BP’S CONSTRUCTION OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY
ON ITS WEBSITE: A CASE STUDY OF DISCURSIVE LEGITIMIZATION
BP’S CONSTRUCTION OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY
ON ITS WEBSITE: A CASE STUDY OF DISCURSIVE
LEGITIMIZATION
Author(s): Dita TrčkováSubject(s): Communication studies, Human Ecology, Environmental interactions, Marketing / Advertising, Business Ethics, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: corporate identity; discursive roles; legitimization; Beyond Petroleum; environmentally protective ethos; human domination over nature;
Summary/Abstract: The paper presents a critical discourse analysis of the website of one of the world’s major oil companies, Beyond Petroleum (BP), formerly British Petroleum, with the focus on investigating the construction of BP’s corporate identity. The analysis reveals that BP enacts multiple positive discursive roles, including the identities of an indispensable organization, a philanthropist, an environmentally conscious company, an explorer, a researcher, an educator and an American dream achiever. These roles serve as a potent legitimizing strategy since they enable BP to be associated with higher social and moral values. The analysis shows that BP’s environmentally protective ethos adopts the ideology of the domination of human beings over nature through technology, an ideology which is suited to the company’s profit-making purpose.
Journal: Discourse and Interaction
- Issue Year: 7/2014
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 49-60
- Page Count: 12
- Language: English
