A Discursive Perspective on British Local Government's Response to Change: A Tale of Two Cities

Salskov–Iversen, Dorte

doi:10.1177/0957926597008003006

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Common to this approach is that a discourse related to the change in question is identified, such as a general managerialist discourse, a customer or market discourse or even a ‘discourse of efficiency’ (cf. Humphrey et al, 1993; Sinclair, 1995; Salskov-Iversen, 1997; Mueller et al, 2004; Motion & Leitch, 2009). The ‘imposed’ discourse is then analysed in relation to an established phenomenon in a public sector setting – most commonly a welfare state or professional discourse (e.g.…”

Section: Conceptualizing Public Sector Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Forms of Intervention in Public Sector Organizations: Generic Traits in Public Sector Reforms

Bejerot

Hasselbladh

2013

Organization Studies

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The present paper argues that recent research on public sector reforms offers few contributions to the body of knowledge on this topic because it adds little to the conclusions drawn during the first generation of research in this area. Although these later studies have often been context-specific and have explored the details of the process of change in some depth, it is rather difficult to compare their results or to make reasoned judgements of the comprehensiveness and centrality of the analysed change. Although most public sector reforms that affect hospitals, schools or social services are initiated and designed by national governments, individual case studies of local administrations often fail to capture the generic traits of nationwide reforms. However, public sector change cannot be approached as if it comprises collections of nominally independent local events. The present paper argues for two new approaches to the study of public sector change: (i) the systematic categorization of the different forms of governmental intervention under study and (ii) analysis of the ways in which these forms of intervention are linked and interact. Based on extensive empirical research, this paper suggests a generic classification of these forms of intervention that can be used in empirical research on comprehensive public sector change. Consequently, five interventions in public sector organizations are suggested, namely political intervention, intervention by laws and regulations, intervention by audit and inspection, intervention by management and intervention by rationalizing professional practice. The model is particularly well suited to the longitudinal analysis of complex public sector reforms. This approach provides a conceptual tool to distinguish between interventions based on different forms of knowledge and to investigate how they are linked to each other vertically and horizontally. We demonstrate the usefulness of the model by analysing two empirical examples of reforms in which a variety of interventions were imposed at the local level, through legislation as well as a spectrum of voluntary measures proposed by government agencies, by national associations for local and regional councils and by other national or regional actors.

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Section: Conceptualizing Public Sector Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Forms of Intervention in Public Sector Organizations: Generic Traits in Public Sector Reforms

Bejerot

Hasselbladh

2013

Organization Studies

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“…There are particular reasons for looking at local politics in Britain as part of a movement toward a more consensual discourse (Phillips, 1996). As has been observed by Salskov-Iversen (1997), the managerial style of politics is evident in British local government, whether administered by Labour or Conservative councils. During the Thatcher years, the powers of local government were systematically reduced in what was effectively an attempt to take the "politics" out of local politics.…”

Section: Studying the End Of Ideology In Local Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Psychology of Contemporary Anti‐Politics: A Discursive Approach to the End‐of‐Ideology Era

Weltman

Billig

2001

Political Psychology

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This article advocates a discursive approach for examining political rhetoric. Such an approach is particularly useful for studying contemporary political ideology. The current political climate, especially in Britain, has been described as exemplifying a "Third Way," which is said to have replaced the old ideological division between "left" and "right" by a consensual, non-ideological politics. The discursive approach allows the analyst to look at the continuing dilemmas of an ideology that denies its ideological character. In discursive analyses of interviews with 20 elected local officials in the Midlands of England, the respondents (regardless of party affiliation) tended to give accounts that celebrated the development of consensual, less ideologically divisive politics. These accounts, however, were dilemmatic: As the speakers told of social change, they also stressed their own personal stability, as if they themselves existed outside the previous political climate. They also explicitly distanced themselves from the language of "left" and "right," but in this distancing a further ideological dilemma was detectable. All the local politicians were officially affiliated to a political party. In discursively subtle ways, the speakers used the left/right continuum as they distinguished between the parties, thereby showing the sort of variability that discursive theorists have noted in other contexts. The implications of such findings and of the discursive approach to studying ideology are discussed in relation to the possibilities for developing a critical political psychology. KEY WORDS:The Third Way, rhetorical psychology, ideology, British politics.In the contemporary world, there are political and intellectual trends, especially in Europe, that parallel the period in the 1950s and 1960s when the "end of ideology" was widely proclaimed. At that time, a number of theorists in the United States, most notably Daniel Bell (1960) and Seymour Lipset (1960), declared that the age of dogmatic, or "ideological," politics was over: Old adversarial and extreme politics was giving way to a more conciliatory and pragmatic era. Theorists

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“…A mídia de negócios efetiva esse processo por meio de: (a) promoção de valores associados ao empreendedorismo e ao sucesso profissional; (b) indução pelo poder da influência e do prestígio de agendas específicas junto ao público executivo; (c) divulgação sistemática de novidades gerenciais; e (d) legitimação das novidades gerenciais (Wood Jr. e de Paula, 2001, 2002 (Elliott, 1996;Fairclough, 1988Fairclough, , 2001. Outros estudos acadêmicos já se utilizaram de entrevistas de executivos a jornais e revistas como principais fontes de dados para análise (por exemplo: Boje e Rosile, 2003;Fairclough, 1988;Salskov-Iversen, 1997). No presente trabalho, os dados foram coletados por meio dos seguintes procedimentos: (1) seleção das entrevistas; (2) leitura crítica; e (3) seleção dos objetos discursivos mais relevantes.…”

Section: Coleta De Dadosunclassified

Legitimidade, Discursos Organizacionais E Responsabilidade Social Empresarial

Costa

Carvalho

2005

RECADM

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ResumoO presente estudo foi conduzido com o objetivo de investigar, nos discursos organizacionais, vínculos capazes de evidenciar relações de poder entre as ações sociais desenvolvidas e implementadas por organizações privadas pela via da Responsabilidade Social Empresarial (RSE) e processos de atribuição de legitimidade ao papel social do empresário. A uma revisão bibliográfica focada na compreensão histórica do compromisso social do empresário e na correspondente construção discursiva da instância do poder para legitimação deste papel, segue-se uma aplicação de análise do discurso, por meio da qual se procurou indícios da reprodução desta forma peculiar de discurso organizacional em duas publicações de grande circulação, ao longo de mais de dois anos. Os 38 discursos construídos pelos porta-vozes de alguns dos maiores grupos empresariais brasileiros e por formadores de opinião no meio empresarial trazem fortes indicativos de que a construção discursiva da RSE vem se configurando como fundamental para este processo de legitimação.Palavras-chave: Análise de Discurso -Discursos Organizacionais -Responsabilidade Social Empresarial. AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the power´s relations between social actions implemented by private organizations within Corporate Social Responsability and the attribution legitimate process to the businessman´s social role. Grounded in the Structuralism Theory, developed by Anthony Giddens, this study relied upon the discourse analysis method and spotlighted the organizational discourses published on two business publications.Keywords: Corporate Social Responsability -Discourse Analysis -Organizational Discourse. IntroduçãoEste trabalho tenciona contribuir para a produção de conhecimento crítico acerca do emergente tema da Responsabilidade Social Empresarial (RSE), cuja prática vem se fazendo cada vez mais presente na atuação das empresas brasileiras, mas cujo entendimento teórico conserva, ainda, inúmeras lacunas a serem preenchidas. Muitas organizações parecem ter recentemente abraçado as diretrizes de RSE por conta de mudanças no cenário sócio-político, por causa de imperativos de mercado não muito bem definidos ou mesmo em função de modismos gerenciais perpetrados pela mídia de negócios. Percebe-se que as organizações incorporaram decisivamente em suas agendas estratégicas projetos e ações sociais, passando a investir na divulgação de padrões éticos, "justificando e criando provas à sociedade, e consumidores, de que estão indo ao encontro das aspirações sociais (...) [por meio de um] comportamento socialmente responsável, onde são exigidos e valorizados aspectos que, em última instância, os próprios empresários elegem" (Ventura e Vieira, 2004, p.5).Desta forma, assume-se a premissa de que as motivações empresariais para a RSE -sejam elas instrumentais ou morais -refletem um processo social de legitimação organizacional e evidenciam a existência de categorias de poder implícitas nas relações entre os atores sociais. Portanto, estipula-se como inquietação

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A Discursive Perspective on British Local Government's Response to Change: A Tale of Two Cities

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Forms of Intervention in Public Sector Organizations: Generic Traits in Public Sector Reforms

Forms of Intervention in Public Sector Organizations: Generic Traits in Public Sector Reforms

The Political Psychology of Contemporary Anti‐Politics: A Discursive Approach to the End‐of‐Ideology Era

Legitimidade, Discursos Organizacionais E Responsabilidade Social Empresarial

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