A critical discourse analysis of the new management discourse of virtual organisation

Promulgated as a revolutionary new paradigm of management and organisation, virtual organisation has allegedly ushered forth an indispensable set of new organisational structures, practices, and relations that would have the power to effect not only radical changes in management and organisation, but also far-reaching societal transformation. To a significant extent however, the discourse of virtual organisation remains largely unstable, confused and disconnected, and moreover, frequently paradoxical. The thesis establishes and then addresses this condition by adopting a critical realist philosophy to access and explain the relationship between discourses of virtual organisation. The methodological framework for this examination is that of critical discourse analysis which enables a rigorous and systematic assessment of the theoretical principles underpinning virtual organisation against the discursive practice of practitioners. The primary research constructs and deploys a fieldwork strategy that uses a series of semi-structured interviews with professional managers to assess perceptions of the constitution of virtual organisation discourse. This analysis is done so in order to provide more satisfactory understanding and so improved conceptualisation of virtual organisation. The comparative analysis of virtual organisation discourse presents significant challenges for the development of virtual organisation as a robust theory of management and organisation in terms of its composition, coherence, and stability. The contribution to knowledge that the thesis makes is threefold; providing new knowledge about virtual organisation through better understanding of the emergence and constitution of the discourse of virtual organisation; offering a new approach to the examination of virtual organisation through critical discourse analysis; and establishing ideological underpinnings to virtual organisation discourse that would provide explanation for its instability and dislocation.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

MLitt(R)

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Glasgow

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Burnett, Andrew

• HM Sociology