BP’S CONSTRUCTION OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY ON ITS WEBSITE: A CASE STUDY OF DISCURSIVE LEGITIMIZATION

Vol.7,No.2(2014)

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.

Keywords:
corporate identity; discursive roles; legitimization; Beyond Petroleum; environmentally protective ethos; human domination over nature
References

Alazzani, A. and Wan-Hussin, W. N. (2013) ‘Global initiative’s environmental reporting:
A study of oil and gas companies.’ Ecological Indicators 32, 19-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.02.019

Barnshaw, J., Dolan, K., Apaydin, F., Deubel, T., Greiner, K. and Nguyen, T. (2012)
‘Crisis in the Gulf of Mexico: Discourse, policy, and governance in postcatastrophe
environments.’ Journal of Applied Social Science 6/2: 133-148.


Bhatia, V. K. (2010) ‘Interdiscursivity in professional communication.’ Discourse and
Communication 4/1, 32-50.


Breeze, R. (2012) ‘Legitimation in corporate discourse: Oil corporations after deepwater
horizon.’ Discourse and Society 23/1, 3-18.


Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005) ‘Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic
approach.’ Discourse Studies 7/4-5, 585-614.


Casas, T. (2014) ‘Transcending the coloniality of development: Moving beyond human/
nature hierarchies.’ American Behavioral Scientist 58/1, 30-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213495030


Charteris-Black, J. (2005) Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.


Chawla, S. (2001) ‘Linguistic and philosophical roots of our environmental crisis.’ In:
Fill, A. and Mühlhäusler, P. (eds) The Ecolinguistics Reader: Language, Ecology and
Environment. London and New York: Continuum. 115-123.


Elliott, D. (2003) Energy, Society and Environment: Technology for a Sustainable Future.
2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.


Entman, R. (1993) ‘Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm.’ Journal of
Communication 43/4, 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x


Fairclough, N. (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.


Fuoli, M. (2012) ‘Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of appraisal in
BP’s and IKEA’s social reports.’ Discourse and Communication 6/1, 55-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481311427788


Gramling, R. and Freudenburg, W. R. (2012) ‘A century of Macondo: United States energy

policy and the BP blowout catastrophe.’ American Behavioral Scientist 56/1, 48-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764211413115


Halliday, M. A. K. (1978) Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of
Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.


Halliday, M. A. K. (2001) ‘New ways of meaning: The challenge to applied linguistics.’
In: Fill, A. and Mühlhäusler, P. (eds) The Ecolinguistics Reader: Language, Ecology
and Environment. London and New York: Continuum. 175-202.


Hawkes, D. (2003) Ideology. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.


Howlett, M. and Raglon, R. (2001) ‘Constructing the environmental spectacle: Green
advertisements and the greening of the corporate image, 1910-1990.’ In: Fill, A.
and Mühlhäusler, P. (eds) The Ecolinguistics Reader: Language, Ecology and
Environment. London and New York: Continuum. 245-257.


Iedema, R. and Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. (2008) ‘Introduction: Identity trouble: Critical
discourse and contested identities.’ In: Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. and Iedema, R. (eds)
Identity Trouble: Critical Discourse and Contested Identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan. 1-14.


National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (ed.)
(2011) Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling. US
Independent Agencies and Commissions.


Norgaard, R. (1994) Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and the Co-evolutionary
Revisioning of the Future. London and New York: Routledge.


Pérez-Llantada, C. (2012) Scientific Discourse and the Rhetoric of Globalization: The
Impact of Culture and Language. London and New York: Continuum.


Suddaby, R. and Greenwood, R. (2005) ‘Rhetorical strategies of legitimacy.’ Administrative
Science Quarterly 50, 35-67. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2005.50.1.35

Vaara, E. (2014) ‘Struggles over legitimacy in the Eurozone crisis: Discursive legitimation
strategies and their ideological underpinnings.’ Discourse and Society 25/4, 500-518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926514536962


van Dijk, T. A. (1993) ‘Principles of critical discourse analysis.’ Discourse and Society
4/2, 249-283.
van Leeuwen, T. (2007) ‘Legitimation in discourse and communication.’ Discourse and
Communication 1/1, 91-112. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006


Weiss, G. and Wodak, R. (eds) (2003) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and
Interdisciplinarity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.


Wodak, R. (2002) ‘Aspects of critical discourse analysis.’ Zeitschrift für Angewandte
Linguistik (ZfAL) 36, 5-31.


Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (eds) (2009) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. 2nd ed.
London: SAGE Publications.

Metrics

0

Crossref logo

0


398

Views

276

PDF views