The construction of organizational identity: Discourses on a Brazilian private railroad

Abstract

Considering the current organizational macro-environments, we notice that competitors have become more aggressive. At the same time, some stakeholders are expecting more from organizations in relation to social and environmental issues. Therefore, in order to survive in this context, it is crucial for organizations to know better their identity, which is projected by different means of communication to its internal members and external public. In this scenario, the aim of this paper is to analyze the projected organizational identity of a recently privatized Brazilian railroad. We studied the construction and transformation process of this organizational identity through two different discourses: that of the high-level manager and that of the trade union. In addition, two Discourse Analysis elements were used: the persuasion strategies and the discursive images. These elements were very useful in order to apprehend the ideological background of the discourses and the organizational identity projected. In the end, we concluded that the identity projection process occurs in a very diverse, contradictory and interactive way.