Critical Language and Discourse Awareness in Management Education

Abstract

Communication and, through it, language have become key elements of business and organizational life. How organizations interact within their walls and with the outside world fundamentally affects business processes, creating organizational culture, shaping public perceptions, and influencing consumer choices. This essay calls for a greater acknowledgment of language and communication and suggests that management educators may want to review how they are incorporated in management education curricula. Expanding on the skill-based approach typically adopted in business school classes, the essay points to the utility of exposing business students to the dual function of language as a means of doing work and as a social action that constitutes social reality. Drawing on examples from scholarship in linguistics and discourse analysis, the essay demonstrates that the ability to notice, identify, and reflect on linguistic and discourse practices is a crucial managerial skill. Nurturing such analytical and thinking skills enables people to become not only better communicators but also critical thinkers able to understand and challenge when social control, power, or injustice is enacted in organizations.

Bringing Communication Theory Into the Management Classroom: Rejoinder to “Critical Language and Discourse Awareness in Management Education”

“…These values systems manifest through collaborative action and ultimately serve as a form of control. Both resources serve as a function for “challenging the taken-for-granted and asking questions about how power and control are extorted through communication processes” (Darics, 2019, p. 13).…”

“…As an organizational communication scholar teaching management courses, I could not agree more with Darics’s call for a stronger interdisciplinary relationship between organizational scholarship and communication/linguistics. Without diminishing the importance of teaching communication as a particular skill, an additional, more nuanced focus on communication as responsible for shaping our social realities can assist in “the nurturing of better informed, more critical, and more thoughtful managers” (Darics, 2019, p. 14).…”

“…In response to Darics’s call for management education to adopt a more nuanced appreciation of language and communication, I offer my hearty agreement and wish to put forth additional insights from organizational communication theory that can assist in cultivating a “consciousness of how it [language] creates and is affected by broader Discourses” (Darics, 2019, p. 3) among management students. This rejoinder takes a step toward achieving Darics’s desire for more interdisciplinary collaboration in pursuit of developing approaches to teaching management and business classes that include a focus on critical language and discourse awareness.…”

Imágenes y palabras afectivas para estimular la imaginación: un caso en la didáctica proyectual

“…Este hecho, observado con más nitidez desde hace una década, se hace visible en la poca resistencia al fracaso, baja autonomía para la toma de decisiones, baja capacidad de negociación y una notable autorreferencia. Las causas tienen diversos orígenes, principalmente sociales, sin embargo, es el poco desarrollo de las competencias blandas demandadas por el medio laboral, las que finalmente afectarán la empleabilidad (Darics & E., 2019). La baja del rendimiento académico obedece a múltiples factores, sin embargo, se han identificado cuatro dimensiones críticas en la educación secundaria (Agencia de calidad de la educación, 2016); Autoestima académica y motivación escolar, Clima de convivencia escolar, Participación y formación ciudadana y Hábitos de vida saludable.…”

Am I Speaking Prose? Rejoinder to “Critical Language and Discourse Awareness in Management Education”

“…Prof. Darics recognizes this problem by suggesting the use of naturally occurring language events—but with a focus on teaching critical discourse analysis “to steer away from communication training as skill development and instead focus on raising language and discourse awareness and training students to analyze communication and texts, using their analyses as a basis of reflection and discussion” (Darics, 2019, p. 10). More on this shortly.…”