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In this paper, I elaborate a theoretical model of how individuals come to make or create sense through their language while being accountable to others. Using accounts of corporate communication professionals who made sense of anomalous circumstances, I analyze how they used metaphorical words and expressions to organize their accounts and to negotiate between their own individual commitments and perceived social expectations. Based on the analysis, I induce that professionals (a) use individual metaphors to align themselves with the expectations of others and to mark particular roles for themselves that strictly meet those expectations ("strategic shifting") when they perceive the social approval motive as strong; (b) engage in the extended use of a single metaphor to compress a situation into a frame that mediates between individual convictions and others' expectations ("framing") when they know the views of others but are also strongly motivated to think through a circumstance as part of their professional role or previous commitments; and (c) systematically use a combination of metaphors that are blended and elaborated into a plausible narrative that attributes responsibility and prescribes a course of action ("narration") when they are in a position (as part of their role) to define a circumstance, are unconstrained by past experiences, and do not directly know the views of others. This model integrates findings from prior research and combines the influence of role-related commitments and social accountability pressures on sensemaking.

This paper reviews & evaluates the heuristic status of political marketing as a metaphor for the generation of knowledge about politics & political affairs. In doing so, the uses & utility of analogies & metaphors derived from marketing theory in generating knowledge about political affairs are drawn out. In particular, the logic presumed to warrant making such analogies, thereby extending marketing theory's descriptive & predictive apparatus to politics & political affairs, is reviewed & subsequently submitted to criticism. It is argued here that in order to make the claim for a distinctive & grounded theory of political marketing, this metaphor has to bring heuristic value to the study of politics & political affairs. Implications of the view of the political marketing metaphor presented in this paper for further theorizing & research are discussed. 39 References. Adapted from the source document. COPIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM: HAWORTH DOCUMENT DELIVERY CENTER, The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580

Taken-for-granted cognitive schemas form a core aspect of institutions. Whilst much is known about their effects, past research has not yet detailed and formalized how individual actors are able to initiate changes to such institutionalized schemas, reframe their circumstances and how, in turn, such a provisional reframing may itself evolve into a taken-for-granted schema. In this article, we argue that changes to existing institutions come about when actors engage in discursive processes of frame shifting or frame blending by which they articulate alternative or combined schematizations and succeed in building up common ground around the novel cognitive template. We elaborate a set of propositional arguments for when and how actors are more likely to initiate and realize institutional change by either discursively marking the contrast with prior cognitive schemas or by scaling these up into a broader understanding.

Although images of the relationship between marketing science and practice have been dominant features of past and contemporary marketing thought, surprisingly little research has been conducted on the subject, particularly at the level of the marketing practitioner. This article provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the ways in which practitioners value and use academic theory, and defines a set of propositions for guiding research into this area. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to refine, test and augment the working hypotheses suggested herein in order to achieve a better understanding of the ways in which marketing practitioners attend to, value and use marketing scientific theories. Managerial implications of this research are discussed.

Strategic change initiatives disrupt established categories of stakeholder understanding and typically present a problem of justifying and legitimizing the change to stakeholders in order to gain their buy-in and support. While it has been suggested that the analogical or metaphorical framing of strategic changes is crucial in that it fosters understanding and creates legitimacy for the change, we set out to specify the conditions and uses of analogical and metaphorical framing in effecting support for strategic changes. Specifically, we argue that (a) analogies are more effective in the context of additive changes, whereas metaphors are more apt for substitutive changes, and that (b) relational analogies and metaphors are generally more effective in securing support for strategic changes, as opposed to analogies or metaphors that highlight common attributes. We also argue that the overall effectiveness of analogies and metaphors in the framing of a change is furthermore dependent on (c) the degree to which these frames are culturally familiar to stakeholders and (d) the extent to which they connect with the prior motivations of stakeholders.

In this paper, we focus on the role of language in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and explore how organization members' language skills, or fluency, in the adopted lingua franca may impact their reactions to a merger. Drawing on a qualitative study of the post-merger integration between a French and Dutch airline where English was adopted as a lingua franca, we illustrate how language fluency influences the ability of individuals to give meaning to their changed circumstances. Moreover, we elaborate on how language fluency indexes social groupings and identities, and may thus be a driver of perceptions of status inequality and identity politics between different groups of employees. With our study we draw attention to the multi-faceted role of English as a lingua franca. Our findings also contribute to research on sociocultural dynamics associated with post-merger integration and the role of language in mergers and acquisitions, as well as in multinational companies more generally.

The article examines how metaphors are developed and selected within organizational theorizing and research. The issue addressed is not whether metaphors exist and play a part in organizational theorizing – as this is now widely accepted – but to draw out how metaphors are actually used and are of conceptual value, particularly as such insights may aid organizational researchers in a better use of them.Working from this position, the article reviews the extant theoretical literature on metaphor, surveys the organizational literature to document past and contemporary metaphors-in-use (1993–2003), and identifies the heuristics (i.e. judgmental rules) that have been used by organizational researchers in developing and selecting these metaphors. The identified heuristics are the integration, relational, connection, availability, distance and concreteness heuristics. On the basis of these identified heuristics, and the biases and errors associated with them, the article also posits a number of governing rules that can guide organizational researchers in their continued development and selection of metaphors in the organizational field.