Critical Language and Discourse Awareness in Management Education

TL;DR: This article pointed out the utility of exposing business students to the dual function of language as a means of doing work and as a social action that constitutes social reality, and demonstrated that the ability to notice, identify, and reflect on linguistic and discourse practices is a crucial managerial skill.

Abstract: Communication and, through it, language have become key elements of business and organizational life. How organizations interact within their walls and with the outside world fundamentally affects business processes, creating organizational culture, shaping public perceptions, and influencing consumer choices. This essay calls for a greater acknowledgment of language and communication and suggests that management educators may want to review how they are incorporated in management education curricula. Expanding on the skill-based approach typically adopted in business school classes, the essay points to the utility of exposing business students to the dual function of language as a means of doing work and as a social action that constitutes social reality. Drawing on examples from scholarship in linguistics and discourse analysis, the essay demonstrates that the ability to notice, identify, and reflect on linguistic and discourse practices is a crucial managerial skill. Nurturing such analytical and thinking skills enables people to become not only better communicators but also critical thinkers able to understand and challenge when social control, power, or injustice is enacted in organizations.

Summary

Introduction

• THE MAIN purpose of high frequency operation of powerelectronics circuit is to reduce physical size and cost.
• Reference [3] has presented modeling of stranded wire and how eddy current loss can be calculated from leakage fields.
• The computation of the inductor loss is therefore very important in order to optimize a design.
• This complicated model and calculation method is presented below.

A. Ratio of AC Resistance to DC Resistance,

• The results have been presented in normalized forms.
• All the dimensions can be expressed in terms of skin depth : (15) The characteristic curve is therefore independent of dimension.
• It can be seen that increases as the number of strands increases especially with relatively low number of strands, typically less than ten and with a large normalized turn pitch , typically more than 10 ( is the normalized with Authorized licensed use limited to: Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
• Fig. 4. F against bundle size with various turn pitches—1 layer and 36 strands.

B. AC Resistance,

• Characteristic is indicative of winding loss but does not give a clear picture of the actual loss parameter of the inductor.
• Is therefore computed and is shown in Figs. 6–8. It can be seen that as the number of layers increases or the number of strands decreases, increases.
• There are minimum values of at certain wire size.
• These minima give optimum wire sizes for given turn pitches.
• Fig. 6. R against bundle size with various turn pitches—3 layers and 36 strands.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

• The above results have been verified with the experimental testing.
• The results have shown a good agreement with the computed characteristics.
• Fig. 10 shows the experimental results of the in the style of Fig. 6. Inductors of 20–200 H were constructed with power iron core.
• The minima are clearly shown in the AC resistance characteristics.
• For a given turn pitch, the bundle size of the stranded wire can be chosen to obtain a minimum ac Authorized licensed use limited to: Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

V. CONCLUSIONS

• The paper has presented useful results for ac resistance of high frequency inductor.
• The computed results have been generalized for the multilayer and multistranded conductors.
• The results can also be used for simple structure such as single layer inductor , single strand conductor .
• The computed results show that an optimal design point could be obtained.
• The generalized results presented are important tools for the design of inductor for power electronics application.

Full text

LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE AWARENESS IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 1
Critical language and discourse awareness in management education
Dr Erika Darics
Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Author note
Address: Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET
Telephone: +44 121 204 4155
E-mail: e.darics@aston.ac.uk
Acknowledgement
I am very grateful for the anonymous reviewers and the associate editor for their encouragement, con-
structive comments and ongoing support of the ideas put forward in the essay.

LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE AWARENESS IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 2
Abstract
Communication – and, through it, language – have become key elements of business and organiza-
tional life. How organizations interact within their walls and with the outside world fundamentally af-
fects business processes, creating organizational culture, shaping public perceptions and influencing
consumer choices. This essay calls for a greater acknowledgement of language and communication and
suggests that management educators may want to review how they are incorporated in management ed-
ucation curricula. Expanding on the skill-based approach typically adopted in business school classes,
the essay points to the utility of exposing business students to the dual function of language as a means
of doing work and as social action that constitutes social reality. Drawing on examples from scholar-
ship in linguistics and discourse analysis, the essay demonstrates that the ability to notice, identify and
reflect on linguistic and discourse practices is a crucial managerial skill. Nurturing such analytical and
thinking skills not only enables people to become better communicators, but also critical thinkers able
to understand and challenge when social control, power or injustice is enacted in organizations.
Keywords: soft skills, communication skills, social constructivism, critical language awareness, dis-
course awareness, critical thinking, organizational discourse

LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE AWARENESS IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 3
Communication – and, by extension, language – play fundamental roles in our everyday lives; so
fundamental that many of us tend to take them for granted, rarely pausing to consider what they involve
or just how important they are to us, as aptly pointed out by business consultant Thompson (2003, p. 9).
In the last 20 years there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of these roles in profes-
sional and workplace settings: professionals and consultants have started to recognize the “power of
words” (Czerniawska, 1997; Thompson, 2003) and high-profile business personae speak of the crucial
role of language and communication (e.g. Branson, 2014).
The importance and prevalence of communication has never been so tangible in human history as it
is now. On the one hand, ever improving and increasingly prevalent digital communication technolo-
gies, the worldwide web and social media platforms foster an always-on, always-connected communi-
cation practice, in both our private and professional lives. Such constant connectedness has contributed
to the blurring of the boundaries between the private, public, personal and corporate spheres: employ-
ees and external stakeholders can engage in instantaneous, two-way communication with organizations
(Beers-Fägersten, 2015; Creelman, 2015), many communication channels are beyond the control of an
organization yet have a profound influence on its functioning (such as semi-professional blogs, em-
ployee Twitter accounts or community-initiated fan pages), and leading corporate personae are ex-
pected to share insights into their personal lives to increase trust towards the brands they represent (Gir-
ginova, 2015). This shifting relationship between organizations and their internal and external stake-
holders has inevitably brought about a shift in communication practices in business. As Czerniawska,
the managing director of a consultancy firm, pointed out over 20 years ago, communication – and con-
sequently language – have become “fundamental to the way in which organizations operate internally
and compete externally (and) we are much more dependent on language in business than we used to
be” (1997, p. 11). Competence in understanding these new practices and their possible impact in all ar-
eas of business life has now become critical for the success of business organizations.

LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE AWARENESS IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 4
On the other hand, changed communication practices have re-defined not only how we complete
but also how we make sense of work – in particular in knowledge-focused white-collar workplaces. A
considerable proportion of the work people undertake in the knowledge economy is conducted in and
through communicative acts: meetings, planning work and collaborating in teams, conducting inter-
views, solving problems and managing others in the office or in the virtual realm, or, from a corporate
perspective, informing customers via a range of face-to-face or mediated communication channels, de-
signing PR campaigns, researching and drafting financial reports and managing social media. As a re-
sult, people are often deprived of seeing actual, tangible outcomes of their efforts: achievement and ef-
ficiency are discursively constructed and measured (Crawford, 2009). Consequently, in order to be able
to make sense of and perceive work as meaningful, how we talk about it becomes increasingly im-
portant. For example, Brannan, Parsons and Priola (2015) examined how employees of a call center
make sense of and evaluate their jobs. Their findings show that the carefully selected wording of glossy
brochures, the communication aimed at trainees during induction and continuously repeated corporate
messages can lead to a perception that the workplace is more appealing and that the work is more
meaningful than might be the case in reality.
Communication as key competence
In this essay, my aim is to demonstrate that the awareness of language and how it is used, as well as
consciousness of how it creates and is affected by broader Discourses are crucial managerial skills.
Such awareness, as I will demonstrate below, can be an important means to acquisition of communica-
tion skills in a practical sense, at the same time enabling future managers to obtain analytical and criti-
cal thinking skills. Indeed, critical thinking is considered to be an essential component of managerial
work (Clokie & Fourie, 2016) and a key element of graduate learning outcomes in many business pro-
grams (e.g. Cyphert, forthcoming; Lovelace, Eggers & Dyck, 2016). Yet, as Bloch and Spataro (2014)
found, the majority of employers do not find levels of critical thinking in graduates sufficient.

LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE AWARENESS IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 5
This essay hopes to demonstrate that management education that aims to equip future graduates
with critical thinking and communication skills could benefit from a more nuanced appreciation of lan-
guage and communication. Drawing on examples taken from language- and discourse-centered schol-
arly work, I argue that the ability to notice, identify and account for linguistic and discourse phenomena
ultimately leads to greater critical consciousness of communicative practices and more broadly of one’s
physical and social surroundings. Such ability, as one of my previous students noted, can be compared
to the awakening experienced by the main protagonist in the 1999 blockbuster, The Matrix. After tak-
ing the red pill, Neo was made aware of the true nature of their reality, constituted by a computer pro-
gram. Critical awareness of language allows students to experience their realities in a similar manner,
understanding the role of language in managerial and business processes (Forman, 1999) in becoming a
professional and a member of a professional community (Bremner, 2018), as well as how broader dis-
courses shape and are shaped by language (Mautner, 2016). Such awakening can then lead to a general
critical and questioning attitude towards assumptions that were previously taken for granted, specifi-
cally the role language plays in social control and in sustaining and reproducing unequal power rela-
tions (Fairclough, 1992). To return to our previous example, for instance, the “symbolic brand mean-
ings” created by the call center’s communication (Brannan et al., 2015, p. 48) enabled the company to
manage the aspirations and expectations of employees and make them happily accept their otherwise
mundane reality. Viewing this process through a critical analytical lens in class, for example, can ena-
ble students to consider/question the ethics of such manipulative techniques in the context of business
success or employee retention and satisfaction.
The crucial importance of communication as an instrumental tool of “operating” and “competing”
(see Czerniawska, 1997, above) is clearly reflected in industry needs. It is hard to find a job advertise-
ment that does not list communication skills as a key requirement: a survey of nearly 15 million job
postings shows that soft skills, specifically oral and written communication skills, are the most required
skills across all occupations (Cushing & Gantz, 2013). The Graduate Management Admission Council
survey (2017) found that of the 959 surveyed companies, communication skills rank the highest among

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Language and discourse awareness in management education 1 critical language and discourse awareness in management education" ?

This essay calls for a greater acknowledgement of language and communication and suggests that management educators may want to review how they are incorporated in management education curricula. 

Q2. What is the role of language in the relationship between management and control?

Heightened attention to discourse as a social practice and the role language plays in how the authors constitute, negotiate or perceive their reality inevitably leads to the exposure of the inherently political nature of management and examination of the relationship between discourse, control and power (Mumby, 2013). 

Q3. What is Bremner’s prescription for the training of discourse analysts?

Bremner’s prescription for the training of discourse analysts is a “heavy diet of exposure, awareness raising and discussion” which will, he believes, equip students with the knowledge to achieve their communication goals and also contribute to their discourse awareness regarding organizational and social realities (2018, p. 174). 

Q4. How much is the value of soft skills in the UK?

In the UK, soft skills – including communication skills – are valued over £88 billion in Gross Value Added to the UK economy each year (Development Economics, 2015). 

Q5. What is the purpose of this essay?

In this essay, my aim is to demonstrate that the awareness of language and how it is used, as well asconsciousness of how it creates and is affected by broader Discourses are crucial managerial skills. 

Q6. What is Bremner’s hope for the essay?

My attempt in this essay to gain a deeper understanding of language and discourse in management has an admittedly practical aim: my hope is that such understanding leads to a change in perception of the importance of such awareness, and that my argument influences decision-making in program design. 

Q7. What is the typical business school curriculum?

the typical business school curriculum, as Mautner (2017, p. 622) observes, incorporates:“a heavy dose of functional expert knowledge, most of which rests on the seemingly immutable conceptual foundations of the market economy. 

Q8. What is the final step in the discussion of the critical stance?

The final step is therefore to embrace the critical stance: management education needs to encourage students to use their knowledge to challenge the taken-for-granted, as a way to nurture higher order cognitive skills but also to develop self-reflexive, responsible management practice in the hope of challenging unfair work practices (see Roberts, 2011). 

Q9. What does Bremner say about training in discourse analysis?

awareness of language and discourse does not necessitate training in discourse analysis –people can notice linguistic practices without explicit knowledge of discourse analysis and linguistics. 

Q10. What is the definition of a change management?

To give a specific example of change management, managing change can be – and in organizational scholarship is increasingly – viewed as the management of meaning because the success of change initiatives depends greatly on how those affected make sense of and buy into them (Ford & Ford, 1995).