Digging Deep for Meaning: A Critical Hermeneutic Analysis of CEO Letters to Shareholders in the Oil Industry

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze Chief Executive Officers' letters to shareholders in the United States petroleum industry during the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the industry's turbulent relationship with OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). We discuss and deploy the methodology of critical hermeneutics. The "texts" of the CEO letters, when juxtaposed against the "context" of key historical events, suggest that these letters were deployed to produce a certain attitude toward OPEC among their readers that deflected attention from the crisis of legiti macy faced by the oil companies domestically. We suggest that the trope of Orien talism helps us understand what exactly the texts sought to achieve through their pronouncements about OPEC.