Rhetorical History as Institutional Work. (28th September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Suddaby, Roy; Israelsen, Trevor; Bastien, Francois; Saylors, Rohny; Coraiola, Diego
• Is Part Of: Journal of management studies. Volume 60:Number 1(2023)
• Page Start: 242
• Page End: 278
• Publication Date: 2022-09-28
• Subjects: collective memory -- institutional work -- rhetorical history -- social‐symbolic resources; Industrial management -- Periodicals; 658
• DOI: 10.1111/joms.12860
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-2380

Abstract

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.