As mensagens estratégicas das "melhores e maiores" : a retórica das organizações na WEB

Abstract

The use of Internet as a means by which companies, governments and many institutions communicate has been increasing since the 1990s. Communication has also become a strategic element for the organizations that, in a globalized and interconnected context, are more visible to different publics, and whose legitimacy is evaluated for their ability to respond to the public s needs, interests, values, wishes and dreams. The changes in the business context due to the capitalist competition itself since the 1970s have been introducing different challenges to the organizations. This research is about how the Brazilian companies chosen as "The Best and Biggest" of 2004 rhetorically build their legitimacy by means of discourse in their websites. Discourse is one of the methods companies use to influence and exert constructive effects upon the environment and, at the same time, it is shaped by the historical and social context. Companies face uncertain, conflictive and unbalanced situations between the way they are perceived, understood and believed and the way they would like to be perceived. The aim of this research is to analyze how the companies discourse in their websites mobilizes rhetorical, symbolic and ideological elements to legitimate their existence and their activities in the current business environment. The analysis of the self-describing statements of the companies studied is conducted from a social and critical perspective and from a multidimensional approach of the discourse as a social practice. The dimensions of the analysis are the culture and the political power in the organizational communication. The unit of analysis is the official discourse of the companies in the WEB. The 40 companies researched were selected from "The 500 Biggest Brazilian Companies: the best and the biggest" yearbook from the July/2004 issue of Exame magazine. The strategic messages of the companies for their key-public cannot alone guarantee the power and legitimacy aimed, but it is one of the ways by which the companies try to become persona grata. The companies researched try to gain their public s approval and trust based on arguments about their moral character, congruence of their characteristics with the social and historical context and with the audience, the use of arguments that enhance the qualities of the organization, the use of proof and metaphors. Personification is a linguistic strategy used by companies to establish a personality to their audience: The Partner, The Modern/Humanitarian Sister and In Charge of a Great Mission. The content of the discourse aims to create a favorable image of the company in the mental structure of the subjects and in their way of thinking an organization. Hence, elements that may generate dissatisfaction or doubt towards the organizations beauty and virtue are absent from the discourse. The Internet as a means of communication and the complex relations between culture and power, i.e., the political dimension of culture, are aspects that can lead to a range of interesting research topics in the organizational field. The purpose of this work is to contribute in this area.