Rhetorical Memory
Author | : Stewart Whittemore |
Publisher | : University of Chicago Press |
Total Pages | : 253 |
Release | : 2015-10-22 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780226263380 |
ISBN-13 | : 022626338X |
Rating | : 4/5 (38X Downloads) |
Download or read book Rhetorical Memory written by Stewart Whittemore and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutions have regimes--policies that typically come from the top down and that are meant to align the efforts of workers with the goals and mission of an institution. Institutions also have practices--day-to-day behaviors performed by individual workers attempting to interpret the institution's regimes. Tensions ensue as workers bring their own subjective experiences and interpretations to the mix, and amid those tensions we find politics and, subsequently, winners and losers in the workplace. In "Rhetorical Memory, " Stewart Whittemore explores these dynamics through a tightly focused workplace study that reveals how a team of technical communicators at a software company create and make use of organizational memory as part of their everyday work, with the goal of better understanding issues, trends, and strategies in information management in the workplace. That analysis identifies practical strategies technical communicators can use to implement rhetorically based practices for managing organizational memory and also establishes a clear connection in the workplace between political power and effective use of organizational memory. This innovative piece of scholarship makes a meaningful contribution to the workplace literature in technical communication.