Exploring change conversations through the rhetoric of French leaders
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to capitalize on a linguistic perspective to analyze the rhetoric of French leaders about organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach
To address the research questions, the authors opted for a lexical content analysis. They use Ford and Ford’s (1995) change conversational framework and the speech act theory to analyze French CEOs’ letters to stakeholders, over the period 2007-2012.
Findings
The authors find that leaders’ rhetoric consists of three types of change conversations, namely, initiative, for understanding and for performance, that were underpinned by a network of assertive, expressive and commissive speech acts.
Practical implications
The results reveal that the communication of change to external stakeholders can be characterized as supportive change conversations, offering assurance on the necessity, appropriateness and expected benefits of change.
Originality/value
This paper is the first work, in the French context, which integrates change conversations and speech act perspectives to examine the way leaders communicate with external stakeholders through CEOs letters. Previous research focused specially on communicating change with internal stakeholders.
Keywords
Citation
Ben Lahouel, B. and Montargot, N. (2016), "Exploring change conversations through the rhetoric of French leaders", European Business Review, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 486-502. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2015-0130
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited