UNPACKING THE LINGUISTIC ARCHITECTURE OF POWER: A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW OF CDA IN LEADERSHIP STUDIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJMOE.831077Keywords:
Critical Discourse Analysis, Malaysia, Political Speech, Public PerceptionAbstract
In the modern organizational context, leadership is no longer considered to be a set of permanent attributes, it is viewed as a complex linguistic act, imbued in social and political systems. This important literature review examines the linguistic structure of power, which refers to the structure of the language in which power is constructed, sustained, and justified, as well as to the processes whereby influence is discursively created and challenged in the study of leadership. The review, which uses a PRISMA-guided protocol to compile 42 high impact studies published within the past 20 years, uses a framework based in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to assess the role of language as a mechanism of institutional control. The results show four main clusters of themes: 1) the strategic use of restorative rhetoric to legitimate a crisis; 2) the shaping of leadership identity by neoliberal and managerialist ideologies; 3) the prevalence of gendered and intersectional barriers embedded in professional discourses; and 4) the emerging dialectics between dominant hegemonic structures and grassroots resistance. The literature indicates that there are recurring linguistic and discursive patterns which help to create and support leadership authority. The main value of the review is the way it combines micro-linguistic analysis with macro-organizational theory as a tool for scholars to reveal the "naturalization" of inequality. Finally, the review brings together micro level analysis of the language of the text and macro level analysis of the power in the organisation in order to provide a useful diagnostic tool for researchers who wish to uncover the 'naturalization' of inequalities within the text, and to advocate for an expanded definition of leadership pedagogy that is more inclusive.
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