`Work Hard, Play Hard': An Analysis of Organizational Cliche in Two Accountancy Practices
- 1 November 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Organization
- Vol. 5 (4) , 565-592
- https://doi.org/10.1177/135050849854007
Abstract
In this paper we explore one specific aspect of the way language is used in organizations—the use of cliche and slogans by organizational members. Drawing upon a 12-month qualitative study of two international accountancy practices ('Firm A' and `Firm B') we examine different instances of cliche in the discourse of their organizational actors. The cliches are seen to operate in several complex ways, but at a general level are understood to be intimately linked to the accomplishment of control within professional organizations.Keywords
This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Qualitative Data AnalysisPublished by Taylor & Francis ,2003
- Structure and agency in an institutionalized setting: The application and social transformation of control in the Big SixAccounting, Organizations and Society, 1997
- The Conduct of Management and the Management of Conduct: Contemporary Managerial Discourse and the Constitution of the ‘Competent’ Manager*Journal of Management Studies, 1996
- Qualitative Data Analysis: Technologies and RepresentationsSociological Research Online, 1996
- The Making' of the `Competent' ManagerManagement Learning, 1996
- `Timing is Everything'; Graduate Accountants, Time and Organizational CommitmentSociology, 1994
- Career as a Project of the Self and Labour Process DisciplineSociology, 1994
- THE CULT[URE] OF THE CUSTOMERJournal of Management Studies, 1992
- How to Control Things with WordsManagement Communication Quarterly, 1988
- 'Engineering Humour': Masculinity, Joking and Conflict in Shop-floor RelationsOrganization Studies, 1988