The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Handbooks in Communication and Media
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1509

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

A one-stop source for scholars and advanced students who want to get the latest and best overview and discussion of how organizations use rhetoric

While the disciplinary study of rhetoric is alive and well, there has been curiously little specific interest in the rhetoric of organizations. This book seeks to remedy that omission. It presents a research collection created by the insights of leading scholars on rhetoric and organizations while discussing state-of-the-art insights from disciplines that have and will continue to use rhetoric. 

Beginning with an introduction to the topic, The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication offers coverage of the foundations and macro-contexts of rhetoric—as well as its use in organizational communication, public relations, marketing, management and organization theory. It then looks at intellectual and moral foundations without which rhetoric could not have occurred, discussing key concepts in rhetorical theory. The book then goes on to analyze the processes of rhetoric and the challenges and strategies involved. A section is also devoted to discussing rhetorical areas or genres—namely contextual application of rhetoric and the challenges that arise, such as strategic issues for management and corporate social responsibility. The final part seeks to answer questions about the book’s contribution to the understanding of organizational rhetoric. It also examines what perspectives are lacking, and what the future might hold for the study of organizational rhetoric.

• Examines the advantages and perils of organizations that seek to project their voices in order to shape society to their benefits
• Contains chapters working in the tradition of rhetorical criticism that ask whether organizations’ rhetorical strategies have fulfilled their organizational and societal value
• Discusses the importance of obvious, traditional, nuanced, and critically valued strategies such as rhetorical interaction in ways that benefit discourse
• Explores the potential, risks, paradoxes, and requirements of engagement
• Reflects the views of a team of scholars from across the globe
• Features contributions from organization-centered fields such as organizational communication, public relations, marketing, management, and organization theory

The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication will be an ideal resource for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars studying organizational communications, public relations, management, and rhetoric. 

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Preface

Part I: Introduction

1 Introduction

The Ancient Art of Rhetoric

New Rhetoric

Organizational Rhetoric: Domain and Practice

Structure of the Volume

References

Part II: Field Overviews

2 Organizational Communication and Organizational Rhetoric I

The Origins and Early Development of Organizational Communication

The Rhetoric of Social Collectives and Movements

Interpretive and Critical Turns in Organizational Communication

The Challenges of Transition 1: Identification/Socialization/Acculturation

The Challenges of Transition 2: Varieties of Structuration

The Challenges of Transition 3: Institutional Theory

The Challenges of Transition 4: Organizational Communication, Power and Critical Theory

Conclusion

References

3 Organizational Communication and Organizational Rhetoric II

Discursive Turn(s) in Organizational Communication

“Muscular” Discourse and the Slide Toward Discoursism

Autonomous and Mid‐Range Discourse Perspectives

Futures for Organizational Communication/Organizational Rhetoric

Recovering/Enriching Theories of Organizational Rhetoric/Communication

Applications for Organizational Rhetoric and Communication

Epilogue

References

4 Public Relations and Rhetoric

The Rhetorical Tradition: Grounding Public Relations as Organization Speak

Public Relations Research and the Rhetorical Tradition

Ethics: Virtue

The Rhetoric of Public Relations’ Contribution to Society

Rhetorical Situations as Rhetorical Arenas

Research Agenda: Concurrence or Conflict

Conclusion

References

5 Marketing Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of Marketing

Marketing: A Perspective

Marketing Rhetoric

Rhetoric as Superficial Wordplay

Rhetoric as a Special Stage––A Matter of Theoretical and Practical Maturity

Marketing Managers and Advertising Creatives as Using two Different Kinds of Rhetoric

Rhetorical Perspectives in Advertising Research

Future Research Agendas

References

6 Rhetorical Analysis in Management and Organizational Research, 2007–2017

Theme 1: Rhetoric is a Toolbox

Theme 2: Rhetoric Is Theoretical and Practical

Theme 3: Rhetoric Creates, Sustains, and Challenges Organizational Order

Theme 4: Rhetoric Is Constructive and Constitutive of Identity

Theme 5: Managers Are Rhetors

Theme 6: Rhetoric Is Inextricably Linked to Both Rationality and Narrative Form

Conclusion

References

7 A Theory of Organization as a Context For, and as Constituted by, Rhetoric

The Problem of Context

The Context of What Rhetoric is Used

The Context of Why Rhetoric is Used

The Context of Who is Using the Rhetoric

The Context of When the Rhetoric is Used

The Context of Where the Rhetoric is Used

The Context of How Rhetoric is Involved in Action

Research Agenda

References

Part III: Concepts

8 Identification

Key Developments in Theorizing about Identification

Foundations of Burke’s Views on Identification

Dimensions of Identification

Applications of Identifications to Organizational Rhetoric

Common Ground

Antithesis

Transcendent “We”

Conclusion

References

9 Deploying the Topics

The History of the Topics

Relating the Concept to Organizational Rhetoric

The Implications for Academia and for Practice

Suggested Research Agendas

References

10 The Truth About Ideographs

Defining the Ideograph

Development and Evolution of the Ideograph Concept

Ideographs and Organizational Rhetoric

Practical Implications

Research Implications

Conclusion

References

11 Myths that Work

Myth and Social Organization

Myth, Metaphor, and Modernity

Metaphor, Myth, and Methodology

Organizational Form as a Modern Myth

Concluding Remarks

References

12 Stasis Theory

Origins and Details

Apologia and

Kategoria

Syllogistic Origins of Stasis Theory

The Application of Stasis Theory to Modern Crisis Communication Models

Stasis, Luis Suárez, and the Liverpool Football Club

Conclusion

References

13 Corporate Apologia

Connecting a Rhetorical/Apologetic Approach and Crisis Management

Current Understanding of Apologia, Corporate and Otherwise

Apologetic Discourse: The Context of Apologetic Speech

Apologetic Discourse: The Substance of Apologetic Speech

A Narrative Approach to the Substance of Apologetic Communication

Implications and Future Directions in Apologia Theory and Practice

Conclusion

References

14 Ethos and its Constitutive Role in Organizational Rhetoric

Classical Contexts

From “Rational Ethos” to an “Ethos of Sympathy”

Aristotle or Cicero (or Both)?

Kenneth Burke to the Rescue

Applications for Organizational Rhetoric

Implications for Praxis and Research

Conclusion

References

15 The New Civic Persona

Roots and Evolution of the Persona

Rhetoricians Return to the Exploration

Deliberation: Another Rhetorical Building Block of Civic Identity

A New Civic Persona

Conclusion

Acknowledgment

References

16 Rhetorical Figures

The History of Rhetorical Figures in Advertising

Rhetorical Figure Taxonomies

Implications for Academia and Practitioners

Research Agenda

References

17 Spades, Shovels, and Backhoes

History of the Concept

Metaphor and Organizational Rhetoric?

Organizational Rhetoric as Metaphor: The Study of the Organizational Voice

Metaphor in Organizational Rhetoric Analysis

Implications of Organizational Rhetorical Metaphor Analysis for Academia and Practice

A Research Agenda on Metaphor

References

18 Synecdoche

Tropes

The Trope of Synecdoche

Talking Through Synecdoche – The Case of Donald

Conclusion

References

Part IV: Processes

19 Rhetorical Legitimacy Contests

In this Corner: Appreciating the Legitimacy Process

Blow by Blow: Rhetorical Scholars and Legitimacy

Applying Legitimacy to Organizational Rhetoric: Mylan’s Legitimacy Problem

Implications: Rolling with the (Legitimacy) Punches

Future Research Directions: Legitimacy “On the Ropes”

References

20 Rhetorical Agency

Defining Rhetorical Agency

Differing Approaches to Rhetorical Agency and its Crisis

Agency in Organizational Rhetoric

Implications for the Study of Organizational Rhetoric

What Research Agenda Could be Suggested?

References

21 Organizational Rhetoric in Deeply Pluralistic Societies

What Is Agonism?

Rhetoric and Agonistic Democracy

Applying Agonistic Principles to Organizational Rhetoric

Implications Academic and Practical

Conclusion and Future Research

References

22 Understanding the Rhetoric of Dialogue and the Dialogue of Rhetoric

Characteristics and Principles of Dialogue

The Principles of Dialogue

From Monologue to Dialogue

The Dialectic of Dialogue

The Nature of Dialogue

The Possibilities of Dialogue to Rethink Relationships

Homo Dialogicus

Dialogic Organizational Rhetoric

Dialogic Pedagogy

Towards

Homo Dialogicus

Conclusion

References

23 Persuasion in Organizational Rhetoric

Evolution of Persuasion

The Application of Persuasion in the Organizational Context

Discussion: Persuasion in the Deliberative Context

Research Agenda: The Problem and/or Place of Persuasion in Resilient Organizations

Conclusion

References

24 Strategic Message Design Defined

Message Design Defined

Organizational Message Design Principles: Theory & Criticism

Classical Rhetoric and its Progeny

The Building Blocks of Burke’s Dramatism

Symbolic Convergence Theory

Future Directions

Conclusion

References

25 Visual and Multimodal Rhetoric and Argumentation in Organizations and Organizational Theory

The Multimodal Organization

Research in Visual Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric in Organization Research

Five Approaches to the Visual Dimension of Organizational Research

Rhetoric of Pictures––Event

and

Language

Future Research Agenda

References

26 Conceptualizing Audience in the Communication Process

The Audience in the Rhetorical Process – Guidance from Aristotle

Audience in the Rhetorical Process––Cultural and Critical Perspectives

Audience Centered Research

Practical Application in a Social Media Era

Conclusion

References

Part V: Areas

27 Strategic Issues Management

Historical Origins and Trajectories: Beauty or Beast

Legitimacy and Legitimacy Gaps

SIM Pillars: Onward Toward Legitimacy

Conclusion

References

28 Corporate Social Responsibility and Rhetoric

The Contours of CSR

CSR Communication

The Rhetorical Situation

The CSR Rhetorical Strategies

The Effects and Reception of CSR Rhetoric

Further Research

Conclusion

References

29 Organizational Rhetoric––Dialogue and Engagement

Risk and Risk Communication

The Infrastructural Approach to Risk Communication––A Rhetorical Situation

Engagement and the Infrastructural Approach to Risk Communication

Dialogic Theory and the Infrastructural Approach to Risk Communication

Right to Know and the Infrastructural Approach to Risk Communication

Conclusion

References

30 Rhetoric as the Progenitor

Tracing How Crisis Communication Emerged from Rhetoric

Rhetoric’s Current and Future Place in Crisis Communication

Conclusion

References

31 Organizing for Advocacy

Movements, Organizations and Activism

Key Concepts in Activist Organization Rhetoric

Two Key Functions of Activist Organizational Rhetoric

Trends in the Study of Activist Organization Rhetoric

References

Part VI: Conclusions

32 Aristotle, Burke, and Beyond

Re‐visioning Aristotle

What Aristotle Doesn’t Do for Organizational Rhetoric

Re‐visioning Burke for Organizational Study

Revisiting Burke’s Earlier, More Political Work

Burke’s Implicit Theory of Power

Burke, Animality, and Language

Burke, Materiality, and Realism

Reclaiming Agency, Intention, and the Capacity for Social and Material Change

Conclusion

References

33 New Vistas in Organizational Rhetoric

New Assumptions for New Directions

Less Formal Organizational Rhetoric

Less Top Focused/More Diverse Rhetors

New Forms of Rhetorical Data on the Horizon

Conclusion

References

34 Conclusions and Take Away Points

Moving Beyond

Shifting Foundations

Level Challenges

Missing Pieces and Further Avenues for Further Research

Take Away Points

References

Name Index

Subject Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 23

Table 23.1 Examples of persuasion in the instrumental and deliberative contexts (adapted from Seele & Lock, 2015).

Chapter 30

Table 30.1 Latitudes of contestation in crises.

List of Illustrations

Chapter 12

Figure 12.1 Example of crisis in syllogistic form.

Figure 12.2 A stasiastic organization of the situational crisis communication theory strategies of Coombs and Holladay.

Figure 12.3 A stasiastic organization of the image repair strategies of Benoit.

Figure 12.4 Stasiastic syllogism of the Suárez/Liverpool FC crisis.

Chapter 16

Figure 16.1 Theoretical mechanisms distinguishing types of rhetorical figures.

Chapter 22

Figure 22.1 Dialogic model.

Figure 22.2 Dialogic continuum.

Chapter 23

Figure 23.1 Two forms of persuasion applied to organizational communication theories.

Chapter 24

Figure 24.1 A hierarchy of rhetorical purposes.

Figure 24.2 The Logological Model for Organizational Communication (Smudde, 2011).

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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Handbooks in Communication and Media

This series aims to provide theoretically ambitious but accessible volumes devoted to the major fields and subfields within communication and media studies. Each volume sets out to ground and orientate the student through a broad range of specially commissioned chapters, while also providing the more experienced scholar and teacher with a convenient and comprehensive overview of the latest trends and critical directions.

The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development, edited by Sandra L. Calvert and Barbara J. Wilson

The Handbook of Crisis Communication, edited by W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Holladay

The Handbook of Internet Studies, edited by Mia Consalvoand Charles Ess

The Handbook of Rhetoric and Public Address, edited by Shawn J. Parry‐Giles and J. Michael Hogan

The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, edited by Thomas K. Nakayama and Rona Tamiko Halualani

The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics, edited by Robert S. Fortner and P. Mark Fackler

The Handbook of Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility, edited by Øyvind Ihlen, Jennifer Bartlett, and Steve May

The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media, edited by Karen Ross

The Handbook of Global Health Communication, edited by Rafael Obregon and Silvio Waisbord

The Handbook of Global Media Research, edited by Ingrid Volkmer

The Handbook of Global Online Journalism, edited by Eugenia Siapera and Andreas Veglis

The Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation, edited by Craig E. Carroll

The Handbook of Media and Mass Communication Theory, edited by Robert S. Fortner and P. Mark Fackler

The Handbook of International Advertising Research, edited by Hong Cheng

The Handbook of Psychology of Communication Technology, edited by S. Shyam Sundar

The Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research, edited by Andreas Schwarz, Matthew W. Seeger, and Claudia Auer

The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication, edited by Øyvind Ihlen and Robert L. Heath

The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication

Edited by

Øyvind Ihlen

and

Robert L. Heath

This edition first published 2018© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Ihlen, Øyvind, editor. | Heath, Robert L. (Robert Lawrence), 1941– editor.Title: The handbook of organizational rhetoric and communication / edited by Øyvind Ihlen, Robert L. Heath.Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2018. | Includes index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017057993 (print) | LCCN 2018012976 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119265740 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119265757 (epub) | ISBN 9781119265733 (cloth)Subjects: LCSH: Communication in organizations. | Rhetoric.Classification: LCC HD30.3 (ebook) | LCC HD30.3 .H35755 2018 (print) | DDC 658.4/5–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017057993

Cover Design: WileyCover Image: ©Agata Gładykowska/Alamy Stock Photo

List of Figures

Figure 12.1

Example of crisis in syllogistic form.

Figure 12.2

A stasiastic organization of the situational crisis communication theory strategies of Coombs and Holladay.

Figure 12.3

A stasiastic organization of the image repair strategies of Benoit.

Figure 12.4

Stasiastic syllogism of the Suárez/Liverpool FC crisis.

Figure 16.1

Theoretical mechanisms distinguishing types of rhetorical figures.

Figure 22.1

Dialogic model.

Figure 22.2

Dialogic continuum.

Figure 23.1

Two forms of persuasion applied to organizational communication theories.

Figure 24.1

A hierarchy of rhetorical purposes.

Figure 24.2

The logological model for organizational communication.

List of Boxes and Tables

Box 9.1

The classical common topics.

Box 9.2

Topics from subject, audience, and speaker.

Box 9.3

The loci communes.

Box 9.4

Topics of progress and reaction.

Box 9.5

Cultural topics.

Box 16.1

Expanded taxonomy for verbal and visual rhetorical figures.

Table 23.1

Examples of persuasion in the instrumental and deliberative contexts.

Table 30.1

Latitudes of contestation in crises.

Notes on Contributors

Lars Pynt Andersen is associate professor at the Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Copenhagen. His PhD dissertation studied the rhetorical strategies and genres of television advertising. He has published papers on the uses of irony and personification metaphor in advertising, on the rhetorical complexity in crisis communication, but also in the field of consumer culture, such as the “tween” consumer and the vicarious consumption of mothers. He is currently researching the construction of the “Nordic” and “Nordic values” as a global marketing strategy of Nordic culture, cuisine, fashion, and design.

James S. Baumlin is Distinguished Professor of English at Missouri State University, where he teaches the history of rhetoric, critical theories, and Renaissance literature. His publications include two monographs, a dozen co‐edited collections, and over one hundred articles, book chapters, notes, and reviews.

Josh Boyd PhD Indiana University, is Associate Professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. His research on organizational rhetoric, with an emphasis on legitimacy, has appeared in Journal of Applied Communication Research, Communication Theory, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Public Relations Research, and The Wall Street Journal. He also teaches and studies communication pedagogy, and he has won Purdue’s top undergraduate teaching award.

Larry D. Browning PhD Ohio State 1973, is Professor of Organizational Communication and the William P. Hobby Centennial Professor of in Communication in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin, and adjunct professor at Nord University, Business School, Bodø, Norway. His research includes the role of lists and stories in organizations, information communication technology and narratives, cooperation and competition in organizations, and grounded theory as a research strategy.

Christy M. Buchanan PhD University of Michigan, 1988, is a Professor of Psychology and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Advising at Wake Forest University. Her research and teaching addresses adolescent and young adult development, especially the impact of beliefs and expectations about adolescence, family, and culture. Her administrative responsibilities include the orientation of new students and academic support for undergraduates.

George Cheney PhD Purdue University, 1985, is Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and an adjunct professor at the University of Utah and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. His research, teaching and service interests include organizational identity, workplace participation, professional ethics, globalization, human rights, sustainability, and peace. He has authored or co‐authored ten books and over 100 articles and chapters. Currently, he working on a series of studies and commentaries on cooperatives and other alternative organizations, focusing on innovations in democratic participation and the full embrace of principles of sustainability.

W. Timothy Coombs PhD, is Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University and an honorary professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is a past recipient of the Jackson, Jackson, and Wagner Behavioral Research prize from the Public Relations Society of America, the 2013 Pathfinder Award from the Institute of Public Relations, and the Business Impact Award from the Association for Business Communication. He is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society. His co‐authored crisis research has won multiple PRIDE awards from the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association for books and articles.

Charles Conrad PhD University of Kansas, 1980, is a Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. He teaches courses in organizational communication, organizational rhetoric, and communication, powerr and politics. His research currently focuses on the symbolic processes through which organizations influence popular attitudes and public policies. His most recent book is Organizational Rhetoric: Resistance and Domination and is writing a “close comparison” of organizational rhetoric and healthcare policymaking in the United States and Canada.

Jeffrey L. Courtright PhD Purdue University, is Associate Professor of Communication at Illinois State University. With more than 25 years in public relations education and research, he investigates the relationship between corporate reputation and message design across a variety of contexts, from environmental communication to community relations to international public relations. Dr. Courtright has studied both multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations and published multiple research articles, of which several are with Dr. Peter Smudde. With Smudde, he also has published the books Inspiring Cooperation and Celebrating Organizations (2012) and Power and Public Relations (2007).

Scott Davidson currently lectures in the School of Media, Communication, and Sociology at the University of Leicester. Before becoming an academic he worked as a lobbyist and voluntary sector campaigns manager. His PhD dissertation explored the mediation of population aging and older voters and he has published articles on the segmentation of audiences by age. More recently his research has focused on critically theorizing how public relations and lobbying practice should serve democratic societies.

Heidi Hatfield Edwards PhD, is a Professor of the School of Arts and Communication at Florida Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on communication and social issues, with emphasis in social responsibility, and the cultural and societal implications of communication regarding social issues. She is especially interested in how audiences use mediated messages, interpreting those messages and engaging with message creators, opinion leaders, and other audience members.

Denise P. Ferguson PhD, is Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Research at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. Her research has been published in Public Relations Review, Public Relations Journal, Sociological Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines, International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, Business Review Yearbook, and The Sage Handbook of Public Relations, and has been presented at International Communication Association, BledCom, International Public Relations Research, National Communication Association, and Public Relations Society of America annual conferences.

Benjamin D. Golant PhD Royal Holloway, University of London, is a research fellow at University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the use of language in organizing, in particular the role of rhetoric and narrative. He has published in Organization Studies, Human Relations, and Organization. Current empirical work focuses on rhetorics of identity and organizational change, and on the role of narrative for the constitution of knowledge communities.

Stephanie Gusler is a doctoral student in the University of Kansas’s Clinical Child Psychology Program. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Radford University, then obtained her MA in Psychology at Wake Forest University in 2015. While at Wake Forest she worked as a graduate research assistant on the Democracy Fellows longitudinal study.

Peter M. Hamilton is an Associate Professor at Durham University Business School. He previously worked at Imperial College, London and the University of Central Lancashire. His main research interests are in the areas of organizational rhetoric, rhetorical agency, dirty work, and interactive service work. He has published in journals such as Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management and Organization.

Katy J. Harriger PhD University of Connecticut, is Professor and Chair in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. Her research and teaching interests focus on civic engagement of young people, American politics, and constitutional law.

E. Johanna Hartelius is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research areas cover the rhetoric of expertise, digital culture, immigration, and public memory. Within and across these areas, she examines how people construct privileged knowledge and experience to wield political power in public discourse. She is the author of The Rhetoric of Expertise (2011) and the editor of The Rhetorics of US Immigration (2015). She is the recipient of the 2013 Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award, and her scholarship has appeared in Argumentation and Advocacy, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Culture, Theory, and Critique, Management Communication Quarterly, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Review of Communication, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Southern Communication Journal.

Robert L. Heath PhD University of Illinois, is Professor Emeritus at the School of Communication University of Houston and Academic Consultant in the College of Commerce, Faculty of Management and Marketing at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Heath is one of the academic pioneers in examining the history and theoretical foundations of strategic issues management as well as analyzing public relations from a rhetorical perspective. He is author or editor of 20 books and 250 articles and book chapters in major journals and leading edited volumes. In addition to strategic issues management, he has written on rhetorical theory, social movements, communication theory, public relations, organizational communication, crisis communication, risk communication, terrorism, and reputation management. He edited the Encyclopedia of Public Relations and The Sage Handbook of Public Relations. He has lectured in many countries, to business and non‐profit groups, and for various professional organizations. In May 2007, the Issue Management Council honored him for his leadership over three decades to fostering mutual interests between the corporation and all stakeholders and stakeseekers.

Keith M. Hearit PhD Purdue University, and a 2013 American Council on Education Fellow, is an Assistant to the Provost and a Professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. A leading expert in the field of crisis management, he specializes in how individuals and institutions respond communicatively to atypical situations, particularly those of their own creation. In addition to authoring Crisis management by apology: Corporate response to allegations of wrongdoing (2006), Hearit is also the author of over twenty journal articles and book chapters. His work has been referenced in the New York Times, USA Today, and National Public Radio, along with other regional and national publications.

Elisabeth‐Hoff‐Clausen is Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, Section of Rhetoric, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has published essays on rhetorical theory and criticism, digital rhetoric, and organizational rhetoric in journals such as Rhetoric Society Quarterly and Rhetorica Scandinavica, as well as in many edited volumes such as Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age (2015) and Kommunikationsteori (2016). She is the author of three books, all on rhetoric and digital media, including Online Ethos (2008). Her research interests center on issues of trust, agency, and rhetorical discourse in new media settings.

Bruce A. Huhmann PhD, is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, he was Wells Fargo Professor of Marketing and Director of the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at New Mexico State University and F. Ross Johnson Fellow in Marketing at the University of Manitoba. His research appears in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, and numerous other journals, books, and conference proceedings.

Øyvind Ihlen Dr.art. University of Oslo, 2004, is Professor at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo. Ihlen has edited, written, and cowritten ten books, among them Public Relations and Social Theory (2009) and Handbook of Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility (2011). His award‐winning research has appeared in numerous anthologies and in journals such as Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Affairs, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Journal of Communication Management, Corporate Communications, Management Communication Quarterly, Environmental Communication, Sustainable Development, and Business Strategy and the Environment. He is regional editor for Public Relations Inquiry and Rhetorica Scandinavica.

Michael L. Kent PhD, Purdue University 1997, Fulbright Scholar 2006, Riga Latvia. Kent is a Professor of Media, in Public Relations and Advertising, School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Arts and Social Sciences, Sydney Australia. Kent conducts research on dialogue, engagement, international and intercultural communication, mediated communication, metaphor, new technology, theory, and web communication. Kent has published in national and internal communication and public relations journals including Communication Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communications, Journal of Public Relations Research, Gazette, International Journal of Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Public Relations Quarterly, Public Relations Review, and others.

Jens E. Kjeldsen is Professor of Rhetoric and Visual Communication at the University of Bergen, Norway. He has written extensively about rhetoric, visual communication and argumentation, speechmaking, speechwriting, and digital presentations. He is the founder and immediate past President of the Rhetoric Society of Europe, and cofounder and long‐time chief editor of the research journal Rhetorica Scandinavia. Among his publications are Rhetorical Audience Studies and Reception of Rhetoric (Ed,., 2017) and “Symbolic condensation and thick representation in visual and multimodal communication” (2016).

Laura L. Lemon PhD University of Tennessee, is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations at the University of Alabama. Her research interests include public relations, employee engagement, internal communication and social media. She completed her MA in Communication at the University of Colorado Denver. Prior to pursuing her doctorate in Communication, Lemon spent over seven years assisting nonprofit organizations in Colorado with public relations initiatives.

Greg Leichty is a Professor of Communication at the University of Louisville. His areas of research include argumentation, public relations theory, and the rhetoric of social movements. He currently is working on several projects that examine how social movement organizations define themselves in their public communications, particularly how the communicated identity of social movement organizations change when they become more politically partisan. He teaches courses in Argumentation, Conflict Management, and Qualitative Research Methods, and Case Studies in Communication. His service work includes an evaluation consultancy for Louisville's Coalition for the Homeless.

Charles Marsh is the Oscar Stauffer Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. He is author of Classical Rhetoric and Modern Public Relations: An Isocratean Model (2013) and Public Relations, Cooperation, and Justice: From Evolutionary Biology to Ethics (2017). His research has appeared in Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Media Ethics, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and other academic journals. He is co‐author of the textbooks Public Relations: A Values‐Driven Approach (2017) and Strategic Writing: Multimedia Writing for Public Relations, Advertising and More (2018). Before joining academia, he was senior editor of internal publications for the J. C. Penney Co. and was editor of American Way, the inflight magazine of American Airlines.

Jill J. McMillan PhD University of Texas at Austin 1982, is Professor Emerita of Communication and Research Professor at Wake Forest University. Her work has focused on communication and rhetoric in organizations and institutions: corporate identity; the strategies and impact of an organization’s public messages; communicative dysfunction in organizations; organizational democracy and decision‐making; and pedagogy in higher education. Recently she has worked on teaching deliberation in academic and community settings as a means of improving civil discourse and civic engagement.

Rebecca J. Meisenbach PhD Purdue University, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. She studies issues of identity and ethics, particularly in relation to nonprofit and gendered organizing. She is currently studying how television shows can be understood as organizational rhetors and how individuals manage nested and stigmatized identities. She currently serves as the Associate Editor of the Americas for the journal Culture and Organization.

Amy O’Connor is Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Her work is at the intersection of public relations and organizational communication. Her research is devoted to issues surrounding corporate social responsibility (CSR) including employee and community response to CSR messages; the ability of CSR communication to enhance corporate legitimacy and reputation; the types of social issues corporations chose to support; and the role of communication in shaping societies expectations of corporations. O’Connor’s research has been published in Business and Society, Communication Monographs, Journal of Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Management Communication Quarterly, Public Relations Review, and in edited collections. Her publications have been featured by the Conference Board of Directors, Sage Video Series, and at regional colloquia.

Michael J. Palenchar PhD University of Florida, is Associate Dean and Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, and has three decades of professional and academic public relations experience. Primary research interests include risk communication, crisis communication, and issues management. He has presented his research, consulted, and conducted workshops throughout the United States, and in China, Germany, Turkey, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Ecuador, Belize, and Denmark.

Peter Seele is Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, where he also directs the Ethics and Communication Law Center. He has studied Philosophy, Economics, and Theology in Germany at the Universities of Oldenburg, Düsseldorf, and Witten/Herdecke as well as the Delhi School of Economics.

Graham Sewell PhD Cardiff University, is Professor of Management and Associate Dean, Research of the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne, Australia. He has held full‐time or visiting appointments at several major universities including University of Manchester, Imperial College London, Berkeley, and Pompeu Fabra. Graham is best known for his work on the disciplinary effects of surveillance but he has published on many topics in leading journals including the Academy of Management Review, the Administrative Science Quarterly, the Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Research Policy, Sociology, and Organizational Research Methods. He is currently a senior editor of Organization Studies. Underlying Sewell’s work is a strong interest in the philosophy of language, especially the ontological role played by myths in sustaining long‐term research programs.

Ford Shanahan PhD Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, is the General Counsel for a multinational group of companies in the healthcare sector. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland, where he teaches courses in business ethics and business law. He obtained his law degree and MBA from the University of Denver.

John A. A. Sillince PhD London School of Economics, is Research Professor of Organization Studies and Strategy at Newcastle University Business School. His research interests are in discourse, narrative, and rhetoric, and in institutional theory. He is a Senior Editor of Organization Studies.

Peter L. Scisco PhD leads the Center for Creative Leadership’s (CCL) publishing program in producing books and related content for CCL’s audience of corporate and nonprofit leaders and managers. He is the co‐author of Change Now! Five Steps to Better Leadership (2013) and CCL Compass: Your Guide to Leadership Development, and co‐editor of The CCL Handbook of Coaching: A Guide for the Leader Coach (2006).

Michael F. Smith PhD, is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Communication Department at La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA. His work on activism and public relations in community building has been published in Public Relations Review, Quarterly Journal of Business Disciplines, Business Review Yearbook, and The Sage Handbook of Public Relations and presented at the annual conferences of the National Communication Association, the International Association of Business Disciplines, and the International Communication Association.

Peter M. Smudde PhD Wayne State University, is Professor of Communication at Illinois State University. After 16 years in industry he moved to higher education in 2002. Accredited in public relations (APR) through the Public Relations Society of America, Smudde researches public relations in the areas of corporate strategy, discourse and message design, and education. Pete has presented numerous conference papers and published many book, including journals such as Public Relations Research, Public Relations Inquiry, Public Relations Journal, Public Relations Review, Corporate Reputation Review, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Journal of Promotion Management, Review of Communication, and Technical Communication. He co‐authored (with Jeffrey Courtright) Power and Public Relations (2007) and Inspiring Cooperation and Celebrating Organizations (2012); and authored Public Relations as Dramatistic Organizing (2011) and Humanistic Critique of Education (2010). His textbook, Managing Public Relations (2015), is intended for capstone PR courses.

Ashli Q. Stokes PhD University of Georgia, is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of the New South at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her award‐winning research specializes in using rhetorical approaches to analyze public relations controversies, frequently concerning activism and social movements. In addition to her recent book about the rhetorical nature of Southern foodways, Consuming Identity: The Role of Food in Redefining the South (with Wendy Atkins‐Sayre, 2016), she co‐authored a global public relations textbook Global Public Relations: Spanning Borders, Spanning Cultures with Alan Freitag. She has also published in journals such as Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Communication Management, Public Relations Review, among others.

Maureen Taylor PhD, is the Director of the School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee. Taylor's public relations research has focused on nation building and civil society, dialogue, the use of websites, and new technologies. In 2010, Taylor was honored with the Pathfinder Award, presented by the Institute for Public Relations in recognition of her “original program of scholarly research that has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge and practice of public relations.” Taylor is a member of the Arthur S. Page Society and serves as co‐editor of the Public Relations Review.

Simon Møberg Torp PhD, is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and a member of the Executive Board at University of Southern Denmark. Previously he has been Head of Department of Marketing and Management and Director of research in strategic communication and management. Torp has written numerous journal articles and contributed to handbooks and anthologies published by a number of major academic publishers; he has also edited and co‐authored two textbooks. In 2008, he won a Best Paper award at the 13th International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications (CMC).

Alison E. Vogelaar PhD University of Colorado‐Boulder, is Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Co‐Director of the Center for Sustainability Initiatives (CSIF) at Franklin University, Switzerland. While studying for her PhD in Communication, Vogelaar also completed a certification program in the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. She teaches in the Communication and Media Studies program where she focuses upon courses that explore the relationship between media/communication and power.

Damion Waymer (PhD, Purdue University) is Professor/Chair of Liberal Studies at NC A&T State University. Prior to his arrival at NC A&T, he led aggressive faculty recruitment initiatives in his role as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Development, and Diversity at the University of Cincinnati. His research centers on organizational discourse, particularly regarding public relations, issues management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), branding, and strategic communication. Via his research, he addresses fundamental concerns about issues of power, race, class, and gender, specifically, and how these social constructions shape and influence the ways that various stakeholders receive, react, and respond to messages.

Preface

While the disciplinary study of rhetoric is alive and well, there has been curiously little recent specific interest in the rhetoric of organizations. “Let us have a one stop shop for scholars and advanced students that want to get the latest and best overview and discussion of how organizations use rhetoric”––with that incentive and goal began the idea for this volume in 2015.

It is a great pleasure to finally see the book come together with contributions from organization centered fields such as organizational communication, public relations, marketing, management, risk, crisis and organization theory. Scholars based in the United States, the UK, Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland, as well as Australia, helped bring the current treatment of organizational rhetoric alive. It is an understatement to say that we learned a lot from our colleagues through putting this volume together.

Our thanks go out to these contributors who stuck with us through the whole production process, and of course the reviewers: Andrea Catellani, Bruce Humann, Charles Marsh, Damion Waymer, Elisabeth Hoff‐Clausen, George Cheney, Graham Sewell, Heidi H. Edwards, John Sillince, Josh Boyd, Keith M. Hearit, Michael L. Kent, Michael J. Palenchar, Orla Vigsø, Pete M. Smudde, Peter Hamilton, Peter Scisco, Rebecca Meisenbach, Roy Suddaby, Scott Davidson, Simon Møberg Torp, and W. Timothy Coombs. Our research assistant Erika Ribu was also of invaluable assistance in the pursuit of getting those reference lists in order and generally enforcing APA style. Research assistant Truls Strand Offerdal deserves thanks for helping out with the indexing.

Øyvind Ihlen would like to state that it has been an honor to work together with so many prominent scholars, some of whose work he has used and admired for years. Bob Heath and George Cheney deserve special mention for their shepherding of rhetorical and critical perspectives on public relations and organizational communication. In addition, however, he wishes to thank what are arguably the best rhetoricians around, namely his wife and daughters––––Hilde, Ina, and Eira.

Bob Heath would like to thank the founders of what evolved into the National Communication Association for believing that rhetoric is essential to human existence, and who later crafted the discipline of Organizational Rhetoric on a solid and enduring foundation. Here Charles Redding’s pioneering work is to be acknowledged. Many writers inspired and guided Heath’s understanding and belief in the fact that rhetoric matters—and never is “mere.” One special tip of his hat goes to Marie Hochmuth Nichols who directed his dissertation and convinced him that he could write a book on Burke’s “theory.” A final wink goes to Burke himself whose work inspired many because he so readily and insightfully found rhetoric—as symbolic action—in all he read and witnessed. He could craft more provocative thought into a single paragraph than others could get between the covers of a book. Humans truly are the symbol using (and misusing) animals who are inspired by perfection, challenged by the dialectic of the positive and merger and confounded by the negative and division, and separated from reality by our terministic screens, but nevertheless committed to identification and courtship as solutions and stumbling blocks.

Øyvind IhlenOslo, Norway

Robert L. HeathHouston, Texas, USA

Part IIntroduction

1Introduction: Organizational Rhetoric

Øyvind Ihlen and Robert L. Heath

Organizations need to communicate. As evident as that statement is, studies continue to probe how discourse can be effective and ethical. Present research literature abounds with theoretical advances that provide advice for how organizations can participate in dialogue and engage with their stakeholders (e.g., Johnston & Taylor, 2018). Some sort of discourse, including narrative form and content, is presupposed in this regard, and rhetoric, because of its origins in classical Greece, is arguably the foundation for these concepts. As the first of the communication disciplines, rhetoric has both practical and theoretical applications that have not only stood the test of time but redirected, and corrected, nation states’ relationships with citizens. Furthermore, the rhetorical tradition offers scholars, organizational managers, and communication practitioners a resource to understand organizational discourse, its effects, and its role in society. This volume examines humans, and the organizations they create, as homo rhetoricus, the rhetorical animal who uses words to co‐create meaning, share ideas, and motivate actions, the building blocks of self‐governance (Oesterreich, 2009).

Rhetoric helps explain the ways in which organizations attempt to achieve specific political or economic goals, build identity, and foster relationships with their stakeholders. Rhetorical theory sets itself apart from disciplines such as discourse studies (e.g., van Dijk, 2011) by tracing its tradition back to ancient time and by harboring a normative and practical ambition (Conley, 1994). In addition to offering down‐to‐earth practical advice, rhetoric also presents epistemological perspectives that temper theoretical tendencies toward naive realism and platonic notions of absolute truth (Vickers, 1999). Rhetoric helps us to understand how knowledge is generated and socially constructed through communication. People create the world in which they work and live via words. They also contend with one another over values and policies. They seek to demonstrate and critique ideas as ways of enlightening choices. Thus, the topic is both ancient, and as current as some outraged position‐taking on Facebook, as is evident by the coverage of the many facets of rhetoric in, for instance, the International Encyclopedia of Communication, edited by Donsbach (2008) and area specialists. Rhetoric and its companion concepts heritage and current relevance arise from the need for shared meaning to enact societies, and the layers of individual identities, identifications, and interpretations of reality that constitute the pillars of self‐governance, the rationale for society.

In the time of ancient rhetoricians like Aristotle (2007), Isocrates (2000), and others, the goal was to understand rational, values‐based, and wise policy‐formulating discourse for individual agency, and then society. Today organizations of all types have taken on the individual roles, but as a collective endeavor to achieve societal agency. In recognition of the centrality of discourse, there has been a (re)turn toward rhetoric in many academic disciplines. Scholars of philosophy, management, economics, law, political science, social psychology, history, anthropology, political science, sociology, and literature have all drawn on the rhetorical tradition (e.g., Harmon, Green, and Goodnight, 2015; Heath, 2011; Lucaites, Condit, and Caudill, 1999; Sillince and Suddaby, 2008). However, presently, the rhetorical scholarship that is of relevance for the analysis of organizations is largely confined to its respective disciplinary contexts, be it public relations, organizational communication, marketing, advertising, organizational theory, or management studies. A goal of this handbook is to go beyond the silos and bring this scholarship together to demonstrate its currency and impact on today’s fractured world and complex societies. We seek to extend the scholarship that has used rhetoric to analyze the internal as well as external communication of organizations, and discuss how dialogue, discourse, narrative, and engagement (as key rhetorical forms) have become parallel lines of exploration to investigate the enacted role of discourse in human affairs.

The book presents a research collection on rhetoric and organizations while discussing state‐of‐the‐art insights from disciplines that have and will continue to use rhetoric. With its organizational focus, it examines the advantages and perils of organizations seeking to project their voices to shape society to their benefits. As such, the book contains chapters working in the tradition of neo‐Aristotelian rhetorical criticism that asks whether the rhetorical strategies have fulfilled their function, but also chapters that incorporate perspectives with a view of whose interests that are served by particular rhetorical means (Conrad, 2011; Ihlen, 2015). The book discusses the importance of nuanced strategies such as discourse interaction that balances dissensus as formative and consensus as daunting. It explores the potential, risks, and requirements of engagement which presumes that discourse improves ideas, reputations, policies, and relationships as ongoing efforts to draw on the best all parties can offer.

This introductory chapter proceeds to offer a brief overview of the art of rhetoric, anchoring it in the Western tradition from Greece (Aristotle, 2007), but also with a view on new rhetoric á la Kenneth Burke (1969a, 1969b). While the volume includes several chapters that explore the link between and history of rhetoric and organizations, a short preface is given in this introduction chapter as well. Finally, the chapter also includes a presentation of the structure of the volume.

The Ancient Art of Rhetoric

Several excellent introductions to rhetoric point out that the Greek–Roman tradition of rhetoric can be traced back to around 500 BCE (e.g., Golden, Berquist, Coleman, and Sproule, 2011; Herrick, 2011; Kennedy, 1999). At this time, a system for making speeches was developed for ordinary citizens who had to present their own cases in court. The emergent study of rhetoric advised that speeches should include an introduction, presentation of proofs, and a conclusion. Later, more elaborate systems were introduced on the Greek mainland and teachers and sophists offered their services in this regard.

From this period stems the so‐called rhetorical canon. Rhetoricians had ideas for the five stages of the preparation of a speech: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. The later Roman rhetorician, Cicero, described the phases as follows:

Invention is the discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments to render one’s cause plausible. Arrangement is the distribution of arguments thus discovered in the proper order. Expression is the fitting of the proper language to the invented matter. Memory is the firm mental grasp of matter and words. Delivery is the control of voice and body in a manner suitable to the dignity of the subject matter and the style. (Cicero, 1949, I.9)

A well‐known dispute developed between philosophers, Plato (1960) in particular, and rhetoricians. Plato positioned philosophy, or more specifically dialectic, as a form of truth‐finding superior to rhetoric which could only create the appearance of truth. Rhetoric deals in deception and manipulation, and allows non‐experts to outmaneuver the real experts. Thus, rhetoric is actually dangerous, according to Plato. In the dialogue Gorgias he pits Socrates against the discipline and the sophist Gorgias with the following statement: “an ignorant person is more convincing than the expert before an equally ignorant audience” (Plato, 1960, p. 459). Sophists like Gorgias adhered to the idea of competing truths (dissoi logoi) and saw pros and cons for all arguments, and that truth, being a social construction, could change accordingly. Plato, however, only saw rhetoric as legitimate if it supported the truths that philosophy had established. Truth exists outside of language, it is singular and stable, and can be grasped by dialectic approaches.

Plato’s arguments have been recycled throughout history in different versions. Critics have for instance pointed out that rhetoric will utilize all there is, including appeals to emotions, to achieve its goals. For philosophers like Rene Descartes (1956), this was something of an affront since clear logical arguments are what should take precedence.

Aristotle (2007) is recognized as attempting to straddle the two disciplines of rhetoric and dialectics in his treatise on the former. Rather than seeing multiple, equal truths or absolute truths, he preferred to talk about probable truth. Aristotle defined rhetoric as “an ability, in each [particular] case, to see the available means of persuasion” (Aristotle, 2007, 1.2.1; see also chapter 32 on three different Aristotelian conceptions of rhetoric). In addition to Aristotle, however, the ancient tradition also contains the writings of others such as Isocrates that emphasized the epistemic quality of rhetoric, as he stated that “we use the same arguments by which we persuade others in our own deliberations” (Isocrates, 2000, p. 15.256). In other words, it is crucial to use rhetoric for our own thinking and understanding. This point has also been supported by later writers. A prevailing notion is that all language use is rhetorical and that our knowledge of reality is formed by rhetoric. This type of epistemology has been called the rhetorical turn in social science and humanities. It calls for studies of the constituting effect of rhetoric (Charland, 1987). Despite the fact that material structures exist, we do need rhetoric to mediate this knowledge. While rhetoric is epistemic in this sense, the relationship with the ontological might be comprehended more fruitfully when it is perceived as a dialectic relationship (Ihlen, 2010). Rhetoric deals in opinions (doxa), rather than certain knowledge. While Plato held doxa in disregard, as “mere opinion,” Aristotle recognized its usefulness, building on the contrast between what is certain and what is probable (Herrick, 2011). Since we cannot have certain knowledge, rhetoric deals with the contingent, the probable, or in other words, doxa. In essence, the knowledge of today might look different tomorrow. Still, if something is established as a fact, this must necessarily happen through rhetoric.

New Rhetoric

In the twentieth century, scholars like Kenneth Burke (1969b) and Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts‐Tyteca (1971) were the driving force behind a renewed interest in rhetoric. The philosophical orientations of the ancient discipline were brought back to the fore: rediscovered, restored, and also developed further. Rhetoric was seen in all forms of purposive symbolic action by human agents, including mass media use, and not tied to the delivery of a speech to a live audience. Furthermore, material conditions and their consequences can also be analyzed using rhetorical theory. This expansion has led editors and commentators to expand the rhetorical umbrella to include scholars who do not explicitly draw on the work of, say, Aristotle, Isocrates, Cicero, or Quintilian. Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric (Foss, Trapp, and Foss, 2002), for instance, included entries on scholars like Jürgen Habermas, Jean Baudrillard, and Michel Foucault. The list is even longer in Twentieth‐Century Rhetorics and Rhetoricians (Moran and Ballif, 2000), adding names like Jean‐Francois Lyotard. Purposive communication is central in the writings of all these figures.

Besides Aristotle, the one rhetorician quoted most by the authors in the present book is Kenneth Burke. For him, rhetoric was not so much about persuasion as identification (see chapter 8). In his “Introduction” to A Rhetoric of Motives (1969b) he emphasized the types of symbolic action by which humans influence one another: poetry, rhetoric, and dialectic. Symbolic action, the dominating theme in his work, is inseparable from motive, “the process of change” (Burke, 1969b, p. xiii). In his view, rhetoric accomplishes identification. Dialectic is the joining in a progressive form of element of thought to achieve a coherent conclusion. Poetry is the use of language for sheer pleasure (but can influence judgment and behavior).

Eloquence plays to the psychology of the audience; the poet or rhetor creates an “appetite” and tries to satisfy it by using tropes and figures (Burke, 1968, 1969b). Form uses audiences’ appetites and by progressive, emergent resolution prepares the audience for the next part (or step) of each text’s theme. The rhetor hopes to get the audience to agree to each step achieved in form and thereby become engaged in completing (resolving) the progression. Resolution is complete when the audience agrees (identifies) with the perspective advocated by the rhetor. By featuring resolution, Burke’s rhetoric addressed how humans engage in competitive and cooperative (and even courtship) actions. Dialectic, an inherent dimension of language, consists of transformations, tensions, conflicts, paradoxes, guilt, ironies, polarities, interactions based on pitting words and meanings against one another to create and track down conflicts, tensions, transformations, and other resources of cooperation.