Centre for Research Into Sustainability

Speaker: Michelle Greenwood, Associate Professor in the Monash Business School, Australia

Venue: Moore Building, Room 0-02

Abstract

In this seminar Professor Greenwood will present a methodology that organisational scholars can use to analyse, explain, and critically interpret the role of visual rhetoric in organisational communications. Corporations invest heavily in the visual design of organisational communications, recognising the distinctive role and benefits of visual imagery, as well as the rhetorical function of these documents. Current analytical approaches to visual rhetoric are either predominantly theoretical (with little structured guidance) or procedural (with little acknowledgment of important epistemic questions). The paper bridges this analytic gap by offering a methodology that combines a clear theoretical framework with explicit guidance on how to analyse visual rhetoric informed by selected writings of the French cultural theorist Roland Barthes.

The paper is available Greenwood, M., Jack, G., & Haylock, B. (2018). Toward a Methodology for Analyzing Visual Rhetoric in Corporate Reports. Organizational Research Methods.

Speaker Short Bio

Michelle Greenwood is Associate Professor in the Monash Business School, Australia, and Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Business Ethics. Michelle’s research focuses on ethics and HRM, stakeholder theory, political corporate social responsibility, and publication ethics. Her research has been published in international journals Journal of Management Studies, Organization Research Methods, Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. Michelle’s current projects include investigating illegality in the fast fashion industry in Italy (with Guido Palazzo), authoring a book on Philosophy in Management and Organisation Studies (with Hugh Willmott and Raza Mir) and developing a research agenda around domestic violence and organisations (with various scholars).