent politicians was a real challenge in this respect. The interviews for this study were published in Belgian dailies and weeklies in the first six months of the government formation period of 2007 ( June to December). We have opted for interviews with four main political players of this period, two of whom are Dutch-speaking and



two French-speaking. For both communities, we have selected a politician who was generally considered a moderate (Yves Leterme (YL) for the Dutch-speaking community (Flanders) and Didier Reynders (DR) for the French-speaking community) and one with more radical ideas concerning his own language community (Bart De Wever (BDW) (Dutchspeaking) and Olivier Maingain (OM) (French-speaking)). The parties of these politicians went to the elections in electoral alliances (De Wever’s party with Leterme’s, Maingain’s party with Reynders’) and all four can be considered as having won those elections. We were able to collect 51 interviews with these four politicians, published in Le Vif/L’Express, Le Soir or La Libre Belgique for the French-speaking part of the country, and in Knack, De Morgen or De Standaard for the Dutch-speaking part. All four politicians are bilingual and gave interviews in both languages.

6.4 Objectives, research theory and method The objective of this chapter is to sketch the way these four federal politicians were allowed (1) to represent themselves as competent in the interviews in the Belgian written press in this period and (2) to evaluate the competences of other politicians. Thirdly, we also want to find out which means journalists have in a written interview to represent themselves as competent interviewers. Finally, we will have a look at reciprocal criticism of journalists and politicians. Mautner (2008) has summed up a number of linguistic resources which can reveal text mechanisms, like the analysis of lexical components (such as metaphors, figures, labels and evaluative meaning), coherence and cohesion, transitivity, presence of different voices, source attribution and modality. It is important to understand that the communicative situation in which journalists and politicians interact is multilayered, since both speakers know they are communicating in a mediated situation. They not only want their message to come across to the other party, but also, more importantly, to the overhearing audience (Goffman, 1981), i.e. the general public. For the politicians, this means their voters, their political allies and enemies; for newspaper journalists it is their readers and their colleagues (and especially their fellow political journalists). They not only want to show competence vis-à-vis each other, but also vis-à-vis this overhearing audience. In radio and television interviews, this effect is more direct. In the written interviews we are dealing with here, it is the journalist who inscribes the politician’s words. According to Locher and Watts (2008, p. 86), ‘power […] is discursively negotiated and is always latently


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present in every instantiation of social practice’. But in our corpus, not only the politician’s wording but also the relational work (Locher and Watts, 2008, p. 78) is rendered through the filter of the journalist’s words. In fact what we are dealing with here is the representation of a conversation between a journalist and a politician, staged by the journalist. In the politician’s answers, we hear (at least) two voices simultaneously: that of the politician speaking and that of the journalist animating the politician’s words. Several authors have tried to describe how these ‘multifarious discourses’ (Carvalho, 2008, p. 164) are processed by journalists. Cotter (2010, p. 29) draws a parallel between journalistic and ethnographic practice: ‘In many ways, journalists are ethnographers. […] They seek coherence. They function as recorders and interpreters. They strive for balance. They are mindful of their subjective selves. […]’ Talbot (2007, p. 18) states that ‘[…] news is assembled […] out of […] a highly diverse range of communicative events in different genres, including interviews over the phone, press releases, briefings from the chief editor […]’. Pander Maat (2008) has shown the processes of clarifying and neutralizing that press release texts undergo before they are published as journalistic copy. Bednarek (2006) has analysed which role epistemological positioning and evidentiality play in the representation of knowledge in news discourse. Fürsich (2009) describes how media scholars in the tradition of critical discourse analysis look for reductionist or biased representations. She quotes Schrøder (2002, p. 100) who states that discursive analysis types are assuming ‘a mutual constitution of media and modern society’ based on the ‘premise that media content is not so much a secondary reflection as an artefact and a practice in which society is both reproduced and contested’. Long interviews in question–answer form typically have not been analysed by these scholars. In our opinion, the interview is the genre which allows the newspaper reader to come as close as possible to the discourse of the social actor. Carvalho (2008, p. 170) states, ‘When primary documents are not available, we can also indirectly “read” the discourse of social actors from quotes and indirect speech in the news.’ In the case of written interviews, written out in the question–answer form, a one-toone conversation has been reworked into a written text. Long political interviews of this kind are generally conducted face to face. The written transcript is the most direct form of bringing the politician’s message to the general public possible in written media and comes closest to the original wording, but evidently it is still a compilation/composition. It is the journalist who determines the order of questions and answers, who



selects the answers, who deletes a large part of what has been said. The interview texts will not contain excerpts which have not been spoken by the interviewee, but obviously a lot of what the interviewee has said will be omitted in the final text. We think the discourse of the politicians as it is rendered in these interviews does form a reliable basis for analysing, for example metaphors and lexical choices made by the politicians, but not for a fine-grained analysis of for example evidentiality and modality. For this specific corpus we first carried out an analysis of lexical components. Furthermore, source attribution and voices (the footing and shift in footing concepts of Goffman, 1981) are important for describing how much responsibility the politicians take for their utterances. When discussing the way the speakers utter criticism, we will refer to Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory and the more recent elaborations of this theory in impoliteness studies (Locher and Watts, 2008; García-Pastor, 2008). (Im)politeness is applicable to the way speakers communicate about competences in that recognizing and showing respect for competences can be considered face-saving activities, whereas questioning the other’s competence can be interpreted as face threatening. For the specific situation of the news interview, we refer to Clayman and Heritage (2002), who have worked out a thorough description of the kinds of questions asked in (political) interviews.

6.5 Description and discussion of the data 6.5.1 Representation of the journalist’s competence First we will have a look at which means journalists have at their disposal to display their own competence. In written interviews the contributions of the journalist form the minority part of the text: as a rule the journalist’s questions are shorter than the politician’s answers. We can assume that journalists will want to show their competence to the interviewee (and to the reader) by showing their interviewing skills and the typical journalistic interactional skills mentioned in Section 6.2.2. 6.5.1.1 Repetition of the question As the written interview is the condensed result of the conversation that has taken place, not all questions and answers are rendered literally. When a journalist repeats a question in a written interview, this may be her way of showing interviewing skills, in that she does not accept the fact that an interviewee evades a question or does not supply a satisfactory answer. Clayman and Heritage (2002) call questions that are repeated until an adequate answer is given follow-up questions. This technique


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is used to narrow down the communicative manoeuvring space or the topic choice for the interviewee (Temmerman, 2006; Temmerman and Sinardet, 2008). Excerpt (1) is an illustration of this technique: (1) [BDW – LLB – 03.12.07] Q: A-t-on démontré après 6 mois qu’il était impossible de former un gouvernement federal? [...] Q: Reprenons: est-il temps de conclure à l’impossibilité de former un gouvernement fédéral? Q: Has it become clear after 6 months that it was impossible to form a federal government? […] Q: Again: is it time to settle for the impossibility of forming a federal government? With the first question, the interviewee can focus on what has happened in the past six months and he can evade answering the question. When the interviewer comes back to the same question, formulated in another way (a so-called follow-up question), this reduces the answering options for the interviewee, who is now forced to answer. 6.5.1.2 Asides In general, interviewers might point out to the reader that the interviewee appreciated a question by integrating marginal remarks of the interviewee like ‘that is a good question’ or ‘you seem to be well-informed’. In the situation of an interview for the print media, this kind of remark is probably meant for the interviewer alone, not for the overhearing audience (Goffman, 1981). By including the remark as an aside (Goffman, 1981), the journalist might want to represent the interviewee as a friendly person. However, the intention might also be to reproduce the compliment, showing the reader that the journalist is able to ask good questions, i.e. that he is a competent journalist. This is a technique which we often encounter in more popular magazines in Flanders, but which we have not encountered in our data. Either the politicians in our interviews did not express any appreciation of the interviewers’ questions or the interviewers preferred not to mention such appreciation. In our corpus, we did encounter a few examples of the use of qualifying adverbs between brackets with a similar function as the appreciative clauses mentioned above. In excerpt (2), the interviewee seems to appreciate that the interviewer comes to the same conclusions as he



does. Interestingly, it is the journalist who attributes a sense of metadiscursive evaluation to the interviewee’s response. The laconic tone and the phrase ‘you have found’ might be interpreted as a positive evaluation of the interviewer’s analytical skills. Of course, it also might be just an indication of the intonation of the speaker. (2) [BDW – DM – 13.06.07] Q: Als u een tweederdemeerderheid wilt vinden, moet u Elio Di Rupo haast smeken om mee in de regering te stappen. Bizar toch? BDW: (laconiek) Daar hebt u een eerste paradox gevonden. En als u nog even doordenkt, zult u er nog vele andere vinden. […] Q: If you want to find a two-thirds majority, you almost have to beg Elio di Rupo to join the government. Bizarre, isn’t it? BDW: (laconically) There you have found a first paradox. And if you think a bit further, you will find many others. […] The use of qualifying finite verbs, adverbs or participles between brackets (cf. ‘(laconically)’ in the previous example) is something which occurs only (and very infrequently) in the interviews we took from the Dutch-language newspapers De Standaard and De Morgen. The phenomenon is completely absent from the interviews in French. The general use of these qualifiers is to indicate the atmosphere in which the interview is taking place or the tone of the interviewee (e.g. (smiles), (sadly), (frowning)). However, in some cases, the qualifiers may inscribe an evaluative reaction on the part of the interviewee, thereby signalling that the interviewer has asked a good question, as excerpt (3) illustrates: (3) [DR – DM – 20.10.07] Q: Klopt het dat u een Franstalig uitschrijvingsrecht in de faciliteitengemeenten als de sleutel tot de oplossing ziet? DR: (afgemeten) Ik wacht met voorstellen. Ik zal mijn ideeën niet lanceren in de pers. Q: Is it correct that you see a right to register in another area than the one in which one lives for the French-speaking in the local municipalities with language facilities as a key to the solution? DR: (tersely) I am not making any proposals yet. I will not launch my ideas in the press. Here the interviewer might want to show his readers (and his fellow (political) journalists) that he is well informed about Didier Reynders’ views by noting that Reynders’ response to what seems to be inside


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information is terse, thereby indicating that the interviewer might have hit the mark. The examples are too few for a systematic analysis and it is impossible to get access to the intentions behind the authorial voices, but we thought it worthwhile to point out this phenomenon as it might invite further research. In this section, we have observed that journalists have only a limited set of possibilities to display their competence in interviews for the written press. They can only try to show they are well informed by the questions they ask, they can try to display their interviewing techniques and they can try to integrate tokens of appreciation in the answers of the interviewees. In the next section, we will have a look at how interviewed politicians are allowed to represent their own competence and that of their colleagues. 6.5.2 Representation of the politicians’ competences 6.5.2.1 Politicians about themselves In order to investigate how the politicians’ competences are represented in the quotations of their answers, we have singled out all utterances relating to the speakers in the interviews containing the personal pronouns of the first person singular I, me or my.3 These utterances can be divided into three main topics: political plans, private life and feelings, and competences (but this exact word is never used – hence skills, knowledge, experience, attributes and behaviours necessary for the job). We have assembled the qualifying nouns, adjectives and verbs that were used to denote these competences. The talk of the four politicians about competences may be idiosyncratic, but we will see that it is also linked to the roles they play in the negotiations in this formation period. As has been argued in Section 6.4, we will consider the utterances of the politicians in our corpus as an account of the way they have been ‘allowed’ to represent themselves. In most Western cultures, talking about one’s own competences is often considered to be boasting. Beebe (1995) describes actions undertaken in order to ‘appear superior’ as a category of ‘rudeness to get power’. In our data, the interviewees do not talk about their own competences except when asked. It does not happen very often that the politicians sing their own praises. Sometimes they cite others who attribute certain competences to them, as in excerpt (4): (4) [DR – LV – 21.09.07] Q: Certains, même (surtout) en Flandre, évoquent votre nom comme Premier ministre possible. Vous y croyez?



DR: [...] J’entends que certains citent mon nom, en Flandre. Je constate donc que, malgré les critiques dont ils m’ont assailli au sujet de la prétendue mauvaise gestion de l’administration des Finances, ils me reconnaissent finalement quelque mérites. Et cela ne me semble pas intellectuellement extravagant. Mon parti a gagné les élections au sud du pays, il est le plus fort au sein de la famille libérale, et je suis bilingue. [...] Q: Some, even (mostly) in Flanders, cite your name as a possible Prime Minister. Do you believe in that? DR: […] I hear that some cite my name, in Flanders. So I can conclude that, despite the criticism I have been bothered with concerning the so-called bad management of the Finance administration, they do attribute some merits to me at last. And it doesn’t seem intellectually outrageous to me. My party has won the elections in the south of the country, it is the strongest within the liberal family, and I am bilingual. […] Reynders explicitly mentions that in Flanders he has often been accused of not being competent enough as a Minister of Finance, but then he goes on to say somewhat ironically that he agrees with the Flemish when they consider him apt to become prime minister. He sums up what the evaluation of his competence is based on: the fact that he has achieved results in the elections and the fact that he is bilingual. The somewhat long-winded way of putting this can be interpreted as a strategy for not being seen to boast. Citing other people about himself is a second strategy he uses to achieve the same result. Still another strategy consists in using a mitigating phrase, as Yves Leterme does in excerpt (5): (5) [YL – DS – 16.08.07] YL: Ik wil niet arrogant klinken, maar ook mijn persoonlijk verkiezingsresultaat is een feit waar je niet naast kan kijken. YL: I don’t want to sound arrogant, but also my personal result in the elections is a fact you can’t overlook. Our data show that when politicians exhibit their own competences, they do this in connection with the role they see for themselves in the near future. Reynders aspires to become prime minister, so he repeatedly stresses the fact that he is bilingual and that he is able to achieve results. Leterme, who wants to become prime minister as well, also


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refers to the results he achieved in the past and he states that he is very well informed about complex matters, cf. excerpt (6): (6) [YL – DM 02.11.07] YL: Het is een heel complex dossier, met een aantal strakke randvoorwaarden. Maar ik ken ondertussen alle pistes en ik ken alle standpunten. YL: It’s a very complex matter, with a number of tight limiting conditions. But in the mean time, I have become acquainted with all the tracks and I know all the viewpoints. Both Leterme and Reynders have to show their ability to negotiate and to compromise, as in excerpt (7), (7) [DR – LS 22.12.07] DR: J’ai toujours dit qu’on n’est pas d’accord sur beaucoup de sujets mais qu’il y a une grande capacité de négocier et de travailler par ‘prendre et donner’. DR: I have always said that we haven’t reached an agreement on a lot of subjects but that there is a huge capacity for negotiating and for working by ‘giving and taking’. But at the same time, they have to reassure their voters (and their partners in the electoral alliances) that they will not give in on the main points of their party programmes, as in excerpt (8): (8) [YL – DS 08.12.07] YL: De mensen in de partij wisten heel goed dat het lang zou kunnen duren. Ze wisten dat ik niet bereid was om de hervormingen die ik onontbeerlijk acht voor dit land, opzij te schuiven in ruil voor het premierschap. YL: The people in the party knew very well that it could take a long time. They knew I was not prepared to set aside the reforms I consider to be crucial for this country in exchange for the office of Prime Minister. As the two other politicians we have studied belong to more radical parties than the first two, they can be expected to emphasize their competence in imposing their own views, rather than their competence in compromising. Olivier Maingain hardly speaks about himself in the analysed interviews; he represents himself as the spokesperson for his



party. Bart De Wever represents himself as someone who is willing to negotiate, not so much in order to make concessions, but in order to reach the goals he has set for himself, as shown in excerpt (9): (9) [BDW – LS 13.09.07] BDW: Je veux réaliser quelque chose, une evolution positive pour tout le monde. […] Je négocie, je veux atteindre un objectif soutenu par toute la sociéte flamande. BDW: I want to achieve something, a positive evolution for everyone. […] I negotiate, I want to reach an objective which is supported by the whole Flemish society. De Wever considers strategy to be an important asset for a politician, and in his terms, it is equal to intelligence. Unlike in the discourse of the other politicians, there are numerous references to intelligence in his discourse, albeit sometimes on instigation of the interviewer, as excerpt (10) shows: (10) [BDW – DM 13.06.07] Q: Ze is dom? BDW: Dat zijn uw woorden, maar in dit geval spreek ik ze niet tegen. [… Ze] slaagt […] erin om haar standpunt nog te verharden nà de verkiezingen. Dat is niet intelligent. […] Als Didier Reynders dat soort verklaringen aflegt, dreigt de situatie van moeilijk naar onmogelijk te evolueren. Ook dat is niet verstandig. Q: She is dumb? BDW: Those are your words, but in this case I won’t contradict them. She succeeds in hardening her viewpoints even after the elections. That is not intelligent. […] If Didier Reynders makes that kind of statement, the situation risks going from difficult to impossible. That is not intelligent either. As we can see in this last example, speaking about other politicians, and representing them as incompetent, can be a means of emphasizing one’s own competence. In all cases in our corpus, when politicians speak about other politicians, they do this in a positive way if the other belongs to their own party, political family or alliance and in a negative way if this is not the case.


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6.5.2.2 Politicians about other politicians: contrast, biased language, telling metaphor and shift in footing When the speakers compare themselves to other politicians, they do so in order to define themselves in terms of what they are not, as shown in excerpt (11): (11) [BDW – LS 13.09.07] BDW: Pour lui, je suis le ‘traître’, le ‘collaborateur’, assis à la même table qu’Olivier Maingain, le président du FDF. Mon parti tente de s’accorder avec des formations non séparatistes et de mettre ses revendications communautaires sur la table: c’est la seule voie possible. J’en ai assez des gens du Belang. Midas changeait ce qu’il touchait en or. L’extrême droite fait l’inverse: elle transforme l’or en plomb. Mais c’est moi qui dois porter ce plomb sur le dos… BDW: For him [Filip Dewinter of the extreme right party], I am the ‘traitor’, the ‘collaborator’, seated at the same table as Olivier Maingain, the chairman of FDF. My party tries to make agreements with non-separatist parties and to put its demands on the table: it’s the only possible way. I have enough of the Belang [extreme right party] people. Midas changed what he touched into gold. The extreme right does the opposite: they transform gold into lead. But it’s me who has to carry that lead on my back… When they speak openly in a negative way about their colleagues, they can take the liberty to use persuasive metaphors (excerpt 11) and biased language, as in excerpts (12)–(13): (12) [BDW – DS 24.08.07] BDW: Mocht ik iets gaan zeggen zijn dat van de orde was wat Maingain allemaal uitkraamde, dan was er meteen kortsluitinggeweest in het kartel. BDW: If I had been jabbering away like Maingain did, there would have been a communication breakdown in the alliance immediately. (13) [OM – LLB 27.09.07] OM: Yves Leterme a gâché beaucoup de possibilités. OM: Yves Leterme has messed up a lot of opportunities. In excerpt (14), apart from using a telling metaphor, the speaker also applies a kind of shift in footing (Goffman, 1981), saying, ‘I wouldn’t



bang the big drum’ instead of ‘he shouldn’t bang the big drum’. By using this formula, he compares himself to his opponent and emphasizes his own talent for modesty (which he would only have to show in a hypothetical situation): (14) [YL – DS 08.12.07] YL: Louis Tobback is nog zo iemand die altijd klaar staat met kritische hoogdravende analyses. De dag dat de sociaaldemocratie in Vlaanderen op zestien procent zit, een laagtepunt in Europa, zou ik als politicus die twintig jaar lang tot de topverantwoordelijken behoorde, spinazie zaaien en onkruid wieden. En voor de rest een klein toontje lager zingen. YL: Louis Tobback is another one who is always prepared to make critical and pompous analyses. On the day that social democracy in Flanders has sixteen percent, one of the lowest scores in Europe, I would, as a politician who has belonged to the top for twenty years, sow spinach and weed my garden. And not bang the big drum. Shifts in footing (Goffman, 1981) allow speakers to shift the responsibility for the criticism they are uttering, e.g. (15): (15) [OM – DM 30.07.07] OM: […] ik garandeer u dat de Franstaligen zich ernstige vragen stellen bij de persoonlijkheid van Yves Leterme. OM: I assure you that the French-speaking are seriously questioning the persona of Yves Leterme. 6.5.3 Mutual criticism concerning competences between journalists and politicians 6.5.3.1 Journalists about politicians When journalists criticize the competence of politicians, they take care not to formulate the criticism as if it were their own, as it is part of their craft to remain neutral and objective (Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Cotter, 2010). Journalists use face-saving strategies (Brown and Levinson, 1987) to make the criticism less direct. An often used technique is to attribute the criticism to somebody else, as in excerpt (16): (16) [YL – DS 16.08.07] Q: Jong-CD&V noemde uw eerste communautaire voorstellen ‘een borrelnootje in plaats van een deftige maaltijd’.


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Q: Young CD&V [Christian-democrat party] called your first proposals to solve the community difficulties ‘a cocktail snack instead of a proper meal’. This is the same kind of shift in footing as we saw in example (15) above, where it was used by one politician criticizing another. Another technique is to adopt a neutral perspective, as in the following example: (17) [YL – DS 08.12.07] Q: Het beeld van een formateur die zijn kartel niet meekreeg en daarom zijn eigen nota plots niet meer verdedigde, berokkent u schade. Q: The image of a government formation leader who couldn’t get his own alliance on his side and therefore suddenly didn’t defend his own memorandum anymore, is harming you. The journalist does not address the interviewee directly when he describes the failure of the latter, but he sketches it as a situation which harms him. Sometimes the journalist uses a comparison to sketch the situation, as in excerpt (18): (18) [YL – DS 08.12.07] Q: Voelt u zich intussen al een beetje Leo Tindemans? YL: Die vergelijking gaat niet op. Ik zou me niet durven te meten aan de intelligentie, de verbaliteit of de eruditie van Leo Tindemans. Q: De vergelijking gaat over veel stemmen halen, maar ze niet kunnen valoriseren. YL: Ik ben 47, vindt u niet dat men wat vroeg oordeelt over valoriseren? Q: Do you feel like Leo Tindemans a little already? YL: That comparison doesn’t hold. I wouldn’t dare to match myself against the intelligence, the eloquence or the erudition of Leo Tindemans. Q: The comparison is about getting a lot of votes, but not being able to valorise them. YL: I’m 47, don’t you think people are judging a bit fast on valorising? This makes it easier for the interviewee to evade the question, but when the interviewee tries to do that in this fragment, the interviewer continues with a follow-up question (cf. excerpt (1)), still not put



directly. The interviewee answers in the same style: people judge him, he does not condemn the journalist for judging him, but he does ask for the journalist’s opinion on the matter, which is a marked speech act in an interview, as interviewees have to answer the questions, not ask them. The criticism from both sides is rather harsh, but delivered in a face-saving way. Very rarely, the criticism in the question is straightforward, without any face-saving strategies, as in the next example: (19) [DR – LV 21.09.07] Q: [...] vous avez le chic de vous fâcher avec tout le monde, du côté francophone, non? DR: C’est un comble, ce que vous dites là! Les socialistes et les humanistes sont fâchés sur le MR parce que celui-ci a gagné les élections et que cela a contrarié leurs plans, point à la ligne. Q: you have a knack of quarrelling with everybody, on the Frenchspeaking side, haven’t you? DR: That beats everything, what you’re saying now! The socialists and the humanists are cross with MR [Reynders’ party] because it has won the elections and that has thwarted their plans, and that’s the end to it. The interviewee responds by blaming the journalist for his representation of the situation and the other parties for the conflicts that have arisen. 6.5.3.2 Politicians about journalists Excerpt (19) was an example of a politician criticizing a journalist’s question. Here, the construction frame comes into play again. If journalists quote a politician criticizing them, they pass on the criticism to themselves. If they want to represent themselves as competent, this would not be the proper thing to do. So in these cases, another discursive goal is at stake, viz. representing the politician as denying a state of affairs the journalist holds to be true: (20) [BDW – DM 25.10.07] Q: Waarom liepen er de afgelopen maanden dan absolute topCD&V’ers, van de huidige generatie, hardop na te denken over een federale kieskring?


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BDW: Daar geloof ik helemaal niets van. Maar u gaat me niet verleiden om in te gaan op dat soort sprokkels en brokken. Q: Then why in the last few months, some real top members of CD&V were thinking aloud about a federal electoral district? BDW: I don’t believe a word of that. But you won’t tempt me to go into that kind of rumour and fragments of information. (21) [BDW – DM 25.10.07] Q: Hoe is uw relatie eigenlijk met FDF-voorzitter Olivier Maingain? Hebben de twee extremen aan de onderhandelingstafel al eens behoorlijk met elkaar gepraat? BDW: Ik verzet me tegen uw woordkeuze, ik gedraag me niet ‘extreem’. Q: How is your relationship with FDF chair Olivier Maingain? Have the two extremes at the negotiation table talked to each other properly already? BDW: I object to your choice of words, I don’t behave ‘in an extreme way’. (22) [OM – DM 30.07.07] Q: Faciliteiten die als uitdovend opgevat waren, toch? OM: U vergist zich. Arthur Gilson (minister van Binnenlandse Zaken toen de taalgrens werd ingesteld, FL) sprak over een permanent regime. Q: Linguistic facilities which were intended to be phased out, weren’t they? OM: You’re wrong. Arthur Gilson [Home Secretary when the linguistic border was installed; editor’s note] was talking about a permanent regime. (23) [OM – DS 23.10.07] Q: Wat vindt MR-voorzitter Didier Reynders van uw actie? In zijn jongste verklaringen eist hij niet langer de uitbreiding van Brussel. OM: U hebt dat fout gelezen. […] Q: What does MR-chair Didier Reynders think about your action? In his most recent statements, he does not insist on the extension of Brussels any more. OM: You haven’t read that correctly.



In excerpts (20)–(23), the interviewees question the competence of the journalists in interpreting information correctly or representing a situation correctly. Excerpt (20) shows that the interviewee suspects the interviewer of trying to elicit information he does not want to give. The two Flemish politicians also accuse the media in general of improper behaviour, as excerpts (24)–(27) show: (24) [YL – DS 16.08.07] Q: Met stijgende verbazing hebben we de hevige discussie over het al dan niet aangekondigde gezinsbezoek van Milquet gevolgd. YL: Het is precies dat soort marginale discussies waar de media zich mee bezighouden. Q: We have followed the fierce discussion about […] Milquet’s visit to her family with growing astonishment. YL: It’s exactly that kind of marginal discussions the media occupy themselves with. (25) [YL – LLB 10.12.07] YL: Vous savez, nous sommes un peu énervés contre la RTBF car il y avait des accords qui avaient été passés sur un documentaire et qui n’ont pas été respectés... Chez nous, côté néerlandophone, on n’a jamais eu ce problème avec les médias. YL: You know, we are a little cross with the RTBF because there were agreements that had been made […] and that haven’t been respected. With us, on the Dutch-speaking side, we never had that problem with the media. (26) [BDW – LS 13.09.07] BDW: Regardez les dernières éditions du ‘Soir’: j’y suis dépeint comme intolérant, ayatollah, chantre d’un nationalisme exclusif… BDW: Look at the last editions of Le Soir: I’m depicted as intolerant, ayatollah, advocate of an exclusive nationalism… (27) [BDW – LS 13.09.07] Q: Pourtant, vous présentez les Wallons comme des profiteurs du système, votre parti mime les transferts Nord-Sud avec des camions aux ascenseurs de Strépy-Thieu: est-ce plus nuancé?


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BDW: Votre propre journal utilise la terminologie ‘nordiste et sudiste’. Cela n’évoque-t-il pas la guerre civile aux Etats-Unis? Q: But you represent the Walloons as profiteers of the system, your party acts out the North–South transfers with lorries at the StrépyThieu elevators: is that more subtle? BDW: Your own newspaper uses the North–South terminology. Doesn’t that evoke associations with the civil war in the United States? The media are accused of not focusing on the important questions, of breaking engagements that have been made and of depicting the interviewee and the political situation in biased terms, in order to provoke conflict. Especially the French-speaking media are being attacked. Normally, as the interviewers have to remain disengaged, they are not in a position to defend the media they represent. However, excerpt (34) shows that a straightforward attack urges the interviewer to reply in the same tone. Excerpts (26) and (27) form what García-Pastor (2008) would call a negativity cycle: an attack–defence dynamic is created by the increasingly face-threatening nature of the utterances of both interlocutors.

6.6 Summary and conclusions In our analysis of the way competence is represented in political interviews in newspapers by journalists and politicians, we have defined competence as ‘the skills, knowledge, experience, attributes and behaviours that an individual needs to perform a job effectively’. We have seen that in a written interview, it is the journalist who has the power of the word. We may assume that both journalist and politician will want to demonstrate their competence to each other, and especially to the reader, but it is the journalist who decides how the message of the politician is entextualized. It is the journalist who asks the questions: the topic is determined by the journalist and the politician has to stay on topic. Moreover, the journalist decides on the length and the formulation of the answers, even if she tries to remain as close to the original wording as possible. Therefore, as far as the competences of politicians are concerned, we have studied the way these are represented, but we have not been able to make any judgements on the authorial intentions or the discursive purposes of the politicians. We have been able to study their



way of representing a state of affairs, as it is reported by the journalists. Concerning the competences of the journalists, we could start from their own utterances in the written-out interviews to hypothesize about their communicative intentions. The representation of the politicians’ competences is related to the questions asked. We have seen that the politicians in this corpus are represented as being hesitant in talking about their own competences, maybe because this might be interpreted as boasting. Several linguistic modifications are used to mitigate the utterances concerning the politician’s own competences, like applying a shift in footing by citing others about oneself, using long-winded or paraphrasing descriptions (with understatements) or adding mitigating phrases like ‘I don’t want to sound arrogant, but …’ In our corpus, the competences politicians emphasize when referring to themselves are the competences they consider important for the political role they want to play. Speakers with the ambition to become prime minister will emphasize the fact that they have proven themselves able to achieve results, that they are good negotiators, that they have a sound knowledge of the problems which will have to be discussed when forming the government and sometimes simply that they are bilingual (which is important in a country with different language communities like Belgium). Other politicians might emphasize more idiosyncratic competences like intelligence (equalled to strategic insight). Being able to achieve results, to negotiate and to develop a certain strategy are the leadership competences (cf. Section 6.2.2.1) we expected to find in the politicians’ discourse. In the representation of how the politicians in these interviews compare themselves to other politicians, we have found that they define themselves in terms of what they are not, thus at the same time criticizing the others. When they openly disapprove of the political behaviour of their colleagues, they do not hesitate to use biased language. In cases where they do not want to take full responsibility for their statements, they resort to more obscure language or to shifts in footing. The politicians in our corpus only speak in a negative way about their opponents. When speaking about their fellow politicians of the same party, political family or alliance they often praise their competences. In these interviews, politicians are never directly accused of incompetence but since it is the journalist’s role to ask critical questions, sometimes the reference to (lack of ) leadership and negotiating abilities is brought up by the journalist. As expected, journalists remain neutral in the standpoint they take by using shifts in footing, a neutral perspective


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(without addressing the interviewee directly) or obscure language to make the questions less direct. On the other hand, the politicians are sometimes quoted as questioning the competence of the journalists. Again we have to bear in mind that it is the journalist who renders the politician’s words, which means that these words are filtered. The journalists’ competences that are criticized in our corpus are the ability to interpret new information correctly and the ability to represent a given situation correctly (cf. journalists’ craft, Section 6.2.2). In a few cases, politicians will criticize the media in general and accuse them of being biased, of using extreme language in order to provoke conflicts or of focusing on marginal matters. As the journalist can be considered to be a representative of the media but in an interviewing situation is not in a position to defend the media, these attacks are represented as rather harsh. In interviews, journalists do not speak explicitly about their own competences, they can only demonstrate them to the interviewee and to the overhearing audience in the way they ask their questions, i.e. by asking the right questions and by applying skilful interviewing techniques like the use of follow-up questions. If the journalist includes an interviewee’s appreciating remark about a question, this might pass as a legitimization of the journalist’s competence. Sometimes a qualifier between brackets is added to the interviewee’s answer. In some cases this might be done to indicate that the interviewee feels cornered by a question, which is again proof of the interviewer’s skilful technique. The use of asides in the multilayered discourse of written interviews is a phenomenon which has (to our knowledge) not been studied so far and which certainly deserves further attention.

Notes 1. Fabian Lefevere (former political journalist for De Morgen), personal communication, 17 May 2010. 2. Wood and Payne (1998) have developed a general competence model of which the main components are thinking, feeling and acting. This model is often applied to define management and leadership competences and therefore it could be applicable to politicians. In the thinking component, competences like being able to make decisions and having a long-term vision are involved. The feeling component is related to social skills like being able to influence people and being able to communicate well. The acting component includes competences like being able to plan and organize and having the drive to achieve results. 3. For an account of the utterances containing all first-person pronouns, including the pronouns of the plural, see Temmerman (2010).


7 Competence on Display: Crafting Stories during Newsroom Editorial Conferences Tom Van Hout and Ellen Van Praet

7.1 Introduction How do journalists project an attitude of fairness and balance, not only in the interviews they conduct, or in the front page article they write, but also, often fleetingly, in interaction? How do they come across as knowledgeable, accurate, gritty, investigative reporters, not only frontstage, in the public conversation with their readers/viewers, but also backstage, in the private realm of a meeting room, interacting with their peers? In this chapter we explore these questions, relying on an ethnographic, linguistically sensitive approach to journalists’ talk during editorial meetings. Our approach is kaleidoscopic and multi-layered, partly shaped by information from interviews and observations from the field, partly by findings from the literature, and we shifted freely back and forth. To begin with, our focus on the data was in no small part shaped by a response to an interview question: Extract 1 (DS_W16_D3_IntJam) Tom: en bijvoorbeeld wa je heel vaak ziet in een persbericht dat die van die quotes hebben neem je die soms over of and for instance you very often see that press releases come with quotes, do you sometimes use these or James: hmmmmmmmm Tom: in dit geval nu niet denk ik maybe not in this case I guess James: relatief zelden eigenlijk ni je probeert eigenlijk met een persbericht je leest dat persbericht en je probeert ook ergens een verhaal daarin te zien e euh van wat is de rode draad hierin e bijvoorbeeld ze zijn bezig turnaround e de ommekeer blijkbaar 111


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en dan probeer je dat een beetje te stofferen ja der zijn tijdens het afgelopen jaar die die en die keuzes gemaakt en dat lijkt vruchten af te werpen of ni je probeert ergens een verhaal daarrond te brengen en euhm ja en idealiter ook bellen dan e relatively rarely, in fact never actually a press release you try to you read that press release and you try to see a story in there somewhere erm like what is the thread that runs through it eh. For instance they’re on the turnaround eh the reversal apparently and then you try to flesh it out yes during the past year these, these and these choices have been made and this seems to be bearing fruit or not you try to bring a story and ehm ideally to call eh Tom: dat doe je sowieso? you do so automatically? James: euh ja euh als t een Belgisch bedrijf is ik probeer zelf eigenlijk meer topbedrijven te volgen waarvan het beslissingpro euh beslissingscentrum in België is euh en dan probeer je meer vlees aan t been meer een eigen verhaal toch liever dus eigenlijk liever zo veel mogelijk een eigen verhaal een persbericht overnemen vind ik journalistiek ni iets om trots op te zijn ehm yes ehm if it’s a Belgian company I personally try to follow more top companies that have their decision pro ehm decision making in Belgium and then you try to flesh it out a bit more an original story as much as possible an own story. I find no journalistic pride in copying a press release Asked if he sometimes copies quotes from press releases, senior reporter James articulates a number of professional values such as resourcefulness (‘you try to see a story in there’, ‘ideally also calling’), analysis (‘what is the thread that runs through this’), originality (‘as much as possible an own story’), aesthetics (‘and then you try to flesh it out a bit’) and ethics (‘I find no journalistic pride in copying a press release’). As Bourdieu would remind us, these values can be seen as forms of cultural and symbolic ‘capital’ valorized in a particular ‘field’ of cultural production (Benson, 1999, 2006; Bourdieu, 2005). Put differently, James’s talk is underpinned by a number of occupational values which frame his professional self-definition. These values have been described in the literature as legitimizing professional journalism and are said to comprise: • Public service: journalists provide a public service (as watchdogs or ‘newshounds’, active collectors and disseminators of information);


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• Objectivity: journalists are impartial, neutral, objective, fair and (thus) credible; • Autonomy: journalists must be autonomous, free and independent in their work; • Immediacy: journalists have a sense of immediacy, actuality and speed (inherent in the concept of ‘news’); • Ethics: journalists have a sense of ethics, validity and legitimacy. (Deuze, 2005, p. 447) Keeping these ideal-typical professional values in mind, we turned to the data, searching for an echo of the principles in reporters’ language use. To what extent do reporters in the course of ongoing talk, draw on these shared values to give legitimacy and credibility to what they say and do? A second observation which determined our focus was the perception that all the observed meetings were fast, routine, detached, with hardly any room for personal opinion. With this observation, we turned to the literature, and singled out two studies on neutrality and detachment in media language. First, Clayman (1992) observed how journalists during news interviews commonly shift interactional footing so as to avoid taking an explicit position on controversial issues, remain ‘personally disengaged’ from what they are saying and, accordingly, ‘fulfil the complex journalistic requirement, put forth in the standard interviewing textbooks […] of being interactionally “adversarial” while remaining officially “neutral”’ (Clayman, 1992, p. 196). Second but in a similar vein, Martin and White (2005) found that English-language broadsheet reporting reflects a typical pattern in the use and co-occurrence of evaluative meanings resulting in three distinct ‘journalistic styles’: reporter voice, correspondent voice and commentator voice. Their findings showed that reporter voice, the style typically associated with hard news, involves a substantial curtailment of explicitly attitudinal meanings, particularly with respect to judgement that has been directly inscribed in the discourse. Their study indicates an absolute prohibition on instances where the journalistic author unambiguously takes responsibility for either a positive or negative assessment of human behaviour and action by reference to social norms. Any such judgement is attributed to an external source. Regardless of whether they investigated talk (news interview) or text (print media), both Clayman (1992) and Martin and White (2005) demonstrate that the – widely contested (e.g. Hampton, 2008; Schudson, 2001; Thorsen, 2008) – journalistic adage of ‘objectivity’ often casts journalists in the role of ‘animators’1 (Goffman, 1981) who convey


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messages without taking responsibility for what is being conveyed (Scollon, 2004). And so we replayed the recordings of the meetings with alertness to shifts in interactional footing, closely monitoring reporters’ talk for what Fairclough (1995) has called ‘discourse representation’. If the literature shows that reporters, in producing journalistic discourse, insist on avoiding bias by shifting responsibility for the truth of their claims onto others, as a way of indexing journalistic competence and a concern with neutrality and objectivity, would they maintain this concern backstage, i.e. while interacting, negotiating, debating with their colleagues? A third observation which steered our selection, analysis and interpretation of the data, was the perception of a base and break pattern. Largely, editorial meetings consist of a repetitive, routine questionand-answer sequence, but are marked by instances where this pattern breaks. Typically, the desk chief initiates the story by reading off (animating) the story slug and by summarizing what the story is about. Decisions on story length (how many ‘lines’, Dutch lijnen) and placement (position in the newspaper section) are briefly negotiated: Extract 2 (DS_W11_D4_eco) Desk chief Mitch consults beat reporter Steve about an 80% drop in Flemish municipal electricity dividends: Mitch: enfin (ademt in) dan het verhaal Eandis so (inhales) then the Eandis story Steve: ja yeah Mitch: dat zal eco 1 zijn he (…) (ademt in) that will be eco 1 eh (…) (inhales) Steve: ja yeah Mitch: misschien nog iets vooraan of zo maybe something on the front or so ne 65 hou daar maar rekening mee a 65 better bear that in mind Steve: mja, mmm yeah, mmm Extract 3 (DS_W8_D2_eco) Desk chief Mitch initiates a story about Belgian discounter Colruyt’s Dutch expansion: Mitch: Colruyt gaat naar Nederland met een inzetje Delhaize Colruyt goes to the Netherlands with a Delhaize inlay



James:

ja yeah Mitch: hoeveel heb je daar voor nodig? 80 en 50? how much do you need for that? 80 and 50? James: ja, zoiets ja yeah, like that yeah

Yet, as the meetings unfold, reporters sometimes launch into micronarratives, that is, longer stretches of monologue that rupture the default dialogical pattern. While some reporters excel in solo performance, others simply stick to the default dialogical pattern. Do extended turns of talk provide the solo performers with a platform for the (re)enactment of competence? Does it add to their image of a trustworthy, investigative, knowledgeable reporter? To answer these questions, the analysis in this chapter will zoom in on contributions by two reporters who enjoyed special status in the newsroom: James, who was openly praised by the desk chief for his investigative talents and accurate, heavyhitting stories, and Rudy, who was remarkable because of his elaborate interventions and turns during the observed conferences.

7.2 Data collection, analysis and sharing The data for this study were collected at the economics news desk of De Standaard, a major quality newspaper in Belgium, between October 2006 and March 2007. During this period, the first author attended 60 and audio-recorded 53 editorial meetings at De Standaard. In addition, he recorded 23 interviews with economics reporters and editors. This amounts to roughly 20 hours of audio data, half of which has been analysed to date. There are several editorial meetings throughout the day at De Standaard. Around 10:00 am, a general editorial meeting with the desk chiefs and the editor-in-chief takes place to evaluate yesterday’s paper and to look ahead to the next day’s paper. Around 2:00 pm, the separate news desks convene for an editorial meeting; 45 minutes later, the copy-editors convene for a meeting to decide on the cover stories. This is repeated at 6:00 pm. In this chapter we focus on the 2:00 pm meeting of the economics news desk, which is typically attended by all the economics reporters who are in that day, the desk chief and one or two copy-editors. During these staff meetings, editors and reporters discuss potential cover stories, make general announcements, review and update developing stories, which are assigned author, length and


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placement. The meeting is chaired by the desk chief who also makes the story budget, a list of possible stories based on the newsroom agenda, incoming press releases, news agency copy and other media. The story meetings run anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes, depending on available stories and reporters. Forty-four of these meetings were recorded with an Olympus WS-310M digital voice recorder which was placed centrally on the conference table. This chapter is a joint effort. Although collaborative, the joint endeavour started off on an asymmetrical basis. While the first author had been a participant observer in the field, the second author’s perspective on the data was that of an outsider. More than a methodological impasse, we treated this given as a challenge to reflect on the ethnographic nature of the research project and some of the sensitive issues involved in the assumed risk of decontextualization. What would be the surplus value of sharing qualitative data? Blommaert, for instance, has written about how he refused to collaborate with a researcher who had not been exposed to the field context because ‘our colleague could not understand the full depth of what was going on in the transcripts’ (Blommaert, 1997, p. 32, cited in van den Berg, 2005, p. 20). Would it be possible to outweigh arguments against secondary analysis? Our answer to these concerns has been twofold. First, in line with van den Berg’s (2005) suggestions and guidelines for the feasibility of secondary analysis of qualitative interviews, whole interviews rather than fragments were made available for analysis. In other words, secondary analysis was based not on responses of interviewees alone or on extracts from editorial meetings, but on MP3 files and transcripts of the complete interviews/meetings, making it possible to take into account the unfolding co-construction between interviewer and interviewee/participants of the meetings. Second, ensuing collaborative data sessions thematized a number of theoretical concerns, ‘suggest[ing] directions along which to look instead of provid[ing] prescriptions of what to see’ (Blumer, 1969, p. 148, cited in Rampton et al., 2004, p. 2). Moreover, the ‘insider’ freely shared information about the place, time and setting of the interviews and meetings, about how the interviewees were selected and approached to cooperate, about the initial interview goals, about the seating arrangements at the meetings, etc. Without arguing that these measures completely bridged the contextual divide, we do feel that they allowed for an analytical dynamic that opened up, rather than closed down, lines of interpretation.



7.3 Findings 7.3.1 The Beaulieu story To begin with, we zoom in on a meeting in which James was allotted no less than four stories in the next day’s economics section. One of the stories due revolved around Beaulieu, a Belgian holding company covering a group of companies active in the carpets and synthetic fibres sector.2 We start our analysis, when, arriving at his third story on the story budget and negotiating its length, James interrupts desk chief Mitch’s question (line 3) probing for the article’s length with a self-reflective and self-selective ‘and I also need to do Beaulieu’ (line 4), in that way prefacing his fourth and final story: Extract 4 1. James: zal eerder iets Vanden [avenne (???) (inaudible) geweest vandaag 2. verschuiving da begint van that seemed like Van den [avenne (???) (inaudible) today that transition that begins to3. Mitch: [(sound of pen striking story from budget through) hoeveel? how much? 4. James: en Beaulieu moe’ek ook nog doen and I also need to do Beaulieu 5. Mitch: ja, Beaulieu dat staat ook eh yeah, Beaulieu is also on the list 6. James: ja da zal wel nie slecht zijn yeah that sounds promising 7. Mitch: ja, hoeveel? yeah, how much? 8. James: euh vanden Avenne. euh misschien, da’s zolang als kort. 90 lijnen als da? ehm vanden Avenne. ehm maybe, that’s long and short. 90 lines if that’s? 9. Mitch: ja ja, schrijf op he we zullen straks zien. (inhales) ja dat Beaulieu arrest? yeah yeah, write down he we’ll see later. (inhales) yeah, the Beaulieu decree?


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10. James: (pauze) een beroep die ze, ze moeten die boete euh ze moeten dat geld (pause) an appeal that they, they have a fine ehm they have to pay back the 11. terugbetalen dus money so 12. Mitch: en hoeveel geld is dat? and how much money is that? 13. James: da d’is euh wat was dat? that’s ehm what is it? 14. Marc: 2 komma 8 miljoen (inaudible) da’s veul geld 2 point 8 million (inaudible) that’s a lotta money 15. James: da’s een schoon bedrag he that’s a princely sum eh? 16. Rudy: ’tis toch op een gegeven moment eigenlijk is da (inaudible) te volgen it’s at a given time in fact it was (inaudible) to follow 17. James: Eigenlijk was dat [die Verlipack is een complete catastrofe geworden he actually it was [that Verlipack turned out to be a complete catastrophe 18. Marc: [da’s 100 miljoen zoals we zeggen [that’s a 100 million as they say 19. Lewis: [(inaudible background comment on fine) 20. James: euh ‘t werd overgenomen zwaar in geïnvesteerd euh en z’hebben eigenlijk ehm it was taken over a heavy investment ehm and they’ve actually 21. moeten voor niks weggeven aan Heye-Glas maar ze zaten parallel had to give it away to Heye-Glas but they were in a parallel position 22. doordat dat een een bedrijf was van vroeger dan de nationale sectoren he? because that was a company from before then the national sectors eh? 23. was daarop een terugkoopverplichting van een jaarlijkse schijf it came with a buy-back obligation with annual instalments 24. van zoveel overheidsaandelen ja dat eh of a number of government shares



25.

op een bepaald moment zeiden van ja at a particular moment they say, well, 26. z’hadden dat bedrijf eigenlijk al op nul gezet they had actually reset the company’s capital to zero, 27. die aandelen zijn waardeloos we geven daar geen geld meer voor those shares are worthless we don’t pay for them 28. maar Europa zegt van but Europe says something like 29. ja sorry ge moogt gij gewoon blijven betalen voor die aandelen yes sorry, you’re just gonna have to keep paying for those shares 30. ze zijn daar tegen hun broek gegaan they took a beating with that one 31. ze moeten toch de volle prijs betalen they have to pay the full price 32. Mitch: (inhales) ja, ja ‘k zal zien he (inhales) yeah, yeah, I’ll see about this 33. Rudy: (inaudible) echte staatssteun (inaudible) real state aid Remarkably, James’s story assessment remains uncontested. There is no debate about the story angle or the weight of the story. This was a recurring fieldwork observation. The stories James wrote repeatedly made front page news. He consistently came up with juicy stories and breaking news. The desk chief was in awe of his network of corporate high rollers and captains of industry. During an interview with the first author, he said: ‘look, have you noticed how much time James spends on the phone?’, thereby implying that James was calling not just anyone, but a network of people in the know. Another journalist suggested that James enjoyed so much respect because ‘he just doesn’t give a damn and writes whatever he wants’, thus ignoring the risk of burning his access to elite sources. He also figured that James was the highest paid journalist on the team because De Standaard had twice lured him away from the newspaper’s main rival. In short, James was a highly respected reporter, visibly enjoying credibility and authority among his peers. In the excerpt, James and the desk chief engage in a routine-like, repetitive question-and-answer sequence, gradually reinforcing the idea of taking up the story. The talk meanders along, with other reporters


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jumping in and supplying information, until, from line 17 onwards, James launches into narrative solo performance. Note that from line 25 onwards, James uses reported speech to craft a ‘constructed dialogue’ (Tannen, 1989) between Beaulieu and the European Commission. This lively enactment of dialogue not only creates involvement and solidarity,3 it also resonates with journalism’s ethos of objectivity. Pitting ‘Beaulieu’ against the ‘European Commission’, voicing contradictions and tensions, James identifies the multiple stakeholders in an industrial conflict, thereby adhering to the journalistic convention of covering both sides of a controversy. Showing the diversity of viewpoints without taking sides, James’s narrative allows for ‘dialogic interaction between diverging truth-claims, whereby “official monologism” containing a “ready-made truth” is rejected for a heteroglossic notion of reality’ (Thorsen, 2008, p. 939). Embedded in James’s performance are some of the values he articulated in Extract 1. James is clearly seeing ‘a story in there’ and talking about ‘the thread that runs through this’, he is presenting ‘an own story’ that he tries ‘to flesh out a bit’. Without a doubt, this is a story he takes journalistic pride in. James’s frequent use of hyperbole4 (a princely sum, a complete catastrophe, a heavy investment) not only adds an ironic flavour to the micro-narrative, the emotionally tinged statements of exaggeration also reveal his investment in the case. The lightness with which James describes the long, tedious story of court cases, and his ability to step back from it with distancing humour, emphasize his craftsmanship as a journalist in yet another sense. Inserting mild irony in his talk subtly safeguards James from explicit negative or positive assessment on this controversial issue. Distancing humour allows him to fulfil the journalistic requirement of neutrality. Summarizing, whereas James’s short intervention offers only a snapshot of his verbal backstage performance, it may be considered an exemplar of Cotter’s (2010) rhetorical understanding of journalism practice as a craft, i.e. the achievement of communicative competence: not only does the micro-narrative convey the facts (the who, what, where, how and why questions), it also voices traditional ideological, profession-valued ideals such as balance, objectivity and investigative grit. 7.3.2 The ING story In a similar vein, and yet different, the second fragment, featuring Rudy, manifestly draws on dialogic positioning, on intertextuality, for the display of competence. Inserting, assimilating and attributing the voices of others, he inserts dialogue into his spoken narrative and in a sense



evokes Bakhtin’s (1986) notion of heteroglossia and his insistence upon the intertextual nature of all texts. In the next fragment (gloss to follow in Extracts 5.1–5.5 below), desk chief Mitch introduces the day’s main story: a newspaper article published in a Dutch newspaper the previous day speculated about a possible merger between Dutch bank ING and an unnamed Benelux banking institution. This is big news because such a merger would reshuffle the entire Benelux banking market. Extract 5 (DS_W18_D4_eco). Breaking news: Dutch bank ING is looking into its ‘strategic growth options’, fuelling market speculation about a Benelux banking merger and causing Fortis, Dexia and KBC shares to soar. 1 Mitch: dan komen we tot het volgende 2 eh niet onbelangrijke eh item op de lijst (.) ING! 3 Rudy: kzou da kzou dan dus eco 1 ING [pakken en dan een stuk 4 Mitch: [ja 5 binnenin over de zenuwachtigheid op d’euh euh in de 6 bankenmarkt op dit moment eh en [wat7 Mitch: [een soort van analyse euh? 8 Rudy: een soort van analyse, d-d-dus een stuk van 9 euh van 120 of zo euh misschien ik weet nog nie 10 misschien dak nog iets apart ga maken 11 over over de mogelijke combinaties in12 ma (.) we mogen ook niet aan overshooting doen 13 op dit moment […] is eh […] allé 14 zegt iedereen dak tot nog toe gebeld heeft 15 da ze niet weten dat er concreet iets gaande is 16 nu, dat zzzeiden ze ook […] toen Dex 17 toen Fortis [Dexia 18 Mitch: [ja, da zeggen ze altijd 19 Rudy: En der moet er maar enen zijn die 20 dan zijne mond voorbij praat 21 en dan is er plotseling wel iets 22 dus maar op dit moment heb ik geen bewijs 23 dat er echt iets concreet is 24 omdat wat dat er inderdaad al verschillende 25 Belgische nie alleen Belgische 26 maar alle banken op dit moment doen,


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27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67

Mitch: Rudy:

Mitch: Rudy: Mitch: Rudy:

dat is kijken, wat zijn de opties euh om snel te kunnen reageren alst moet eh hmaar ja’h de de zenuwachtigheid is groot en eh tis denk ik op, tis zoals dak zeg op dit moment is er nog niks concreet maar da kan, da kan van uur tot uur kan da veranderen, eh ING heeft nu alleen toegegeven daze inderdaad [kijken [adviseurs ja, adviseurs hebben ze nie toegegeven ma da ze constant kijken exact wada de Fortis ook zei toen ze Dexia benaderden, da ze constant kijken en da’t nie alleen de Benelux is maar ook daarbuiten maar wadage wel ziet is da iedere analyst eh, ik bedoel, tis nu wel zo da iedereen met een vergrootglas op die Beneluxmarkt zit te kijken en waarom? welja, omdat, omdat da bericht in t financieel dagblad maar waarom is de Beneluxmarkt is dat interessanter op dit ogenblik dan? awel […] twee zaken eh […] eerst en vooral natuurlijk omdat ABN Amro daar int centrum van de belangstelling staat. Komt daar nog een tegenbod, ja of nee? En twee, omdat inderdaad, ja, in da bericht van t financieel dagblad, ze spreken over ING kijkt naar de benelux waardoor dat die, al die benelux aandelen stijgen iedereen natuurlijk nog ne keer na de benelux en welke zijn die banken daar dan, niet dat de meeste hebben da wel in de gaten, maar de beleggers, de financiele markten gaan zich nu toespitsen op de Benelux, en alle mogelijke combinaties gaan terug onder de loep komen en het circus is, is gestart. En de vraag is nu, d’echte vraag is van, zijn er achter de schermen gesprekken? Kheb nu gehoord onder ondertussen dat van dat er langere gesprekken zouden geweest zijn tussen Fortis en Dexia dan iedereen denkt, eh dat dat



68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

Fortis en ABN Amro dat die ook wel contact hebben gehad, maar da ABN Amro heeft gezegd van, we willen geen verzekeringen en Fortis wilde zijn verzekeringen behouden, dus ja, da zijn maar, da’s van één bron, en kweet ook niet in hoeverre dat da klopt, maar da zijn dus allemaal kleine elementjes van de puzzel. Dat is dat is zoiets da pas laat gaat duidelijk worden,welke kant dat uitgaat. Maar kzal de schone stukken op eco1

Rudy’s narrative is a complex configuration of lexico-grammatical meanings which, as will be shown, manifestly draws on intertextuality. Rudy’s performance is carefully and rhetorically designed to convince his peers not only of the newsworthiness of his story, but also of his expertise, status and reliability as a senior financial reporter. As Mitch runs down the stories on the budget, he qualifies the ING story as ‘not unimportant’ in line 2, thereby engaging banking and insurance beat reporter Rudy (who happens to be sitting directly to the right of Mitch) and erecting the dialogic participation framework of metadiscursive story play between desk chief and reporter that makes up the default ‘production format’ (Goffman, 1981) of routine newswork.5 Extract 5.1 ING story preface and design. 1 Mitch: then we arrive at the next 2 ehm not unimportant ehm item on the list (.) ING! 3 Rudy: I’d then so I’d go eco 1 for [ING [and then an inside 4 Mitch: [yup 5 piece about the anxiety on the ehm ehm in the 6 banking market at present ehm and [what7 Mitch: [some sort of analysis ehm? 8 Rudy: a sort of analysis, s-s-so a piece of 9 ehm let’s say 120 or so ehm maybe I dunno yet 10 perhaps I’ll make something else 11 about about the possible combinations inResponding to Mitch’s story preface, Rudy proposes to cover the ING story with three articles: a cover article, an inside piece (‘a sort of analysis’) about the current anxiety sweeping the market and a third story about the


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possible combinations involved in the merger. The story design work that Rudy is engaged in leads him to shift into a different communicative mode: Extract 5.2 But let’s not overshoot this. 12 Rudy: But let’s not overshoot this. 13 At this moment […] is eh […] well, 14 says everybody I’ve called so far 15 that they don’t know whether something concrete is going on 16 now that’s what they said as well when […] DEX17 when FORTIS [DEXIA 18 Mitch: [Yeah, that’s what they always say. 19 Rudy: And if only one of them 20 shoots his mouth off 21 then all of a sudden there is something 22 so, but at this moment I have no evidence 23 that something really concrete is going on 24 because what, indeed a number of 25 Belgian, not only Belgian 26 but all banks are doing at this moment 27 is monitoring closely, what are the options, eh 28 to be able to react fast if they have to 29 eh but yes there is a growing nervousness 30 and eh it is I think it’s as I say it is 31 at this moment there is nothing concrete 32 but that can, that can change from hour to hour 33 And all ING has admitted 34 is that they’re closely [monitoring 35 Mitch: [advisors 36 Rudy: Yes, well, not so much advisors 37 but that they’re constantly on the lookout 38 exactly what Fortis said when they approached DEXIA, 39 that they’re constantly looking and not just the Benelux 40 but also outside of it but what you do see 41 is that every analyst, eh, I mean, it’s a fact that 42 everybody’s looking at the Benelux market through 43 a magnifying glass Whereas Rudy’s conceptualization of the ING story in the previous extract produces metadiscursive statements about story length



(‘120 or so’), placement (‘eco 1’, ‘inside’) and type (‘an analysis’), the concern he expresses in line 12 about exacerbating (‘overshooting’) the market speculation accomplishes a shift from conversation into narrative. This is what Hymes called a ‘breakthrough into performance’ (Hymes, 2004): a shift from one register of language use into another, highlighting how talk is always and inevitably a lamination of genres. In this specific case, Rudy switches from the default dialogic mode of conversation to a teller-driven mode of narration: ‘a series of extended turns by one speaker interrupted by demonstrations of attentiveness by the recipients through various kinds of back channel signals (…)’ (Duranti, 1997, p. 315). Rudy was particularly prone to weave in such extended narrative turns at story meetings. As noted above, this penchant for displaying domain knowledge characterized Rudy’s performances during story meetings and its repetitiveness made it somewhat predictable, often sparking subordinate talk or byplay6 among the other reporters or other changes in responsive behaviour. The displays of attentiveness that Duranti associates with byplay occur twice: first in line 18 (‘that’s what they always say’) and then in line 35 (‘advisors’). Rudy’s shift into ‘full performance’ is carefully and rhetorically designed not only to underline the newsworthiness of his story, but also to display his expertise, status and reliability as a financial beat reporter. To begin with, Rudy underlines his professional competence with a quality control that builds on his intertextual knowledge of genres of economic journalism and their effects on readers. Rudy’s caveat not to overshoot the story in line 12 operates on two levels of intertextual semiosis. First, it implies an interpretive practice, knowledge of stories and genres associated with market bubbles, and second, it implies knowledge of when this textual knowledge can be used effectively, namely during a story assessment. There is another intertextual dimension at work in the use of the term ‘overshooting’. According to the online Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms, an overshoot is an excessive target estimate such as an overly optimistic earnings projection. By appropriating the term in the context of an editorial meeting, Rudy re-entextualizes the term to warn against a common criticism aimed at economic journalists: boosterism, the creation of ‘irrational exuberance (which) may lead to damaging “bubbles” and painful market corrections’ (Tambini, 2008, p. 12). In addition to this manifest display of intertextual competence as a measure of his craftsmanship, throughout the fragment Rudy projects


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himself as knowledgeable and credible, by way of rhetorical positioning. Consider, for instance, how he carefully builds up his main argument, that is, the argument which in fact frames his performance from the start: the warning not to overshoot the story. In building up and supporting this argument, Rudy relies on repetition. With split intervals of only a few micro-seconds Rudy repeats that ‘nothing concrete is going on’. Rudy’s persistent repetition of the same plea in much the same words, amplifies and adds force to his argument: there is no evidence of anything concrete going on. All we have is market rumours. In doing so, he skilfully moves from a rhetorical position of opening up to other voices, to back up his argument, to ultimately close down the argument: Extract 5.3 13 At this moment […] is eh […] well, 14 says everybody I’ve called so far 15 that they don’t know whether something concrete is going on In lines 13–15 responsibility for whether or not something concrete is going on is attributed to sources. This contrasts with the third move. Consider how Rudy ends his threefolded argument: Extract 5.4 30 and eh it is I think it’s as I say it is 31 at this moment there is nothing concrete At first, in this utterance, responsibility for the truthfulness of the market rumour is internalized. By explicitly internalizing his utterance (‘I think’), Rudy casts his voice as just one of a number of possible voices. Yet, all of a sudden, Rudy switches to a monoglossic position, limiting the range or possibility of interaction with the diversity to a strong extent when he says ‘it’s as I say it is’. The bare declarative confronts the alternatives, sets itself up against them and narrows down the dialogue: It’s the way I say it is. Nothing concrete is going on. Full stop. Indisputable. Incontestable. Rudy’s rhetoric of opening up to alternative positions and yet closing down at the same time, is also noticeable further along the micro-narrative, where he raises a contested issue: whether or not there have been longer deliberations/negotiations between Fortis and ABN AMRO. Prompted by Mitch, Rudy rounds off the issue as follows: Extract 5.5 44 Mitch: and why?



45 Rudy: well, because, the story in the Financieel Dagblad 46 Mitch: but why is the Benelux market 47 more interesting on this moment? 48 Rudy: well […] two things eh […] 49 first of all obviously because ABN Amro 50 is in the spotlight. 51 will there be a counteroffer, yes or no? 52 and two because, indeed, in the Financieel Dagblad story, 53 they talk about how ING is looking at 54 the Benelux which is why, all those 55 shares are rising everybody of course 56 once more at the Benelux and what are 57 those banks, not that most of them are noticing this, 59 but the investors, the financial markets will now focus on the 60 Benelux, and all possible combinations will 61 be looked at the circus is back in town. 62 And the question is, the real question is, 63 are there any ongoing talks? 64 I’ve heard now in the meantime 65 that longer talks have taken place 66 between Fortis and Dexia 67 so then everyone thinks eh that eh 68 Fortis and ABN Amro that they 69 also will have had contact, 70 but that Amro said that, 71 they do not want insurances 72 and Fortis wanted to keep its insurances, 73 so yeah, those are only, that’s just one source, 74 and I don’t know to which degree it’s correct, 75 but those are all small pieces of the puzzle 76 that is that is something that 77 will become clear later on which way it’s going 78 but I’ll put the juicy pieces on eco 1 Expressions of ignorance (‘I don’t know’) and the use of downtoners (‘only, just’) introduce other voices, open up the dialogue to other possible alternative views; in that way, Rudy displays not only an awareness of competing/alternative viewpoints but also projects an ethos of accuracy and an urge for verification. Clearly, Rudy anticipates7 possible objections to the argument he is developing. However, whereas he evokes voices taking a different stance, he downplays their


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argument and ultimately knocks down all possible counterarguments in an authoritative and strong statement: ‘That is, that is something which will become clear later on which way it’s going.’ In other words, Rudy anticipates counterarguments, downplays them and in so doing, strengthens his argument. He evokes voices taking a different stance towards the issue, but at the same time locks these voices out. Put differently, Rudy uses a multi-sided argument, that is, one that presents his position but also summarizes and responds to any objections real or potential audiences might have.

7.4 Conclusion In the data presented here, Rudy and James subscribe to what Cotter (2010, p. 31) labels a craft ethos: ‘the reporting and writing of news stories is considered a craft, with identifiable, performative entailments that circumscribe a community-identified proficiency’. One of these performative entailments, as we hope to have shown, is the enactment of a professionally competent identity during backstage editorial meetings. Our findings demonstrate how, during editorial meetings, senior reporters take extended turns at talk, and display not only a concern with, but also an exceptional talent at, representing an amalgam of interconnecting voices and backing up their claims with related texts and sources. Very much like a competent writer masters the voices in written text, extended turns at talk during meetings proffer a stage for displaying mastery and talent at juggling with multiple positioning and sources. Summarizing, Rudy and James accomplish a professionally competent self-identity primarily through intertextual positioning and a balanced orchestration of dialogue. Rudy and James’s knowledge of particular media texts is on display, as is their ability to display this knowledge within the default dialogic participant framework of editorial meetings. While this given is by no means new, the observations in this chapter foreground intertextual competence as part and parcel of a journalist’s ethos and competence, not only frontstage, in the public conversation with their readers/viewers, but also backstage, in the private realm of a meeting room, interacting with their peers. There is another interesting dynamic at work here. In their story talk, James and Rudy convey a particular journalistic stance that resonates with the shared professional values that Mark Deuze associates with professional journalism. James and Rudy not only share a concern with the public service (social impact) and objectivity (balance, accuracy)



ideals of their respective stories, but also with ethics (truthfulness) and immediacy (speed). Finally, again linking back to Cotter’s craft ethos, we argue that our analyses extend the craft concept beyond reporting and writing. Achieving communicative competence as a journalist involves not only the ability to report (gather the facts) and write (present the facts), it also involves the ability to talk about stories according to news-genre norms and according to community-valued norms of objectivity, accuracy, balance and credibility.

Notes 1. Goffman argues that there are at least three basic positions that a writer can take. The first is as author, the person who crafts the text. The second is as animator, the person who produces the physical instance of the text. Last is as principal, the person who is responsible for the text. These three roles can either be one and the same person, or not. 2. The story of Beaulieu is a long, complex story of international fiscal fraud and illegal state aid which started back in the 1990s and still attracts newspaper headlines to this very day (see e.g. De Standaard, 21 January 2008). In 1985, the Belgian public authorities acquired a holding in Verlipack, the largest Belgian producer of hollow container glass, bringing their stake in the group to 49 per cent of the capital. The remainder of the capital was held by the Beaulieu group. In 1996, Verlipack entered into a technical assistance agreement with one of the most important European producers of hollow container glass, the German group Heye-Glas. In 1997 that agreement was extended to include management and financial assistance and the Beaulieu and Heye groups set up a holding company, Verlipack I, controlled by Heye. A second holding company, Verlipack II, was set up by the shareholders of Verlipack I and the Walloon Region, which contributed capital of BEF 350 million. On 24 April 2002, however, the European Commission decided that Belgian government aid payments to the Verlipack Company were unlawful and incompatible with the Common Market. It ordered Belgium to take all necessary measures to recover the aid from the Verlipack Company, waiving a claim of EUR 2.8 million excluding interest. On 23 November 2006 the European Court of First Instance dismissed the company’s appeal for annulment of this decision. And this is where James’s story comes in. 3. Reported speech is one of a cluster of solidarity-enhancing strategies which speakers can resort to in order to establish interpersonal involvement in conversation. According to Tannen (1989, p. 133), narrative dialogue creates involvement by transforming a story into a drama and turning listeners into an interpreting audience to the drama. In other words, James’s use of narrative dialogue points to the solidarity-based orientation of his discourse. Moreover, as Clark and Gerrig (1990, p. 73) note, to quote is to depict only a snapshot of a more extended event. Thus, when speakers quote only part of an event, they assume that speakers share similar background knowledge in


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4. 5.

6.

7.


order to interpret the quotation in the same way that the speaker does. Clark and Gerrig maintain that this assumption implies solidarity. The fact that James is listener-oriented also comes to the fore in his frequent use of hé, a pragmatic particle which can be used to negotiate interpersonal alignments and mark assumptions of shared knowledge and experience. See Edwards (2000), Iñigo-Mora (2007), Norrick (2004) and Pomerantz (1986) for literature on hyperbole and extreme case formulations. A note on source reliance: coverage of the ING story (in print and online) supports what Gillian Doyle (2006, p. 448) calls a common practice in economic journalism: cribbing from other news media. Drawing on Goffman, Goodwin (1997, p. 79) defines byplay as ‘a form of subordinated communication of a subset of ratified participants who make little effort to conceal the ways in which they are dealing with speaker’s talk’. In fact, Rudy resorts to the rhetorical strategy of anticipation (i.e. the English term for prolepsis), whereby a rhetorician foresees and replies to objections.


8 Interpreting Competence: Nursing Staff and Family Members as Ad Hoc Interpreters in Hospitals1 Birte Pawlack

8.1 Introduction When patients lacking German language abilities come to German hospitals, communication problems tend to arise between these patients and the physicians treating them. These communication problems are generally solved by the use of ad hoc interpreters. The survey from Pöchhacker (2000) reveals that mostly bilingual family members (family interpreters) and nursing staff translate for them and enable understanding. Much research has been done concerning the interpreting activities of ad hoc interpreters in health-care settings. These deal with the concept of interpreting competence of either the ad hoc interpreters in general or family interpreters in particular. Ebden et al. (1988) analyse doctor–patient interviews in which family members acted as interpreters and stated that the interpretations were of very poor quality. The relatives especially had difficulties in translating complex questions and anatomical terms. Pöchhacker (2008) comes to similar conclusions. In his case study, he demonstrates that family interpreters do not have a clearly defined role when interpreting. According to these surveys about translation quality, it does not seem suitable to employ family interpreters. Nursing staff, on the other hand, are more likely to perform well in interpreting. According to Gentile et al. (1996), one of the competencies in liaison interpreting2 – the definition of which also applies to ad hoc interpreting – is ‘specialization’. The authors do not define this explicitly as technical know-how, but it is surely feasible to do so because of the special background obtained in the health-care setting (cf. Pöchhacker, 2000). In our case, specialization refers specifically to knowledge of medical and institutional aspects. Nursing staff 131


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members are trained in the medical sector. Also, they are familiar with treatment processes in the institutions in which they work. Because of this background, one would expect nursing staff to be more competent in fulfilling the translation task. Stemming from this common-sense thesis about nursing staff and the research results about the translation quality of family interpreters, we wish to compare the interpreting competence of both groups in this chapter. We aim to exemplarily describe whether they differ when translating and whether one of them acts more competently. For this purpose, we analyse authentic doctor–patient conversations, which were interpreted by family interpreters and nursing staff. Through the analysis, we hope to elucidate and illustrate general characteristics typifying both groups. In Section 8.2, we describe the method of analysis, which is based on the approach of functional pragmatics and the research results of Meyer (2002, 2004), who demonstrates the difficulties ad hoc interpreters generally have when translating between patients and doctors. After presenting the data (four interpreted doctor–patient conversations), we analyse these in Section 8.3 and give a short summary of the results in Section 8.4. In Section 8.5, we present our conclusions regarding the interpreting competence of nursing staff and family members, and further reflect on the term ‘competence’ in health-care interpreting.

8.2 Method and data Many different attempts to define the term ‘competence’ have one thing in common: all of them understand it as a ‘roughly specialized system of abilities, proficiencies, or skills that are necessary or sufficient to reach a specific goal’ (Weinert, 2001, p. 45). The skills we concentrate on are language skills that are required for interpreting in hospitals. More precisely, we focus on institutional linguistic knowledge, ‘the ability to reflect on functions of language in institutional communication’ (Meyer et al., 2010a). This ability is one of three which the authors derive from the analysis of authentic data. It is characterized by a proficiency in conveying the message of the primary conversational partners by reflecting on the communicative background of the conversation type and its speech actions. In doing so, one is not limited to the mere reproduction of surface structures of language (cf. Meyer, 2009). Let us illustrate what this means for the conversation type we look at in our analysis, the briefing for informed consent.


Birte Pawlack 133

Meyer (e.g. 2002) gives a detailed description of briefings for informed consent. His analysis is based on functional pragmatics, a variant of discourse analysis, which aims to detect how institutional demands form linguistic patterns (e.g. Ehlich, 1986). The findings of his studies reveal the judicial and institutional background of the briefing as a crucial and programmatic factor for the communication. Briefing for informed consent is obligatory by law; the doctor has to inform the patient about future treatments and their possible complications before the patient gives his/her consent. Furthermore, it has an institutional purpose; the patient is informed in order to enable his or her cooperation in the course of the medical treatment. Therefore, it is important to convey information to the patient and to reach an understanding. These judicial and institutional background aspects have an influence on speech action patterns and the lexical choices the doctor makes. One such example is the pattern of action with which the doctor usually begins the briefing (Meyer, 2002), the announcement of a treatment. Meyer looks at announcements in 16 briefings for informed consent from the same corpus that we analyse in this chapter and describes how they are realized by ad hoc interpreters3 and doctors. The doctors typically refer to a planned procedure by saying that they ‘would like to’, ‘want to’ or ‘wish to’ perform a certain procedure. Ad hoc interpreters, however, tend to use constructions like ‘will’ or ‘going to’ in their translations (see Table 8.1). This little shift makes a difference. It expresses different degrees of certainty for procedures to be realized in the future. While the formulation of the doctors suggests that something is merely planned and that the patient is part of the decision-making process, regardless of whether the treatment is gone ahead with or not, the translations of the ad hoc interpreters indicate that the procedure will definitely be done and that the patient thus does not have the right to disagree. Since both

Table 8.1 The different use of modals in announcements: number of occurrences

‘want’, ‘would like to’ ‘will’, ‘going to’ No interpretation

Doctors

Interpreters

12 4

1 12 3

Source: Meyer (2002).


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languages in the analysed briefings (Portuguese and Turkish) have possibilities for expressing modality, Meyer disqualifies linguistic structures as the cause of the contrast between source and target utterances. His explanation for the shift is that the ad hoc interpreters in his survey were not familiar with the institutional background and therefore did not attach importance to the use of modality. In summary, it can be said that it is necessary to be familiar with the institutional background and how this can be expressed by linguistic means in order to properly convey the message of the doctor. At this point, we return to our initial common-sense-based thesis stating that due to their medical backgrounds, nursing staff are more likely to competently interpret in health-care settings than family interpreters lacking this educational background. We pursue this idea by analysing announcements that were translated by both groups. If nursing staff are in fact more competent in the field of institutional linguistic knowledge, this should be observable in their speech actions. In their announcements, the doctors often use medical terms to refer to the treatment, which are also object of our analysis. Regarding the aspect of medical terms, the patient’s background always plays a role in determining what a good translation is. In any case, it can be assumed that nursing staff are more familiar with medical terms – at least in one language – and can therefore produce more competent interpretations than family interpreters. The data that we analyse here stem from a corpus called DiK, Dolmetschen im Krankenhaus (Interpreting in Hospitals). It consists of nearly 100 doctor–patient conversations that were recorded between 1999 and 2002 for the research project ‘Interpreting in Hospitals’ at the Research Centre on Multilingualism in Hamburg; more than 40 of the dialogues are interpreted (German–Turkish, German–Portuguese and German–Portuguese–Spanish). For our analysis, we look at four briefings for informed consent. In two of them, a family interpreter translated between doctor and patient and in the other two, bilingual nurses interpreted. Of course, this study provides just an example of the investigated phenomena, which do not allow us to verify whether our theses are universally applicable. Nevertheless, this study is a first step in comparing the interpreting competence of the two mentioned groups and demonstrates ways in which this can be methodologically realized. Furthermore, we hope to extract general findings about family interpreters and bilingual nursing staff, characteristics which have an influence on the interpreting competence of each group.


Birte Pawlack 135

8.3 Analysis Before we present the first transcript excerpt, we intend to provide a short description of our analytical procedure. The focus lies on the action pattern announcement, where modality (certainty of a future treatment) and medical terms (reference to the outlined treatment itself) play an important role. Within this section, we examine transcript excerpts4 from four interpreted doctor–patient conversations. The first and second excerpts are mediated by family interpreters. Excerpt 1 is the longest, which we consequently present in several parts. It is taken from a briefing for informed consent, in which the doctor prepares the patient for a gastroscopy and an ultrasound of the heart. The German doctor is a female internist and about 30 years old. The patient is a retired man whose mother language is Portuguese; he has weak German language abilities. His niece serves as an ad hoc interpreter in this conversation; she is almost 30 years old, her mother language is Portuguese and she speaks German as a second language. Excerpt 1 (first part) Briefing for informed consent, treatment: gastroscopy; ultrasound of the heart (Transcript number 29 from the Corpus ‘DiK’ 5) DOC: German internist (f), INT: Portuguese niece of PAT (f), PAT: Portuguese patient (m) 1 2

DOC DOC

3

DOC

Gut. • • Ähm, Herr Gomes, wir wollen • bei Ihnen zwei Untersuchungen noch • durchführen. • • Und zwar einmal eine Magenspiegelung und einmal • ein Ultraschall des Herzens durch die Speiseröhre.

Well. Uhm, Mr Gomes, we want to do two more examinations in your case. That is a gastroscopy on the one hand, and on the other an ultrasound of the heart through the oesophagus.

In the first part of the excerpt, the doctor announces the planned examinations and uses an umbrella term ‘Untersuchungen’ (examinations) (2), for them. She specifies this word in (3) with the terms ‘Magenspiegelung’ (gastroscopy), and ‘Ultraschall des Herzens durch die Speiseröhre’ (ultrasound of the heart through the oesophagus). Afterwards, the interpreter and the doctor discuss whether everything that was uttered should actually be interpreted. During and after this


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passage, the patient confirms that he has understood what the doctor said. On one occasion, he explicitly says that he has understood and then articulates this again by summarizing what he believes to have been the doctor’s original utterance (19):

Excerpt 1 (second part) 19

PAT

20 21

INT INT

Disse que já me fizeram do/ do/ do/ do/ do(is) Spiegelungs. Não, não fizeram. Vai/ vão fazer.

She said that they already did of/ of/ of (is) Spiegelungs.6 No, no they didn’t. She is going to/ they are going to do.

In the second part of Excerpt 1, we can see the form of modality that the doctor and family interpreter use. The patient continues the words of the doctor and it becomes clear that he did not understand correctly. He thinks that the doctor talked about ‘do(is) Spiegelungs’, two endoscopies that they already did (‘fizeram’) (19). Afterwards, the niece corrects him and says that the doctor was talking about something that has not yet been done (‘não fizeram’) (20), but something that they ‘vão fazer’ (21). Within this reproduction, she uses the construction ‘ir + infinitive’ (‘vão fazer’) to refer to the announced examinations. This future form not only expresses that an action will take place in the future, but also that it will definitely happen (Hundertmark-Santos Martins, 1998, p. 220). The doctor, however, refers to the outlined procedures with ‘durchführen wollen’ (want to do) (2). The modal verb ‘wollen’ has a volitive character and expresses that they – the internist and her colleagues (‘wir’, we) – intend to perform the examinations and that it is not a determined action. We can observe the same shift between original and target utterance described by Meyer (2002) (cf. Section 8.2). While the doctor merely speaks about an action that she and her colleagues wish to perform, the interpreting niece suggests that the examinations are already scheduled. Like Meyer (2002), we assume that this shift can be explained by the lack of institutional linguistic knowledge on the part of the niece. She was probably not aware of the communicative background of the announcement and how it can be expressed linguistically. Meyer (2004, pp. 125ff.) also analyses this transcript and continues his analysis with the observation of the different translation methods used by the interpreting niece, presented in Table 8.2.


Birte Pawlack 137 Table 8.2 Translation methods for medical terms in transcript 29 from ‘DiK’ Repeating the German term Using the professional term Referring to the place of examination Illustrating the place of examination Pointing at the place of examination Source: Meyer (2004, p. 139).

We illustrate these different categories by describing the proceeding conversation. In the following lines of Excerpt 1, we can see how the interpreting niece handles the reproduction of the first term, ‘Magenspiegelung’ (gastroscopy) (3): Excerpt 1 (third part) 22

INT

23

INT

24

PAT

• Ainda mais dois exames. É umaaa, • • uma Magenspiegelung, genau. Spiegelung.

Still two more examinations. It is a, a Magenspiegelung,7 exactly. Spiegelung.8

The family interpreter announces that they (the doctors) are going to perform ‘mais dois exames’ (two more examinations) (22). Then she renders the next utterance, during which she pauses for a moment and the patient renders a word before terminating her sentence. Unfortunately, this transcription style does not enable the presentation of overlapping and simultaneous speaking. We attempt to do so in the following description. After (22), the interpreting niece refers to the gastroscopy. It seems that she does not know how to translate gastroscopy into Portuguese. She begins her reproduction and prolongs the end of the word ‘uma’, the article ‘a’ in English (23), and is briefly interrupted by the patient before she ends her utterance. The patient seems to believe that she is looking for the right word in Portuguese for the examination and articulates what he thinks to be the planned procedure: ‘Spiegelung’ (endoscopy) (24). In his study, Meyer (2004, pp. 125ff.) illustrates that the patient is familiar with the term ‘Spiegelung’, since he was briefed twice about endoscopic procedures during his hospital stay. Subsequently, the niece completes her utterance by adopting his articulated term and specifies it with the supplement ‘stomach’, resulting in ‘Magenspiegelung’ (23).


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In the fourth part of Excerpt 1, one can observe how the niece reproduces the other medical term that the doctor uses in her announcement:

Excerpt 1 (fourth part) 25

INT

Ehm • • e • vão lhe-tirar/ vão-lhe fazer Ultraschall ((1s)) ao coração. Hm´ . Ultraschall, sabe o que é?

26 27

PAT INT

28 29 30 31

PAT PAT INT INT

32 33 34 35 36 37

DOC INT DOC DOC DOC INT

38 39 40 41 42

INT INT PAT INT PAT

43 44

INT INT

Não. Ehm • mas vão-lhe fazer esse exame ao coração.

45

INT

46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

INT PAT PAT INT PAT PAT INT INT

((1s)) E é sobre ˘eh — • Speiseröhre — feh • • isto por onde vai o comer para baixo. Eh • • este canal aqui. E eh o eh, o eh… O canal. Sim. O eh… Do estômago? Sim. Vai por aí assim uma coisinha.

54

PAT

Sim˙

Sim. ˘Não

sei. Oh Gott! Das weiß ich nämlich nicht auf Portugiesisch, Ultraschall, wie das heißt. Ultraschall ((lacht kurz))˙ • • Äh • is das nich auch Sono? • Jaˇ, genau. Das is dasselbe. Hm ˇ. Ich glaub auf Portugiesisch heißt das auch so ähnlich. So/ uma sonografia? • O tio sabe o que é? Termografia? Sonografia? Tonografia, não sei o que é.


Uhm and they are going to take/ they are going to do Ultraschall Ultrasound, do you know what that is? Yes. I don’t know. Oh my God! It’s that I don’t know that in Portuguese, ultrasound, what that is called. Ultrasound ((short laugh))˙ Uh, isn’t that also sono? Yes, exactly. That’s the same thing. I think it is called something similar in Portuguese, too. So/ a sonography? Do you know what that is? Termography? Sonography? Tonography, I don’t know what that is. No. Um but they will do this examination of the heart with you. And that is through the Speiseröhre,9 uh this here where the food goes down. Uh this tube here. And uh this uh, this uh… The tube. Yes. The uh… Of the stomach? Yes. Such a small thing goes through there. Yes˙

Birte Pawlack 139

55

INT

E por aí vão-lhe fazer um exame ao coração • também.

56 57

PAT DOC

Hm` . Gut˙

And they will do an examination at the heart with you through that. Fine˙

In this last part of the translated announcement, we can see how the niece applies the other four translation categories described by Meyer (see Table 8.2). To reproduce the doctor’s term ‘Ultraschall des Herzens durch die Speiseröhre’ (ultrasound of the heart through the oesophagus), she utilizes the same method as before, using the German term ‘Ultraschall’ (ultrasound), combining it with Portuguese words ‘ao coração’ (at the heart) (25). She asks whether the patient understands the term (27). This time, however, he is not familiar with the German word and replies in the negative (29). Then she comes up with what she believes to be a synonymous German term and she reassures herself by asking the doctor if ‘Sono’, a short form for ‘Sonografie’ (ultrasound), is the same as ‘Ultraschall’ (ultrasound) (33). The doctor affirms (34, 35, 36) and the niece adapts the German word into Portuguese (38). The patient does not understand this reproduction form either (42), and his niece reformulates and specifies in three more ways. First, she names the location of the examination, ‘exame ao coração’ (examination of the heart) (44). Then, she illustrates how the location of the examination can be reached, ‘isto por onde vai o comer para baixo’ (this where the food goes down) (45) and points to it ‘este canal aqui’ (this tube here) (46). Finally, she again refers to the location of the examination, ‘exame ao coração’ (examination of the heart) (55). We may now ask the question of which of these translation methods is best: the medical term in Portuguese, the repetition of the German word, or the illustration of the location of the examination? The case presented here illustrates that a best method or formula for success does not exist. One has to admit that the family interpreter was not very familiar with the Portuguese terms necessary to describe the outlined procedure, nor, it should also be noted, was the patient. The patient did not understand when the niece used a medical term in Portuguese (42). However, he understood a German term (22, 23). Usually, one would not advise an interpreter to use foreign-language terms in order to achieve understanding and thus high interpreting quality. But since the patient had been briefed twice about endoscopic procedures during his hospital stay, he was familiar with the German term and understood


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it. In summary, we can say that knowledge of the meaning of medical terms per se does not suffice for reaching an understanding between the primary interlocutors. The interpreter has to reflect the reproduction forms which facilitate understanding considering the interlocutors’ backgrounds, at least to his or her knowledge, and which are often revealed in the interaction. Of course, this principle is not only valid for the translation of medical terms. The second excerpt is from a briefing in which a male German internist (40 years old) briefs a female Portuguese patient (45 years old) on a planned treatment. The patient recently underwent a surgical procedure, during which it was suspected that she might be suffering from enteritis (inflammation of the bowels). In order to verify this suspicion, a colonoscopy should be done to examine the bowels. The family interpreter is a friend of the patient with Portuguese as a family language and native-like skills in German; he is 57 years old.

Excerpt 2 Briefing for informed consent, treatment: colonoscopy (Transcript number 10 from the Corpus ‘DiK’) DOC: German internist (m), INT: Portuguese friend of PAT (m), PAT: Portuguese patient (f) 1

DOC

2

DOC

3

INT

4

INT

5 6 7

INT INT INT

8 9

PAT INT

10 11 12

PAT INT INT

Okay, denn fangen wir mal an hier. ((3s)) Gut, • Frau Pedreira, was, • was heute gemacht werden soll, • • ist eine • Darmspiegelung. Rosária, o que, • • o que eles hoje vão fazer • é uma espelhagem do intestino. Ou seja • uma/ ((1s)) é uma sonda no intestino. É uma sonda. Uma espelhagem. Uma espelhagem • é uma sonda. Pois, é, é. Em português é uma sonda no intestino. Certo. Is alles … Wir können weiter.


Okay, let’s begin. ((3s)) Well, Mrs Pedreira, what, what should be done today, is a colonoscopy. Rosária, what, what they are going to do today is an endoscopy of the intestines. In other words a/ it is a tube in the intestines. It is a tube. It is a endoscopy. An endoscopy is a tube. Yes, it is. In Portuguese it is a tube in the bowel. Right. It’s all ... We can continue.

Birte Pawlack 141

The doctor introduces the announcement (1) of the planned treatment and performs it after a break of three seconds. He addresses the patient with ‘Frau Pedreira’ (Mrs Pedreira), and refers to the planned colonoscopy by saying that it ‘should be done’ (2). The verb (‘soll’, should) expresses a statement of intention (cf. Zifonun et al. 1997, p. 1913) and indicates that the procedure will not definitely be performed. ‘Soll’ (should), is used in a passive construction and thereby leaves the intended subject unclear. The doctor uses the medical term ‘Darmspiegelung’ (colonoscopy) for the planned procedure. In the following, the family interpreter takes a turn and reproduces the announcement of the doctor by addressing the patient with her first name, Rosária. He renders that ‘eles’ (they) (3) ‘vão fazer’ (are going to do the treatment). With regard to modality, we can observe the same shift between original and target utterance that we observed in Excerpt 1. While the doctor describes the treatment as something that is probably going to be performed in the future, the family interpreter communicates that it is already a fact that it will be done. We apply the same explanation here as for the shift in Excerpt 1, namely the lack of institutional linguistic knowledge. Presumably, the family interpreter in this briefing was not familiar with the institutional background. There is another shift occurring in this translation, which does not pertain directly to the focus of our analysis, but which shall be mentioned anyway. The forms of address that the doctor and family interpreter use are different from each other. The doctor addresses the patient as ‘Frau Pedreira’ (Mrs Pedreira), and the family interpreter uses her first name, Rosária. Of course, this is due to the kind of relationship the doctor and family interpreter have with the patient. It would be interesting to analyse how family interpreters and nursing staff differ in addressing patients. Perhaps they apply different addressing forms in special situations in order to create trust or even a serious atmosphere. With respect to the translation of medical terms, we observe the following. First, the interpreter refers to the planned procedure with the term ‘espelhagem do intestino’ (endoscopy of the intestines) (3). He then renders various other names for the treatment. In (4), he says that the procedure can also be described using the words ‘sonda no intestino’ (a tube in the intestines). Afterwards, he refers to it as ‘uma sonda’ (a tube) (5), and as ‘uma espelhagem’ (an endoscopy) (6). He further offers ‘Uma espelhagem • é uma sonda’ (an endoscopy is a tube) (7), as an equivalent translation, and the patient affirms these declarative statements ‘Pois, é, é’ (Yes, it is) (8). At the end of his translation, the family interpreter finally comments ‘Em português é uma sonda no intestino’


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(In Portuguese it is a tube in the intestines) (9), which the patient affirms again in (10) with ‘Certo’ (right). This sequence consists of numerous reproductions of the medical term, which fall in different categories. We can observe some of these categories in the overview of translation methods from Meyer (see Table 8.2). At first, the interpreter reproduces the medical term uttered by the doctor with the medical term (respective professional term) in Portuguese. Then he refers to the examination by illustrating it, after which he refers to it with a kind of pars pro toto, with an umbrella term, and – after a further equivalent term – again with an illustration. Indeed, the interpreter seems to be unsure of the ‘right’ interpretation and the variety of repeated reproduction forms may irritate the patient. Nevertheless, his spectrum of different translations (four different types) also shows that he is fairly familiar with the concept of the ‘Darmspiegelung’ and its linguistic realizations. The following two transcript excerpts are taken from conversations in which nurses acted as ad hoc interpreters. In the first, the doctor, a 25year-old surgeon, prepares the patient for hip surgery. The patient is a Portuguese man who is 72 years old and has weak German language abilities. He has already had surgery on one of his hips. The ad hoc interpreter is a Portuguese nurse (48 years old) who has worked for over 20 years in a German hospital and who speaks German as a second language. Excerpt 3 Briefing for informed consent, treatment: hip surgery (Transcript number 16 from the Corpus ‘DiK’) DOC: German surgeon (m), INT: Portuguese nurse (f), PAT: Portuguese patient (m) 1 2 3

DOC DOC DOC

4

INT

5

INT

6

PAT

7 8 9

INT INT INT

10

PAT

11

DOC

So. Herr Marcos, folgendes: ((3s)) Jetzt geht es ja um die andere • • Hüftseite, ((1s)) wo wir diese Operation planen. Agora é a do outro lado.

Okay. Mr Marcos, the following: Now it is about the other side of the hip, where we plan this surgery. Now it is that one of the other side. Dum lado já foi operado. On the one side you were already operated on. De um lado já está operado … On the one side it is already operated on ... • E agora vai eh a ser … And now uh it is going to be ... Ou … Or ... • Primeiro foi o lado esquerdo First, it was the left side and now e agora vai (ser) o seu direito. it is going (to be) your right. Depois/ agora é do lado After/ now it is of the right side. direito. Genau. Exactly.


Birte Pawlack 143

The doctor initiates the announcement of the planned surgery (1, 2). He says that it is about ‘die andere Hüftseite’ (the other side of the hip), where they ‘planen’ (are planning surgery) (3). Then the interpreting nurse reproduces the doctor’s utterance (4). She adds that the patient has already had surgery on one side (5) and the patient articulates almost the same utterance simultaneously (6). Afterwards, the nurse begins to repeat what she said before with a verbal variation (‘is going to be’ instead of ‘be about’) and aborts the sentence (7). Then she specifies her utterance by naming the sides of the earlier and current surgeries (9). The patient again speaks simultaneously and renders a similar utterance (10). Finally, the doctor proceeds with the briefing. With regard to modality, it can be observed that the surgeon refers to the outlined procedure with the verb ‘planen’ (plan) (3). Like ‘wollen’ (want to) (Excerpt 1), it expresses an action of intention and reflects the deep structure of the communicative background. The patient first has to be informed about the procedure and its possible complications; furthermore, he has to give his consent. The interpreting nurse, on the other hand, refers to the surgery by using the future form of the verb to be, ‘vai ser’ (7, 9). As mentioned in the analysis of Excerpts 1 and 2, this construction expresses that the action is definitely going to be performed. Unexpectedly, we must note that the interpreting nurse also uses linguistic means that do not reflect the institutional background. Just as in the cases of interpreting family members or friends, we assume that she was not familiar with the deep structure of the communicative background and its linguistic realizations. This assumption is strengthened by the fact that the nurse uses the future construction in two utterances (7 and 9). Now we look at the translation of medical terms in this briefing. The doctor refers to the planned procedure by illustrating the location of the surgery, ‘die andere Hüftseite’ (the other side of the hip) (3), and by naming the procedure ‘diese Operation’ (this surgery) (3). The demonstrative article ‘diese’ expresses that something is determined by a previous specification or by a pointing gesture (Zifonun et al., 1997, p. 1960). Maybe the internist pointed to a briefing sheet like those normally used to explain the intended procedure to patients in briefings for informed consent. Or perhaps he referred to a previous utterance he made about the surgery. Unfortunately, we cannot conclusively explain why he uses the demonstrative article. However, the nurse translates the term by illustrating the location of the surgery. First, she refers to it with the words ‘a do outro lado’ (that one on the other side) (4). She specifies the location of the surgery by comparing it with his other hip which


144


had already been operated on, ‘Dum lado já foi operado’ (on the side you were already operated on) (5). She reformulates by summarizing her earlier descriptions in (9), ‘Primeiro foi o lado esquerdo e agora vai (ser) o seu direito’ (First, it was the left side and now it is going (to be) your right). She does not refer to the surgery by naming it directly, as the internist does with the noun construction ‘diese Operation’ (3). The procedure is referenced by a paraphrase less explicit than the noun. She distinguishes between both sides of the hip using the feature of time, past and present/future. One side had been operated on in the past and now it is time for the other one, now or in the near future. By connecting the concept of the patient’s past surgery with the currently planned one, the patient certainly gets an idea of the planned procedure. This reference may be categorized as a connection to previous knowledge and experiences. The internist also refers to the earlier surgery in (andere • • Hüftseite), though he does not do so as explicitly as the interpreting nurse. Summing up, it can be said that the nurse’s translation offers a reproduction that vividly conceptualizes the idea of the planned treatment for the patient, especially when she associates the translation with former knowledge and experiences. The last transcript excerpt is taken from a briefing for a bronchoscopy. The 29-year-old female internist informs the patient about the planned examination. The patient is the same as in transcript number 29 (Excerpt 1). He is a retired Portuguese man with weak German language abilities. In this briefing, it is not his niece that interprets but a bilingual nurse. She is 25 years old, was born in Germany and had Portuguese language instruction for 12 years. Excerpt 4 Briefing for informed consent, treatment: bronchoscopy (Transcript number 27 from the Corpus ‘DiK’) DOC: German internist (f), INT: Portuguese nurse (f), Portuguese patient (m) 1

DOC

2

DOC

3

DOC

4 5

PAT DOC

Herr Gomes, wir kommen heute noch mal zusammen ... • Ich muss Ihnen noch ei/ erklären … Wir wollen noch eine andere • Untersuchung machen, zusätzlich zu der Magenspiegelung und dem • Echo. Hm ˇ , hm ˇ. Wir wollen noch eine Lungenspiegelung machen.


Mr Gomes, we meet here today once more … I still have to a/ inform you … We want to do another examination, in addition to the gastroscopy and the echo. We want to do an endoscopy of the lungs.

Birte Pawlack 145

6 7

DOC INT

Ja? • • Eles/ querem eles/ ehm ah hoje vão-lhe explicar o que é que eles ainda querem fazer.

8

INT

9

PAT

Eles ainda querem ver os pulmões por dentro. Sim.

Yes? They/ want they/ uhm uh today they are going to explain to you what they want to do. They want to look at the lungs from the inside. Ja.

First, we will summarize the announcement and its translation. The internist makes two starts (1, 2) before she announces the bronchoscopy in (3 and 5). While she talks, the patient articulates two hearer signals (4). After a short pause, the internist gives the patient the opportunity to have a turn (6) and the nurse translates the announcement into Portuguese (7, 8). After that, the patient signals that he understands (9). In this excerpt, we observe a translation of a doctor’s announcement that acknowledges the communicative background of the announcement with regard to modality. As with the doctors from Excerpt 1, the internist in this transcript uses a verb construction with ‘want to’, ‘machen wollen’ (3, 5), to refer to the intended procedure. Thereby, the volitive character of the action ‘eine Bronchoskopie machen’ (to do a bronchoscopy), becomes clear. It is merely a planned examination and not something that has already been determined. The nurse initiates the announcement by saying that the doctors ‘vão […] explicar o que é que eles ainda querem fazer’ (are going to explain [...] what they want to do) (7). She also expresses the volitive character of the action by using the verb construction ‘querem fazer’( want to do). In the next utterance, she repeats the modal verb ‘querem’ (want to) (8). We assume that the nurse was aware of the deep structure of the communicative background and, of course, its linguistic realization. One might doubt this and claim that she may just have reproduced the surface structure of the doctor’s announcement. But the fact that she uses the modal verb twice supports the assumption that she was familiar with the institutional background and knew how to express it by linguistic means. With regard to medical terms, it can be observed that the interpreting nurse uses paraphrases. She specifies the placeholder ‘o que’ (7) with the construction ‘ver os pulmões por dentro’ (look at the lungs from the inside) (8). Meyer (2004, p. 151), who also analyses this transcript excerpt, notes that her translation of the medical term ‘Lungenspiegelung’ (endoscopy of the lungs) (5), is just one part of the entire examination and concentrates solely on the doctor’s action, leaving out the patient’s


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action, the swallowing of the tube. Nevertheless, she transposes the concept of the terminological term into a non-terminological term, which might be more comprehensible for some patients. We cannot say whether or not this was the case in this briefing. The patient might also have understood technical terms such as ‘broncoscopia’ (bronchoscopy), or ‘endoscopia dos pulmões’ (endoscopy of the lungs), which cover the complete examination. Since the interpreting nurse did not use any of these technical terms, we do not have the opportunity to observe the reaction of the patient as was possible in Excerpt 1.

8.4 Results The hypothesis of our study was that nursing staff are more competent in health-care interpreting than family interpreters because of their instruction in the medical sector. We focused on an area in which nursing staff were expected to be more skilled, namely institutional linguistic knowledge (Meyer et al., 2010a), and looked at the translation of relevant linguistic aspects. These were modality and medical terms in the observed conversation type, the briefing for informed consent. In the analysis, fewer differences were observed than one may have expected. With regard to modality, it can be said that the family interpreters used linguistic means that do not reflect the deep structure of the communicative background. The interpreting nurses, however, acted in different ways. One of them adopted linguistic means that took the institutional background into account, while the other did not. With respect to medical terms, it can be said that nursing staff and family interpreters used a wide range of translation methods. Both used different forms of paraphrases for their reproductions. A professional term was adopted in only one case of a family interpreter (Excerpt 1), but this did not automatically lead to understanding on the part of the patient. Unexpectedly, the use of the German term, on the other hand, seemed to do so. As mentioned before, this analysis is merely an example study. Nevertheless, it shows how the interpreter activities of different groups can be compared, in itself a merit of this survey. Another observation that we made is that family interpreters and nursing staff differ categorically in terms of the knowledge that they share with the patient, or the knowledge that they have of the patient. Through their position as medical staff members, nurses often have insight into the patient’s history. This knowledge may be used to reach a


Birte Pawlack 147

better understanding, as the nurse in Excerpt 3 did to depict the concept of a planned procedure. Of course, family interpreters have other kinds of knowledge that they use to enhance understanding that simply were not revealed in the presented transcript excerpts. One example of this can be found in Meyer et al. (2010b), in which the authors show how family interpreters link their reproductions of the doctor’s utterances to the patient’s living conditions and previous experiences and thereby enhance comprehension on the patient’s side.

8.5 Conclusion The analysis did not reveal significant differences between the groups examined. On the basis of these results, it is not possible to support the hypothesis that nursing staff are generally more competent in medical translating than family interpreters. It seems that medical education does not necessarily guarantee profound institutional linguistic knowledge and thereby greater interpreting competence. Another conclusion is that norms – defined as a set of prescribed instructions as to how someone should act when interpreting – are of little help in determining interpreting competence. This was illustrated in the analysis of Excerpt 1. Normally, one would not expect that the repetition of a foreign-language term would be a promising translation method. However, in the case of the Portuguese patient in Excerpt 1, it did lead to understanding, since he had been briefed twice about endoscopic procedures during his hospital stay. The situations in which ad hoc interpreters translate are so different from one another that it is neither helpful nor possible to obey strict norms. What leads to understanding in one case does not do so in another conversation. In order to define interpreting competence, it seems most promising to start from the idea of guidelines. We understand guidelines as principles that provide orientation for how to behave in a given situation. As opposed to norms, guidelines are not concretely prescribed actions of behaviour. They operate on a more abstract level and allow a certain scope of action. In this survey, we adhere to the guideline of understanding. The interpreting activity was evaluated in terms of whether understanding was reached or not. The analysis indicates that in order to reach understanding, institutional linguistic knowledge alone is not sufficient. It is in addition necessary to take the interlocutors’ background into account and adapt the translation accordingly, as we described in the analysis of Excerpt 1. This notion of interpreting


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competence10 allows for an evaluation of interpreting activity according to the given circumstances. In order to more clearly define the meaning of interpreting competence in health-care settings, it is necessary to conduct more descriptive studies. The comparison of family interpreters and bilingual nursing staff may show both the types of difficulties and also the possibilities that emerge when one of them mediates between doctor and patient. In doing so, we aim to contribute to the discussion about the appropriateness of different interpreter types in health-care settings as in Robb and Greenhalgh (2006). Based on the idea that quality in an interpreted conversation cannot be judged solely in terms of accuracy, the authors reveal how trust between professional interpreter/family interpreter, patient and doctor plays an important role in interpreted doctor–patient conversations. In terms of relation-based aspects, it is to say that patients are likely to have a trusting relationship with family interpreters. Nursing staff, on the other hand, are more likely to have a collegial relationship with the doctors, which in turn might have an influence on the interpreting activity. This assumption, however, must be investigated in future studies.

Notes 1. I would like to thank Dorien Van de Mieroop and Giuliana Garzone, who supported me during the writing process. 2. The authors define the term liasion interpreting as follows: ‘Liaison interpreting is the style adopted in [...] varied settings – a style where the interpreter is physically present in an interview or meeting, and usually uses the consecutive mode of interpreting’ (Gentile et al., 1996, p. 1). However, the term ‘ad hoc interpreting’ furthermore highlights the aspect of translating without any preparation (e.g. a preliminary talk with the doctor and/or the patient), which applied also to the interpreters in our data. 3. Unfortunately, it cannot be verified whether the ad hoc interpreters of Meyer’s study (2002) were family interpreters or nursing staff. 4. Transcription conventions: / marks self-initiated self repair, • marks short hesitations, single brackets mark insecure transcription, double brackets mark comments of transcriber, pauses are measured in seconds: ((1s)). 5. Access to the data is possible via: www.exmaralda.org/corpora/en_sfb_ k2.html 6. German word for endoscopies. 7. German word for gastroscopy. 8. German word for endoscopy. 9. German word for oesophagus. 10. This concept of interpreting competence is being applied in a three-year research project at the Research Centre on Multilingualism in Hamburg. The aim of the project is to develop, perform and evaluate an interpreter-training


Birte Pawlack 149 module for bilingual nursing staff. The module intends to enable ad hoc interpreters to reflect on their speech actions and their role behaviour in order to allow them to choose behaviour that is beneficial for understanding, depending on the conversational context (institutional background, patient’s and doctor’s background). The name of the project (T5) is ‘Development and evaluation of an interpreter training module for bilingual hospital employees’; more information: www.uni-hamburg.de/sfb538/ projektt5_e.html


9 The Discursive Construal of Purpose by Means of Competence in German and English Corporate Mission Statements Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse Introduction Voltaire’s words quoted in a Dutch translation by van Hasselt (2001, p. 6) in his ‘communication memo’ very aptly illustrate the inevitable interconnection between the key function of the genre of the mission statement and its necessary point of departure: De hemel schenke ons een man die over voldoende capaciteiten beschikt om een dergelijk plan aan te kunnen, wilskrachtig genoeg om het te realiseren, intelligent genoeg om het uit te denken en voldoende toegerust om het te laten slagen [our emphasis] [May Heaven give us a man who is competent enough to cope with such a plan, whose will is strong enough to realise it, who is intelligent enough to devise it and sufficiently equipped to make it succeed. Our translation]. Voltaire’s phrasing provides us with key concepts for interpreting corporate mission statements. Building a strategic plan sets out the journey between where an organization is today and where it wants itself to be in the future. It constitutes the path for an organization to follow towards achievement in that it lays out specific goals to be achieved and sets out the course of action for doing so. The intervening implementation process contains various means to allow and drive actual achievement. One important aspect of these means consists in an organization’s abilities (Dutch capaciteit – cf. quotation above) and volition or willingness1 (Dutch wilskrachtig – cf. quotation above) to make the plan succeed. The concepts of ability and volition are logically related as subject-internal modal properties, and will be subsumed under the heading of competence in the current chapter. 150


Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse 151

The chapter is structured as follows. In the following sections, we first present an outline of our research questions, method and corpus. Secondly, the characteristics of a mission statement are described, and the difference between the notions of mission, vision, strategy, and German Leitbild is addressed. Thirdly, the concept of purpose is introduced and related to other notions that are crucial to its understanding. One of these notions is competence, our focus of attention in the fourth section. In Section 9.4 we propose a categorization of the concept of competence which is relevant to its interpretation in mission statements. The chapter concludes with a discussion of our findings and suggestions for further research.

9.1 Aims, method and corpus 9.1.1 Aims The current chapter aims to show the results of an ongoing research project into the dynamic construal of corporate identity in German and English mission statements. More specifically, it focuses on the correlation of two concepts that are at the core of effective mission statements: purpose and competence. Corporate mission statements provide an excellent genre for investigating the link between purposivity and competence, since they contain a concise statement of an organization’s chief purpose of existence (Ran and Duimering, 2007), which is usually accomplished by means of strategy and competence. The analysis aims to show how the corporate purpose which is expressed in a company’s mission statement is based on qualities of volition and ability, two notions which are described as subject-inherent in studies on modal semantics, as they express properties which are rooted in the subject of a sentence. The data show that the notions of ability and volition are means to achieve a purpose or to solve a problem. In this way, they may serve to reposition an organization from its current position to an intended or desired new position. The corpus data show how the mission statement texts communicate both these means (expressions of volition and ability) and the desired future position of a company. But also other means lie at the basis of successful achievement of the purpose stated in a mission statement. On the same level as expressions of volition and ability these different means (or paths) include reference to social participants. 9.1.2 Method The method which has led us to consider social participants as a separate category of competence-related means for purpose – in addition to the


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logically related concepts of volition and ability in modal semantics – was inspired by the finding that mission statements not only try to express a company’s uniqueness, but heavily rely on repeated, uniform elements in their contents as well (cf. Section 9.2.3). This was the basis for a close reading approach prior to a systematic analysis of the corpus data. Starting from the modal concepts of volition and ability as initial clues for a typology, we found, however, that the expression of volition is occasionally coded not as a subject-inherent feature, but as a social duty, prompted by external social participants (cf. Section 9.4.1). In addition, it transpired from the data that various social participants and the company’s attitude and relation to them play a major role in terms of competence-related means to purpose. This resulted in the threefold basic typology of competence featuring: (a) volition, (b) ability, as well as a third category (c) social participant-related means for corporate purpose. Close context reading of the tokens which were assigned to the basic threefold typology then provided clues for further categorization. In addition to (i) different types of participants for the main category (c), this also led us to recognize (ii) explicit lexical elements and (iii) broader membership of semantic fields containing those lexemes (cf. Section 9.4.3 for a more detailed discussion and illustration of this categorization). The basic threefold typology and the more fine-grained categorization provided us with an overall typology which formed the framework for systematic analysis of the corpus data, following the initial close reading phase. 9.1.3 Corpus Our findings are drawn from an empirical analysis of a contrastive test corpus consisting of 10 English and 10 German corporate mission statements (Leitbilder). Some texts represent a more hybrid format, including similar-type statements (vision, values, Leitbild, etc.). The texts were randomly chosen from corporate websites and vary in length from 143 to 1627 words. The overall difference in length between the English mission statements and the German Leitbilder is at first sight minimal.2 Table 9.1 gives an overview of various sectors which are represented by the mission statements in the corpus: steel, chemicals, petro- and agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, financial services, food, personal care and medical products, foods and beverages, media, air transportation, exhibition services and financial services.


Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse 153 Table 9.1 Corpus description Sector

English MS

Steel

Corus

Chemical, petrochemical, agrochemical, pharmaceutical

Bayer BASF GlaxoSmithKline Monsanto

Foods and beverages

Starbucks Unilever (all kinds of consumer products)

No. words (English corpus)

BBC

No. words (German corpus)

176

HKM

828

1,627 1,540 545 283

Bayer BASF

1,479 1,384

429 351

Personal care and medical products Media

German MS

235

Nestlé

269

Weleda Beiersdorf

898 421

Deutsche Welle

261

Air transportation

Lufthansa

Exhibition services

Messe Frankfurt

143

Deutsche Bank

558

Financial services

Royal Bank of Scotland Barclays

885

1,252

257 6,328 words

7,493 words

9.2 The concept of mission statements In its mission statement, Bayer provides us with the key concepts that are crucial to a proper understanding of mission statements in general (Bayer, 2009): We have set our course for the future. This new mission statement defines our future perspectives, our goals and our values, and guides our strategy at a time of sweeping change. It outlines to our stockholders, our customers, the public and especially our employees how we think and behave as a company. In seeking to arouse everyone’s enthusiasm


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to contribute to Bayer’s success, we aim to impart one thing above all else: the fascination that is Bayer. [Bayer MS, original emphasis] The key components of corporate mission statements, viz. future perspectives, goals, values, strategies, corporate activities, stakeholders, will be explored further in the remainder of this chapter. In the current section, we start out with a definition of mission statements (Section 9.2.1). We then relate the concept of mission to the related, yet distinct concepts of vision and strategy (Section 9.2.2) and outline its discursive function (Section 9.2.3). We conclude the section by describing the corporate mission genre in terms of its characteristics and components (Section 9.2.4). 9.2.1 Definition A corporate mission statement is a formal, written statement that contains an organization’s general task and core purpose of existence, incorporating value-laden categories. It creates identity and a sense of positive direction for the entire organization and offers a stable organizational anchor with which people may identify in times of change. The concept of mission focuses on present reality, while vision describes future perspectives. Our working definition of mission statement (i.e. mission statement in a broad sense) is an encompassing genre of texts which incorporate qualities of both mission (in the narrow sense) and vision statements (cf. Section 9.2.2.1; see also Heimerzheim, 2008, p. 101; Van Beirendonck, 2009, p. 46). In addition these mission statement texts include indications of strategy implementation, strategy being another means to achieve corporate purpose. In other words, the definition which applies to the texts in our corpus is a fairly broad definition, which refers to a ‘blend’ of categories. The German tradition uses the term Leitbild to refer to the mission statement genre as a blend of corporate mission, vision, strategy and values. This broader, somewhat more hybrid definition is a necessary starting point for the type of analysis needed to find answers to the question of how expressions of competence (i.e. volition, ability, etc.) support the realization of a goal in mission statements. A strict definition excluding elements of vision, strategy, etc. would not allow full discursive analysis of the role of ‘competence for purpose’ described above, since the expression of competence overlaps with the related concepts of vision, strategy, etc. Therefore, the genre of mission statement and these related concepts now merit some further attention. A mission statement/Leitbild is assumed to be a powerful means of communication both for members inside and outside the organization,



an instrument that allows an organization to share its culture, viz. its values, goals, strategy, guiding principles and future perspectives (vision) with the public, and above all with its employees. Stakeholders are usually mentioned explicitly and generally include (prospective) employees, shareholders, investors, customers, suppliers and communities as well as the general public. These different stakeholders may have very diverse expectations, which need to be balanced. It follows that a mission statement necessarily remains an ideal, which cannot be realized fully (Cornelissen, 2008, p. 10; Pearce II and David, 1987, p. 109; Van Beirendonck, 2009, pp. 46–7). 9.2.2 Related concepts 9.2.2.1 Mission and vision The concepts of mission and vision are closely related. Cornelissen (2008, p. 10) states that ‘vision is the desired future state of the organization. It is an aspirational view of the general direction that the organization wants to follow, as formulated by senior management, and that requires the energies and commitment of members of the organization.’ A mission differs from a vision in that it provides a path towards accomplishment of the vision in line with the organization’s culture and values (e.g. competence, cf. below). A vision, on the other hand, conveys a sense of change: it outlines the specific desired or intended future perspectives or aspirations in terms of an organization’s fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Contrary to a mission statement, a vision statement does not include the means (or path) that will be used to realize future aspirations and desired end points (Barrett, 2006, p. 115). 9.2.2.2 Mission and strategy The concepts of mission and vision might easily be confused with the concept of strategy. Bart and Baetz (1998, pp. 824–6) point to the fact that different authors take different positions on how strategy should be interpreted. Their comparison of the genres of mission and strategy (strategic intent) shows that mission is part of strategy, but does not fully equal it. Furthermore, mission statements ‘normally remain unchanged, whereas strategies and practices may frequently be altered to adapt to the changing circumstances’ (Business Dictionary, 2009). Strategy appears to have more in common with vision than with mission. However, unlike a vision, strategies explicitly incorporate ‘the


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ways or means in which the corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into effect’ (Cornelissen, 2008, p. 9). In the same vein Barrett (2006, p. 143) defines a strategy as ‘a plan for achieving a specific outcome. It keeps everyone moving in the same direction towards the same goal.’ The relation between mission, vision and strategy can be summarized as follows: a mission specifies the path which an organization follows in order to achieve goals and objectives that are executed by means of strategy and that are aligned with the organization’s future direction or vision. Table 9.2 lists some representative corpus examples of each concept. Table 9.2 Mission, vision and strategy: examples English

German

Mission

Bayer’s products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. (Bayer)

Bayer will mit seinen Produkten und Dienstleistungen den Menschen nützen und zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität beitragen. (Bayer)

Vision

• We are ‘The Chemical Company’ successfully operating in all major markets. • Our customers view BASF as their partner of choice. • Our innovative products, intelligent solutions and services make us the most competent worldwide supplier in the chemical industry. (BASF)

• Wir sind ‘The Chemical Company’ und arbeiten erfolgreich auf allen wichtigen Märkten. • Wir sind der bevorzugte Partner der Kunden. • Wir sind mit unseren innovativen Produkten, intelligenten Problemlösungen und Dienstleistungen weltweit der leistungsfähigste Anbieter in der chemischen Industrie. (BASF)

Strategy

We will concentrate on promising growth areas and markets and expand our activities, particularly in engineering plastics. The major focus of our investment in the coming years will be on the growth markets of Asia, especially China. (Bayer)

Wir wollen uns auf zukunftsträchtige Wachstumsfelder und -märkte konzentrieren und vor allem den Bereich hochwertiger Kunststoffmaterialien weiter ausbauen. Schwerpunkt unserer Investitionen wird in den nächsten Jahren der Wachstumsmarkt Asien – und hier insbesondere China – sein. (Bayer)



9.2.3 Discursive function Ran and Duimering (2007) focus on the cognitive linguistic processes of imaging that are at work in mission statements. They ‘represent prototypical examples of organizational identity claims, constructed explicitly to project a positive organizational image’ (Ran and Duimering, 2007, p. 163). Similarly, Bhatia (2008) points out that corporate genres in general have shifted their attention ‘from “informing” and “reporting” to increasingly “promoting” the companies to their audiences’ (Bhatia, 2008, p. 168). By using (inter)textual, (inter)discursive and socio-pragmatic devices within socially accepted and established corporate genres such as disclosure or mission, organizations may ‘bend’ the norms and procedures that are conventionally associated with them and promote their corporate interests in a subtle way (Bhatia, 2008, pp. 167–8). Focusing on excellent organizational competencies which allow achievement of the organizational purpose is one way of doing this in mission statements (see Sections 9.3 and 9.4 below). Mission statements are designed to create organizational identity and a positive organizational image, and should thus reflect an organization’s unique character and corporate culture. These are its unique purpose, distinctive properties and competitive advantages in terms of core competences that separate it from other organizations of its type (Pearce and David, 1987, p. 109; Bart and Baetz, 1998; Van Beirendonck, 2009, p. 49). The following quotation from the Leitbild of Deutsche Welle is an illustration: Die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des deutschen Auslandsrundfunks haben sich ein Fundament an Werten, Grundsätzen und Visionen gegeben: das Leitbild. (DW MS) The employees of the German foreign broadcasting service have given themselves a basis of values, principles and visions, namely the mission statement. [Our translation] However, actual mission statements appear to resemble one another to a great extent, both with respect to content, dimensions and even linguistic expression, as Förster (2003, p. 27) points out. A similar observation is made by Norlyk (2009, pp. 6–7). The typology of competence which will be proposed further in the current account (cf. Section 9.4) is a case in point: the corpus displays substantial numbers of tokens for each category in the typology of competence which is proposed further in this chapter. These repeated phrases and commonplace patterns


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illustrate a certain lack of uniqueness rather than a distinctive identity. And these repeated patterns in partially interchangeable mission statement texts have also inspired the typology and detailed subcategorization of competence which is proposed in Section 9.4. 9.2.4 Characteristics and components In line with the interchangeable character of many mission statement texts as described in the previous section, some authors (Förster, 2003) do indeed focus on referential similarities in the contents of the mission statement texts (e.g. reference to success and skills).3 But others point to the fact that the genre of mission statements tends to exhibit considerable diversity, both in theory and in practice (Bart and Baetz, 1998, p. 824). Firstly, a variety of different labels is used to refer to the genre. In English the labels mission, vision, values, credo, purpose and principles are used. In German we also find a substantial number of labels including, for example, Leitbild, Leitlinien, Unternehmensphilosophie, Werte und Vision and Strategie. Secondly, mission statements may also vary substantially in length, ranging from a few lines to several pages. Thirdly, there seems to be virtually no consensus with respect to the content or components mission statements should or should not contain. Fourthly, it is rather unclear to which extent actual mission statements may or may not be used by organizations. According to Bart and Baetz (1998, p. 826) frequencies vary between 41 and 90 per cent. And fifthly, different studies draw different conclusions as to the positive impact mission statements may or may not have on organizational performance. In their extensive study, Bart and Baetz (1998) link a number of specific form and content properties of mission statements with various performance indicators (e.g. return on sales, growth, employee behaviour impact). Significant and positive performance associations were found to be related to mission statements which did not articulate any financial goals, established values and beliefs, set out a purpose, and were relatively short. Among the components that are commonly found in mission statements are (Pearce and David, 1987, p. 109; Bart and Baetz, 1998, p. 825): • purpose/raison d’être • values, beliefs and philosophy • strategy, competitive distinctiveness (in terms of principal products and services) and competence • behaviour standards and politics • aims and goals



• • • • •

self-concept and identity public image geographic location technology concern for survival, growth and profitability

Of all these dimensions, purpose appears to be the most common one (Bart and Baetz, 1998, p. 824). A somewhat different characterization is given by Förster (2003, pp. 28–9), who states that Leitbilder do not so much highlight an organization’s self-image as its uniqueness, which should be displayed primarily by competence, purpose, responsibility, strategy, delegation and cooperation as well as motivation: Zu sagen, wer man ist und was man tut, ist richtig und wichtig. Wichtiger aber ist zu sagen, wie man das tut. Was die Einzigartigkeit eines Unternehmens ausmacht und woran dies erkennbar ist. (Förster, 2003, pp. 28–9) It is proper and important to say who one is and what one does. It is more important, however, to say how one does it. What the unique character of a company is and how this can be recognized. [Our translation] Given the prominent role of competence and purposes in mission statements/Leitbilder, we will now have a closer look at (the interplay of ) both categories in the remainder of the chapter. The first category to be examined is that of purpose (Section 9.3). Section 9.4 addresses the category of competence.

9.3 The category of purpose 9.3.1 The management approach to purpose In the previous section we have seen that the concept of purpose is vital in corporate mission statements and is key to organizational identity. We assume, with Bart and Baetz (1998, p. 846), that a purpose is a generally oriented higher-order aim, which may encompass several more concrete short-term goals and objectives (sub-goals). Hence, in the process of developing a mission statement organizations have to reach a consensus not only on the purposes, goals and objectives they pursue but also, and possibly even more importantly, on the means that will be


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used to achieve these purposes, goals and objectives: The path is the goal. As Rokeach (1973) shows, both means and purposes/goals/objectives involve values. Due to their instrumental and active character, means are referred to as instrumental values, whereas purposes are end values having a terminal and completed character. Rokeach (1973, p. 5) states that ‘value is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or endstate of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence’. Values then pertain to the question of the extent to which an organization manages to focus on the values behind its objectives and goals. If organizations determine their goals and objectives on the basis of their culture and shared values and select their employees accordingly, employee commitment towards collective goals and objectives tends to be strong, and the organizations are more successful and are able to control their own future and development (Barrett, 2006; Robbins and Judge, 2008, pp. 62–5). 9.3.2 The linguistic approach to purpose Following Ran and Duimering (2007, pp. 174–5) we argue that identity claims in mission statements either take the form of static existential statements of being (who/where are we now?) or that of dynamic representations of becoming (what/where will we be in the future?). In the latter case the scene is conceptualized as motional. It is structured in terms of Johnson’s (1987) source–path–goal schema. The path structure underlies and facilitates our understanding of many a human experience. The Bayer mission statement in Section 9.2 aptly illustrates the conceptualization of the dynamic process of identity construction in terms of abstract movement on a path. Notice in this respect the use of path-related imagery, which starts from the ‘change-is-a-path’ metaphor: course, perspectives, goals, guides (e.g. We have set our course for the future). Utterances (1) and (2) below contain further examples of this path metaphor, viz. in the expressions den entscheidenden Schritt gehen (lit. ‘going the decisive step’) and the word orientation. The concept of orientation is intrinsically bound to the concept of path. The ultimate end point of a trajectory following a specific orientation is, of course, the goal (cf. German Ziel in Example 1). The concept of a path represents means for purpose, as does the category of competence, which will be discussed in terms of a typology for analytical purposes in Section 9.4 below. Both the more general concept of path, and the proposed typology of competence markers based on the empirical findings of our data, underlie our discussion of the discursive construal of purpose in the German and English corporate mission statements of our corpus.



(1) Partnerschaften sind unser Ziel. Wir gehen den entscheidenden Schritt, um aus Kundenbeziehungen gleichberechtigte, dauerhafte Partnerschaften zu machen. (DB MS) [Partnerships are our purpose. We go the decisive step to transform customer relations into equal, sustainable partnerships; our translation] (2) The Mission Statement provides orientation for staff, users and friends of Deutsche Welle. (DW MS) Dynamic representations of becoming (cf. above Ran and Duimering, 2007, pp. 174–5) can be seen as processes of repositioning the organization in terms of future perspectives, goals and values. This involves a relation of abstract movement between one identity position (the source) to another (the goal) (cf. Ran and Duimering, 2007, p. 174) along a path of abstract motion through time (cf. Figure 9.1). The source is the organization’s past or current identity position. Utterance (3) below provides an example, which contains expressions of these concepts: (3) The Consumer Care and Self-Testing divisions each hold leading positions in their respective consumer health markets with such famous brands as Aspirin, Alka-Seltzer, Aleve, Bepanthen, Rennie and Ascensia. In the future we will focus more strongly on our skills and experience in these near-patient markets. We plan to systematically exploit opportunities for both internal and external growth. Our goal is for Bayer HealthCare to become the world’s leading consumer health company. (Bayer MS) Bayer’s dynamic construal of purpose in Example (3) starts from the company’s present leading positions in consumer health markets with […] famous brands (the source) to reposition themselves in the future to their goal of becom[ing] the world’s leading consumer health company. This involves profiling an intended event (focus more strongly on our skills and experience and exploit[ing] opportunities for both internal and external growth, respectively) caused by a volitional act (will, plan) in order to achieve an intended result (goal) (cf. Talmy 2000, p. 527). This volitional act of envisaging a

Source

Path

Figure 9.1 Source–path–goal schema


Goal

162


purpose or goal is, in more general terms, the means to purpose (or instrumental value in Rokeach’s words, see Section 9.3.1). In the mission genre, the intended event (i.e. the means or path) causing an intended or desired result (i.e. the purpose) typically involves discursive reference to an organization’s core activities and core competencies (e.g. skills and experience (Example 3) or personal and professional and intercultural competence, creativity and potential (Example 4)), which create an advantage in global competition (Example 4). These discursive references to an organization’s core activities and core competencies form the basis of the typology and subcategorizations which will be proposed and discussed in Section 9.4, the empirical part of this chapter. (4) Personal and Professional Competence. We form the best team in industry by fostering the diversity of personal and professional competencies Group-wide. Intercultural competence is our advantage in global competition. We encourage our employees to make use of their creativity and their potential for common success. (BASF MS) One final point should be made here. Competence as a value dimension in the sense of Rokeach (1973) connects to both means and ends in that it can be categorized in either way. Finding the right competence is an ongoing process in that one level of achievement serves as an input for the next level. In this respect, competence is not only a means to a purpose but it can be seen as a (sub-)goal, which is in turn achievable by other means or instrumental values. Thus, when Deutsche Bank in Example (1) suggests that partnerships represent its purpose, the writer relies on the reader’s pragmatic interpretation that this is partly an intermediate purpose, which will also serve to achieve the higher corporate purposes of financial achievement. On the other hand, in Deutsche Bank’s statement that partnerships represent the bank’s purpose, using the first person possessive determiner ‘our’ is a strategic formula to favour the stakeholders/addressees’ own point of view, and hence their positive disposition towards Deutsche Bank.

9.4 The category of competence: proposal for a typology and corpus findings The concept of competence, an instrumental value (cf. Section 9.3), includes at least the notions of volition and ability. The current section will start out with a closer look at these conceptual categories in a linguistic,



modal semantic, framework. This will be followed by a categorization of types of competence that are exploited in corporate mission statements, which in turn will be illustrated with our corpus findings, including indicative frequencies for occurrences in each category. 9.4.1 Volition and ability: conceptually related as subject-inherent modal properties The concepts of volition and ability are usually considered together in (mainly English) studies of modal auxiliaries and modal meanings. Both notions represent qualities that are seen to be fully inherent in the subject of a sentence and are hence ‘subject-oriented’ (Palmer, 1974). This subject orientation is easily illustrated in an example like He can swim, which expresses the subject’s skill, unrelated to any other participants in the discourse scene. However, while the semantics of volition may be similarly limited (e.g. He wants to swim), volition may be anchored in different participants in discourse, so that it acquires an interpersonal function. This point may be illustrated by some of our corpus findings. Examples (5) and (6) represent the companies’ volition or willingness not in terms of an inherent property, but in terms of an external need which they are willing to fulfil. (5) We believe our technical and commercial expertise entails a duty to work for the good of all Humankind. (Bayer MS) (6) Wir fühlen uns verpflichtet, Wachstumschancen aktiv zu nutzen und Märkte maßgeblich mitzugestalten. (DB MS) [We feel obliged to actively seize growth opportunities and to take a leading role in shaping markets; our translation] Such transgression from volition to subject-external obligation in fact only represents a minor part of our findings. It seems to be restricted to the German texts and might point in the direction of a more rigid German business culture, assuming that respecting an external ‘deontic source’ is rated highly as a basic cultural value (cf. Lyons, 1977, p. 843: ‘deontic source’: a causal source of authority). More importantly, however, the joint consideration of volition and ability yields the concept of readiness (Halliday, 1994, pp. 281 and 359; cf. also Halliday, 1970 and Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004) as an umbrella term to refer to both volition and ability. This readiness or competence on the part of the subject to tackle the task at hand may take various forms. In mission statements competence is crucially linked on two levels. First, it is logically connected to the purpose or goal and


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achievement of the mission itself. In addition, competence is an instrument among various other means towards achievement, as stated above. On the same level of competence as a means towards achievement we may add strategy and practice. A subcategorization of competence as a means moreover requires consideration of the participants, i.e. the various stakeholders of the corporation and addressees of the mission statement. Taking these elements into consideration, we propose a threefold typology of competence for achievement in corporate mission statements. As Table 9.3 shows, the typology takes the concepts of volition and ability as two respective main categories. A third main category is defined in terms of various types of social competence. Volition as competence may reflect various degrees. The categories of ability and social competence respectively may further be subdivided following various criteria which have revealed themselves as repeated markers in a close reading of the corpus material. Each of these categories and their criteria will be clarified, discussed and illustrated in Section 9.4.2. First, however, Table 9.4 shows the frequencies of occurrences for the three main categories in the corpus. Detailed findings for the subcategories are presented in Tables 9.5 and 9.6 later. In spite of the limited sample, Table 9.4 shows a few marked trends. First, the expression of volition is somewhat more prominent in the German corpus than in the English corpus of mission statements, whereas the opposite holds for indications of ability. More clearly still, the English mission statements more frequently express participantbased or social competence. Overall, finally, there appears to be a greater representation of ‘competence’ as it is defined in this study in the English corpus. However, the size of the corpus makes it rather premature to formulate explanations to account for these differences. Followup research should provide more clarity in this respect. In the next section we will first discuss the category of volition, which is primarily considered in terms of degree. 9.4.2 Volition In order for a plan to reach achievement, willingness or volition is a first prerequisite. This may be illustrated by the English saying where there’s a will there’s a way and its equivalents in other languages. Various degrees of volition are expressed in the mission statement corpus, going from willingness to determination and even passion, with additional semantic dimensions. Examples (7)–(11) illustrate these. As will be seen, the expressions of volition also intersect with other expressions of competence listed in Table 9.3.


Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse 165 Table 9.3 Proposal for categories of competence in corporate mission statements Volition

Ability

Social: participant related

Degree

Skills

Customer and partner relations

Volitional stimulus

Talents

Relations among employees

Verbal aspect

Creativity

Responsibility

Semantic composition [+emo]

R&D/innovation

Loyalty

Knowledge

Diversity

Age–experience– tradition (temporal) Excellence Geographical reach Structural (subsidiaries/corporate partners)

Table 9.4 Frequencies for expressions of competence in terms of volition, ability and participants in two corpora of English and German corporate mission statements Subcategory of competence

Absolute frequency / F-1,000* English corpus

Absolute frequency / F-1,000 German corpus

Volition Ability Social: participants Sum No. words full corpus

43/6.8 124/19.6 136/21.5 303/47.9 6,328 words

76/10.1 108/14.4 87/11.6 271/36.2 7,493 words

* F-1,000: frequency per 1,000 words.

(7) a. […] our determination to come up with innovations that benefit humankind (Bayer MS) b.[…] uns[er] Will[e], als Erfinder-Unternehmen die Zukunft zu gestalten und innovativ zum Wohle der Menschen tätig zu sein. (Bayer MS) (8) a. We welcome change as an opportunity. (BASF MS) b. Eigeninitiative und Eigenverantwortung (Weleda MS)


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(9)

a. We respect and value the ethnic and cultural diversity of all the people who work for Bayer, mindful that our success is founded on their skills and their commitment. (Bayer MS) b. Wir respektieren und schätzen die nationale und kulturelle Vielfalt der Menschen in unserem Unternehmen und wissen, dass die Kompetenz und das Engagement unserer Mitarbeiter die Grundlage für unseren Erfolg sind. (Bayer MS) (10) a. A will to succeed (Bayer MS) b. Wille zum Erfolg (Bayer MS) (11) a. A Passion to Perform (Deutsche Bank MS) b. Leistung aus Leidenschaft (Deutsche Bank MS) Whereas the volition to perform originates fully in the subjects in Examples (7a, b: determination – Wille) and (10a, b: will, Wille), the verb to welcome in (8a: We welcome change as an opportunity) relates to a more dynamic two-sided process since it expresses the subjects‘ attitude and reaction vis-à-vis external developments, viz. change. Thus, in addition to the expression of various degrees of volition, a distinction can be made within the category of volition on the basis of the number of (explicit or implicit) participants involved in the volitional process. In other words, the question arises whether the expression of volition in the mission statements originates fully within the subjects, i.e. the companies‘ inherent volition, or whether it is induced by external parties or circumstances (e.g. ongoing changes). This distinction can be linked back to what Haegeman (1983) called the ‘volitional stimulus’. On the basis of this concept she distinguishes ‘unilateral volition’ from ‘bilateral volition’, which suggests that the basic meaning remains something which is internal to the subject at a particular stage, even if there is an external initial stimulus. Examples (5) and (6), however, show a fully or predominantly external point of view: … a duty to work for the good of all; Wir fühlen uns verpflichtet, Wachstumschancen aktiv zu nutzen und … The modal expression be willing to is an example of bilateral volition, where the stimulus is typically someone’s request. The verb to welcome in Example (8a) may be similarly described. The meaning of the modal auxiliary will, on the other hand, is determined by context (cf. Haegeman, 1983, pp. 105–7). In some cases, the degree of volition may be attributed to the ‘volitional stimulus’. It seems plausible that someone’s volition is typically stronger when it originates entirely within the subject than when the subject’s volition is a reaction to an external appeal.



Contrary to the welcoming attitude in (8a), the first part (Eigen-) of the compound noun Eigeninitiative in (8b) underlines the company’s own inherent force as the volitional stimulus. In the case of Examples (9a) and (9b) the employees’ commitment appears to represent an ongoing volitional attitude which is internal to the employees, but which is at the same time fostered by their belief in the company, and this is necessarily fostered in turn by the advantages which these employees derive from their company, such as financial or motivational and personal rewards. Thus commitment appears to be bilateral as well in this way. In addition, commitment also differs from other expressions of volition, in that it is an ongoing state or attitude. The notion of verbal aspect comes into a description of expressions of volition for mission statements in this respect. Similarly, passion (Examples 11a and 11b) denotes an ongoing attitude to a certain extent, especially in the professional context of mission statements and financial or product-related performance. In terms of strength or degree passion obviously occupies a high position. It is remarkable that such lexemes as passion are included regularly in mission statement texts, despite a possible hypothesis that emotionally charged lexis does not belong to professional or business genres. When we consider the expressions of volition in the corpus of mission statements from the point of view of semantic composition, the added element which might be coded as [+emo] is thus noteworthy. However, in the case of Examples (11a) and (11b) (A Passion to Perform; Leistung aus Leidenschaft) we must note that these are not only part of the mission texts, but also function as the company’s mission slogans, i.e. for isolated use, without broader textual framework. Therefore the choice of these emotionally laden lexemes may also be partly due to euphonic considerations (alliteration in both languages). To sum up, the corpus data provide a preliminary indication that the following elements are noteworthy with respect to the expression of volition as competence in mission statement texts: degree (or strength), volitional stimulus, verbal aspect and semantic composition, viz. including an emotional element. Various of these aspects may be interrelated in some expressions, and are worthy of further attention for follow-up research. 9.4.3 Social participant-related category With relation to corporate stakeholders, the mission statements present various types of inherent qualities as underlying forces for success. These can be seen as different types of social competence, each of which will briefly be discussed below. Table 9.5 provides an overview of the findings for the participant-related expressions of competence in the English


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and German corpora we studied. As mentioned earlier, participantrelated competence is clearly better represented in the English corpus. This discrepancy appears to be due to a variety of aspects related to the participants in corporate activity, as Table 9.5 shows. Among these, particularly employee relations as well as the notions of responsibility and loyalty are more prominent in the English corpus. As we said earlier, however, the size of the corpus does not allow us to draw conclusions about cultural differences. Our decision to incorporate social participant-related competence as a third category, in addition to the interrelated and subject-inherent modal categories of volition and ability (cf. Section 9.4.1) is inspired by two points. First, as is apparent from Examples (5) and (6), volitional competence is in some cases represented as an external duty, with a deontic basis. In Example (5) the available ‘material’ (i.e. ‘technical’ and ‘commercial’ in this case) expertise or competence is not limited to the material aspects or results, but the text reaches further by positing that this competence entails a duty to help humankind in general. Similarly, volition in Example (6) is represented as a duty (Wir fühlen uns verpflichtet – We feel obliged …). This externally inspired type of volitional competence pointed to the relevance of social participants in our considerations for a typology of competence. On the one hand, these social participants are mentioned explicitly in a number of cases. On the other, various other aspects of social behaviour became apparent in the initial stages of ‘close reading’ prior to our typology-based systematic analysis. Again, these social elements are expressed quite literally in a number of utterances in the corpus. In this case, the subcategory label reflects the actual lexemes that have been found (e.g. the adjective ‘responsible’ for the subclass ‘social: responsibility’). In the other cases the expressions which are subsumed under a specific subcategory label belong to the same semantic field as the category label. Thus three criteria were especially important in assigning the expressions to a specific subcategory of our typology of competence in mission statements. These are (i) the participants, (ii) lexemes and (iii) semantic fields. The expressions assigned to the different semantic fields include various word classes. For instance, apart from the literal expression of responsibility in Example (12a), viz. German Verantwortung, the verb berücksichtigen in (12c) (English taking into account) belongs to the same field of responsible behaviour. These three criteria will be discussed further with respect to the more fine-grained subclasses of our threefold typology in the following subsections.


Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse 169 Table 9.5 Frequencies for subtypes of participant-related competence in two corpora of English and German corporate mission statements Social participantrelated subcategory

Absolute frequency / F-1000 English corpus

Absolute frequency / F-1000 German corpus

Customer and partner relations Relations among employees Responsibility Loyalty Diversity Sum No. words full corpus

30/4.7

30/4.0

27/4.3

6/0.8

41/6.5 27/4.3 11/1.7 136/21.5 6,328 words

34/4.5 10/1.3 7 /0.9 87/11.6 7,493 words

9.4.3.1 Social competence: responsibility The lexeme ‘responsible’ occurs a few times in the corpus, as might be expected. Three examples of rather straightforward responsibility are given in Example (12). In addition, less direct and more elaborate expressions of the concept have been found as well, as in Example (13), which relate to ‘the neighbourhood’ and ‘the environment’, respectively, considered part of the companies’ social responsibility. (12) a. Wir tragen gesellschaftliche Verantwortung. (Nestlé MS) b. Zudem engagieren wir uns aktiv in sozialen Projekten. (Lufthansa MS) c. Sie [= Die Weleda] bietet ihre Leistungen zu Preisbedingungen an, welche die berechtigten Interessen der Abnehmer sowie der Zulieferer und der Kapitalgeber berücksichtigen. (Weleda MS) (13) a. our potential for good – We can be a force for positive action. (Starbucks MS) b. Umweltschutz und nachhaltige Entwicklung sind vorrangige Ziele unserer Unternehmenspolitik. (Lufthansa MS) Next to the lexeme Verantwortung (responsibility) in (12a) and the verb berücksichtigen (taking into account) in (12c), which belongs to the same semantic field of responsibility, the colligation of [sich engagieren + soziale Projekte] in (12b) may be subsumed under the semantic field of responsibility. Similarly in Example (13a) the lexemes potential and force on the one hand, combined with good/positive action on the other, express the intention to assume responsibility, and may therefore


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in a broader sense be subsumed under the same semantic field. And finally, -schutz (English care), the second part of the noun Umweltschutz (environmental care) in Example (13b), provides another expression of taking responsibility, i.e as caring. 9.4.3.2 Social competence: diversity Diversity in terms of cultural, ethnic and national differences is frequently presented as an asset to corporate success: (14) We foster diversity programs and seek employees from all cultures and nationalities. (BASF MS) (15) Vielfalt ist unsere Stärke. (DB MS) Apart from a literal reference to the lexeme diversity in Example (14), the equivalent German term Vielfalt is rendered as an inherent strong quality or competence (Stärke, English strength) in Example (15). 9.4.3.3 Social competence: loyalty Working with various participants (customers, partners, society, etc.) entails values of loyalty. These are most frequently translated in terms of ‘integrity’, but also as ‘openness’ or ‘transparency’ and ‘honesty’. (16) Trusted – acting with the highest integrity to retain the trust of customers, external stakeholders and colleagues. (Barclays MS) (17) Unser Handeln ist von Verlässlichkeit, Fairness und Ehrlichkeit geprägt. (DB MS) The lexeme integrity may be analysed as the expression of an inherent quality in a unilateral way (cf. unilateral versus bilateral volition above), i.e. originating in one party as an inherent feature of that party (person or organization). However, in practice this quality is put to the test in interaction with other parties, hence basically social. The lexeme trust in the same sentence from the corpus, belongs even more clearly to the realm of social interactions, as it inherently presupposes at least two parties in the interaction. The corpus data which have been assigned to this subcategory all express fairness in interaction. This implies ‘openness’ or ‘transparency’. Thus two sides are implied in this inherent mental and behavioural attitude: expressions of bonds tying the parties to each other (e.g. trust) on the one hand, and indications of the way in which these bonds are realized, viz. ‘open’ and ‘transparent’ or ‘honest’ on the other (German Ehrlichkeit in Example 17 and ‘fair’ (cf. Fairness in German Example 17).



9.4.3.4 Social competence: direct participants Good customer relations (Example 18), public relations (Example 19) as well as relations on the workfloor (Example 20) all contribute to success, according to the statements in our corpus. This often leads to business clichés, such as Great things happen when we work together (Example 20; cf. Förster 2003, p. 27). (18) a. MoneySense advisers are in 1,000 of our branches, helping people to manage their money better. (Royal Bank of Scotland MS) b. Wir stellen unsere Kunden in den Mittelpunkt unseres Handelns und Wirkens. (HKM MS) (19) Weleda ist offen für einen konstruktiven Dialog mit verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen. (Weleda MS) (20) Great things happen when we work together. (BBC MS) Reference to the ’direct participants’ in these cases is established through expressions belonging to the fields of (i) ‘customers/clients’, (ii) ‘public’ and (iii) ‘corporate personnel’. In the examples above these are respectively for (i) people (Example 18a) and Kunden (18b, English customers), for (ii) verschiedene gesellschaftliche Gruppen (Example 19, English various groups in society), and for (iii) advisers (18a). In addition, first person plural personal and possessive pronouns are prominent as references to category (iii) (corporate personnel), e.g. (Example 20) Great things happen when we work together, or (Example 18b) Wir stellen unsere Kunden in den Mittelpunkt unseres Handelns und Wirkens [our emphasis]. 9.4.4

Ability

In general, the indication of ability as a basis for competence is better represented in the English corpus. This cannot be attributed to a specific type of ability, but appears to be the result of various aspects of ability, as Table 9.6 shows. 9.4.4.1 Ability: excellence – top ranking The corporation’s inherent competence is frequently presented in terms of excellence. This type of statement in terms of degree is either selfreported (Example 21) or attributed to external evidence (Example 22). The latter may either be concrete (a ranking attributed to a source) or remain entirely vague and unattributed. The obvious expression of excellence is the superlative adjective best, of course (cf. Example 21a) which relates the company’s competence directly to the best in world: In our competence we measure ourselves with


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Table 9.6 Frequencies for subtypes of competence as ability in two corpora of English and German corporate mission statements Ability

Absolute frequency / F-1,000 English corpus

Absolute frequency / F-1,000 German corpus

Skills Talents Creativity R&D/innovation Knowledge Age–experience– tradition (temporal) Excellence Geographical reach Structural (subsidiaries/corporate partners) Sum No. words full corpus

17/2.7 5/0.8 7/1.1 26/4.1 18/2.8 4/0.6

23/3.1 1/0.1 4/0.5 24/3.2 8/1.1 4/0.5

26/4.1 11/1.7 10/1.6

23/3.1 16/2.1 5/0.7

124/19.6 6,328 words

108/14.4 7,493 words

the best in the world [our translation]. With a similar superlative example (22b) describes the company’s position as the tenth-largest in the US. But excellence is also expressed by other linguistic means than simply the best or the largest: next to geographic metaphorical reference to the top (Examples 22a, 22b, 23 and 21b, which contains the German Spitzen-), the mission statements also regularly point out that their companies’ qualities should be considered in relation to other important players in the field. Example (22a), for instance, compares the bank NatWest to other main high street banks. In Example (21c) the company is situated in all major markets [our translation: … auf allen wichtigen Märkten]. Among these competitors NatWest (22a) obtained second place, i.e. ranking as degree, for customer satisfaction. Note also the preposition among to express the relation with ‘worthy’ competitors. Finally, in Example (21c) use is made of a second linguistic strategy to express excellence. This is the strategic use of the definite article the in Wir sind ‘The chemical company’. The definite article substitutes a superlative marker, positioning all other players in the field at a commanding distance ranked considerably below their own company. Note also the possibly deliberate ambiguity in Example (23) between the type of (top) enterprise that the company has set out to create on



the one hand and the impression of present achievement of such a company by means of the form ‘renowned’ on the other. (21) a. In unserer Kompetenz messen wir uns mit den Besten der Welt. (HKM MS) b. Spitzenleistungen durch Spitzenmitarbeiter. (Nestlé MS) c. Wir sind ‘The Chemical Company’ und arbeiten erfolgreich auf allen wichtigen Märkten. (BASF MS) (22) a. RBS retained a top position in 2008 and NatWest was again joint second for customer satisfaction amongst main high street banks. (RBS MS) b. Citizens was ranked the tenth-largest commercial banking organisation in the US based on deposits as at 30 September 2008 and is a top tier bank in its New England and Mid Atlantic regional markets. (Royal Bank of Scotland MS) c. IFR ernannte uns zwei Mal in nur drei Jahren zur Bank of the Year. (DB MS) (23) We have set out to create an enterprise that is keenly focused on its customers, its strengths, its potential and the markets of the future: a top international company renowned for product quality, employee skills, economic performance and innovative strength, and committed to increasing corporate value and achieving sustained growth. (Bayer MS) 9.4.4.2 Ability: knowledge Competence is in the mission statements frequently presented in terms of the mental category of knowledge or understanding. These intellectual qualities may be described as inherent and mainly stative features in a subject (cf. description of ability in Section 9.4.1 above). However, they can also be more dynamic. In this case these intellectual qualities may either be developed and enhanced by and within the subjects themselves, or they may involve two parties, i.e. in terms of knowledge sharing (cf. sharing information in Example 24a and Wir geben unser Know-how an [..] weiter (25a); English: We pass on our know-how to … [our translation]). In the former case, when intellectual qualities are developed by and within a subject, the label ‘acquired’ properties may appear to be better suited than the more stative notion of subject-inherent properties (cf. Section 9.4.1 Volition and ability: conceptually related as subject-inherent modal properties). Especially the expression understanding (cf. Example 24a) may probably be viewed as the result of a


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dynamic process, rather than as a pre-existing type of intellectual competence. The phrases in Examples (24b) (Our employees throughout the world, with their abundant knowledge …) and (25b) (the extensive knowledge of our employees [our translation]), on the other hand, boast a more stative quality. (24) a. Understanding of environmental issues and sharing information with our partners. (Starbucks MS) b. Our employees throughout the world, with their abundant knowledge and their innovative capabilities. (Bayer MS) (25) a. Wir geben unser Know-how an Partner weltweit weiter. (DW MS) b. das umfassende Wissen unserer Mitarbeiter. (DB MS) With respect to the expression of competence in know-how, we should note that the second adverbial part of the compound noun (-how) makes this an expression of acquired skill (cf. 9.4.4.3) as much as (or even more perhaps than) an expression of intellectual capacities. 9.4.4.3 Ability: skills – talents – creativity Skills are by definition the result of a dynamic process (cf. the collocation acquiring skills). Direct reference to skills (e.g. Example 26) occurs frequently in the corpus. The related notions of talent (27) and creativity (28) have been found to a somewhat lesser extent. Talent represents a mainly inherent quality, which provides the basis for further development (cf. Example 27: developing talented colleagues to reach their full potential). Note the perfective aspect in the past participle premodifier talented, which attests to the subject-inherent pre-existing character of talent. Creativity, on the other hand, may probably be encoded and interpreted both as an inherent feature in a person and as something to be developed. In Example (28) it is used as a pre-existing inherent quality which is one of the ingredients for the working process (English: Each employee contributes his entire personal creativity to this process … [our translation]). (26) By applying our skills in these areas we aim to […]. (Bayer MS) (27) Best people – developing talented colleagues to reach their full potential. (Barclays MS) (28) Jeder Mitarbeiter bringt seine ganz persönliche Kreativität in diesen Prozess ein […]. (Messe Frankfurt MS)



9.4.4.4 Ability: age–experience–tradition (temporal) In some cases companies refer to experience and long-standing tradition as proof of competence (cf. also Section 9.3.2 The linguistic approach to purpose). Obviously, this subcategory in the typology of competence represents acquired rather than pre-existing competence. Yet the long-standing character of this type of experience seems to underline the resultative aspect rather than the prior ongoing process of acquiring knowledge, skills, etc. The main verb have in we have over 280 years of [..] experience in Example (29) expresses this resultative (possessive) aspect. Note also the use of meaning, to equate the historical background (we were founded in 1727) to ownership of financial experience. The temporal element is presented either by means of a historical starting point, or in terms of duration (e.g. 29b, over decades). In the former case the historical starting point may either be explicit (e.g. the year 1727) or implicit (e.g. 30, pioneer). (29) a. We were founded in 1727 – meaning we have over 280 years of financial services experience. (Royal Bank of Scotland MS) b. Here we draw on the expertise that our scientists have acquired over decades of interdisciplinary research. (Bayer MS). (30) Pionier der Lebensmittelbranche. (Nestlé MS) 9.4.4.5 Ability: structural (subsidiaries/corporate partners) Structural properties of large corporations are equally adduced as strengths which enhance competence. This may include interdisciplinary benefits (cf. Example 29b above: decades of interdisciplinary research, and Example 31a). (31) a. We believe synergistic potential exists in the use of our technologies by more than one of our subgroups. (Bayer MS) b. Der Verbund ist eine der Stärken der BASF. (BASF MS) This subcategory in our typology of competence is related to the main category of social participant-related competence (Section 9.4.3), but differs in its orientation in that the former contains subcategories which have a mainly external orientation, and the current category a primarily internal orientation, which is geared towards improving the quality of the company’s core activity or product. Nevertheless, some areas of overlap remain (e.g. in certain contexts diversity might also be interpreted as a near-structural ability which enhances the company’s core activity, similar to, for instance, interdisciplinary research).


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9.4.4.6 Ability: R&D/innovation Structural collaboration is often also presented in terms of the added competence of innovation (Example 33). Innovation requires knowledge and skill, but is also rooted in a company’s willingness and volition, as is apparent from various examples in the corpus (e.g. 32a, b). Thus innovation depends on a particular mental state (cf. Examples 34 and 8). (32) a. This mission statement underscores (presupposition) our willingness as an inventor company. (Bayer MS) b. Das Leitbild unterstreicht unseren Willen, als ErfinderUnternehmen die Zukunft zu gestalten und innovativ zum Wohle der Menschen tätig zu sein. (Bayer MS) (33) a. Here, new compounds with creative functional properties and novel biotechnologically produced raw materials provide access to numerous fields of innovation. (Bayer MS) b. Wir suchen Wettbewerbsvorsprünge durch Innovationen. (Lufthansa MS) (34) Bayer is an inventor company infused with a pioneering spirit. (Bayer MS) 9.4.4.7 Ability: geographical reach Finally, an elaborate geographical network is also presented as an inherent quality which enables the realization of the goal in a more satisfactory way. Geographical reach is similar to aspects of structural competence. But, again, whereas structural competence has a mainly internal orientation within the company, geographical reach is by definition externally oriented, towards the customers, the public, etc.4 Examples (35a) and (35b) provide some examples: (35) a. We have more locally based business banking Relationship Managers than any other bank in the UK. RBS has extensive geographical reach across Britain through our network of 3800 relationship managers based at our 2278 branches and 118 business centres. (RBS MS) b. ein weltweit operierendes Luftverkehrsunternehmen. (Lufthansa MS) In summary, with two distinguishing criteria for the various subclasses of the general category of ability, two relevant distinctions became apparent on the basis of the data. These are ‘inherent’ versus ‘acquired’ ability on the one hand, and an ‘internal’ versus ‘external’ orientation on the other.5



9.4.5 Type and degree of competence in English and German mission statements: conclusions In the current study of English and German mission statements, the English texts show a more frequent representation of the overall concept of competence for corporate achievement as defined in our threefold typology. This difference is mainly due to the category of participantbased, social aspects of competence. Particularly the relations among employees, as well as the notions of responsibility and loyalty, are more prominent in the English corpus. The two other main categories of competence in our typology show an inverse relationship in terms of frequencies for the respective language corpora, with a higher degree of volition in the German corpus, and more prominent presence of ability markers in the English corpus. As mentioned earlier, due to the limited size of the corpus for this start-up analysis, it is premature to present explanations for the different frequencies in the German and English subcorpora. Follow-up research should allow further conclusions.

9.5 Conclusions and further research The current chapter set out to address the various stages of the path leading to achievement of purpose in corporate mission statements. We have focused on the means of achievement, more specifically the required competence for achievement. On this micro-level various aspects have led to a proposal for a typology of competence for achievement. This proposal was inspired by Förster’s (2003) finding that mission statements exhibit great similarities of content dimensions and even linguistic expression, rather than indications of distinctiveness and uniqueness. Our categorization starts from a twofold representation in terms of readiness as both ability and volition, two subject-inherent properties. The proposed typology of competence further also involves the role of different participants, among various other interrelated aspects. These various expressions of competence or volition and ability may be seen as a means to buttress a company’s plans. With the study for this chapter we also hope to have illustrated the relevant connection between three fields with respect to genre analysis. These are (i) linguistic semantics, more specifically the field of modality, (ii) a broader discourse analytical approach and (iii) management studies. The semantic core of the concepts of volition and ability does not merely belong to the closed realm of armchair academic study. Since these logically related concepts belong to natural language, they also belong to discourse and discourse studies. We hope that the discussion


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of the data has shown how a linguistic, semantic base can be meaningfully complemented by a broader discourse-analytical approach which includes various different considerations. In its turn the ensuing typology of competence which we propose may perhaps be a future tool for the field of management communication studies. Thus, for instance, a concrete set of guidelines (or even just descriptive features) might be derived from the typology. These guidelines may then prompt corporate communication practitioners to consider contents and strategies for writing mission statement texts more carefully. More specifically, it might offer guidance to writers of mission statement texts when it comes to conveying unique qualities (cf. USPs), because implicit or unobtrusive genre conventions and habit may perhaps provide a pitfall for mainstream mission statements, which may in turn fail to convince certain stakeholders. In addition to the concept of competence, other means lead the path from a statement of purpose to its achievement. More specifically, further analysis may focus on the interrelation of ‘competence for purpose’ and ‘strategy’ or ‘practice’ as means of purpose. Other prospects for follow-up analysis may include intercultural differences of participant awareness, for instance in the expression of external need (and hence duty) rather than subject-internal properties. On a more basic level the question concerning the interpretation and working definition of the corporate genre under investigation remains. As has been suggested above, various differences concerning content and length of German versus English mission statements, vision statements and Leitbilder need to be addressed.

Notes 1. ‘Volition’ is the umbrella term which refers to the overall category. The term ‘willingness’ may be interpreted as a subcategory of ‘volition’, not only in terms of strength or degree, but also in terms of the number of participants which are involved directly. ‘Willingness’ refers to a subject’s mental response to perform actions which are prompted by external parties. The lower degree of strength is logically related to the external prompting (I am willing to do X (viz. what you require) versus I want to do X, I am determined to do X). Strength of volition in the latter two phrases is related to the fact that the mental state of volition originates within the subject. (Cf. also the distinction unilateral versus bilateral volition in Haegeman, 1983.) 2. This could, however, be attributed to the fact that we incorporated two English versions of German Leitbilder. Further investigation and a larger corpus than the current sample for this start-up project are required to prove


Birgitta Meex and Heidi Verplaetse 179 or disprove the hypothesis that German Leitbilder are likely to contain more words than English mission statements. 3. Cf. also Stallworth Williams (2008) with respect to similar components in mission statement contents and degrees of (financial) success. 4. Van Riel (2003, pp. 56–7) uses the label ‘constitutional’ with reference to the categories which are described in terms of ‘structural’ and ‘geographical’ ability respectively in the current chapter. 5. Note that ‘orientation’ (internal or external) has a distinct interpretation from ‘subject-inherent’ versus ‘external’ features. An inherent feature may be oriented either inwards (e.g. to the internal workings of a corporation) or outwards, viz. to society, customers, etc.


10 ‘Adam Smith for Diocesan Missioner’: Legitimation in Religious Discourse Gerlinde Mautner

10.1 Introduction The quotation in the title is the tongue-in-cheek conclusion reached by the Anglican team rector of the parish church in Putney, London, in an article in the Church Times (Fraser, 2007). The church café in his parish, he argues, is as successful as it is – in both social and commercial terms – precisely because it is ‘an unashamedly commercial enterprise’. As such, it apparently proves Adam Smith’s ideas about the beneficial effects of self-interest. At first glance, an article in a church newspaper may seem an unlikely site for an encounter with an eighteenth-century economist who is widely considered a champion of free-market philosophies. However, in the wider context of current socio-economic developments, such apparent incongruence actually turns out to be a perfect fit. After all, the market has mutated from an economic principle of exchange to an all-pervasive organizing principle of society as a whole. The result, as Graham notes (2002, p. 246), has been ‘the infusion of money-logic throughout the totality of human existence’. In such a ‘market society’ (Slater and Tonkiss, 2001; Mautner, 2010), voices that would previously have been considered authorities only on the economy are now regarded as offering expertise that ranges far wider. As van Leeuwen (2007, p. 92) points out, ‘legitimation is always the legitimation of the practices of specific institutional orders’. And indeed, voices such as Adam Smith’s can be used to legitimate practices outside the commercial arena precisely because ‘the market’ has become a new ‘grand narrative’ (Lyotard, 1984) which is sustained by institutional backing – from government, corporations and academia, to name just a few of the social actors involved. 180


Gerlinde Mautner 181

Based on Mautner (2010), the present chapter focuses on how (Christian) churches draw on the discursive repertoire of the market society in order to defend their raison d’être, demonstrate competence and professionalism, and provide legitimation for their activities. The theoretical framework used is an amalgam of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and critical management studies (CMS), whose shared ancestry in critical theory makes them well suited to explore the dialectics between language and society and, specifically, to challenge ‘taken-for-granteds’ – all those ways of reading the world, that is, which are presented as natural and inevitable when in fact they are nothing but social constructs. The second section of the chapter puts marketization in a wider context, showing how the market society has enveloped a number of lifeworlds. The third tackles the theoretical underpinnings provided by CDA and CMS, and discusses methodological issues connected with them. The specific background against which churches are edging closer to the market is examined in the fourth section, to be followed by a data panorama with examples in the fifth, and concluding comments in the sixth.

10.2 The market society, competence and legitimation The concept of the ‘market society’ is generally attributed to Karl Polanyi (1886–1964), who argued that ‘to stretch the concept of the market until it embraces all economic phenomena is artificially to invest all things economic with the peculiar characteristics that accompany the phenomenon of the market’ (Polanyi, 1977, p. 6). What he termed ‘the economistic fallacy’ is now deeply entrenched in a variety of social domains, such as public administration, higher education and indeed religion. Perhaps most alarmingly, marketization has also invaded the personal sphere, with the self being increasingly conceptualized as a marketable commodity to be ‘designed’, ‘packaged’ and ‘sold’ – not just on the labour market but also in more intimate environments such as the dating scene, as testified by book titles such as Find a Husband After 35. Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School (Greenwald, 2003). In all of these domains, marketized discourse no longer stands out; instead, it is accepted as an inevitable corollary of social change. As one would put it in frameworks inspired by critical theory, such as CDA and CMS, marketization has become ‘naturalized’. Of course, the precise shape that marketization takes depends on the social structures and dynamics characteristic of each of the domains


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affected. However, there are a number of core elements that are shared. One is economic rationalism, another instrumental rationality. The former dictates that, whatever an organization does, the ‘bottom line’ is to be the key guiding principle (with a clear focus on profitability, productivity, input/output ratios and so on); the latter enshrines the utilitarian idea that what matters is whether things work, and that they work as efficiently as possible (Habermas, 1984, 1987). In the name of these twinned principles, practices such as performance management, quality control, target delivery, and quite generally a ‘managerialist’ approach are now widespread in organizations as diverse as government ministries, local councils, hospitals and the police force (Mautner, 2010). Crucially, these practices are not merely widespread but have also come to be taken for granted as ‘the best’ and indeed ‘the only possible’ way of going about things. Naturalization plays a key role in transforming ‘the market’, formerly just one possible way of organizing economies, into the only legitimate way of organizing societies. A contingent option has morphed into an unassailable ideology. Concurrently, the social and discursive repertoires that one would need in order to think about, talk about and implement non-marketized alternatives are shrinking rapidly. What Deetz calls ‘discursive closure’ (1992, pp. 186ff.) is intertwined with conceptual closure. Together, they ‘quickly [lead] to overfamiliarity and then unquestioned certainty and finally to ideological dogmatism’ (Chia and Morgan, 1996, p. 56). These developments at the macro level of society have repercussions on the meso level of the organization. Moreover, in a dialectic loop, what happens in organizations contributes to, and indeed ultimately constitutes, a broader social trend. The value patterns promoted by a particular ‘grand narrative’ – what is considered beneficial, valuable, and indeed a sign of competence in society at large – filter down to the organizational level and promote norms for aligned behaviour (aligned, that is, with the overarching societal values). In turn, these norms, together with the patterns of behaviour that they engender on the micro level of the individual, further reinforce the macro-level trend. For our present concern with ‘displaying competence’ in the religious domain, this feedback loop plays out as follows. It has become crucial for organizational and individual actors to demonstrably embrace the market society. If they do not, they appear less competent, and if they appear less competent, they lose legitimacy. Without legitimacy, both the moral and financial support from the communities in which these



actors operate is likely to be in jeopardy. To ensure survival, therefore, it appears an entirely rational choice for actors to orientate themselves towards the market as the source of perceived competence and legitimacy. Interestingly, marketized discourse has spread to domains and organizations that are not actually exposed to market forces but still hold monopolies, such as the police and the high courts. As examples discussed in Mautner (2010) show, these organizations, too, have started ‘branding’ themselves, talking about ‘service delivery’, ‘customer orientation’, and so on. As they do not face competition in a narrow sense, the only plausible explanation for their adaptive behaviour lies in the less palpable though no less real pressure exerted by marketization. As an elusive mega-trend, marketization pegs organizational legitimacy to the very specific type of competence that ‘the market’ calls for: one that is determined by instrumental rationality, supply and demand mechanisms and rigorous auditing procedures.

10.3 Theory and method The present chapter, and the larger project of which it is a part (Mautner, 2010), draws on two related strands of theory, CDA and CMS. Both hold that language plays a crucial role in constructing reality, and that, if reality is to be changed, language will have to be changed with it. The dominant construction being tackled here – that ‘the market’ provides a suitable organizing principle for society at large – is one that links the business domain with general lifeworlds. Given that connection, CDA and CMS can be seen as natural allies among the ‘critical’ family of theories, with CDA providing the general focus on social change as well as a specific one on language, and CMS contributing a fundamental critique of economic structures and managerial practices. CMS can help us unpack the dominance of the market model. CDA, on the other hand, explains how patterned linguistic choices systematically sustain that dominance and the social change promoted by it. Both CDA and CMS are now well-established and well-documented approaches showing clear signs of institutionalization, such as the existence of canonical handbooks and edited volumes, dedicated journals, specialized conferences and special interest groups in professional organizations. For CDA, key publications include van Dijk (1997b), Toolan (2000) and Wodak and Meyer (2009). The cornerstones of the approach have been laid out in several programmatic papers (such as van Dijk, 1993; Fairclough and Wodak, 1997; Wodak, 2004; Wodak and


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Meyer, 2009) and need not be repeated in detail here. Summarized very briefly, they are as follows: (a) The starting point of CDA research is a social problem, not a linguistic one. Driven by a critical impetus which aims to challenge existing, seemingly ‘natural’ patterns of domination, researchers ‘take an explicit socio-political stance’ (van Dijk, 1993, pp. 252–3). (b) CDA embraces a constructivist view of the social, with discourse regarded as both shaping society and being shaped by it (Fairclough, 1992, p. 64; Chia, 2000; Trowler, 2001, p. 186; Reisigl and Wodak, 2001, p. 186; 2009, p. 89). Also rooted in critical theory, CMS shares a number of CDA’s concerns, while adding a specific focus on the economy and business. It, too, now has an established canon of literature, starting with a seminal volume published in the early 1990s (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992) and continuing with collections such as Alvesson and Willmott (2003), Grey and Willmott (2005) and Cox et al. (2009). Its research agenda rests on the following foundations: (a) Embracing the social constructivist epistemology of critical theory, CMS views management not as a ‘morally and politically neutral technical activity’ (Watson, 2001, p. 386), but as one that determines reality as much as it is determined by it. CMS also acknowledges the crucial role that discourse plays in the process. (b) As in CDA, constructionism in CMS serves a political and emancipatory purpose, but with a specific interest in social sites from the economic domain. In these areas, too, exposing apparently ‘natural’ structures, beliefs and processes as ideological constructs rather than immutable fact paves the way for changing them. One of the ‘taken-for-granteds’ that CMS aims to unfreeze is instrumentalism, a notion central to the value system of the market society and, in the religious domain, a major driving force behind concepts such as ‘church effectiveness’,1 which we will return to later. In the instrumentalist approach, as Adler et al. (2008, p. 127) explain, ‘the goal of profitability – or, in the not-for-profit sectors, performance targets – takes on a fetishized, naturalized quality. All action is then evaluated under the norms of instrumental means–ends rationality.’ Denaturalizing these norms, then, is at the heart of CMS-inspired work, including the present study.



In academia, the institutional home of CMS is, for the most part, the business school. The latter’s predominantly managerialist – and, one might add, frequently uncritical – orientation makes for a somewhat incongruous environment in which to pursue critical research (Grey and Willmott, 2005; Grey, 2005, p. 2). Yet, it is precisely this incongruity which helps boost the impact of CMS: nested within business schools, critical management scholars are ‘within shouting distance of where power, if it lies anywhere, lies’ (Grey, 2005, p. 3). In this context, a key role falls to critical management education (CME), the ‘educational corollary’ of CMS (Dehler, 2009, p. 32). After all, executive positions in all sectors of the economy, including non-profit organizations, are increasingly held by business school graduates. The stronger their conviction that the market is a panacea in all walks of life, the more sustenance will continually be given to the grand narrative of marketization. Conversely, the more critical the executive elite is of market ideologies, the more space will be created for dissenting voices and alternative ways of organizing. How, then, are the theoretical foundations provided by CDA and CMS relevant for our present project on marketization in general and religious discourse in particular? First, rather than prioritizing language and looking at it in isolation, the project investigates a social issue which has an impact on language. And, second, it does so on the basis of a social constructionist approach, using authentic data, with ‘denaturalization’ as a key aim, and with a view to promoting social change. Specifically, the change that the present study wishes to help bring about is to return the market from overarching social principle to what it originally was: a more limited, domain-specific principle. By all means, let the market regulate behaviour in certain areas at certain times but not in all areas all the time. Or, to develop Lyotard’s metaphor, the aim is to change the market from being the grand narrative back into being simply one of many stories – and a story, too, which is not a priori regarded as useful and relevant for all social domains. In fact, for some organizations – and churches would appear to be a strong case in point – the uncritical adoption of market principles could be argued to do more harm than good, perhaps ensuring survival in the short-to-medium term but dismantling its core values in the long term. This concern echoes the warning by leading CMS scholars that management is a ‘colonizing power’ leading to an ‘erosion of the lifeworld’ (Alvesson and Willmott, 1996, p. 105). With the theoretical framework sketched out above in place, data collection began, using a combination of theoretical sampling (Hughes and Sharrock, 2007, p. 197), snowball sampling and convenience sampling


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(Gobo, 2004). In each case, much use was made of web searches for words which had either been thrown up by the background research into contemporary religion (such as ‘church branding’, for example), or which had played a pivotal role in texts captured in a previous search round (such as ‘Christian effectiveness’ and ‘church growth’). In some cases, online discussion fora related to specific texts led to intertextual trails which offered a view of both supportive and resistant discourses. Next, using a qualitative approach (Reisigl and Wodak, 2009, p. 95), the data analysis then focused on identifying the ways in which discourse in the religious sphere invokes market-related ideas and activities in order to demonstrate competence and, in so doing, boost the legitimacy of organizational and individual actors. Before moving on, some comments are in order to anticipate and address one of the most time-honoured criticisms directed against CDA: Did I find only what I wanted to find? The answer, perhaps unsatisfactorily, is yes and no, depending on whether one assesses the process of data collection or the analysis. In collecting data, I did indeed find what I was looking for, that is, texts which contained argumentative strategies helping social actors from the religious domain display competence in line with the demands of the market, and boost their legitimacy as a result. Of course, had it been the study’s aim to investigate what proportion of religious discourse has become infused with the language of the market, then purposefully selecting texts with such an orientation would indeed have been a case of woefully skewed sampling. My intention, however, was rather different: to establish, not how often marketbased legitimacy is invoked in religious discourse, but how that occurs. And for a fundamentally qualitative, ‘how’ type of research question, any probabilistic, ‘trawl net fishing’ approach to data gathering would have been misguided, because the corpus thus created would have been clogged up with masses of irrelevant texts. Even so, it can – and should – be asked whether enough data were collected (here, but more importantly in the broader account provided in Mautner, 2010). This is a crucial question, certainly, but also an intractable one. Ultimately the answer, if it can be called that, lies in the researcher exercising discretion and doing so with integrity and transparency. I would invite sceptics to consider the comments made by Phillips and Hardy (2002, p. 74), who, referring to Wood and Kroger (2000), argue that: discourses are not neatly packaged in a particular text or even in a particular cluster of texts. Researchers can only trace clues to them



regardless of how much data they collect. Similarly, the interpretive nature of the analysis means that the researcher does not seek to exhaust categories, but to generate them by way of identifying how people use language. Consequently, the notion of saturation in discourse analysis is ‘elastic’. The endpoint comes not because the researcher stops finding anything new, but because the researcher judges that the data are sufficient to make and justify an interesting argument. As far as the analysis is concerned, the question of whether I simply found what I had been looking for can be answered emphatically in the negative. The types of legitimation strategies employed, and the linguistic devices used to frame them and enhance their persuasive impact, were not a foregone conclusion but emerged during and through the analysis.

10.4 Trends and developments in contemporary religion The seeping of marketized discourse into the religious sphere is happening against the backdrop of a cluster of factors which together add up to competitive pressure – not necessarily among different faiths or churches (though that, too, is an issue) but between religion and a whole range of other value systems and demands on individuals’ time. Recent book titles give a good glimpse of what is going on: User-Friendly Churches (Barna, 1991), Selling God (Moore, 1994), Jesus in Disneyland (Lyon, 2000), The McDonaldization of the Church (Drane, 2001), Consuming Religion (Miller, 2005), Church Marketing 101 (Reising, 2006), The Espresso Bible (Winter, 2007) – to be ‘consumed in sips’, as the subtitle says – and Brands of Faith (Einstein, 2008). In the Western world at least, religion has become de-institutionalized and individualized. That is, it is not so much religion that is in decline but organized religion and large, traditional churches. People now decide more or less autonomously which congregation to join, and, as their own ‘theologian-in-residence’ (Riley, 2009), piece together their personal faith, making sure that it not only addresses spiritual but also broadly ‘therapeutic needs’ (Miller, 2005, p. 88). Practised faith has become a lifestyle choice that pluralistic societies allow you to opt into and out of at will. Religion is a ‘product’ that you may or may not want to buy. You ‘shop around’ for a place of worship, see which type of service you enjoy most, and what ‘works’ for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to become or remain ‘unchurched’ altogether, that is fine too, and no social sanctions are to be feared. As a result


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of de-institutionalization, individualization and commodification, churches can no longer take allegiance for granted, and clearly feel that in order to survive they need to adopt competitive behaviour inspired by business, such as marketing, branding and professionalized ‘corporate’ communications. It is hardly surprising that a suitable expert industry has also emerged, including ‘church consultancy’, which we will return to in the following section. Also, the established churches themselves are at pains to reach out to the disaffected, for example through initiatives such as Fresh Expressions2 and the establishment of ‘café churches’, which relocate worship from sacred to secular spaces (that is, coffee shops). Conversely, formerly sacred spaces such as crypts and cloisters are increasingly being used for secular consumption – of food and drink as well as souvenirs – and can be hired as the picturesque backdrop for functions, photo shoots and feature films.3 Deconsecrated church buildings can be converted into community centres or private homes. The Church of England, for example, has a dedicated website offering ‘redundant’ church buildings for sale.4 Of course, the sacred and the profane have always had numerous points of contact, and a certain amount of tension and conflict comes with the territory. However, marketization has given this relationship a new edge. Instead of fighting their secular opponent, churches seem to have opted for rapprochement, not just tolerating the influx of marketbased practices, but proactively adopting it. In the next section, let us have a look at how this process impacts on religious discourse.

10.5 Key legitimation strategies From the data, the following five arguments emerged as performing a legitimating function. First, criteria typically associated with for-profit organizations, such as efficiency and effectiveness, are presented as being equally appropriate for religious settings. For example, the editor and publisher Todd A. Rhoades suggests in a blog: ‘Maybe the Church Should Become a little More like Wal-Mart’. What churches could learn from the supermarket chain, he argues, is its effective audience targeting. In the postscript to his blog (see Example 1), he tries to deflect criticism by qualifying his analogy, but nevertheless repeats his main point, namely that, as far as targeting is concerned, Wal-Mart does indeed provide a role model: (1) PS – Please know that I realise that not everyone is a huge fan of Wal-mart. And no, I’m not calling for the commercialisation of the church or for the church to take the same business tactics as



a giant corporation. I’m also not comparing the church to Wal-mart’s hiring practices, their growth and expansion strategy, or their position on gay workers. Just to be clear… I’m just saying that Wal-mart knows their target and does everything in their power to reach their target more effectively. That by itself is something that I think most churches can learn something from. – Todd. (Rhoades, 2007) Along similar lines, a contributor to an online discussion about an article headed ‘McChurch: I’m Loving It’ asks, (2) good management, training, and education are all essential qualities of a healthy church, are they not? why assume that the ‘mcdonalds model’ is merely the pursuit of profit? i see a lot of good lessons to be learned from the way a mcdonald’s franchise is run. [spelling: sic] Second, business techniques such as marketing are construed as ideologically neutral, and the language that goes with them is presented as a surface phenomenon distinct from and without impact on value systems (two claims which would be vigorously contended by CMS and CDA respectively). In Extract 3, for example, a British church consultant explains that the management terms he uses in his ‘Christian Effectiveness Model’ are ‘merely labels for various concepts and should be seen as no more than this’ – a stance untenable from a socially constructivist approach to language, but enjoying continuing popularity outside the CDA/CMS fraternity: (3) The Model uses a number of organizational and planning terms. Most organizations will find no problem with these; they will use them, or terms very similar to them, in their own work. Others may however carefully avoid such terminology. It may feel strangely technical and even sub-Christian to use a tool that talks in terms of ‘visions’ and ‘targets’, of ‘stakeholders’ and ‘beneficiaries’, of even ‘staff’ and ‘volunteers’, and of ‘fund-raising’. If this describes you, remember that these terms are merely labels for various concepts and should be seen as no more than this. … The use of a term such as ‘target’ does not imply any unthinking acceptance of secular management theory. The overall structure of the Model makes it very evident that the context is the sovereignty of God and the call to his people to follow his will. …


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So throughout the Model it is not the language that matters, but the ideas behind the language. Each organization should adapt the terms to fit its own customs.5 Third, market-driven behaviours are shown to have historical precedent. On a Church of England website, for example (Extract 4 below), the use of church buildings for non-religious (and, presumably, in some cases fee-paying) activities is justified by referring to the historical roots of the practice. Secular uses are referred to very neutrally – some might say euphemistically – as ‘extended and additional uses of church buildings’, and they are described with clusters of positively connotated lexis (e.g. plays and festivities, multifunctional community centres, precious resource, play a vital role in their communities). Treating churches as purely sacred spaces, on the other hand, is described as a ‘restriction’ imposed as recently as the nineteenth century, a period often associated with joyless Victorian mores: (4) Extended and Additional Uses of Church Buildings In the Middle Ages, churches were used for a variety of functions such as courtroom, school and library, and hosted meetings, elections, debates, plays and festivities. In fact, until relatively recently, churches were multifunctional community centres. After the nineteenth-century restriction of secular uses of churches, attitudes are now changing again. It is increasingly recognised that church buildings are a precious resource and can play a vital role in their communities.6 Fourth, it is argued that churches have no choice but to adopt a businessoriented approach because it is the only way to succeed. For example, in the article quoted from in the introduction, the author defends the ‘unashamedly commercial’ venture in his parish by expressing his belief (5) … that the positive consequences that the café has generated for the church are only to be had by running it this way. (Fraser, 2007) In another version of the TINA principle (‘there is no alternative’), a business technique such as marketing is presented as ubiquitous – whether or not it is consciously chosen. In the following extract, an American church consultant argues that churches cannot not become involved in marketing; if they think they are not marketing themselves,



they are merely marketing themselves badly. In other words, there is no escape. The implication is, of course, that if marketing is inescapable anyway, you might as well do it professionally (and with the help of the consultant’s expertise). (6) ‘There’s not a church in the world that doesn’t market itself,’ says Richard Reising. ‘Some do it well, some do it badly. But when you don’t do it consistently and effectively, then you say clearly to the community that you don’t know who you are; you’re not professional, and you don’t take time to think about what you are about.’ (Colyer, 2005) Incidentally, the appeal to professionalism is another ‘TINA’ type of argument leading to discursive closure – because in industrialized, knowledge-based and expert-led societies, the connotations of professional are so overwhelmingly positive that no one would deliberately choose to appear unprofessional. There is, of course, an undisclosed underlying assumption, namely that the competencies associated with ‘professionalism’ are inextricably and exclusively linked to a business-like approach. Fifth, the legitimacy of market-inspired practices is enhanced by appealing to divine intervention. Recounting his personal story of transformation, the president of the Association of Evangelical Social Entrepreneurs tells visitors to his website, (7) I have always loved ministry and business, but twelve years ago, I longed for more. I cried out in prayer ‘Please God, let me be an entrepreneur for you!’7 Similarly, on his website, Richard Reising describes how he received ‘a life’s calling’ to become involved in church marketing and that God Himself, ‘the greatest marketing strategist out there’, revealed to him that marketing principles were in fact biblical: (8) After many years as a marketing executive in the corporate world, God interceded and took Richard on a different path. In 1995, Richard received a life’s calling and new reality that changed everything. While on a mission trip in Mexico, God cornered him and revealed a life’s purpose that would be to change the way the world looked at Christians – church by church – heart by heart. God began to reveal that the marketing principles he knew so well were actually often


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biblical; God was not only creator, but also the greatest marketing strategist out there.8 In this extract, note the categorical modality (God cornered him, God began to reveal). It presents divine intervention as undisputed and indisputable fact and is thus another prime example of discursive closure.

10.6 Closing remarks and open issues In the wider context of the market society, religion is one of several social domains that are affected by the influx of business discourse. To provide detailed comparative evidence from other domains would, to use the hackneyed academic defence, have been beyond the scope of this chapter. Suffice it to say, therefore, that parallel developments can be identified in a variety of public-sector organizations, in universities and, perhaps most strikingly, in the personal sphere (witness the selfhelp industry based on the idea of personal branding, for example). Further details – to use an equally hackneyed academic self-marketing ploy – can be found in Mautner (2010). All of these domains now have highly permeable boundaries, through which market-based values, practices and discourses seep continuously. On either side of the boundary, this process is actively promoted or at least aided and abetted by social actors whose individual acts of linguistic accommodation gradually solidify into a new discursive practice aligned with business. Church officials, clergy and parishioners are all potentially implicated in the transformation of micro-level linguistic choices into macro-level patterns. Straightforward though this process may seem, a number of questions of course remain, and many avenues unexplored. One of the angles missing from the above account is a detailed ethnography of discourse in religious settings. The type of broad, Web-based sweep across the datascape used here may help to gauge the breadth of marketization, but it is ill-suited to explore its depth, that is, the degree to which it has actually penetrated organizations and their various stakeholder communities. Our occasional forays into the blogosphere and online discussion fora have shed some light on how much uptake there is of marketized discourse at the ‘coalface’ of the non-elite language user, but this should be explored further. The systematic collection of text and talk would also reveal more representative evidence for the presence or absence of counter-discourses – that is, of language users actively resisting marketized discourse. Extract 10, for example, contains a response to



a film posted on the website of the American church consultant Richard Reising. Resistance, as we can see, can be coupled with a fair amount of metalinguistic awareness: (9) That was funny, but ‘An innovative blog for a culturally strategic church’? Vomit. (‘Daniel’, comment posted November 10, 2008)9 The existence of robust counter-discourses is linked crucially to agendas for reform, which has always been a major concern of CDA and CMS. In cases where formerly non-commercial lifeworlds are being infiltrated by business, the agenda that critical approaches pursue is to strengthen the lifeworlds’ defensive boundaries, cutting the market-based economy down to size, and reclaiming the linguistic and social territory lost to it. A tall order, no doubt, but one which social scientists generally, and linguists in particular, have both the duty and competence to fill.

Notes 1. For (US American) Web resources on Church effectiveness see, for example, the Centre for Church Effectiveness and Intentional Discipleship (http://gocce.com/cce/HomeFrame.htm), which has a link to a ‘church effectiveness’ subsite (http://www.intentionaldiscipleship.net/index.cfm/method/content.33940814-4C4D-44AB-A474DEF89A6BC4ED), both accessed 23 May 2010. 2. http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/ (date accessed 29 January 2009). 3. Gloucester Cathedral, for example, can be hired for such purposes, see http:// www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=book-the-cathedral (block capitals in the original, date accessed 2 February 2009). 4. http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/diocesesparishes/rcsale/ (date accessed 1 February 2009). 5. h t t p : / / w w w. j o h n - t r u s c o t t . c o . u k / r e s o u rc e s / e f f e c t i v e n e s s / e m 6 . p d f (date accessed 17 January 2010; emphasis added). 6. http://www.churchcare.co.uk/develop.php?FC (date accessed 12 January 2009). 7. http://www.layministry.com/us/files/36326_13639.pdf (date accessed 30 January 2009). 8. http://www.beyondrelevance.com/index.cfm/PageID/914/index.html (date accessed 28 January 2009; emphasis added). 9. http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/11/10/what-if-starbucks-marketed-likethe-church/ (date accessed 26 January 2009).


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Corpus material Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2002) Positieve-actieplan 2003 ter bevordering van gelijke kansen en een evenredige vertegenwoordiging van mannen/vrouwen, allochtonen en personen met een handicap in de Vlaamse overheidsadministratie. 82 pp. Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2003) Positiev-actieplan 2004 ter bevordering van gelijke kansen en een evenredige vertegenwoordiging van mannen/vrouwen, allochtonen en personen met een handicap in de Vlaamse overheidsadministratie. 79 pp. Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2005) Positieve-actieplan 2005 ter bevordering van gelijke kansen en een evenredige vertegenwoordiging in de Vlaamse overheidsadministratie. 107 pp. Vlaamse Overheid, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2006) Gelijke kansen en diversiteit – plan 2006. Naar een evenredige vertegenwoordiging van kansengroepen in de Vlaamse Overheid. 124 pp. Vlaamse Overheid, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2006) Gelijke kansen en diversiteit – plan 2007. Naar een evenredige vertegenwoordiging van kansengroepen in de Vlaamse Overheid. 108 pp. Vlaamse Overheid, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2007) Jaarrapport gelijke kansen en diversiteit. Naar een evenredige vertegenwoordiging van kansengroepen in de Vlaamse overhead. Actieplan 2008. 156 pp. Vlaamse Overheid, Dienst Emancipatiezaken (2008) Gelijke kansen en diversiteit – 2009 Naar een evenredige vertegenwoordiging van kansengroepen in de Vlaamse overheid Actieplan 2009. 65 pp.


Index ability, 68, 81, 100, 110, 129, 132, 150–2, 154, 162–5, 171–7, 179 ad hoc interpreting see interpreting asylum seeker interviews see interviews authorial voice, 7, 91, 92, 94, 98, 113

critical management studies, 9, 181, 183–5, 189, 193

backstage performance, 8, 111, 114, 120, 128 branding, 183, 186, 188, 192 café churches, 188 CEO letters, 5, 6, 45, 46, 48–51, 53–4, 56–8 CEO-speak, 46, 47 church branding see branding church marketing, 191 Church of England, 188, 190 communicative competence see competence competence communicative, 3, 13, 120, 129 hidden v. stated, 18 interpreting, 8, 131, 132, 134, 147, 148 intertextual, 7, 120, 125 mediator, 8 competency frameworks, 3, 11, 12, 18, 23, 24, 33 management, 6, 27, 28, 32, 33, 35, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 constructivism, 184, 189 corporate genres, 157, 167 corporate identity, 151, 157–8, 159, 160–1 corpus linguistics, 4, 62–3 craft, 8, 92, 103, 111, 120, 125, 128, 129 critical discourse analysis, 5, 9, 28, 33, 62–3, 94, 181, 183–6, 189, 193

decision-making, 5, 7, 11, 12, 29, 35, 45, 48, 110, 133 discourse blending of, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 24 as cognition, 1 multilayered, 93, 110 organizational, 1, 2, 4, 9 political, 81 processes, 1 religious, 180, 185, 186, 188 as social practice, 1, 5, 36 see also discourse analysis; critical discourse analysis discourse analysis, 1–2, 4, 5–6, 8–9, 28–9, 33, 35, 62, 90, 133, 187 see also critical discourse analysis diversity management, 6, 27–9, 31–2, 34–5, 40–1, 43–4 doctor–patient interactions, 3, 8, 131–2, 134–5, 148 dominant language, 6, 13, 22 editorial meetings, 7, 111, 113, 114, 115–17, 125, 128 equal opportunity policies, 24, 30, 34, 37, 40, 41 ethnic minorities, 5, 10, 12, 14, 19, 31, 32, 34, 73, 75, 88 ethnography, 5, 7, 94, 111, 116, 192 ethos, 120, 127–9 footing, 95, 102, 103, 104, 109, 113, 114 gatekeeping processes, 3, 5, 6, 12 hedges, 5, 46–7, 48–53, 56, 57 heteroglossia, 120, 121 human resource management, 2, 3, 5, 27–8, 32, 35

208


Index 209 immigrant story, 20 immigration interviews see interviews indexicality, 1, 7, 8, 114 informed consent briefings, 8, 132–5, 140, 142–4, 146 institutional communication, 132 institutional narratives see narrative interactional sociolinguistics, 5 interpreting ad hoc, 5, 8, 131–5, 142, 147–9 competence, 8, 131, 132, 134, 147, 148 family interpreters, 131, 132, 134–7, 139–41, 146–8 in hospitals, 131, 132, 134 liaison, 131, 148 nursing staff as interpreters, 131, 132, 134, 141–8 intertextual competence see competence intertextuality, 7, 120, 121, 123, 125, 128, 186 see also competence interviews asylum seeker, 19 immigration, 19 selection, 3, 5–6, 10–14, 18–19, 22–4, 35 management, 19, 24 newspaper, 7, 90 techniques, 92, 95–6, 98, 103–4, 110 job interviews see interviews journalism, 7, 90, 92, 112–14, 120, 125, 128, 130n. labour two-tiered market, 5, 10 language of power, 5, 6, 45–53, 56–8 leadership, 6, 7, 45, 88, 92, 109, 110 legitimation, 13, 14, 180–1, 182, 187, 188 liaison interpreting see interpreting

lifeworlds, 181, 183, 185, 193 linguistic capital, 3, 5, 10–14, 22, 24 linguistic ethnography see ethnography linguistic penalty, 6, 10, 11, 12, 18, 24 management interviews see interviews market society, 5, 180–1, 182, 184, 192 marketing, 5, 188, 189, 190–2 marketization, 8, 181–3, 185, 187–8, 192 mediator competence see competence medical terms, 134–5, 140, 141, 143, 146 mission, 8, 11, 34, 43, 151, 154–8, 162, 164, 191 mission statements, 5, 8, 150–5, 157–61, 163–9, 172–3, 176–8 modality, 5, 93, 95, 134–6, 141, 143, 145, 146, 177, 192 modifiers, 49–53, 56–9, 174 narrative institutional, 16–19 self-narrativization, 6, 11, 15–16, 18–20, 22–4, 120 structure, 12, 14, 16–18, 24, 26 theory, 19, 25–6, 125, 129, 180, 182, 185 narrative structure see narrative narrative theory see narrative negative campaigning, 7, 64, 69, 88 neutrality, 28, 113, 114, 120 new public management, 6, 27, 35, 43 newspaper interviews see interviews objectivity, 62, 113, 114, 120, 128, 129 organization theory, 1, 2 organizational change, 1, 2 organizational discourse see discourse


210

Index

organizational power, 1 ownership taking, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, 22, 23 performance, 2, 7, 8, 11, 12, 19, 22, 27, 31, 32, 91, 115, 120, 123, 125–6, 158, 167, 182 political discourse see discourse political weblogs, 7, 60, 61–75, 78–81, 84, 87–9 power see language presidential campaign, 6, 68, 72, 87, 89 public administration, 5, 27–9, 33–7, 43, 181 public governance, 2, 34 quotation, 6, 19, 21, 23, 98 religious discourse see discourse representation, 5, 7, 62, 67, 88, 90, 91, 94–5, 98, 105, 109, 160–1, 164, 177

rhetoric, 4, 15, 26, 45, 57, 60, 62, 78, 120, 123, 125–6, 130 secondary analysis, 116 self-narrativization see narrative speech act, 105, 132–4, 149 style CEO, 45–6, 49, 55–6 journalistic, 113 markers, 5, 6, 46–7, 49, 51–3, 56–8, 160 powerful, 6, 46 powerless, 46 taking ownership see ownership translation method, 136–7, 139, 142, 146 two-tiered labour market see labour volition, 150, 151–2, 154, 161, 162, 163–7, 168, 170, 176, 177, 178


Displaying Competence in Organizations: Discourse Perspectives

Displaying Competence in Organizations: Discourse Perspectives

Feminism and Discourse: Psychological Perspectives

Competence Assessment in Dementia

Social Competence in Children

Cultural Competence in Health Care

Minimum competence in scientific english

Building Feminist Movements and Organizations: Global Perspectives

Displaying Modal Logic (Trends in Logic, 3)

Displaying Modal Logic (Trends in Logic, 3)

Language as discourse: perspectives for language teaching

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Parliamentary Discourse

Problems and Perspectives in Religious Discourse: Advaita Vedanta Implications

New Perspectives in Language, Discourse and Translation Studies

Gender and Discourse (Sage Studies in Discourse)

Whistle-Blowing in Organizations

Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis (Continuum Discourse)

Psychology in Organizations

Perspectives in Politics and Discourse (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture)

Emotion in Organizations

Diversity in Organizations

Multiple Goals In Discourse

The Discourse of Hospital Communication: Tracing Complexities in Contemporary Health Organizations (Palgrave Studies in Professional and Organizational Discourse)

Discourse in Late Modernity

Discourse

Workplace Discourse (Continuum Discourse)

Multiple goals in discourse

Displaying Competence in Organizations: Discourse Perspectives