Rhetorical History as Institutional Work

Abstract

Rhetorical history has emerged as a useful theoretical construct that bridges the long recognized gap between historical and organizational scholarship. Despite its growing popularity, the precise nature of rhetorical history as a construct, its scope conditions, and its utility in resolving critical issues in historical organizational analysis remains unclear. This paper addresses these issues. We define rhetorical history and contextualize the construct by elaborating its relationship to associated concepts like collective memory, rhetoric, and narrative. We ground the construct by reviewing literature that has applied rhetorical history in both theory and empirical research. Our inductive review identifies four recurring themes in which rhetorical history is used to construct perceptions of; (a) continuity and discontinuity, (b) similarity and difference, (c) winners and losers, and (d) morality and immorality. We conclude with a discussion of how rhetorical history is an essential mechanism of institutional work.

Learning in a Family Business Through Intermarriage: A Rhetorical History Perspective

“…The first type of strategic change manifested in the adoption of more rational structures and governance processes in the Brown Family regarding decision-making. The adoption of more formal governance structures and the awareness of the need for more open and transparent paths of communication were a set of practices (i.e., the hardware) that the Brown family used to manage their history (Anderson, 1983;Sinha et al, 2020;Suddaby et al, 2022). To illustrate, altruistic tendencies and family-centric attitudes (e.g., "People doing the right thing," "we are blood [family], we'll figure this out [conflict], I'm not worried") were replaced by new practices emphasizing clear communication channels and governance structures in family and business practices as the mistakes made by the Murphy family served as lessons for the Brown family.…”

“…Once created, mnemonic communities provide individual actors with the content and frameworks for remembering. We thus present the theoretical foundation of the concept of the family business as the reconstruction of social structures through mnemonic practices-the practice of remembering, forgetting, and using the past for strategic purposes (Suddaby et al, 2010(Suddaby et al, , 2022.…”

“…There is a growing interest from management and organizational scholars in the study of rhetorical history (Glückler et al, 2018; Suddaby & Foster, 2017). Rhetorical history provides a framework to explain the process of reinterpreting the past to manage the present (Suddaby et al, 2022). Rhetorical history is the intentional attempt to manage interpretations of the past strategically (Suddaby & Jaskiewicz, 2020, p. 235), and it is defined as “the strategic use of the past as a persuasive strategy to manage key stakeholders of the firm” (Suddaby et al, 2010, p. 157).…”

“…Rhetorical history is a mechanism, often overlooked, by which firms can use traditions as a resource (Suddaby & Jaskiewicz, 2020). According to Suddaby and Jaskiewicz (2020, p. 238), history “is an interpretive concept in which the brute facts can be reordered, reinterpreted, and understood in a way that makes history a resource rather than a constraint.” We leverage current theorizing on rhetorical history (Suddaby et al, 2022), which refers to the fluid and bidirectional interaction between past, present, and future across generations. We are interested in how individuals develop and share narratives that intentionally, purposefully, and strategically revise history to explain current conditions in such ways to motivate members of this mnemonic community to pursue current goals (Sinha et al, 2020; Suddaby et al, 2022).…”

Talking About (My) Generation: The Use of Generation as Rhetorical History in Family Business

“…We found that the concept of generation serves as a bridge between family history and societal history, thus turning history into a resource and allowing entrepreneurs to seize new opportunities and rhetorically convince stakeholders of the need for future action. Using the generation concept to connect with societal developments is important because historical narratives are not a mere collection of “historical facts” but also involve an engagement with “social facts” or collective understandings that give individual or community behavior broader meaning (Suddaby, Israelsen, Bastien, Saylors, & Coraiola, 2023). The concept of generation is particularly useful to create such connections and to facilitate the specific historical framing strategies that Suddaby et al (2020) have identified as a dynamic capability.…”