ERIC Number: EJ1046557
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Dec
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2329-4922
EISSN: N/A
Mythologizing Change: Examining Rhetorical Myth as a Strategic Change Management Discourse
Rawlins, Jacob D.
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, v77 n4 p453-472 Dec 2014
This article explores how rhetorical myth can be used as a tool for persuading employees to accept change and to maintain consensus during the process. It defines rhetorical myth using three concepts: "chronographia" (a rhetorical interpretation of history), epideictic prediction (defining a present action by assigning praise and blame to both past and future), and communal markers (using Burkean identification and rhetorically defined boundary objects to define a community). The article reports on a 3-year ethnographic study that documents the development of a rhetorical myth at Iowa State University's Printing Services department as it underwent changes to its central software system.
Descriptors: Misconceptions, State Universities, Computer Software, Management Systems, Ethnography, Printing, Prediction, Employees, Change Strategies, Futures (of Society), Discourse Analysis, History, Interviews
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Iowa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A