A case study from a rhetorical perspective
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Corporate Communication
Language
en
Pages
92+2
Series
Abstract
Objective of the study The overall aim of this study is to contribute to a more concrete understanding of performance communication throughout Performance Appraisal (PA) and Performance Appraisal Interview (PAI) as an internal communication arena. Given the intriguing but less sufficient attention role of middle managers in the research field of performance appraisal, this study is to explore how middle managers specifically use rhetorical means to construct their persuasive arguments in respect of performance information of Performance Appraisal Interview, in which the identifications of the middle managers are dynamic. Research method The present study was done as a qualitative case study adopting a rhetorical approach to analyze empirical data collected from six semi-structured interviews with middle managers in the case company. The case organization is China branch company of a multinational corporate in which middle managers are the group with low authority in terms of performance communication due to their absence of final decision making of the performance results. The interview questions focused on management reporting, internal communication and knowledge sharing. Findings and conclusions The research findings suggest that middle managers would like to depict PA as a fair process in favor of employees rather than an administrative measure based on managers' personal preference. Their such articulation somehow intends to gain more employees’ engagement. By the use of Authority and Fairness Discourse, middle managers constructed PAI as a communicative connection between employees and organization and highlighted its imperative role in internal communication in favor of organization. The findings of the current study also indicate that performance communication constituting PAI is featured with the dialogical approach of internal communication which aims to reach the mutual understandings and the agreed accounts of development among employees and superiors/the company. In addition, the study identified more concrete themes and approaches of rhetorical identification strategies and the dynamic position in regard to performance messages at their disposal, with which the interviewed middle managers were frequently found to equip their persuasion and achieve the coherent identification perceived by the targeted audiences.Description
Thesis advisor
Eräranta, KirsiKeywords
performance appraisal, performance appraisal interview, internal communication, organizational identification, middle manager, rhetorical strategy