Analyzing Organizational Rhetoric
We are constantly bombarded with organizational rhetoric, whether it’s advertisements, press releases, or rich people humiliating themselves on podcasts (cough cough Mark Zuckerberg cough). With all the messages organizations are sending, we need rhetorical criticism now more than ever. Understanding how organizational rhetoric is analyzed will make us all better rhetors and better consumers.
What is Rhetoric?
What AI thinks organizational rhetoric looks like. Boy is it wrong. Generated with Microsoft Designer.
Let’s ask Aristotle. Rhetoric is…
The faculty for discovering in the particular case what are the available means of persuasion
Thousands of years ago, Aristotle gave us the first definition of rhetoric, and while we have a different understanding of rhetoric now, its goal remains unchanged. A more modern definition of rhetoric is…
The strategic use of symbols to generate meaning
That’s the definition given by Mary F. Hoffman and Debra J. Ford in their 2010 book, Organizational Rhetoric: Situations and Strategies. It’s a great definition for a number of reasons.
“Strategic” implies that rhetoric has a goal.
“Symbols” implies that there is more to rhetoric than what you see on the surface.
“Generate meaning” implies that the goal of rhetoric is not simply to convey meaning but to get the audience to create the intended meaning themselves.
That’s what rhetoric does: It convinces people to think about things the way you want them to, when you want them to. Getting people to think about things the way you want them to is done with persuasion. Getting people to think about them when you want them to is a matter of identification.
What is an Organization?
The most common formal definition of an organization is from Chester Barnard’s 1939 book, Functions of the Executive.
A system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons.
This is a great definition, too!
“Two or more persons” indicates that organizations must contain multiple people.
“Activities or forces” indicates that organizations have to do something.
“Consciously coordinated” indicates that organizations must be conducted in some way; a loosely connected, naturally occurring group of individuals does not constitute an organization.
“A system” indicates the multifaceted, highly connected nature of organizations.
Organizations are held together by communication, cooperation, and purpose. An organization’s communication defines its structure — the web of relationships used to regulate its actions. An organization’s cooperation depends on willingness — membership in an organization must be voluntary. An organization’s purpose creates alignment — people act as members of an organization when the organization’s goals align with their own. Internal rhetoric is communication used to build cooperation and negotiate purpose.
Organizational Rhetoric
Strategic use of symbols by an organization to influence the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of audiences important to the operation of an organization.
That’s from Hoffman & Ford, 2010.
Characteristics of Organizational Rhetoric
To analyze — or even understand! — organizational rhetoric, we need to understand the common characteristics of organizational rhetoric and how they fit together. Every piece of organizational rhetoric has four characteristics: Speaker, Situation, Audience, and Message.
Speaker
Traditionally, the “speaker” was, literally, the person speaking. However, an organization cannot literally be the “speaker”. Instead, the speaker is a conceptual identity “created by accumulated symbols by which the organization represents itself.” To identify the speaker, focus on two questions: Who made the decision? Who will be held accountable?
For example, in Mark Zuckerberg’s recent admission that Meta will fire thousands of employees, he made that decision, and he is accountable for it. He made not only the decision to arbitrarily fire thousands of people, but also the decision to share it in a heedless, insouciant manner. Sadly, he will not be held accountable for his personal failure, poor leadership, or irresponsible mismanagement. But he should be. Therefore, we can conclude that Zuckerberg himself was the speaker, on behalf of Meta, and shame on them both.
Situation
The rhetorical situation refers to the environment surrounding the organization. Organizations are affected by their environment, and they affect their environment. To determine the rhetorical situation, we can ask questions like “What is happening, both inside and outside the organization?” or “What impact does the organization have on its environment, and vice versa?”
For example, Meta has recently eliminated DEI initiatives from its website. What is happening (in February, 2025), is that a group of racist authoritarians have taken power in the United States and they plan to use the government to punish organizations that don’t contribute to systemic racism. And Meta, like most corporations, is led by cowards. What impact does Meta have on its environment? Well, those cowards make the world a much worse place; they embrace misinformation, spread lies, and enforce racist outcomes. If you still work for Meta, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Audience
A rhetorical audience is the group of people at whom the rhetoric is directed. An audience must have perspective and interest; the audience must have an ingoing opinion and a stake in the outcome. Any entity with perspective and interest can be the audience.
Message
The rhetorical concept of a message refers to the idea that the speaker is trying to transmit to the audience. Rhetorical critics formally examine messages along five dimensions:
Formal/Informal — A message is considered formal if it is guided by organizational policy or made by an organizational representative.
Personal/Impersonal — A message is considered personal if it is directed at specific, identifiable groups.
Public/Private — A message is considered public if it is accessible to a wide audience.
Universal/Particular — A message is considered universal if it represents all members of the organization.
External/Internal — A message is considered external if it is directed outside the organization.
The five dimensions of a message are closely related, and the lines are blurred. They are not strictly defined, and critics can reasonably disagree about which aspects of a message belong in which dimension. But any analysis of a rhetorical message must cover all five.
Goals of Rhetorical Criticism
When people think of criticism, their first thought is often of a stern taskmaster focused on pointing out flaws. In informal parlance, criticism has a negative connotation. But the historical and formal goals of criticism are positive! The overarching goal of criticism is to build deeper understanding and appreciation of an art form in order to propel it forward. Criticism is often the artist’s primary source of actionable feedback.
Criticism of Organizational Rhetoric has four goals:
Determine and enhance the effectiveness of organizational communication.
Understand the organization by examining how it presents itself.
Judge the role of the organization in society.
Contribute to the field of organizational rhetorical theory.
Effective criticism fulfills all four goals. We can perform effective criticism by following the analysis framework in the image below.
An effective process for analyzing organizational rhetoric.
Identify rhetorical strategies and describe the rhetorical situation.
Investigate other organizations. Are other organizations doing similar things? If so, there may be a specific rhetorical theory we can use to inform our criticism.
Pick your question(s). Common questions are: How effective was this rhetoric? How does the intended message compare to the message the audience received? Who has a voice in this organization? How much choice does the audience have?
Apply your conclusions. This can be done by writing a critical essay, updating strategic policies, or judging the organization.
In future articles on Organizational Rhetorical Criticism, we will explore each step in depth.
Thanks for reading!