Technologizing Discourse to Standardize Projects in Multi-Project Organizations: Hegemony by Consensus?

Abstract

A project-management model is a powerful, but little researched, discursive tool in the ‘new’ bureaucratization process of multi-project organizations. It is a means of creating hegemony by consensus and can be seen as an example of the process of technologization of discourse. Through this process, discourse technologists redesign organizational discourses and work processes, turning them into representations of consensual praxis. This article traces this redesign process in a major telecom organization and shows how the ‘new’ practices are disseminated within the organization.